Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
Together with the preceding verse, the verse portrays God bowing the heavens and coming down in power and in wrath, touching the mountains so that they smoke. The lightning cast forth and the arrows shot out are His weapons, by which He scatters and destroys His enemies, the wicked. They are also shown as His weapon of judgment in the day of the Lord just before Christ's coming. Storms and upheavals of nature are thus manifestations of His power and instruments of His judgment, making peoples and nations tremble before Him and silencing proud defiance.
The verse prophesies wonders on earth shortly before Christ's coming, in the day of the Lord and at the second advent, for the final destruction of the sinful race. At that coming there will be witnessed more terrible manifestations than the world has ever yet beheld. Lightning from heaven unites with water and fire concealed and reserved in the bowels of the earth, causing the mountains to burn like a furnace and pour forth streams of lava. This is in continuity with His use of earthly water and fire to destroy wicked cities since the flood.
At His presence with indignation and fierce anger the heavens are bowed, the mountains quake and melt, and the earth is burned. Mountains burning like a furnace pour forth terrific streams of lava overwhelming gardens and fields, villages and cities, seething molten masses thrown into rivers cause the waters to boil and hurl massive rocks with indescribable violence, rivers are dried up, and the earth is convulsed everywhere with dreadful earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and widespread destruction until the wicked are destroyed. Amid these judgments the saints will be preserved, as Noah was preserved in the flood.
Together with the preceding verse, the verse portrays God bowing the heavens and coming down in power and in wrath, touching the mountains so that they smoke. The lightning cast forth and the arrows shot out are His weapons, by which He scatters and destroys His enemies, the wicked. They are also shown as His weapon of judgment in the day of the Lord just before Christ's coming. Storms and upheavals of nature are thus manifestations of His power and instruments of His judgment, making peoples and nations tremble before Him and silencing proud defiance.
The verse prophesies wonders on earth shortly before Christ's coming, in the day of the Lord and at the second advent, for the final destruction of the sinful race. At that coming there will be witnessed more terrible manifestations than the world has ever yet beheld. Lightning from heaven unites with water and fire concealed and reserved in the bowels of the earth, causing the mountains to burn like a furnace and pour forth streams of lava. This is in continuity with His use of earthly water and fire to destroy wicked cities since the flood.
At His presence with indignation and fierce anger the heavens are bowed, the mountains quake and melt, and the earth is burned. Mountains burning like a furnace pour forth terrific streams of lava overwhelming gardens and fields, villages and cities, seething molten masses thrown into rivers cause the waters to boil and hurl massive rocks with indescribable violence, rivers are dried up, and the earth is convulsed everywhere with dreadful earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and widespread destruction until the wicked are destroyed. Amid these judgments the saints will be preserved, as Noah was preserved in the flood.