Devotional 05 March 2025

Revelation 8:8-9 (ESV) “The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”

When the second trumpet sounds, John sees a great burning mountain hurled into the sea. This image is not without precedent. In Jeremiah 51:63-64, the prophet was commanded to throw a scroll of Babylon’s judgment into the Euphrates, symbolizing its total downfall. Likewise, Revelation 18:21 declares that the new Babylon—Jerusalem—would be cast down with the same finality. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was not a random catastrophe; it was the fulfillment of Jesus’ words in Matthew 21:21, when He said that with faith, a mountain could be cast into the sea. This was a pronouncement of judgment upon the city that had rejected its Messiah.

Not that this judgment was also an answer to prayer. In Revelation 8:4-5, the cries of the saints who had suffered under Jerusalem’s persecution ascended before God, and His response was fierce. The city that had killed the prophets (Matthew 23:37), rejected Christ, and persecuted His followers was now facing the consequences. God’s justice may seem delayed, but it is never absent. The prayers of the suffering saints were not ignored—they were answered with fire from heaven.

The sea often represents the Gentile nations (Daniel 7:2-3), and here it signifies the fate of the Jewish people following the destruction of Jerusalem. With their land taken and their temple gone, they were cast into the sea of the nations—the Jewish Diaspora. Scattered among the Gentiles, they would no longer be a centralized people but dispersed across the earth. The city that once stood as God’s dwelling place had been uprooted, and those who had once called it home were now adrift among foreign lands. The mountain thrown into the sea was more than just the fall of a city—it was the scattering of a people.

This passage reminds us that God’s judgment is total, but His justice is also faithful. Those who oppress His people will not stand forever. If we are suffering for righteousness today, we can take comfort in knowing that our prayers do not go unheard. The same Jesus who warned, judged, and saved in the first century still reigns today. He hears. He answers. He is in control.