MASSIVE LOSSES IN THIRDS (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Revelation 8:8-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Beginning in chapter six of the Book of Revelation, we read about the events that transpired as Jesus, the only One worthy of opening the scroll held in the right hand of His Father God, started breaking the seven seals that held the scroll closed. In yesterday’s message, we reviewed these as we revisited Jesus opening the seventh and final seal, found in the eighth chapter.

In that review, we recalled seven angels coming before God, each receiving a trumpet to sound. At that time, we didn’t know what purpose the trumpets would serve but it didn’t take learn to learn what God had in store because beginning in verse 7, we find the first trumpet sound, unleashing havoc from Heaven onto earth in the way of “hail and fire mixed with blood” raining down along with all green grass and one third of all trees being incinerated and reduced to ash. The losses, especially one third of all the world’s trees, was nothing short of catastrophic...and there were still six more trumpets left to sound off with their own associated judgments.

In today’s passage, we read about what happened when the second trumpet was sounded by its angel:

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Vv.8-9

If you haven’t figured it out by now, God was sending punishment on the earth by impacting that which He had created in the first place.

One third of the trees He made along with the green grass were burned completely. This was followed by a “huge mountain” being set “ablaze” before being “thrown into the sea”. Think about this. When in the history of creation has an entire mountain been uprooted and thrown into a body of water much like a fisherman might throw out a line to try and catch something.

And speaking of the oceans, one third of all the earth’s seas will turn to blood, a third of all sea creatures will perish, and a third of all ships utterly destroyed. Not a good day to be anywhere near or in the water, for sure.

It will be a second incident of massive losses in thirds and we don’t know if the same third of the world will be impacted or if each third will feel one of the three things happen. No one will know how this will look until it happens but when it does, there’s no doubt that anyone on earth will be able to associate the events with anything except God for there’s no one could cause the incredible damage and loss outside of the only One who possessed the power and authority to do so.

There’s a good reason why this prophesied period of world history is called the Great Tribulation. Thankfully, if you’re reading this and have placed your faith in Jesus, you won’t have to worry about it because Jesus will rescue you at the Rapture. Conversely, if you’re reading this and haven’t placed your belief in Jesus as Savior, you will know exactly what’s happening when it does...that is unless you join me and the more than two billion Christians in the world today by placing your eternal hope in Christ as your Savior.

I pray you will do just that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.