We have just witnessed the most intense of God’s judgments against the unbelieving, evil world. We have seen how these judgments mirror the plagues in Egypt during the tune if Moses, except they are more severe and cause much more suffering and anger against God. The people know that the judgments are being sent by God, yet they still refuse to repent and accept God. It reminds me of some today who know about God, know that Jesus was God in the flesh, dying for our sin. But they have never accepted Him as Lord and Savior. They have misplaced faith, having put faith in themselves, thinking “I don’t need God. I’m o.k. just like I am.

     We have seen two things clearly in the first part of this chapter. The first is that God is in charge. All judgments come from Him, and Him alone. And the second is that man is so evil that he will not repent of that evil and acknowledge God.

Let’s go now to verses 13 and 14 of chapter 16.

     13, Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

     14, They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

      Here we see the unholy trinity from Hell, imitating God. They are the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. Now……who are they? The dragon has to be Satan, himself. He is directing the actions of the other two. Then we have the beast. This is antichrist, the king of the nations, a pseudo ruler of the whole world but directed by Satan. Of course, the false prophet is just that---a so-called prophet who led the people of earth to follow antichrist. They act in unison in forcing the nations of the world to march against Israel in an attempt to destroy God’s purposes on earth.

Satan’s purposes are to destroy God’s covenant with Israel. That is why Satan hates Israel and brings the whole world down against this little nation. In Genesis 19, we see God’s covenant with Israel. Although there are other covenants that God made with His people, this one was the foundation of all the others.

      In Exodus 19 God spoke to Moses saying (in verse 5). If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. (verse 6) And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.

     “evil spirits that looked like frogs” The question is: Will they be literal frogs?

      Well, they were literal in Egypt, weren’t they? May be here too or may be symbolic. In some translations it says, “as it were”. This is an old English phrase which means either “it looked like” or “it appeared to be”, or sometimes “as if it were”. But no matter which, they are spirits, unclean spirits, demon spirits, sent by the unholy trinity. Their purpose is to go to the kings and rulers of the world and gather them together into one huge Devil worshipping army against tiny Israel.

     Today we have seen how the news media can brainwash the public into believing a lie. This is exactly what the trinity of evil will do. But God warns that He will have the final word.

     v. 15 Behold I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

    Remember that Jesus will never come as a thief to the church. He said in First Thessalonians 5:4 “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” But you shut out a thief, you don’t welcome him. The church is looking for Him, not locking Him out.

    Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Some versions include the phrase “that keeps his garments” Paraphrase, that means: Don’t lose your shirt. Be sure that you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

    V, 16 Then He gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. This is the only occurrence of the word “Armageddon” in the entire Bible.

     ”He gathered them together—” Who is “HE”? Probably God, Himself. Although Satan, Antichrist and False Prophet act in unison to force the nations of the world to march against Israel, they nevertheless fulfill the Word of God.

     V 17. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying. “It is done!

     v. 18 Then there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.

     This is the last series in the judgments. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus through this. He is the judge.

     So now, let us unravel these two verses a little bit. “Upon the air” means in space. Jesus controls space, too. “The temple” is mentioned again and again in connection with the judgment and us mentioned 6 times regarding the bowls. This is the last reference to the temple in the book. Do you know why? It is because there will be no temple in the New Jerusalem. No reference to the temple is made regarding the church, only to Israel.

     “A great voice came out of the temple, from the throne”. Whose voice is it? The Son, this time. And why? Look at what He says, “It is done” The same phrase He uttered on the cross. Tetelestai, It is finished. Salvation was finished for man at the cross. There is nothing man can contribute to his salvation. He must simply receive it by faith, you can have a finished redemption, but if you won’t accept it, there will be a judgment. For there is no other way to be saved. For those who refuse God’s salvation, there is nothing they can do to escape the judgment of God.

It is done. This is Christ’s announcement to the world. There is nothing ahead but great white throne judgment. Here at the end of the great tribulation period there is to be an earthquake which probably will shake the entire world.

vv19-21

    19, The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with wine of the fury of His wrath,

    20, Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.

    21, From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

    Jerusalem is divided into three parts by the earthquake. Babylon is mentioned here. The next two chapters give us the details of what this verse means. The final act of judgment is the hailstorm. A Greek talent was 6 pounds. A Jewish talent was 114 pounds.

This ends the great tribulation period. The next two chapters combine to form the description of the destruction of the most evil city of all time. The Bible refers to it as “MYSTERY BABYLON”

    I will leave you with this question to answer for your homework.

         WHAT, WHERE, OR WHO IS MYSTERY BABYLON???

    See you next time. I am excited about what is coming. Hope you are too.

    Love and blessings during this Holy Christmas Season. And remember, It’s not about us, it’s about Him.

                                                                                                       Maggie