Apocalypse Revealed #399
399. And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood. This symbolizes falsity springing from a hellish love, destroying goodness and truth and falsifying the Word.
Hail symbolizes falsity destroying goodness and truth. Fire symbolizes hellish love. And blood symbolizes the falsification of truth.
The reason that hail symbolizes falsity destroying goodness and truth will be seen below. To be shown that fire is love in both senses, heavenly and hellish, see no. 468; and that blood is the Lord's Divine truth, which is also the Word, and in an opposite sense, the Word falsified, no. 379.
When these are assembled into a single meaning, it is apparent that "hail and fire followed, mingled with blood," symbolizes falsity springing from a hellish love, destroying goodness and truth and falsifying the Word.
This is the symbolic meaning because these are the kinds of things that appear in the spiritual world when the atmosphere of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom dips down from heaven into societies where there are falsities springing from hellish love and these are used to falsify the Word.
[2] Hail and fire together have the same symbolism in the following places:
From the brightness before Him, ...clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire... ...the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent out His (many) arrows and scattered them... (Psalms 18:12-14)
I will dispute... with pestilence and blood, and I will rain down on (them)...hailstones, fire, and brimstone. (Ezekiel 38:22)
Then Jehovah will cause His... voice to be heard..., with the flame of a devouring fire... and hailstones. (Isaiah 30:30)
He made their rain hail, a flaming fire in their land..., and splintered the trees of their border. (Psalms 105:32-33)
He smote their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with heavy hail, and... their cattle with burning coals... He sent in the wrath of His anger... an incursion of evil angels. (Psalms 78:47-49)
The latter passages refer to Egypt, of whom we read in the books of Moses the following:
Moses stretched out his rod... and Jehovah sent voices and hail... And there was hail and fire together proceeding in the midst of heavy hail... And the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. (Exodus 9:23-35)
All the miracles done in Egypt symbolized those evils and falsities, springing from a hellish love, that existed in the Egyptians, each miracle symbolizing some evil and falsity. For the church with them had been representational, as it was in many Asiatic kingdoms, but one that became idolatrous and given to sorcery. The Red Sea symbolizes hell, in which the Egyptians finally perished.
[3] The hailstones which killed many more of the enemy than the sword in Joshua 10:11 have a similar symbolism. So, too, hail in the following passages:
Woe to the crown of pride... ...strong is the Lord, like an inundation of hail... The hail overturns the refuge of lies... (Isaiah 28:1-2, 17)
It will hail until it flattens the forest... (Isaiah 32:19)
The temple of God was opened in heaven..., and there were lightnings, voices, and thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)
And great hail with the weight of a talent fell from heaven upon men. (Revelation 16:21)
...have you seen the treasuries of hail, which have been reserved... for the day of battle and war? (Job 38:22-23)
Say to those who plaster the unsuitable that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, in which you, hailstones, shall fall. (Ezekiel 13:11)
To plaster the unsuitable is to defend falsity so that it appears as true. Consequently people who do this are called hailstones.
Isaiah 41
1
"Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment.
2
Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.
3
He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
4
Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he."
5
The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.
6
Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"
7
So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
8
"But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,
9
You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'
10
Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
11
Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.
12
You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.
13
For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Don't be afraid. I will help you.'
14
Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you," says Yahweh, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15
Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
16
You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17
The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19
I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
20
that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21
Produce your cause," says Yahweh. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.
22
"Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
23
Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.
24
Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
25
"I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
26
Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
27
I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
28
When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.
29
Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
