As the angel pours God’s wrath upon the air (from where the powers of darkness do their work in the sons of disobedience, Ephesians 2:2), a “great earthquake” occurs on earth. Several thoughts pertain to this earthquake:
If we were to understand this as a literal earthquake, we would want to check the records for the world’s greatest earthquake and then attribute the rest of this paragraph to that moment in history. No earthquake known to us today has resulted in a great city splitting into three or every island fleeing and all mountains disappearing, let alone hailstones of a hundred pounds falling on the earth. In that reading, this outpouring of the seventh bowl with its resulting
great earthquake
lies in the future, presumably just before Christ returns. The difficulty with that reading is that Christ cannot come back tonight because this great earthquake has not yet happened. Or if the earthquake were to happen this afternoon, we would have ample warning of Jesus’ coming. Yet that thought does not do justice to passages as Matthew 24:36–44, 2 Peter 3:10, and Jesus’ own word in Revelation 16:15.We could take this earthquake to refer to earth’s (personified) joyful response to the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the spirits of the air. Creation responded to humanity’s fall into sin with (personified) groaning due to its bondage to corruption (Romans 8:20–21). Now that God pours his wrath on the corrupt powers of the air as they entice the children of men to works of darkness, the earth responds with joy, even as the earth quaked when God came in majesty on Mount Sinai to establish his covenant with the slaves he had redeemed from Egypt (Exodus 19:18; Psalm 68:8; Hebrews 12:26). This great quaking would be the sort of reaction for which the psalmists called long ago:
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice
(Psalm 96:11). It is also how the earth responded to Jesus’ resurrection on Easter (Matthew 28:2). Though this reading does justice to the redemptive-historical significance of this moment, it still leaves unanswered the question of when there ever was such an earthquake thatevery island fled away,
and so the reader is again left to assume that this event is still to happen.This reference to an earthquake bigger than there ever was
since man was on the earth
appears in the book of Revelation, a book characterized by symbolism. This seismic shift in tectonic plates can and should be understood metaphorically. As the Lord has his wrath poured out upon (the spirits of) the air, he generates a seismic shift in the thinking patterns and attitudes of the people who are so heavily affected by the powers of darkness. That shift among the peoples collapses the cities of the world in a manner reminiscent of Babel. This understanding does justice to the following verses without needing to project this prophecy into today’s future.
18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.