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.
Psalms 77
1
My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me.
2
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn't get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
3
I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
4
You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can't speak.
5
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
6
I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires:
7
"Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
8
Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?
9
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?" Selah.
10
Then I thought, "I will appeal to this: the years of the right hand of the Most High."
11
I will remember Yah's deeds; for I will remember your wonders of old.
12
I will also meditate on all your work, and consider your doings.
13
Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What God is great like God?
14
You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples.
15
You have redeemed your people with your arm, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16
The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.
17
The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.
18
The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.
19
Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.
20
You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. A contemplation by Asaph.
