What does Revelation 11:18 mean?
The twenty-four elders continue their worship by recalling how the nations raged, but God's wrath came. This part of their praise reads like Psalm 2. The psalmists asked, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us'" (Psalm 2:1–3). However, the Lord laughs at the nations' plot and will "terrify them in his fury" (Psalm 2:4–5). The elders' worship anticipates the event described in Revelation 19, in which Jesus returns from heaven and utterly destroys His foes.The elders' words of worship also anticipate Jesus' rewarding of His servants. Jesus promised in Revelation 22:12, "Behold, I am coming soon, bring my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done." The destroyers of the earth, as Revelation 11:18 indicates, will be repaid at that time with destruction.