Job.38:22 The Lord, speaking to Job, asks him, “Have you entered into the treasuries of the snow? Or have you seen the treasuries of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?”
In this series of studies on the Last Battle, we have seen much that focuses on the subject of TRUTH and LIES. Throughout the Bible there are constant references to people either telling lies, or acting a lie. The Lord had much to say concerning this plethora of deception. His anger would rise up, and judgment pronounced. It is instructive to notice that on several such occasions there is mention of a hail storm. This brings us to the reference quoted from Job 38, where the Lord made a distinct connection between hail and times of battle. It will be good to follow this up.
The best place to start is Isaiah 28:15-18 “Hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men, that rule the people of Jerusalem. Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with sheol we are in agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a Test Stone, a Precious Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation. He who believes shall not flee away. Judgment also will I lay to the Line, and righteousness to the Plumbline, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you shall be trodden down by it.'”
This is clear enough, and in later times it was amplified by the prophet Ezekiel (Chapter 13) where we read, “My hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the register of the House of Israel, neither shall they enter the Land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord God. . . They have seduced my people, saying ‘Peace’ when there is no peace. One built a wall and others coated it with whitewash . . . but there shall be an overflowing rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it.”
In each of the above we find falsehood centred in the company of God’s people. This is a tragedy. One might expect to find lies in the world at large, but when a preponderance of falsehood rests comfortably ensconced within the sanctuaries of the elect, there is turmoil in heaven, and anger from the Throne. As I see it, the situation so graphically stated by Isaiah and Ezekiel now rests firmly within the Church of Jesus Christ. It is heart-rending to observe the proliferation of falsehood that has emerged, especially during the last 200 years. But it is not surprising. Jesus spoke about Satan in the following terms, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44) Satan need not worry himself over much with the world, because as John said, “the whole world lies [asleep] in the [arms] of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) But to gain absolute dominion, Satan has to work on God’s Elect, if it be possible to turn them away from foundation truths into a multi-coloured spectrum of falsehood. Hence the Last Battle. The great Armageddon-style conflict between “Michael and his angels and the Devil and his angels,” until victory is achieved. “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, not loving their own lives unto death.” (Revelation 12)
And so we find the subject of hail turning up once again in Revelation. When the first angel sounded his trumpet, “There followed hail and fire with blood.” (8:7) And when the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, “There were lightnings, voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail.”(11:19) And when the seventh angel had poured out his bowl of wrath, we read that, “there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” (16:21)
So the theme of hail finds its place in Scripture from Job, perhaps the earliest writing of all, to Revelation, the last. And the very last reference speaks of a storm of unbelievable proportions. A talent weighs about 125 pounds (56 kg) and some may doubt that this is possible. If we try to establish this prophecy in literal terms, it does sound rather fantastic, but wait a moment. Let’s hear the evidence first.
On May 8th 1802 a mass of ice measuring 3 ft by 3 ft by 2 ft fell in Hungary during a storm. How much would that weigh? Not far short of 1200 pounds! I have numerous other historical references, found within the pages of William Corliss’s book, entitled, “Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena.” (1983) He has gathered an amazing collection of data from historical records about “Hydrometeors”, many of which weigh as much as a hundredweight. The usual theory about such formations relates to tornados, which are capable of lifting huge masses into the air and depositing them elsewhere.
However, I get the strong impression that we are here provided with figurative language, not only in the Revelation references, but also in Ezekiel, where the hail broke down a whitewashed wall. The wall was certainly a description of the fabrication of lies built up by the false prophets, and therefore the plague of hail was something that destroyed that “wall.” The wall and the hail were therefore both figurative. What are we to conclude?
I have found a rather interesting fact by looking at a couple of words and their Gematria. (Gematria is the study of the transposition of letters by numbers in languages that have no symbols for numbers, but use letters instead, thus Alpha = 1, Beta = 2, and so on in Greek, Aleph = 1, Beth = 2 in Hebrew.) The words in question are Hail and Truth.
In Greek, Hail is Chalaza (calaza) Adding up the letters, 600+1+30+1+7+1=640
Truth is Aletheia (alhqeia) Adding up the letters, 1+30+8+9+5+10+1=64
Truth, being 64, or 8X8, is therefore found TENFOLD in Hail at 640. May we therefore speak about Hail as TRUTH BOMBS? The Veil cast over all nations is made up of lies. It is thick, like a blanket, shutting out the light of God’s truth from mankind . But if this veil were to be struck by a violent storm of hail, as Truth Bombs, then it might very well smash the blanket. That is a far more useful symbol to have in mind than imagining that God is going to send a literal storm of hundredweight-sized hail stones.
In the prophecy I presented earlier concerning the rending of the veil, the attack was seen as coming from BELOW the veil, simply because it depended on the faithfulness of God’s children. But in Revelation we see what happens from ABOVE, in the sending of the hailstones. This grants us the intelligence we need to understand the ways of God. The Holy Spirit infuses the mind of God into the hearts of His children, who then act in faithfulness to His word, and the result is seen as a divine act from heaven. Only thus does God accomplish victory in this final battle. How great is our responsibility to act. Each one responding to the Lord according to the vision granted, each one praying fervently, disregarding his own safety, speaking the word of testimony, this will bring victory, no matter how small the number, for Gideon’s army of 300 was selected from a total force of 32,000. “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)
