“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

• Ezekiel 38:17-23

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

• Matthew 24:4-8

He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

• Luke 21:8-19

Here is the sixth quiz in a series of quizzes on the birth pains of the End Times – and they have been every other week.  What Jesus says in Matthew 24 (basically the same words in Mark 13) gives some words that can be the focus of a quiz.  Luke 21 uses a slightly different expression of the same basic things.  I have added Ezekiel 38 above which has even more descriptive words.

Hail is mentioned in Ezekiel and in Revelation.  These may be more in line with End Times events rather than birth pains.

But it is sad that so many people have their heart tugged by a war and suddenly think we are in the End Times.  Jesus also mentioned earthquakes, famines, and pestilence.  We have had those too.  But our short attention spans lose heart as we read through, before Jesus says the words “birth pains.”  And the admonishment to take heart.

So, this quiz focuses on the word “hail.”  Hail is mentioned 38 times in the NIV.  But three of those times, all in the New Testament, “hail” is used as a greeting.  The questions are mostly in biblical order.  Some refer to things that happened in various places in Scripture.

You may find this quiz a very hard quiz, but I have a few questions that I hope are “given away.”  I would normally not have invalid questions of that nature – invalid in that one question’s answer leads to the answer of another question or the answer is imbedded in the text above.

But the thing is that I enjoyed this biblical exercise.  Whether people get half the questions right or not, I learned a lot in writing the quiz and researching some of the symbology.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the order of the ten plagues of Egypt, which was the plague of a hailstorm?
2	What crops were not destroyed by the hailstorm of question 1?  Bonus for why?
3	In one battle during the time of Joshua, more of the enemy died from hailstones than from the sword.  What major miracle of God allowed this battle to occur, when God joined the battle in this special way?
4	God finally “appears” before His servant Job.  In the midst of God’s questions, He asks Job if he has entered God’s storehouses of hail and what other frozen precipitation?
5	Outside of Revelation, what is the only book of the Bible where hail and fire are mentioned together?
6	There is only one verse that mentions hail and burning sulfur.  In what event are these combined?
7	The prophecy of question 6 also mentions hail mixed with blood.  What is the only other time when the Bible prophesies hail mixed with blood?
8	In thinking of things in order, there were ten plagues, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.  Which ordinal number contains hailstorms the most?
9	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which has two hailstorms?
10	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which does not lead to a hailstorm?

Although the two are not mentioned that often in the Bible, hail and fire raining down mixed with blood is an image that many speak of regarding the End Times.

But have you ever thought about what this could mean?

The prophets that saw this used the words they understood.

There have been documented cases that hail has mixed with an airborne red algae so that the result looks like blood in the hail stones.  Other scientists have postulated that volcanic activity might be able to create such a storm and volcanic ash be mixed with the hail.  Often lightning storms are produced within the volcanic plume, and all that would be needed is the right atmospheric conditions to produce hail.

But could the fire be meteorites that have not burned completely in entering the earth’s atmosphere?  This would provide the fire element and the glow from the red hot meteorites might reflect as red glistening in the hail.  When we see shooting stars, we are really seeing meteorites, space debris basically that enter the earth’s atmosphere.  There is rarely any reason for alarm.  The fact that we see the shooting star is an indication that what event the earth’s atmosphere is being burned up.  Yet, there are indications that over the years larger meteors have impacted the earth.

This End Times prophecy would not be the first time God did two things at once to achieve His will.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the order of the ten plagues of Egypt, which was the plague of a hailstorm?	Exodus 9:13
2	What crops were not destroyed by the hailstorm of question 1?  Bonus for why?	Exodus 9:31-32
3	In one battle during the time of Joshua, more of the enemy died from hailstones than from the sword.  What major miracle of God allowed this battle to occur, when God joined the battle in this special way?	Joshua 10:11
4	God finally “appears” before His servant Job.  In the midst of God’s questions, He asks Job if he has entered God’s storehouses of hail and what other frozen precipitation?	Job 38:22
5	Outside of Revelation, what is the only book of the Bible where hail and fire are mentioned together?	N/A
6	There is only one verse that mentions hail and burning sulfur.  In what event are these combined?	Ezekiel 38:22, in the Scriptures above
7	The prophecy of question 6 also mentions hail mixed with blood.  What is the only other time when the Bible prophesies hail mixed with blood?	Revelation 8:7
8	In thinking of things in order, there were ten plagues, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.  Which ordinal number contains hailstorms the most?	Exodus 9:13; Revelation 11:19; 16:21
9	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which has two hailstorms?	Revelation 8:7; 11:19
10	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which does not lead to a hailstorm?	Revelation 8:7; 11:19; 16:21

In the last hailstorm prophesied in the book of Revelation, it is prophesied that the hailstones could be as large as one hundred pounds.

