July 10: BURNT MOUNTAIN
Then the second angel sounded: and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Revelation 8:8-9
The fall of Jerusalem in the first trumpet judgment marked the fall of the Jewish state. The second trumpet judgment brought about the fall of pagan Rome. The lashes of cruelty inflicted by the Roman Empire suspended the ax of divine retribution over their own heads, in spite of the fact that they had been God’s instrument in the punishment of Israel (as a nation) for their rejection of Christ. The reference to something like a great mountain burning with fire is drawn from Jeremiah’s prophetic writings about Babylon’s destruction: “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth,” says the LORD. “And I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.” (Jeremiah 51:25)
It must be understood that Scripture draws a direct connection between Babylonian (pagan) philosophy and Rome. Although Babylon was destroyed, never to rise again (v.26), its influence filtered down to and through the subsequent empires (listed in Daniel 2 and 7). This was so well understood among the early Christians that both Peter and John cryptically referred to Rome as Babylon in their writings, thus preserving the safety of the letters as they circulated during Rome’s dominion. Through the decades of the first century, persecution flared up against the fledgling Christian church by the Romans. When Peter wrote to encourage the scattered Christians around the Roman Empire, he sent special greetings from the Christian church inside the city of Rome: “She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you.” (1 Peter 5:13)
When the Roman Empire finally imploded (generally acknowledged to be complete in 476AD), it was thrown into the sea, a figurative way of referring to the populous barbarian tribes in and around the empire who carved it up (see Revelation 17:15). The chaos included bloodshed (a third of the sea became blood) and death (a third of the living creatures in the sea died) – yet it was limited by the hand of God to a third, for there is no partiality with God (Deuteronomy 1:17; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; 1 Timothy 5:21; James 2:1). He had limited the judgments for His apostate people to a third in the first trumpet judgement, and now we see Him limiting judgement upon the pagan unbelievers to a third. Undoubtedly, the economy was distressed during the bloody catastrophe of Rome’s fall, symbolized by ships (Ezekiel 27:9), yet even that aspect was under the Lord’s control: a third of the ships were destroyed.
A day is rapidly approaching when full judgment will be poured out upon the wicked, as described in Revelation 16. Throughout the Scriptures, in both Old and New Testaments, the descriptive word wicked is consistently applied to those who know better, yet choose to reject the knowledge of God. Great pains are taken in the instruction to the Levitical priesthood (Leviticus 5:18, see also Ezekiel 45:20) to distinguish deliberate sins from those committed in ignorance. But these last days, which correspond to the Old Testament Feast of Trumpets (the yearly ten-day period of self-examination leading up to the Day of Atonement), we are past the time of sinning in ignorance. Today, we are invited to examine ourselves in light of the full availability of the Word of God.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Acts 17:30