Revelation: One-Third

 Revelation: Justification by Faith

One-Third

Throughout the seven trumpets, we repeatedly see judgment falling upon one-third of various things.
Firstly, this shows us that these judgments are partial. But this number is also used frequently in Ezekiel and Zechariah in a very specific way.
It appears that the focus is not on the precise numerical value, but rather on the symbolic meaning of this fraction in connection with the Old Testament.

Ezekiel 5:1–4 (ESV-paraphrased)

“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and beard. Then take scales and divide the hair.
One-third you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed.
One-third you shall strike with the sword all around it.
And one-third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
Take a small number and bind them in the hem of your garment.
Then take some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them — from there a fire will go out against all the house of Israel.”

In the following verses (5–13), the Lord explains that this judgment is upon Jerusalem — His own people — who had defiled His sanctuary with idols and abominations. He declares that:

“A third of you shall die by plague or famine,
A third shall fall by the sword around you,
And a third I will scatter to all the winds,
And I will pursue them with the sword.”

This is a specific judgment of God upon His own people — those who bore His Name and were blessed by Him.
This connects closely to the sealing described in Ezekiel 9, where God sets apart a faithful remnant before judgment falls. These partial and eventual full judgments of God are often tied to that concept of sealing.

Zechariah 13:8–9 (ESV):

“In the whole land, declares the LORD,
two-thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one-third shall be left alive.
And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

So here too, we see that this process of judgment serves as refinement. Gold is tested and purified by fire — it is separated from the impurities through intense heat.
Some, through this process, will be purified and added to God's people — to spiritual Israel.

This is what the trumpets will largely accomplish.
They will indeed be judgments upon God's people — the church in this case — but at the same time, for many, they will be a process of refinement.

This is the mindset we must carry with us when we consider the seven trumpets.

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