Media reports multiple world-wide disasters is causing many to ask questions.
Fear is even causing some to ask if it is Almighty God who is shaking his earth.
If it is God who is shaking, then we need to ask Why? Also What and When?
Why?
The answer to this question is both unpopular and most revealing. Let us examine the facts. Since God created this beautiful, unique planet, he has ‘shaken’ it several times and in different ways. What does Scripture tell us concerning the past and what does it tell us about the future?
At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 1226-29 (See also Hag 26,7,21) The reason for this final ‘shaking’ is clear. Almighty God is going to separate the righteous from the wicked and from all wickedness for ever. This has been his plan throughout history
The first ‘shaking’ comes at the very beginning when Adam and Eve fell to the devil’s subtle temptation to gain knowledge by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. ... The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 33 217 The ‘shaking’ came that same evening when God questioned them, listened to their feeble excuses and judged them. The Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Gen 323,24 They forfeited the paradise of Eden; Why? Simply because they chose to disobey God and ignored the warning he had given them.
Jealous Cain was ‘shaken’ because he ignored God’s warning and murdered his righteous brother Abel. So God cursed him, made him a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth ... and the Lord put a mark on Cain. Gen 412,15
The next ‘shaking’ came when The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 65 So bad was it that the only remedy was for God destroy his creation by a world-wide flood - saving some animals, righteous Noah and 7 of his family. This was to be a literal ‘shaking’. It didn’t only rain torrents for 40 days, but God shook the earth’s crust under which there were huge lakes of water. On that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth. Gen 711 In the USA today, in the Yellowstone Park (3,468 sq miles ), God has kept one area of land under which there remains a huge lake of water. This shows man how he had created the whole surface of the earth. When God shook the earth in Noah's day, all these subterranean lakes 'burst forth' and flooded the earth.
After the flood, proud man soon started to build the tower of Babel. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” Gen 114 God ‘shook’ their arrogance; he brought total confusion by making them all speak different languages, and thus they dispersed over all the earth.
God created man and animals male and female. But some men decided it was good to practice homosexuality. So the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. Gen 1924,25 Later God would be absolutely explicit in saying homosexuality is an abomination. Lev 1822 2013 And in the New Testament Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality ... 1 Co 69
Yet man today has again defied Almighty God by legalising this abomination. They reject God and ridicule his shaking of Sodom. Amazingly, they expect God will ignore their folly. The solemn warning revealed in Ro 118-31 confirms that the reason for God’s shaking is both just and is part of the journey to establishing his righteous and eternal kingdom; that what is unshakable may remain.
What? and When?
What or who God shakes is largely revealed in the section above on ‘Why’.
i.e.
| Adam and Eve | Exiled from Eden |
| Cain | Cain marked and became a fugitive |
| Noah’s day | World-wide flood |
| Sodom | Sodom, Gomorrah and inhabitants destroyed |
| Idol worshippers | Israel exiled in 722BC, Judah exiled in 586BC and 70AD |
Soon after Daniel was taken to Babylon in 605BC Nebuchadnezzar had a series of muddled dreams. God revealed to Daniel what they were and their meaning. Almighty God was going to ‘shake’ and destroy the statue that represented the next 4 great world empires - Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. Then he saw a rock cut out, but not by human hands that struck the statue ... and smashed them.... the rock became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. Dan 234,35 This rock is the righteous kingdom of God that Jesus opened to all who repent and believe that he died and rose again to redeem us.
Today we await the ‘Last Days’ when Jesus returns to earth and his kingdom becomes a huge mountain. Almighty God has said, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Heb 1226,27.
What is it that ‘cannot be shaken’? It is his promised eternal, righteous kingdom. And that which is shaken is the gross wickedness of the world that God will destroy in the judgement of the Great Tribulation.
Most leaders and men are deceived. They reject all God’s warnings, just as Jesus warned his disciples three times in Math 24. So finally Christ is about to break open the 7 seals, order the 7 warning trumpets to be sounded and when men still insist upon ignoring his warnings, he will pour out his 7 bowls of wrath. This is detailed in Rev 6 to 18. A book that is rarely read or understood because those who believe in God have been told he is a God of love. He is! But he is also a God of judgement and of ‘shaking’.
I will punish the world for its evil ... I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant ...
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the LORD of hosts. Is 1311,13
First he ‘shakes’ to persuade reluctant man to turn from his sin and honour his Creator, instead of insulting him. Most remain blind and deceived and are therefore punished. A few are awakened by God’s ‘shaking’ and cry to him for mercy. To them God reveals that Christ has borne all the just punishment for our sin and has given us new and eternal life.
Secondly justice demands that sin must punished. The wages of sin is death..
There is a simple answer to the question of when. Jesus says only the Father knows! But believers in Christ will know that God is being faithful to his Word. They will also know that the return is near when we see God’s ‘shaking’ and the One who made a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for our sins is very near.
Righteousness, truth and justice will then reign eternally ‘unshakeable’.
The redeemed will rejoice for ever.