The Revelation of Jesus Christ
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offering these prayers before the throne. Are these prayers for mercy upon those who are perse cuting the people of God? No, they are prayers for venge ance. They are in keeping with the attitude of God toward evil doers in that day. And how are they answered? John tells us in symbolic language just how God will answer the cry of His persecuted people: "And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake" (verse 5). Israel's prayer is for divine intervention, and God hears and answers accordingly; for thunderings and lightnings are the symbols of judgment upon the enemies of God's people. This judgment is described in the seven trumpets, which fol low immediately.
THE FIRST TRUMPET 8:7
"The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and Sre 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." There are some people who contend that the events set forth in symbolic form in the book of Revelation have already taken place; but a careful student of the Word of God, after taking into consideration the scope of "this prophecy," will realize that the judgments which follow the sounding of the trumpets have not yet descended. God's suffering people, the persecuted Jewish remnant left upon the earth, will cry for vengeance, and God will hear and answer their prayer. Hail, fire, and blood, symbols of divine wrath, fall upon the earth when the first angel sounds his trumpet. You will remember that, when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, they cried unto the Lord; "and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groan ing, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Ex. 2:23, 24). He sent plagues upon the Egyptians, one of them being the plague of hail, and fire mingled with the hail. Just as He heard their cry in those days, so also will He hear their cry again, in the last days.
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