Revelation 16:17-21 - Homiletics

The seventh bowl.

The precise identification of "Babylon the great" must be reserved for our study of the next chapter; the paragraph before us shows us what a downfall is awaiting her. For the present it is enough to remember that it is some vast power of the earth, earthy, whose influence and action have been against righteousness and peace. Under the sixth bowl we witnessed the gathering together of great hosts for a final conflict. Now that last conflict is decided. Man has summoned his forces. God brings his also to bear. With man it is the clash of arms. With God the forces are silent as light, potent as lightning, terrible as the earthquake, and, as if to set forth the exhaustless force stored up in heaven's armoury, we are told that "hailstones" fell, of the weight of a talent. And then, then it is that "Babylon the great" comes up into remembrance before God. Some great, yea, gigantic form of evil, proud as Babylon, lustful as Sodom, cruel as Egypt, which has thriven for long unpunished, comes up for remembrance at last. How far physical convulsions are here intended we do not venture to say, though such may precede the final stroke. It is very clear that judgment in some form or other is intended. And the strong probability is that, as in the cases of the Deluge, Sodom, Canaan, Tyre, Egypt, etc., both physical and moral crises will synchronize. The expression, that "Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God," is full of deep meaning in its moral bearing, though its temporal and local application it may be, as yet, impossible to decide.

I. HOW MUCH OF EARTH 'S SIN MUST THERE BE FOR GOD TO WITNESS ! In the storehouse of his eternal and infinite mind, all the wrong of which earth has been the theatre and witness is "treasured up." How soon even we can summon up more than we can bear to reflect upon! The Amorites; Sodom; Egypt; Canaan; Babylon; pagan Rome; papal Rome; Mohammedanism; the Bartholomew Massacre; papal England; Madagascar martyrs; the Indian Mutiny; and an indefinite number more of nameless horrors. Together with a measureless amount of sin, and an innumerable multitude of sins that, in every village, town, and city are being committed in the light of day and in the shades of night. All seen, known, infinitely.

II. MEN OFTEN ASK — WHY IS GOD SILENT SO LONG ? There are few trials of faith more severe than this. Why do millions have to endure so much of unnamed suffering without redress? And all this when so many prayers are being offered up to heaven. Why is it? "Our God," cried one in anguish, "is a God that does nothing!" Again and again the cry of the ninety-fourth psalm comes unbidden to the lips.

III. WHATEVER MAY BE THE TRIAL OF FAITH THUS CAUSED , WE ARE CERTAIN THAT GOD FORGETS NOTHING . He is neither indifferent, forgetful, nor weak. Not one unrepented sin is forgotten. Not one cry of the humble is unheard. The widow's moan, the orphan's tears, the miseries of the slave, and all the horrors connected with that "open sore of the world," are remembered by him.

IV. GOD HAS GREAT PURPOSES TO ANSWER IN PERMITTING EVIL TO GO SO LONG UNPUNISHED . We know not all of them. We know none of them fully. But we can, though with fear and trembling, suggest:

1 . By suffering sin to come to its uttermost ripeness, he reveals to men what an evil it is. "By their fruits ye shall know them." He knows tendencies; we see issues.

2 . When the blackness of evil is seen, the righteousness of God's judgments will also be manifest. Is it not in this direction that light comes on the text, "The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for the day of evil "?

3 . Meanwhile, God is "long suffering not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

V. AT THE APPOINTED HOUR THE " LONG SUFFERING " WILL CEASE . By this it is not meant that patience, as a Divine attribute, will be exhausted, but that there will come a time when the Divine Being will no longer refrain from inflicting his judgments on sin and sinners. Even now, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Soon will the Divine will be manifested, and the punishment of sin will be the vindication of the right and the condemnation of the wrong.

