The Seventh Vial

This vial is poured into the air; then a voice out of heaven utters,
It is done (Rev. 16:17),
and many terrible things follow. The great city — Babylon — (see Rev. 14:8; 18:10) is divided into three parts. The cities of the nations fall. Great Babylon, too, now comes into remembrance before God, to receive the cup of the fierceness of His wrath. God shakes terribly the earth. Every island flees away, and the mountains are not found. A great hail falls upon men out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and here again we are told that men blasphemed God because of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great (Rev. 16:18-21).
As we saw in connection with the opening of the seventh seal, and sounding of the seventh trumpet, the temple of heaven brought before us, and voices and thunderings and an earthquake, so now
there came a great voice out of the temple, . . . and there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great {Rev. 17:18}.
This, I believe, takes us to the time of the personal coming of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory — the great day of the wrath of the lamb.
It is remarkable that, as we noticed between the sixth and seventh seals, and the sixth and seventh trumpets, so between the sixth and seventh vials a parenthesis occurs. In this last, the Lord is announced as coming as a thief in judgment — introducing the day of the Lord — when we shall come out of heaven with Him. (See Rev. 19:11-14.) He says,
Behold, I come as a thief {Rev. 16:15}.
Christ will suddenly come upon this world as a thief.
The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night {1 Thess. 5:2}.
But we know that He will not come to us as a thief.
Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief (1 Thess. 5:2, 4).
But while judgment is threatened, there seems also to be a gleam of mercy rejoicing against judgment (Rev. 16:15). It intimates that a remnant will be watching for the Messiah (and we gather from other Scriptures that such will be the case), and others are spoken of as having the shame of their nakedness made manifest.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame {Rev. 16:15}.