Revelation 8:7

The first trumpet 8:7

The scene shifts again, this time from heaven to earth. This first trumpet blast signaled the beginning of a judgment that involved hail, fire (lightning?), and blood (bloodshed? cf. Exodus 9:23-26; Ezekiel 38:22).

"Blood-red rain is not unknown in nature; in the spring of 1901 the daily journals contained accounts of this phenomenon, which was then being witnessed in Italy and the South of Europe, the result, it was said, of the air being full of particles of fine red sand from the Sahara." [Note: Swete, p. 110.]

This judgment resulted in the fiery destruction of one-third of the earth (cf. Ezekiel 5:2; Zechariah 13:8-9). Many less literal interpreters believe the fire represents judgment more generally and the one-third of the earth simply a large portion of humankind. This holocaust included a third of its trees and all of its grass. There are two explanations of how all the grass perishes here but in Revelation 9:4 we read that grass exists later. First, the grass may grow again since some time elapses between these two references. Second, it may only be the grass that is green that perishes now and what is now dormant and brown will be green when the events of Revelation 9:4 transpire. These judgments seem to be as literal as the plagues on Egypt were. There are many parallels with the Egyptian plagues.

"The OT prophets understood that the miracles of Egypt were to be repeated in the future (e.g., Isaiah 10:22-25; Isaiah 11:12-16; Isaiah 30:30; Jeremiah 16:14-15; Jeremiah 23:7-8; Ezekiel 38:22; Micah 7:15) . . . At several points the prophet Amos uses God’s miraculous work of deliverance from Egypt as a reference point for the way He will deal with His people in the future (cf. Amos 2:10; Amos 4:10; Amos 8:8-9; Amos 9:5-7)." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 16.]