Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #9 of Revelation, chapter 8, and we are going to be reading Revelation 8:7:

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.  

In our last study we were discussing how the judgment of “hail and fire mingled with blood” relates to Egypt or, to put it another way, the judgments which God brought upon Egypt were historical occurrences the Lord used, spiritually, to teach about the judgment that will come upon the churches at the time of the end and which will also come upon the world.

We see similar language with the judgment upon the churches and with the judgment upon the world, and now we know why.  The reason is that it is the same cup of God’s wrath and, here in Revelation 8:7, we read of “hail and fire mingled with blood” was cast upon the earth and it caused “the third part of trees” to be burned up and “all green grass” was burned up.

Let us begin by discussing the “third part.”  How do we know that the “third part” really points to those within the churches?  The only way we can know that is to search the Bible to see how God uses this phrase “third part.”  Let us begin by going back to 2^nd Kings, chapter 1.  We are going to look at three different instances of God sparing a “third part” in the Old Testament.  The first place we will look is 2^nd Kings 1 and, here, we find that Elijah is being a hindrance to the King of Israel, so the King sends a captain and fifty men to Elijah to command Elijah to come before him.  Of course, most people would shudder in fear and quickly go with the captain and his fifty, as this was an armed force.  Yet, that is not what happened in the case of the prophet Elijah.  We read in 2^nd Kings 1:9:

Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.

Here is the command and it is not just a “request” involved.  It is not as though the King is asking Elijah for the pleasure of his company.  It is an order: “Come down, thou man of God.”  Then Elijah answers in 2^nd Kings 1:10-11:

And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.  Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.

So another captain and his fifty go to Elijah and there is no difference with them than with the first captain and his fifty.  Again, the captain is carrying the message from the King: “Come down quickly.”  It is not a request, but it is, again, a command.

Then Elijah answers, again, in 2^nd Kings 1:12:

And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

So we have two captains and their fifty and both came demandingly to the prophet Elijah and ordered him to come with them.  Yet, it was not God’s will and, so, Elijah was able to call down fire from heaven which consumed them.  It burnt them up – both the captains and their fifties, which would be 102 men.  Yet, the King is not taking “No” for an answer, even if it meant the lives of his soldiers.  So, it says in 2^nd Kings 1:13:

And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.

Here, we see a big difference.  There is quite a difference in how this captain and his fifty approached Elijah.  There was no command.  There was no statement, “Come down quickly.  The King wants to see you.”  He did not dare say that.  He knew that the previous captains and their fifties were killed and burnt up with fire from heaven, so he gave great respect and he came to Elijah exhibiting tremendous humility.  Notice that he fell on his knees before Elijah, in 1^st Kings 1:13-15:

…O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.  Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.

This is quite an account which God has given us.  We can learn a few things from it.  One thing is that Elijah, here, was in the place of God.  When men go to God, man is in no position to dictate orders to God.  Mankind is not the ruler.  Man is not the authority.  Man is not the determiner of what God will do. 

We can see how this would apply, for instance, to those that develop gospels that attempt to manipulate and dictate to God and in these gospels they are saying, “Now, God, you must come down and save this man because he walked down the aisle.  You must save this one because he ‘accepted’ Christ.  You must save this one because he said the Sinner’s Prayer, or you must save because of this work of that work.” 

And what is the answer of God?  It is fire from heaven that will burn up and destroy wicked men that think they can command God; men that think God is subservient to them; men that think they can lay down the terms and dictate exactly how things will be with God.  “We will be a Christian, God, but only on our terms.  We will determine when we get saved and how we get saved and what happens afterwards.”  God is not interested in those types of Christians.  God is not interested in those that think they are the authority over the Bible or those that think that they can command God and He will simply do their bidding.  No – here, God reveals that if you are going to come to God (as Elijah represents him here), you must come humbly.  Yet, you can come boldly to the throne of grace.  During the day of salvation if anyone came boldly to the throne of God, it was a bold act, yet God encouraged people to do so.  He called to people to approach His throne to beseech Him for mercy and find grace in time of need and become saved, if it was according to His good pleasure.

So the third captain of fifty learned and he realized, “I am nothing and I am certainly in no position to tell God (or one of His servants) what He is to do.  I will follow the King’s orders and I will go to this man of God, but I am going to go very humbly.  I am going to fall on my face.”  We see just how humbly this captain approached unto “God.”  That is the picture and, here, God reveals the “third part,” as we see that there were three captains and their fifties.  Two captains and their fifties were arrogant and they ended up being burned up.  One captain and his fifty were broken and humble before Elijah.  He dared not come in the same manner as the others.  He came humbly to God and that typifies God’s elect.  When God draws people to Himself, they come to Him brokenhearted, and they are crying out for His mercy in the day of His mercy.  This is a wonderful picture of how God’s elect do come to God to find His salvation.  So we see the “third part” was delivered, but two parts were destroyed.  That is a theme that we will see repeated in the Bible.  In 2^nd Samuel 8, we read of King David and David is a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It says in 2^nd Samuel 8:1-2:

And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took Methegammah out of the hand of the Philistines. And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David's servants, *and* brought gifts.

