March 13th, 2011
Int. The word “Earthquake” is found 16 times in the Bible. This week in Japan, we have witnessed one of the greatest earthquakes in history.
1. God has used “Earthquakes” to get our attention on numerous occasions in the Bible.
a. SIX BIG EARTHQUAKES THAT STRUCK CLOSE TO THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM
1. Twin 5.0 quakes in southern CA April 26 and 27, 1997
2. 6.8 quake in Assisi, Italy September 26, 1997
3. 5.3 quake Hollister, CA August 12, 1998
4. 5.1 quake near Queenstown, New Zealand April 24, 1999
5. 5.1 quake near Pune, Maha/rash/tra, India March 12, 2000
6. 8.8 quake in Chilie, Feb 27th, 2010
b. CONSIDER RECORDED EARTHQUAKES IN THE WORLD. One of the signs given to the inquiring disciples concerning their question of Jesus “What shall be the signs of thy coming and of the end of the age,” was the increasing prevalence of earthquakes, worldwide. It is interesting and significant to note in connection with this particular sign, its fulfillment, and the harp increase in earthquakes since the fourteenth century.
1. Fourteenth Century .…....………137
2. Fifteenth Century ……..…..…….174
3. Sixteenth Century ………………253
4. Seventeenth Century …………..378
5. Eighteenth Century …….………640
6. Nineteenth Century …………..2119
7. Twenteth Century.....................(
c. The Ten Largest Earthquakes Since 1900
Below is a list of the largest earthquakes on record in the world. Magnitude, date, and location are also given. Location Date Magnitude2
1. Chile May 22, 1960 9.5
2. Prince William Sound, Alaska March 28, 19643 9.2
3. Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands March 9, 1957 9.1
4. Kamchatka Nov. 4, 1952 9.0
5. Off western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia Dec. 26, 2004 9.0
6. Off the coast of Ecuador Jan. 31, 1906 8.8
7. Offshore Maule, Chile Feb. 27, 2010 8.8
8. Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands Feb. 4, 1965 8.7
9. Northern Sumatra, Indonesia March 28, 2005 8.7
10. India-China border Aug. 15, 1950 8.6
11. Mexico City, September 30th, 1985
12. Japan March 11th, 2011 (This week)
d. (Exo 19:18) "And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly."
e. We read five times in the Bible about “GREAT EARTHQUAKES”
1, (Mat 28:2) "And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it."
2. (Acts 16:26) "And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed."
3. (Rev 6:12) "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;"
4. (Rev 11:13) "And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven."
5. (Rev 16:18) "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great."
f. We read one time of “Great Earthquakes”
1. (Luke 21:11) "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."
g. We read of “Earthquakes” three times in the Bible.
1. (Mat 24:7) "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
2. (Mark 13:8) "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows."
3. (Luke 21:11) "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven."
2. (Isa 29:6) "Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire."\
3. One such earthquake is mentioned on two occasions.
a. (Amos 1:1) "The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake."
1. (2 Chr 26:3) "Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem."
2. (2 Chr 26:23) "So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead."
3. (Isa 6:1) "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."
b. (Zec 14:5) "And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee."
Ill. (Job12:8). “Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.”
4. The Lord used the earthquake of our text to get the attention of the Centurion and some others.
a. (Mat 27:54) "Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."
5. There was a “GREAT EARTHQUAKE” at the resurrection of our Lord.
a. (Mat 28:2) "And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it."
1. The earthquake trumpet: —By Bishop Hacket: “An earthquake was a royal trumpet to proclaim this victory, the greatest that ever was obtained against an enemy. The deep murmur and hollow sound which came from beneath the earth gave notice at one blast to heaven, and hell, and to all Judea, that the Son of God about that instant (as I do verily believe) did break the gates of brass, and smite the bars of death in sunder.”
b. This earthquake also help make liars out of the guards in (Mt 28:13).
c. (Mat 28:13) "Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept."
d. (Mat 28:15) "So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."
6. God used a great a great earthquake to shake the prison cell doors loose in (Acts 16)
a. (Acts 16:26) "And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed."
b. God does not always manifest himself “in the still small voice” (1 Kings19.).
c. Notice the effect of this earthquake: ““The keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep” (Acts 16: 27).
1. (Acts 16:30) “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
2. (Acts 16:34) "And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, (Gr.= leaped for joy) believing in God with all his house."
