Chapter 8 SECTION 6

ACT I -- FIRST WIND-TRUMPET

The hurting of the earth by hail and fire, mingled with blood, by which a third part of the trees, and all green grass is burned up.

A.D. 395, and onwards.

"And the first angel sounded, and there was hail and fire which had been mingled with blood, and it was cast into the earth; and the third of the earth, and the third of the trees was consumed, and every green blade was burned up." 

Apoc. viii. 7

1. The Symbols Explained

A prophecy couched in such terms as these indicates nothing but judgment of the severest kind. It is a tempest of the most scathing description imaginable -- a beating down with hail, scorching with lightning, and causing blood to flow.

The prophets give us to understand that by such language as this is signified, "A mighty and strong one casting down to the earth with the hand." This interpretation is indicated in Isa. xxviii. 2; as "Yahweh hath a mighty and strong one, as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, he shall cast down to the earth with the hand," or power of the sword. This was a threatened war against the drunkards of Ephraim, which was afterwards executed by the King of Assyria who cast down their sovereignty, and carried them away into a captivity from which they have not yet returned. They thought themselves secure, and made lies their refuge, and under falsehood hid themselves. But in the seventeenth verse they were informed that "the hail should sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding place."

In Ezek. xiii, we find, that the self-constituted prophets of Israel promising peace to Jerusalem, when Yahweh had determined there should be no peace for her, is styled building up a wall, and daubing it with untempered mortar. Ezekiel was commanded to announce to them, that it should fall by an overflowing shower; and then addressing the constituents of the shower, he says, "And ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it." This prediction was afterwards fulfilled by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, who as great hailstones, a mighty and strong power, demonstrated the flimsiness and instability of their wall by laying Jerusalem in ashes and destroying the liars out of her.

In the apocalypse, hailstones operate conspicuously in demolishing walls daubed with untempered mortar, sweeping away the refuges of lies, and overflowing all hiding places. Beside the place before us, they are brought into play in chs. xi. 19 and xvi. 21. The hail in these two places signifies the same thing -- a mighty and strong power, which falls out of the heaven upon men to plague them exceedingly. This power is the power of the heaven, the Spirit, congealed (if I may so speak) into spiritual bodies weighing one talent a piece. These are the hailstones and coals of fire which result from the thunder voice of the Most High. They are the electrical congelations of the Spirit which beat down the Assyrian in his latter day overthrow; as it is written, "And Yahweh shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of anger, and the flame of devouring fire, scattering and tempest and hailstones; for through the voice of Yahweh shall the Assyrian be beaten down who smite with a rod," (Isai. xxx. 30). The Assyrian to be beaten down by these living, precious, and all powerful hailstones, is the Gog of Ezekiel, the Fourth Beast of Daniel, and the Eighth Head in alliance with the Ten Horns of John. These are destroyed by the saints when judgment is given to them; they are mighty and strong who fall upon them as a plague of hail and a destroying storm upon the forest.

"The third of the earth," into which the mighty and strong power is cast for judicial execution, was that third section of the Roman Orb occupied by "the third of the trees." A third implies two other thirds. The trees of these two thirds were not to be affected by the scorching hail-commingled fire. It was to be confined to one of the thirds, which, as we shall see in our historical illustration, was the Western Third. This is "the earth," or arena, of the first trumpet.

"Trees" are symbolical of the great men among a people. This is evident from Jotham’s parable in Judges ix. 8. "The trees went forth," said he, "to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the Olive Tree, ‘Reign thou over us.’" But, when the olive, and the fig, and the vine, severally declined to be promoted over the trees, all the trees with one voice invited the bramble to wear the crown; to which this prickly bush replied, "If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and, if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." All this is perfectly intelligible, and no sane mind would think of trying to interpret it upon what is called the literal principle of hermeneutics. The trees in Jotham’s parable symbolized all the men of Shechem, and all the house of Millo, in whom the king-making and king-sustaining power resided. It is unnecessary to adduce further proof of this notable signification of "trees" in the symbolic language. An aggregation of wild, uncultivated trees constitutes "a forest." This is prophetically obnoxious to the storm of hail, which descends upon it; while the people, or trees of Yahweh’s planting (Isai. lxi. 3) are dwelling securely, as Israel did in Goshen when the rest of Egypt was desolated and scorched by literal hail mingled with fire; as it is written, "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure (or safe) dwellings, and in quiet resting places, when it shall hail, coming down on the forest" (Isai. xxxii. 18). This shows that when hail descends on forest trees, there is no peace, safety, or tranquillity, to the wicked represented thereby.

"Grass" is figurative of the multitude. "All flesh is grass" (Isai. xl. 6). It may be either withered or green and flourishing. Before the blast of this trumpet is blown, the grass is "green"; but when the trumpet ceases to sound, it is burned up, and consequently black. Before the hail and fire mingled with blood descends, the catholic multitude, consisting of priests and people, are "green grass." They are so represented, because of their wickedness, and the iniquity worked by them. The proof of this is found in Psalm xcii. 7, as, "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever." Grass that springs is green and looks flourishing. This is sufficient to determine the meaning of the symbol. When it becomes withered or black, it is "because the Spirit of Yahweh bloweth upon it," and the tempest licks it up as stubble (Isai. xl. 7,24).

Hence then, the symbolism of this trumpet is representative of the Spirit of Yahweh blowing upon the great men and people of the catholic apostasy of the West. He did it by destroying agents already in a state of preparation. The hail and fire mingled with blood were these agents, ready to fall upon the pious hypocrites of the Latin West, when the time appointed should arrive.