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Revelation 16:21
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21 And[kai] there fell[katabaino] upon[epi] men[anthropos] a great[megas] hail[chalaza] out of[ek] heaven,[ouranos] every stone about[hos] the
weight of a talent:[talantiaios] and[kai] men[anthropos] blasphemed[blasphemeo] God[theos] because of[ek] the plague[plege] of the
hail;[chalaza] for[hoti] the plague[plege] thereof[autos] was[esti] exceeding[sphodra] great.[megas] KJV-Interlinear
21 And huge
hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and
men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was
extremely severe. NASB
A quick search online will allow you to discover that the largest hailstone on record was about 8 inches in diameter and weighed in at two pounds. That is about the size of a decent cantaloupe or small melon.
The hail that is coming, will weigh about fifty times that, and will pack a huge wallop when it hits anything.
The record hailstone was a fluke, or something that was out of the ordinary. The hail storm that is coming, will bring with it all hailstones weighing in at around a hundred pounds or more.
A talent back in those ancient days, was a measure of weight, typically 90 to 130 pounds. There are no good resources, except from archeological discoveries, to provide a certain weight for the talent. It was one of seven measures used in weights and money - talent, mina, shekel, beka, gerah, pim, and kesitah. The talent was the largest of the weights, and was usually identified as the largest weight that a normal man could carry in his daily work.
Anyway, regardless of how you define it, the damage caused from a single hailstone of that magnitude, will be severe. Imagine how much damage and death, an entire storm of these large hailstones will cause, and then imagine the damage from a worldwide storm of this magnitude.
Most folks would indeed be impressed by such a storm.
But here is the kicker. Remember in our study of how the anti-christ and his sidekick, the false prophet used their powers to cause signs and wonders? Those signs and wonders, though nothing more than smoke and mirrors, in the magical sense, were sufficient to bring people to flock to worship them. The entire world flocked to the anti-christ, even leaders of countries will be convinced to go to war by these empty signs.
And now comes along a sign, a more than convincing sign of huge hailstones, and before that massive earthquakes, and before that darkness and so forth. Things that will indeed bring about real change. And people will reject these real signs and wonders, with great defiance, still embracing the empty wonders of the anti-christ. Even though the world is changing dramatically all around them and people all around are dropping and dying like flies.
But instead of repenting to God, they hate Him even more, curse Him even more, knowing full well that God is mightier than anyone, and the source cause of all the plagues and demonstrations that will have recently occurred. But ingrained stubbornness from arrogance and indifference toward truth, will drive people even further away from God.
Note something else. These wonders are nothing when compared to what God has done before. He created an entire universe out of nothing, angels out of nothing, human life out of nothing. He took common worthless dust and has formed some of the most beautiful and talented and artistic and intellectually smart people.
What has Satan created out of nothing? What has man created out of nothing? Nothing.
And yet far too many folks think very highly of themselves and of their invented beliefs, which too, are based on nothing.
And far too many people will not even read the Bible, let alone study it, in order to learn of things that exist far beyond this world, because that seems too simple a method for learning the mysteries of truth, and life, and meaning and purpose.
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