Revelation 8:7; Hail and Fire
Revelation 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
The world was just panting after the 7 seal judgments when the 7-trumpet iudgments were unleashed after a brief half-hour interval. Trumpets played a major role in warfare as signaling instruments (Num. 10:8-9J:
8 And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance forever throughout your generations. 9 And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.
We recall the use of 7 trumpets to defeat God’s enemies as seen in the destruction of Jericho when the 7 priests blew the 7 trumpets for 7 days before its walls collapsed Joshua 6:4-20).
The trumpet call, which signaled judgment came to have a special eschatological association with the Day of the Lord:
Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
Zeph. 1:16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
1st trumpet (8:7): l/3 Earth on fire, Il3 Trees on fire, all grass burned.
2nd trumpet (8:8-9): 1/3 Sea becomes blood, 1/3 ship sunk, 1/3 fish dead
3rd trumpet (8: I 0-1 1): 1/3 A falling star poisons: 1/3 Rivers and 1/3 Fountains
4e trumpet (8:12-13): 1/3 Sun darkened, 1/3 Moon dark, 1/3 Stars dark
5ft trumpet (9:l-12): Demonized locusts torture men 5 months
6n trumpet (9:15,18): 1/3 Mankind dead, 200 million men from Asia goes to MiddleEast
76 trumpet: Earthquake, 7000 die in Jerusalem [Paul Lee Tan]
In the 3rd trumpet judgment, while bitter water came to symbolize disobedience and wormwood was linked with judgment. After the Exodus, the Israelites came to the spring of Marah and tried to drink its bitter water. Although the people grumbled against Moses, God provided a piece of wood to sweeten the water before testing them to see if they would keep his commands (Ex. 15:23-25J.
23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, I that shall we drink? 25 And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.
Total deaths at Tribulation…one fourth at first half (Rev. 6:7-8) and one-third at second half (Rev. 9:18-19)…Total: one-half left.
Joseph A. Seiss observed well, “Here is the first touch of what fell from the censer of the Priest-Angel. I take the language as it stands. This book does not give things veiled, but unveiled. It is the Apocalypse, the uncovering. The results here described are heralded by the sound of a trumpet; what is published is no longer a secret. The phenomena are of a very stupendous sort; but the actors are the Archangels, the occasion is the day of judgment, and the business is the closing up of the history of a doomed world. In such a case we may look for wonders. God has also declared His purpose to renew the mircales of Egypt and to do “marvellous things” like unto what He did in the days of Israel’s deliverance.
Micah 7:15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
Jeremiah 23:7-8 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
The plagues of Egypt were literal realities. They were miracles of judgment, such as have never been since on earth. And if it is the design of God to repeat them on a larger scale, or to do again what at all corresponds to that which He then did, the world has yet to witness just such scenes as are literally described under these trumpets. And “as it was in the day that Israel came up out of Egypt” so it is in what John beheld under the sounding of this first trumpet. Then “the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that wasin the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field” (Exodus 8:23-28).”
What devastation! May men and women everywhere seek refuge in the ark of Christ while there is still time! Amen.