Revelation 18:21; A Great Millstone

Revelation 18:21 (KJV)  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. 

Once more John portrays the fall of Babylon but now with the aid of a symbol, the large millstone. He concludes the description of her demise in a song that verbalizes her doom. Its doleful refrain occurs six times: never to be found (to be heard, to shine) again. The physical existence of Babylon will come to a permanent end.

Throughout the last part of this chapter, John has relied on the prophecy of Jeremiah. Now once more he takes verses from this prophecy for his imagery of a symbolic stone. God says to the prophet:

Jeremiah 51:63-64 (KJV)  And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. 

The resemblance of the total picture is obvious, except that John embellishes the scene. Instead of a prophet, a mighty angel casts not a stone but a large millstone into the sea, not into a river. John symbolically portrayed the angel as mighty with respect to the tremendous task he received. Incidentally, two other angels are called mighty: the one who with a loud voice called for the opening of the scroll (Revelation 5:2), and next the one who possessed the enormous power needed to execute God’s purposes (Revelation 10:1). This mighty angel portrays how Babylon is cast away suddenly, violently, and eternally. The large stone was like a millstone that animals pulled for grinding grain; it was extremely heavy (Mark 9:42). Yet the angel instantly lifted it up and violently whirled it through the air to the sea, where it disappeared permanently below the surface (Nehemiah 9:11).

Nehemiah 9:11 (KJV)  And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters. 

This is a picture of what happens to Babylon the great city. Suddenly it will experience being picked up and cast into the sea to be seen no more. Its demise is unbelievable because of the rapidity with which it happened. Babylon typifies a world filled with evil set against Christ and all that is holy. It is submerged in the depth of the sea, and no one is ever able to find it again (Ezekiel 26:21).

Ezekiel 26:21 (KJV)  I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD. 

 Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Vol. 20, p. 501). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.