20 Aug 2013
Revelation 8:7
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.”
This is a truly devastating judgment! Not only was there “hail and fire mingled with blood” (which surely caused a lot of property damage), but one-third of the world’s forests were burned to the ground, and all of the grass was burned up. Apparently the hail mixed with fire caused massive forest fires that resulted in the destruction of tremendous swaths of the environment. There is no telling how many people died in this.
This is reminiscent of the plague of hail that fell upon Egypt. God has used hail in the past as one of His judgments upon sin, and here we see God doing it again.
It is easy to just casually read over this verse and move on, but I think it is worth stopping and thinking about what just happened. In the very first judgment (the very first one!), God destroys a third of all trees, and He also burns up every last bit of green grass on the entire planet. This is devastating. It would not surprise me if millions of people die in this judgment.
We have all seen the terrible forest fires that occasionally rage throughout the country. Imagine a forest fire that is so vast that it covers one-third of all forests in the entire world. This is a fire the likes of which the world has never seen before. A huge portion of the world is reduced to ash – and the judgments are just beginning.