Here, we find David is victorious over the Moabites and he measured them with a line, and God likens His Word to a “plumb line.”  Here the line would relate to the Word of God and he “measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground.”  The Word of God is able to destroy and to kill, as well as to deliver and to save.  That is why God’s people that carried the Word of God and were messengers and ambassadors of His Kingdom were identified as the savour of “death unto death” to some and “life unto life” to others, because it all depended on which way God had determined for His Word to cut, or what way the “line” was fallen. 

Here, he “measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive.”  It is very similar to the two captains and their fifties that were put to death and one captain and his fifty were spared and lived.  And, here, one third of the Moabites were measured with this line and kept alive and they would be the Moabites that would become David’s servants “and brought gifts.”  This is a picture of them being servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.  So we can see that God is maintaining this type and figure of the “third part” representing the true believers and the two parts representing the unsaved. 

Remember, in the Book of Revelation how God speaks of the “number of man” (of mankind) in Revelation 13:18:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man&hellip

It should be translated “man,” not “a man.”

…and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Some people are frightened by that number, but it simply means is that “666” is a decimal that means “two thirds,” and that would leave “333” as the “one third” that is not the “number of man” (the “natural” man that is unsaved), but it is the number of the redeemed man, represented by the “one third,” that God keeps alive or the “one third” of the captain and his fifty that were not burned up by the fire that fell from heaven. 

So we can see how God is consistent in applying this figure to His elect.  We are going to turn to one more verse where we find this “one third” and “two thirds” ratio, in Zechariah 13:8-9:

And it shall come to pass, *that* in all the land&hellip

(And the word “land,” here is translated at times as “earth.”)

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die&hellip

So, two parts shall be cut off and die in all the land, or in all the earth. 

… but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.

Clearly, God is making identification again with the “third part.”  They are His people and they shall say that He is their God.  They are like gold and silver that are refined in the fire and this relates to our present time because on May 21, 2011, God “lit” a spiritual fire in all the land or all the earth; and that fire has cut off “two thirds,” the number of mankind.  The “666” have been cut off when God shut the door to heaven and the Light of the Gospel went out and God fixed the spiritual condition of mankind so it would never change: he that was filthy would remain filthy and he that was righteous would remain righteous. 

God had completed His salvation plan, so in shutting the door to heaven and ending His salvation program, God, in essence, cut off the wicked; He cut off mankind and guaranteed their eternal destruction.  There is no change that can possibly take place that could ever translate them out of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear son.  It is all past.  It is all done and that is why God is speaking of a fire – and it is a spiritual fire on the unsaved.  There is no literal fire at this time.  It is a spiritual destruction in closing the door to heaven that brings about the spiritual effect of sealing the eternal condition of mankind.  Nonetheless, as God says, “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die.” Mankind is now in the condition of “death and hell” and it will be finalized on the last day of the Day of Judgment with the “second death” of eternal destruction, when man will be annihilated and cease to be.

It goes on to say in Zechariah 13:8: “nut the third shall be left therein.”  The one third will be left in the land.  At the same time God is cutting off the “two thirds,” the “one third” or the “third part” is left therein.  They are all in the same place, in other words; they are all in the land; they are all in the world at the time that the (spiritual) fire is lit and the world is coming under judgment.

Now the Hebrew word translated as “left” in Zechariah 13:8, is Strong’s #3498.  It is occasionally translated as “remnant” and it is sometimes translated as “remain.”  It is found in 1^st Kings 19:10:

And he said, I have been very jealous for JEHOVAH God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

This is Elijah the prophet, again, who is speaking under the inspiration of God.  He is saying that those under King Ahab and Jezebel are seeking his life “and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” The word “left” is the same word as in Zechariah 13:8, where it says “the third shall be left therein.”  We can see it relates to “remaining” or being left alive.

It is also found in Leviticus 27:18:

But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from thy estimation.

This word “remain” is the same Hebrew word that is translated as “left.”  I will read one more verse in Isaiah 4:3-4:

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem&hellip

Here, it is the word “remaineth” that is our word, and not the first word “left.”

… and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

Notice here that God is speaking of he “that remaineth in Jerusalem,” or the one remaining, and this is what Zechariah 13 is saying of the “third part,” and I will read it again and use that word “remain”: “Two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall remain therein.   And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.”  We know that God speaks in 1^st Corinthians 3 of the day that will reveal who are gold, silver and precious stones and who are wood, hay, stubble.  The fire that God has lit in the Day of Judgment will reveal it, because all are submitted to it and yet it is only God’s people, or the “third part,” that are brought through the fire.  It is only the elect of God that are in view, as it says in Malachi 3:2-3:

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto JEHOVAH an offering in righteousness.

You see, the day of His coming is a day of fire that will refine those that are left (those that remain) therein.  This greatly assists us in understanding what God is saying in 1^st Thessalonians 4:15-18:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive *and* remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Here, God is speaking of the “third part” that are alive and remain upon the earth in the Day of Judgment until the completion of the spiritual judgment of 1,599 days, if we are correct about a total 1,600 days of judgment; the 1,599 days will all be spiritual judgment, but the 1,600^th day (or the 10,000^th day of overall judgment and the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles) will be the day in which God destroys the world and He finally raptures His people that are alive and remaining upon the earth.  They had been the “third part” therein that had been through the fire; and now it is time to take them out of the fire; they have been purified as gold and silver; and now they will be taken into the new heaven and the new earth.  And, certainly, these words are very comforting to God’s elect.