John observed that “there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” The Lord’s arrival on Mount Sinai was accompanied by precisely such terrifying events (see also Isaiah 29:6). With these coals thrown upon the earth, the Lord arrives to execute his vengeance in answer to the prayers of the martyrs and indeed of “all the saints.”
5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.