VI. THEN " BABYLON THE GREAT ," WITH ALL HER SINS , SHALL COME UP FOR FINAL RECKONING AND RECOMPENSE . God will "render unto her even as she rendered." "Whatsoever a man soweth," etc.; "We must all be made manifest at the tribunal of Christ;" "God shall bring every work into judgment," etc.; "There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed;" "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;" "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

VII. THE FACT THAT ALL IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD IS A GUARANTEE OF PERFECT EQUITY . "He will render to every man according to his deeds." In the future retribution there will be no flaw in time or degree; no defect, no excess. The Judge of all the earth will do right; it is "in the sight of God" that great Babylon will be remembered.

VIII. WITH OUR GOD THE EXECUTION IS AS CERTAIN AS THE PURPOSE . The seer heard "a great voice from the temple, out of the throne, saying, It is done!" The fulfilment is perceived as well as decreed. Not a word shall fail of all that the Lord hath spoken. His plans can never be frustrated. Our Lord Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Note:

1 . Amid the perplexity caused by the prevalence and power of evil, let us stay ourselves on God. We know what he is, though we often fail to read what he does.

2 . Let us do right, and wait God's time. We are not to shape our course according to expediency, but according to right principle.

3 . Revenge is never to be any part of our policy. We are incompetent judges, and we ourselves are too often swayed by passion. God reserves vengeance to himself. Let us, therefore, not take the law into our own hands, but "leave room for the wrath of God." £

4 . Let us be glad and grateful that believers in God are not left in the dark as to the meaning, aims, and issue of the Divine government of the world. This Book of the Apocalypse is written in parable, doubtless for the same reason that our Lord spake in parables when on earth (cf. Matthew 13:1-58 .). They are so couched that unbelief cannot read them, but that faith can. And is there not infinite wisdom in this? Who would entrust his secrets to one who was known neither to trust nor to be trusty? Jesus did not commit himself to men, because he knew all men. The faith was delivered "once for all to the saints." They only are expected to keep it who love it. Hence to them only is it committed. Those who trust God are trusted by him. His secret is with them. And the contents of that secret are twofold—grace in saving, and equity in ruling. These are the pivots on which the Divine government turns. Grace reigns through righteousness; and where grace is refused and heaven is defied, there will yet be pure and unswerving equity.

5 . Hence it behoves the righteous to walk this earth with a sense of their dignity, as those who are entrusted with the mysteries of the Divine plans: not, indeed, so minutely as to be inconsistent with the calm and steadfast fulfilment of duty, but yet in broad outline so clearly that for them there is no such thing as "the burden anti mystery of an unintelligible world." That helpless and hopeless perplexity is removed from all those who know that "the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand."

6 . But, whether in the portentous imagery of the Apocalypse or in the clearer language of the Epistles, it is revealed with an impressive clearness that the man who is trifling with the Divine loving kindness, not knowing that the goodness of God is drawing him with a view to repentance, is but treasuring up to himself wrath against the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God! All that is involved in the words, "He must reign till he hath put all enemies beneath his feet."

7 . Is it "in the sight of God" that there will be remembrance of peoples hereafter? Then "in the sight of God" the people must fulfil their obligations now. It has been asked if faith in God is essential to the discharge of moral obligation. We answer—Loyalty to God is the first of all moral obligations, and none are rightly fulfilled where this is lacking. A striking commentary on all this is that most painful life of George Eliot, who, though living in outrageous defiance of the first duties of social life after she had given up faith in God, sneered at the words—

"Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding Love!

Thou Maker of new morals to mankind!

The grand morality is love of thee."

Finally, that which is the law for the individual is the law for the nation and for its rulers, viz. to learn the mind and will of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and then to carry that out irrespectively of human praise or blame. Woe to that nation which applauds a policy that will come in remembrance before God only to be everlastingly disgraced! Woe to the people whose trust is in chariots and horses, in armies and in fleets, in guns and in swords! Ever are we surrounded by men who clamour for glory, for conquest, for annexation, for empire! And this cry must be resisted by all who have learnt the Divine secret that "righteousness alone exalteth a nation," that "sin is a reproach to any people." Every great Babylon is doomed.