3. WORD PICTURES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: "Josephus (War VI. 299) tells of a quaking in the temple before the destruction and the Talmud tells of a quaking forty years before the destruction of the temple. Allen suggests that “a cleavage in the masonry of the porch, which rent the outer veil and left the Holy Place open to view, would account for the language of the Gospels, of Josephus, and of the Talmud.” This veil was a most elaborately woven fabric of seventy-two twisted plaits of twenty-four threads each and the veil was sixty feet long and thirty wide. The rending of the veil signified the removal of the separation between God and the people (Gould)."
7. There is a great earthquake that will yet come upon this earth that will bring men to their knees.
a. (Rev 6:12) "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;"
b. (Rev 6:15-16) "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; {16} And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:"
1. Imagine: Men crying for annihilation.
c. Pulpit Commentary: "MEN DREADING THE FACE OF CHRIST. “The face of him that sitteth on the throne.” Here are men preferring annihilation to a sight of that face. What is the matter with that face? It was, indeed, the human face Divine, the serenest, the loveliest, the kindliest face ever seen on earth. It was a face whose expression towards men was, “Come unto me,” etc.
What change has come over it now? Why are men afraid of it now? Their guilty consciences have made that face terrific. The sight of that face will call up such memories of their ingratitude, their folly, their impiety, as will make existence intolerable."
8. Earthquakes will point to the coming of our Lord from heaven.
a. (Mat 24:7) "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
b. Biblical Illustrator: "They that would not suffer heart-quake shall suffer earthquake. Or, as Bradford, the martyr, expresses it, they that trembled not in hearing shall be crushed to pieces in feeling."
c. The Jordan Valley itself is the result of earthquake activity, and the country has fault lines not unlike those around San Francisco, another earthquake-prone locality. Earthquakes were also part of Jewish belief about the end times
d. (Zec 14:4) "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."
e. (Acts 1:10-13) "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; {11} Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. {12} Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's (2 miles) journey. {13} And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James."
9. One of the signs given to the inquiring disciples concerning their question of Jesus “What shall be the signs of thy coming and of the end of the age,” was the increasing prevalence of earthquakes, worldwide. It is interesting and significant to note in connection with this particular sign, its fulfillment, and the harp increase in earthquakes since the fourteenth century.
a. (Joel 2:10) "The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:"
10. Newsweek, September 30, 1985: "During the first few moments there was remarkably little alarm. Earth tremors were common enough in Mexico City, the previous weekend most capital/i/nos had endured a moderate earthquake without bothering to leave their beds. But the upheaval that week was different: downtown buildings began to vibrate wildly, their walls and girders groaning from the stress. Metal lampposts swayed and bent like rubber in their sockets in the shuddering streets. Telephone and electrical wires snapped, windows shattered and huge chunks of concrete smashed murderously onto the pavement below. Underground gas lines ruptured in large areas of the city, some erupting in geyser-like flames.
Like thousands of other residents, Teresa Mendoza raced from her home in a panic. "It was absolutely dark from the dust and the smoke," she later recalled. "Everybody was crying -- men, women and children. They were saying it's the end of the world."
11. America’s worst Earthquake was April 18th, 1906 in San Francisco, California. Five hundred and three (503) perished from that quake.
a. In our part of the country, our T. V.’s predict rain or snow, hot or cold.
b. In California, they predict the next earthquake.
c. When Stuart Fuller was living in California; he said the rumbling of the earth came so very often that it seemed normal for them to see dishes falling or the dogs howling.
12. An 8 point 3 quake in India, sent residents scrambling for higher ground as a result of a Tsunami caused by the quake under the ocean.
13. The largest earthquake to hit the U.S. was on March 28, 1964, when a 9.2 magnitude quake struck Prince William Sound in Alaska.
14. The top 10 major quakes in the world since the first was recorded in 526 A.D.:
Date Location Deaths
Jan. 24, 1556 Shaanxi, China 830,000
Oct. 11, 1737 Calcutta, India 300,000
May 20, 526 Antioch, Syria 250,000
July 2, 1976 Tangshan, China 242,000
Sept 1, 1923 Yokohama, Japan 200,000
May 22, 1927 Nan-Shum, China 200,000
Dec. 30, 1730 Hokkaido, Japan 137,000
Dec. 16, 1920 Gansu, China 100,000
Sept. 27,1290 Chihli, China 100,000
Dec. 28, 1908 Messina, Italy 83,000
15. USA's Worst: April 18, 1906 San Francisco 503
CONCLUSION: Next time we have an earthquake close by; just remember God may just be using it to bring a word of warning to His people.
Pastor Earnie Lucas Friendship Batist Church Appomattox, VA
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