God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!" -

 John continues: "And lightnings  and voices and thunders occurred, and a great earthquake occurred such as hd not occurred since men came to be on earth, so extensive an earthquake, so great.  And the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations  fell:  and Babylo the Great was rememered in the sight of God, to give her  the cup of  wine of the anger of his wrath.  Also,  every island fled, and mountains were not found. And a great hail with every stone about the weight of a talen descended out of heaven upon the men, and the men  blasphemed God due to the plague  of hail, because the plague of it was  unusually great." - REVELATION 16:18-21.

Once again, Jehovah acts unmistakably toward mankind, this being signaled by "lightnings  and voices and thunders." (Compare Revelation 4:5; 8:5.) Mankind will be shaken  in a way that has never happened  before, as if by a devasting earthquake .  (Compare Isaiah 13:13; Joel 3:16)  This blockbuster shaking will shatter "the great city,"  Babylon the Great, so that it splits  int "three parts"-symbolic of its collapse into unredeemable ruin.  Also, "the cities of the nations" will fall.  "Every island" and "mountains"-institutions and organizaions that seem so permanent in this system-will go.  "A great hail," much bigger than that which afflicted Eygpt during the seventh plaague, with which hailstone weighing  about a talent, will pumel mankind painfully. (Exodus 9:22-26)  This punishing downpour  of congealed waters likely pictures unusually heavy verbal expressions of Jehovah's  judgments, signaling that the endof this system of things has arrived at last! Jehovah   could well use literal hail too in his destructive work. - JOB 38:22, 23. 

Thus, Satan's world will meet up with Jehovah's  righteous judgment. To the end, most of humankind will continue to defy and blaspheme God. As with Pharaoh of old, their hearts will not be softened by the repeated plagues or by the final death-dealing culmination of those plagues.  (Exodus 11:9, 10) )  There will be  no last-minute, large-scale change of heart.  With their dying breath, they will rail against the God who declares: "They will have to know that I am Jehovah." (Ezekiel 38:23)  Nevetheless, the sovereignty of Jehovah God the Almighty will l have been vindicated.  

Next time: God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "Into the Earth"

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