When large hailstones have been discovered, they are many smaller hailstones that have been fused together as they bounce around in the storm.  But this large size means that the updraft is off the charts in intensity.  Clearly this shows God’s wrath in that He could create winds of this nature.  For it is the updraft rush of air that holds the hailstone in the sky long enough to grow in size.  The hailstone will sink, falling to the ground if it is too heavy for the wind to keep it suspended.

The hailstone, updraft charts do not go up to Apocalyptic conditions.  The largest hailstone ever found was found in South Dakota, USA.  This stone was roughly two pounds.  What this prophecy is saying is that in the final judgment of God, He will send down hail that is 50 times larger than anything we have ever seen, and the updraft to keep that 2 pound hailstone in the air was over 100 miles per hour.

I say this in that God is going to do things in the End Times that we have never seen up until this point.  It is not a matter of whether this is figurative or literal, we need to have our lives straight between us and God.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the order of the ten plagues of Egypt, which was the plague of a hailstorm?	Exodus 9:13	Seventh
2	What crops were not destroyed by the hailstorm of question 1?  Bonus for why?	Exodus 9:31-32	The wheat and spelt.  They are later crops than the barley and flax.  The hail destroyed the barley, which was ripe, the flax which was budding.  Otherwise, the locusts would have had little to eat.
3	In one battle during the time of Joshua, more of the enemy died from hailstones than from the sword.  What major miracle of God allowed this battle to occur, when God joined the battle in this special way?	Joshua 10:11	When the sun stopped in the middle of the sky, allowing Joshua’s army to destroy their enemy.
4	God finally “appears” before His servant Job.  In the midst of God’s questions, He asks Job if he has entered God’s storehouses of hail and what other frozen precipitation?	Job 38:22	snow
5	Outside of Revelation, what is the only book of the Bible where hail and fire are mentioned together?	N/A	Isaiah 30:30.  This is a part of God’s wrath against Assyria.  The only other mention is in the blowing of the first trumpet in Rev. 8
6	There is only one verse that mentions hail and burning sulfur.  In what event are these combined?	Ezekiel 38:22, in the Scriptures above	In the End Times, when Gog of Magog attacks Israel.  The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah mentions burning sulfur and fire, but no mention of hail.  Could it be that the plague of hail in Exodus was the first time hail had ever rained down, adding to the terror?
7	The prophecy of question 6 also mentions hail mixed with blood.  What is the only other time when the Bible prophesies hail mixed with blood?	Revelation 8:7	The first angel will blow his trumpet.  Hail and fire, mixed with blood will rain down on the earth.
8	In thinking of things in order, there were ten plagues, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls.  Which ordinal number contains hailstorms the most?	Exodus 9:13; Revelation 11:19; 16:21	Among these series of disasters (punishments), the ordinal number SEVENTH stands out.  The seventh plague of Egypt, the seventh trumpet, and the seventh bowl of God’s wrath.
9	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which has two hailstorms?	Revelation 8:7; 11:19	The first and seventh trumpet.
10	Between seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation, which does not lead to a hailstorm?	Revelation 8:7; 11:19; 16:21	There is no talk of hail when any of the SEALS are opened, but twice during the trumpets.

Before starting the music videos, the eighth question above speaks of hail being in God’s seventh plague of Egypt (only locusts, darkness, and the death angel (Passover) would follow), and then in the last trumpet sounding, and the last bowl of God’s wrath.  It seems that God uses hail in His indication that He is done playing around.  Hail, especially hail of the size we see in Revelation, is a game changer.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Jeremy Riddle singing All Hail King Jesus.  This video is over eight minutes.  If you were expecting hailstorms, there are not many Christian songs about “Singing in the Hail” out there.  Thinking of singing in the hail.  Do not do that at home, or you might discover a different interpretation of hail with blood. …Yours.

Here is Keith and Kristyn Getty singing All Hail the Power of Jesus Name.  I never knew that this great hymn was really an Irish jig in disguise.  I doubt if they would ever do that arrangement in a Presbyterian church.  Maybe, but that particular church would have gone out on a limb.  But I would love to see and hear it.

Here is the congregation of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London singing Hail Thou once Despised Jesus.

Here is the Gracias Choir, with the Gracias Orchestra accompanying, singing Hail to the Brightness of Zion’s Glad Morning.  I think the soloist is Taejik Woo, but Eunsook Park is also mentioned.  Could that be the conductor?

Let’s all hail the power of Jesus’ Name.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.