Revelation 8:7 - Exposition

The first angel sounded ; and the first sounded (Revised Version). The word "angel" should be omitted here, though found in the other trumpets. The first four are marked off from the last three (as in the case of the seals) by distinctive features. The first four refer to the natural life, while the last three are connected more closely with the spiritual life of man. The first four are connected and interdependent; the last three are distinct and more detached. The last three are specially marked off by the announcement of the angel in Revelation 8:13 . And there followed hail and fire mingled with blood; mingled in blood. The English Version is ambiguous, but the Greek makes it clear that it is the bail and the fire that are mingled, and that both together are sent in blood. There is an evident likeness between the judgments of the trumpets and the plagues of Egypt. The resemblance is only general, but it serves to corroborate the belief that the trumpets declare God's judgments on the world, not the trials of the Church. The Church is the true Israel which exists uninjured by these manifestations of God's wrath in the midst of the world of Egyptian wickedness. The question next naturally arises—What are the judgments referred to, which are thus to afflict the ungodly while leaving the righteous unhurt; and when and how they are to take place? The answer evidently is—All troubles of the wicked, which are the consequence of misdoing, whether these troubles overtake them in this life or in the life to come. In the words of Alford, "These punishments are not merely direct inflictions of plagues, but consist in great part of that judicial retribution on them that know not God, which arises from their own depravity, and in which their own sins are made to punish themselves." This seems to follow from the view which we haw taken of the trumpet visions. They depict God's judgments on the wicked in all ages. Just as the seal visions were found to relate to the trials of God's people in all time, and the fulfilment is not completed by any one event or series of events, so now the seer is called upon to return, as it were, to his former starting point, and follow out a new path, where he would find displayed the troubles which have afflicted or shall afflict the ungodly. It is very doubtful how much of the imagery used in this series of visions is to be interpreted as applying to some definite event, and how much is to be considered merely as the accessories of the picture, necessitated by the employment of the symbol, and not needing particular interpretation. It is possible that the seer intended first to set forth the judgments which were to descend on those powers which, at the time of the vision, were pressing so heavily upon Christians, and among which the Roman empire held the prominent place. But it also seems probable that the woes symbolized are general types of the judgments in store for the wicked of all ages, perhaps in this life, certainly at the last day. The blood is not found in Exodus. It is mentioned in close connection with hailstones and fire in Ezekiel 38:22 , and a similar thought occurs in Joel 2:30 . The passage may describe the ruin wrought by war; the consequences of fire and sword. Wordsworth sees the fulfilment in the Gothic invasion of Rome, which descended from the north, here typified by the hailstorm (but see on Revelation 16:21 ). The vision would thus answer to that of the second seal, though with this difference, that under the seal war was permitted as a trial to the Church; here it is sent as God's vengeance against the persecutors. And they were cast upon the earth. "That is," says Wordsworth, "on the earthly power, opposed to Christ and his Church, which is the kingdom of heaven." But the words seem rather to describe the destruction of inanimate creation, as in the seventh plague of Egypt. The punishment would undoubtedly fall upon mankind eventually, though immediately upon the earth and its productions. Vitringa says the earth denotes the Roman empire; the sea, the barbarous races. And the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. Insert and the third part of the earth was burnt up, as in the Revised Version. "A third of all the trees, etc., on the earth," rather than "all the trees, etc., on a specified third part of the earth." The third part is almost unanimously considered to represent "a large part, but such that the greater part was still uninjured." We are reminded again of the seventh plague, where "the flax and the barley were smitten: but the wheat and the rie were not smitten" ( Exodus 9:31 , Exodus 9:32 ). Wordsworth interprets the trees to mean the "princes'' of the Roman empire; the grass, the common people. So also Hengstenberg. Elliott thinks "the third part of the earth" denotes the western part of the Roman empire, the eastern and central parts at first escaping the visitation. Bengel sees here a type of the wars of Trajan and Hadrian. Vitringa considers that the famine under Gallus is signified. Renan points to the storms of A.D. 63-68 as the fulfilment.