Deliverance Comes

At midnight God unveils His power to deliver His people. The sun appears shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow. The wicked look with terror on the scene, while the righteous see the indications of their deliverance. In the midst of the angry sky is one clear space of indescribable glory. The voice of God comes from there like the sound of many waters, saying, “It is done!” (Revelation 16:17).GrH_a 44.5

That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake, “such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth” (Revelation 16:18). Ragged rocks are scattered on every side. The sea is lashed into fury. There is the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons. The earth’s surface is breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the angry waters. “Babylon the great” is “remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath” (Revelation 16:19). Great hailstones do their work of destruction. Proud cities are laid low. Grand palaces on which people have lavished their wealth crumble before their eyes. Prison walls are torn apart, and God’s people are set free.GrH_a 44.6

Graves are opened, and “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth ... awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” “Even those who pierced Him,” those who mocked Christ’s dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of His truth, are raised to see the honor placed on the loyal and obedient. (Daniel 12:2; Revelation 1:7.)GrH_a 44.7

Fierce lightnings wrap the earth in a sheet of flame. Above the thunder, voices—mysterious and awful—declare the doom of the wicked. Those who were boastful and defiant, cruel to God’s commandment-keeping people, now shudder in fear. Demons tremble while men and women beg for mercy.GrH_a 45.1