The trumpets of history sounded to alert people of the final judgments; their trumpet blast was to call people back a into covenant relationship with their God. They were designed to call people to repent but "they repented not of their sins." The Book of Revelation reveals Christ working out the provisions of God's Covenant in the Last Days. It also reveals Christianity's Response to that Covenant
"Hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up. Rev. 8:7"
Fulfilled: God's chosen nation, rejected Christ, their King. Their destructive religious delusion was in failing to see CHRIST in all their religious ceremonies which pointed to Christ. They believed a lie and rejected truth. This is where the first judgment falls. Jesus cried in agonizing voice, "Your house is left to you desolate" Matt. 23:38 Jerusalem fell in a terrible siege and destruction in 70 A.D.
Biblical Symbolism used:
fire
This describes the destruction of Jerusalem at the time of the exile to Babylon.
Then Zech. 13:8 and 9.
Israel was often likened to Trees(Num. 24.5,6)
Isaiah 10.17-19 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
Jer. 6.6 For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
The trees represent the proud leaders (Is. 2:12,13) The grass represents the common inhabitants (2 Kings 19.26 Is. 37:27)
Hail has the general meaning of a weapon God uses to meet out judgment against false religion.
"Hail
Not only were the trees and grass symbolic, but in a literal sense we find that most of the trees around Jerusalem were cut down by the Roman armies and used for crosses, attack equipment etc.
In Great Controversy Chapter One we read that Christ had brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt (Ps. 80:8) He had planted it in a fruitful hill; pruning and tending it. But they did not bring forth fruit-- they had despised and rejected God's calls-- now the destroying angel with sword uplifted stood over Jerusalem. "Unhappy Jerusalem rent by internal dissensions, the blood of her children slain by one another's hands crimsoning her streets, while alien armies beat down her fortifications and slew her men of war....
"It was the sight of Jerusalem that pierced the heart of Jesus— Jerusalem that had rejected the Son of God and scorned His love. He saw...what she might have been had she accepted Him who alone could heal her wound.....How can I give thee up? How can I see thee devoted to destruction." (DA 575-578) The first trumpet sounds the warning of judgment on those who trust in legalism-in themselves-- for salvation.
This foreshadows the agony of the world Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. "The visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law."(See GC p. 36)
The first trumpet sounded its warning. Its history stands as evidence that judgment will come.
It also clearly shows that SALVATION is not to be found in Jerusalem.
Do not look to Jerusalem or any temple there for salvation.
