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Revelation 8:7
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7 [kai] The first [protos] angel [aggelos] sounded, [salpizo] and [kai] there followed [ginomai] hail [chalaza] and [kai] fire [pur] mingled [mignumi] with blood, [haima] and [kai] they were cast [ballo] upon [eis] the earth: [ge] and [kai] the third part [tritos] of trees [dendron] was burnt up, [katakaio] and [kai] all [pas] green [chloros] grass [chortos] was burnt up. [katakaio] KJV-Interlinear
7 And the first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. NASB
Thus far in Revelation, we have seen all sorts of metaphors and symbolism, but now the text takes on more than just imagery, the descriptions will be transformed in to very real disasters, storms, and judgments.
The repetition and rapidity of all of these things as they begin to occur, will serve to eventually convince every person on the planet that they are not freak occurrences of nature, or just a bad bit of weather, but are actual events occurring at the personal direction from God.
What is left with them is to figure out, just which side they are going to stand on in life – Gods side through faith in Christ, or the opposite (whatever that might be).
With this first trumpet, comes an explosion of a hail storm across a third of the earth. Mixed with hail and blood and fire, indicates the massive force and violence of the storm.
Across a third of the earth the hail will fall, killing and destroying, or injuring all who are caught out in the open.
Buildings, power lines, anything that might be explosive or volatile, will most likely start fires, that will spread rapidly. The blood is both symbolic (the fierceness of the storm) and literal, and will come from people and animals who are caught out in the storm.
To be burned up, ‘katakio,’ means to be consumed wholly or thoroughly destroyed or to be burned literally. Fire is not required for something to be beaten apart and destroyed. So this description gives us an indication of the fierceness of the storm, which will span a third of the planet.
One third is the boundary of this storm.
It was thrown down from heaven which makes it obvious that this storm is not an occurrence of nature, not a result of weather trends, not a result of global climate change, but at the direct command of God.
A third of the trees and all of the green grass, were destroyed. And though this does not define the one-third as all of the trees on this one-third of the earth, or only one-third of the trees that are hit by the storm, it does make it clear that the storm, regardless of the tree count, is a massive storm, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
All of the green grass limits the killing of the grass to the green grass. Grass in not green all over the world simultaneously, so only the green grass which comes under the storm is destroyed. The fifth trumpet will kill off more grass, so the grass either has grown back, or it is likely to be grasses that have not yet been destroyed.
When the grass is killed off, then that means that the pounding of the hail on the ground, is beyond extreme, and is not the result of a short or brief storm, but from a drawn out and lengthy storm. It does take some considerable and repetitive pounding to kill grass.
And remember that the Tribulation is only seven years in length. There are not that many growing seasons. Furthermore, these judgments have been delayed until the 144,000 Jewish evangelists have been counted in, so that further reduces the number of growing seasons. Most of these judgments are designated for the latter half of the Tribulation, and that makes the growing seasons limited to perhaps three or four at the most.
Needless to say, time is short for humanity, and the many judgments that are going to be unleashed are going to make life, normal life, non-existent.
Those who get hyped on earth day, are in for a shock, as God systematically dismantles the very fabric of the planet. All of the things that man deems as important, will be destroyed.
One of the many things that man values most, the environment, even to the extent of making it more valuable than human life or God, is going to be the target of the very first attack against evil. And it is only beginning.
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