The waters saw You, O God; The
waters saw You, they were afraid; The depths also trembled. The
clouds poured out water; The skies sent out a sound; Your arrows also
flashed about. The voice of Your thunder [was] in the whirlwind; The
lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. Your way
[was] in the sea, Your path in the great waters, And Your footsteps
were not known. You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses
and Aaron.
Psalm 77:16-20 NKJV
Now this may sound strange to some but
I am the sort of person who really enjoys a good thunderstorm. There
is nothing I like more than sitting outside on my porch and watching
nature get a little crazy now and then. As my daughters grew up I
tried my best to teach them to share my enthusiasm for watching as a
means to deal with their natural fear of such an extreme event of
nature. It appears that I succeeded with two of the three, sort of,
but my middle daughter remains deathly afraid of them even as an
adult.
She lives in another state now and
works at a Christian bookstore and shares my interest in being a
watcher, and often calls with questions about books she comes across
or current events. So when my phone rang early this past week and I
saw it was her I expected the conversation would be much like it
always is. Wrong. The area she lives in was experiencing a
thunderstorm so violent that the radio was warning people to stay
inside. Now although being in that situation would have pleased me
to no end, my daughter unfortunately was scared to the point of being
physically ill.
So I spent the next hour talking to her
on the phone and doing my best to crack jokes and take her mind off
of what was happening. We also talked a little about thunder in the
Bible, and how it is most often used in relation to God and either
His voice or physical presense. Then we moved on to discuss the
earthquake and volcanic activity in the world the past few weeks and
the fact that seismologists are actually at a loss to explain why so
much is happening all at once. After the storm passed and she hung
up to make dinner, I began to think of what we had talked about and
just out of curiosity started to study all the passages I could find
in the Bible that talk about thunder and lightning.
In this passage from the book of
Psalms, the author is troubled and in despair so he thinks back to
the past and the times that God manifested Himself in human history
by actions man could only describe as supernatural. The verses above
refer to the time that God led the children of Israel out of the land
of Egypt and through the Red Sea on their journey to the promised
land. Now I think the important point to make here is that although
Moses and Aaron were used by God to shepherd His people, it was God
Himself who led them.
And the LORD went before them by
day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a
pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took
not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by
night, [from] before the people.
Exodus 13:21-22 NKJV
Now why do I think this is important?
Look closely at the passage from Psalms and notice what the author
says the reaction of the earth was to the presense of God. Do you
see what I see? We are told the waters were afraid, the depths
trembled, there was a downpour of rain, thunder along with lightning
that lit up the entire world, and not to mention earthquakes that
shook the earth. Yet to me, the most important part of this passage
is the fact that it does not say God “caused” these things to
happen, rather it was a response of the earth to actually “seeing”
the presense of God.
Now right about now some of you are
probably thinking wait just a minute here, do you really believe the
earth can “see”? Well, why not? Not only do these verses say it
does, we are told elsewhere that the earth can talk too.
Then, as He was now drawing near
the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the
disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all
the mighty works they had seen, saying: " 'Blessed [is] the King
who comes in the name of the LORD!' Peace in heaven and glory in the
highest!" And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the
crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered
and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent,
the stones would immediately cry out."
Luke 19:37-40 NKJV
So if we are to believe what the Bible tells us, the earth has and
can react to the presense of God in physical ways, some of which
might surprise us. Is that really so hard to believe? After all,
the earth was created by God just as we were created, so who knows
what physical reaction could be produced by the approach of the power
which created it? Which brings me to my point in bringing all this
up.
Most of us would agree the Bible clearly teaches that there will be
signs that precede the return of Christ, many of which are physical
in nature. Events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and
tsunamis can explain many of the events described as occurring just
before Christ returns. Many of these things are beginning to happen
right now in various places in the world, and most of those who are
watching and waiting for His appearing believe the time is very
close. Jesus Himself said this about the signs that would appear
just before His return.
"So you also, when you see
these things happening, know that it is near--at the doors!
Mark 13:29 NKJV
So here is my question for today; does God cause these things to
happen, or just like the events in Exodus when God comes to earth to
lead His people away, is the earth reacting to the approach of God
once again? Is it possible that the increase in frequency and
intensity of physical events is because the nearness of Jesus
returning for His church is causing a physical reaction by the earth?
"Then the earth shook and
trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because
He was angry.
2 Samuel 22:8 NKJV
Is the earth afraid?
Keep watching.
