SPIRITUA DIARY FOR 4/21/2015
8:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The First
Trumpet
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
8:7
Message of the
verses: “7 The first angel blew his
trumpet. Hail and fire mingled with blood appeared, and were hurled upon the
earth. One-third of the earth was burnt up, one-third of all the trees was
burnt up, and every blade of green grass was burnt up.” (Philips) “7 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).”
The lull is officially over as we come to the first
trumpet being blown by the first angel and the first thing we see is hail,
something that is associated with divine judgment in the Scriptures. We first see this in the 9th
chapter of the book of Exodus. “18 "Behold, about this time tomorrow, I
will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it
was founded until now (Exodus 9:18).”
God said to Job in 38:22-23 “22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the
snow, Or have you seen the
storehouses of the hail, 23 Which I have reserved for the time of distress, For the day of war and
battle?” “2 Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent;
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty
overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand (Isa. 28:2).” “’I smote you and every work of your hands
with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares
the LORD (Hag. 2:17).”
Next we look at fire and the first place we see fire as a
judgment of God is found in the book of Genesis “24 Then the LORD rained on
Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven (Gen. 19:24).” Since we are studying the 38th
chapter of Ezekiel let’s look at the 22nd verse there: “"With pestilence and with blood I will
enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on
the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and
brimstone.”
Joel 2:30 speaks of fire mixed with blood as he describes
the Day of the Lord “"I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.” John
MacArthur writes “The specific cause of hail and fire…thrown to the earth is
not revealed, but from a scientific standpoint an earthquake of the magnitude
and extent of the one in 8:5 would likely trigger worldwide volcanic eruptions. Besides spewing vast quantities of flaming
lave (which could be bloodred in appearance) into the atmosphere, the
atmospheric disturbances caused by those eruptions could trigger violent
thunderstorms that would produce large hail.
Such thunderstorms would be in keeping with the imagery of 8:5; after
the angel hurled his censer to earth ‘there followed peals of thunder and
sounds and flashes of lightning.’ Dr.
Henry Morris suggest that the blood may be actual blood, or John may be using
descriptive language: ‘the masses of
water vapor blown skyward might well condense in the intense updrafts as
hailstones…The blood of entrapped men and animals might be mingled with them,
or possibly showers of liquid water drops might be so contaminated with dust
and gases as to appear blood-red.’” This
quote and the next one come from The
Revelation Record by Henry Morris.
“It may be possible that angelic hosts will divert the
path of one of the many comets with which we are familiar which the solar
system abounds so that the earth will pass through its tail. The most spectacular comet which we are familiar—Halley’s
Comet—would not need to stray too far from its normal orbit to envelop Earth in
its fiery train. Whether such an
experience would produce the phenomena described in this passage we do not
know, since our scientists have no experimental data to go on yet.”
We have seen before in my Spiritual Diaries speculations
as to how things like this will be made to happen as seen in the book of
Revelation, but the most important thing to realize that they will happen just
as the Lord says that they will. Jesus
says the following at the end of this book which we will speak more of when we
get there “16 “I, Jesus,
have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am
the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." 17 The
Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say,
"Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes
take the water of life without cost. 18 I testify to everyone who hears the
words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues
which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the
words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy
city, which are written in this book.”
We who are a part of the church age have the privilege of reading and
studying this book as earlier in that chapter it is recorded that the things in
this book are not to be sealed up which is unlike what an angel told Daniel at
the end of his book. However God chooses
to bring about the things found in this book, whether He does all of them or
whether man is involved in some of these judgments will be up to Him, but take
heed they will happen. I will continue
to give my opinion and the opinions of others as to how some of these judgments
may take place but take them with a grain of salt as no one can be sure as to
how God will cause these things to happen, but in my mind it is a good thing to
speculate how it could happen.
We next see that a third of the earth is burned up and a
third of the trees were burned up and then he writes “all the green grass was
burned up.” The environmentalists are
not going to be happy at this time, those people that mostly don’t care about
the environment only the money they can make by their so called concerned. What we
are reading about in Revelation is that God is judging the people on the earth
and it is He who is destroying it, but it is also He who will put it back
together again after the Tribulation is done to make it livable again for His
Millennial Kingdom.
John MacArthur offers one more quote as Robert Thomas
comments on the difficulty that is posed by the destruction of all the green
grass being burned up: “This poses a dilemma,
because grass still exists when the fifth trumpet arrives (9:4). It is hermeneutically wrong to see this as an
inconsistency retained to preserve artistic effort…Two considerations help to
resolve the quandary. First, a time
lapse between the first and fifth trumpets allows time for grass to be regrown
after the burning, but before the assault of the fifth [trumpet]. Second, in most parts of the earth grass is
not green the year round, but is seasonal.
Burning of all the grass that is green during a particular season would
leave the remainder untouched until its season of dormancy is over…whether the
affected portion was one-third or some other percentage, the text does not
say. The description simply says ‘all’
that is green at the time of the plague.
Either of these two explanations allows for taking ‘all’ in its literal
sense without contradicting 9:4.” This
quote comes from (Revelation 8-22: An
Exegetical Commentary).
We can see that this judgment will have devastation effects
on planet earth as far as killing men, and also animals. It will also have devastating effects on the
climate and the production of growing food which will cause more death. We cannot forget why these judgments are
happening as we have already discussed and that is to retake the earth from
sinful man and also Satan and his fallen angels, and as stated earlier God will
put the earth back together again as this will be no problem for Him to do for
after all He created it in the first place.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Although it is at
times difficult to study about the things in Revelation such as these judgments
in the end it is good to know that God is in complete control of all these
things and also it is good to know that Jesus is coming again. As I put on the Spiritual armor in the
morning I put on the helmet of salvation and I remember the following
verse: “1Th 5:8 But since we are of the
day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of
salvation.” This speaks of the
return of Jesus Christ and how I am to live, as Warren Wiersbe writes “I put on
the helmet of salvation. May I remember
today that Jesus is coming again. Help
me to live in the future tense. Protect
my mind from discouragement and despair.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to
remember that the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings, and
I also want to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and
strength. I desire to live in the love
of Christ and to better understand it too.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Zarephath” (1 Kings 17:10).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the mother of Dan and
Naphtali?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/21/2015 9:27 AM
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