(Isaiah 30:25) “In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.”
Introduction
Since very ancient times there have been earthquakes in various countries around the world where the buildings in the cities have collapsed bringing devastation and death to untold millions who were living normal lives and going about their daily activities, when suddenly and without warning, the very foundation of their existence was suddenly shattered as a violent earthquake ripped through the ground and toppled buildings. The aftermath of course was unimaginable to say the least unless you were actually in it and caught in its ferocity!
The following earthquakes were among the deadliest in history with the estimated death toll as follows. In 115AD in Antakya Turkey 260,000 were killed. In 525AD another earthquake also occurred again in Antakya Turkey which killed 250,000. In 856AD the earthquake in Damghan, Iran killed 200,000. In 1139AD in Gyzndzha, Azerbaijan the earthquake in that place killed 230,000. Then in 893AD in Dvin, Armenia that earthquake killed 150,000.
In more recent times in 1920 in Gansu, China 200,000 people were killed. Then in 1923 in Tokyo, Japan the earthquake killed 142,807. In 1976 in Tangshan, China 242,769 people died. In 2004 in Sumatra, Indonesia that earthquake killed 227,899 people. In 2010 the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti killed 316,000 people. Between the years 2011-2026 many earthquakes have occurred around the globe and are still occurring.
A birth pain
In Matthew chapter 24 when the Messiah our Lord Jesus spoke about the signs leading up His Second Coming He referred them to as the beginning of “birth pains” and one of the signs He mentioned was “earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7-8).
When you consider birth pains that a pregnant woman experiences before the birth of her baby is that at first they usually come spasmodically then increase in frequency and intensity, however, when they are coming one upon another you know that the arrival of the baby is imminent. So it is with the Second Coming of our Messiah the Lord Jesus. Earthquakes are going to be coming more frequent and intense as the Day of the LORD draws near when the judgements followed by the wrath of God will precede the Messiah’s Second Coming which is also part of the day of the LORD.
The Last Earthquake
The last earthquake will be like no earthquake before it or to be equalled again. God’s Word tells us this. The Second Coming of our Messiah the Lord Jesus will occur with the mother of all earthquakes preceding it. The psalmist wrote…
(Psalm 18:7-15) “The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because He was angry. Smoke rose from His nostrils; consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under His feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of His presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot His arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning He routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at Your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from Your nostrils.”
Clearly this passage of scripture describes an earthquake that will shatter all of God’s enemies arrayed against Him. From its prophetic perspective it describes the Day of the LORD leading up to and including the Second Coming of Messiah. Even though in Matthew 24:30 we are not told specifically what “the sign” will be, however, when we look at other texts, what we are reading in Psalm 18 may well describe “the sign” mentioned in Matthew Chapter 24. “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).
The prophet Daniel saw the same “sign” as we read; “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
The title “The Son of Man” refers to the Lord Jesus’ full humanity in that He is fully human as well as fully God. In God’s Word when we see Him referred to as “the Son of Man” it is the Messiah in His humanity. When we see Him referred to as “the Son of God”, it is the Messiah in His divinity.
In Psalm 18 notice how the day of the LORD is described. You have the earth trembling and quaking. It is not a local earthquake but one of global proportions when everything and every institution of man that God has not established will be shaken.
As the prophet Haggai writes; “For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations, and they will come with all their treasures, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts” (Haggai 2:6-7). The author of Hebrews also writes; “At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.” The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain” (Hebrews 12:26-27).
All of these references of the final earthquake prophetically telescope to the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Every level of society will be shaken. The religious world will be shaken, the domestic world will be shaken, and the business world will be shaken and the whole earth will be laid bare, before the fiery penetrating eyes of the Rider on the White Horse, the Messiah Himself in His radiant brilliance, glory and divine power (Isaiah 24:1-3).
With bolts of lightening
As we also read in the prophet Habakkuk; “His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled his power. Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed at His heels. He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways” (Habakkuk 3:4-6).
The Messiah’s Second Coming will be as bolts or rays of lightning coming out from His hand and seen around the world. Every one will see His Second Coming. It will not be secret or hidden. As we read in Revelation; “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen” (Revelation 1:7). With every eye means all who are still alive on earth that day. As He Himself said; “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).
Turning again to Psalm 18 we see the fiery power of His holiness, His righteousness and His justice displayed in His anger at all sin and rebellion as He parts the heavens and descends to earth accompanied and carried by the cherubim, the flaming angels, and He soars as it were on the wings of God the Father’s mighty wind sweeping away all resistance.
You also have mentioned the dark rain clouds of the sky, that hailstorm also mentioned in other Bible texts. The brightness of His presence is sent forth with those hailstones and bolts of lightning with God’s voice thundering from heaven as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah also roars in His righteous anger at the rebellious nations. As the prophet Joel writes; “”The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble” (Joel 3:16). Indeed as it is also written; “The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed” (Revelation 5:5).
Further in Psalm 18 we also read where the Messiah shoots arrows of penetrating discernment and awesome power that scatters His enemies. These “arrows” are His great bolts of lightning that routs His enemies. Everything in the sea and on earth will be laid bare at His rebuke likened to fiery blasts from His nostrils. It will be His day of reckoning and recompense upon a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting rebellious world that hates Jews and Christians and has sought to destroy Israel as a nation.
Who is able to stand?
(Revelation 6: 12-14) “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
On the day when the Messiah returns those who do not belong to Him will not escape. The constellations will be affected. The sky will be rolled back like a scroll revealing the Son of God descending to earth revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Every lofty mountain or kingdom of this world and even islands will all be affected see also (2 Peter 3:10-13). The unsaved millions will seek to hide wherever they can but it will be futile.
Corrupt and dishonest politicians, Presidents and Prime Ministers, tyrannical kings, despotic leaders of nations, corrupt governments, militant regimes that have persecuted and killed Jews and Christians, banking and corporate wheelers and dealers in the business world, and people from every walk of society will be faced with the wrath of God from which there will be no reprieve! They will all be seeking to hide from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
We associate a lamb with a rather frail animal which is easily frightened and prone to wander. However, have you ever seen an angry lamb? Of course the Lamb of God refers to the Messiah our Lord Jesus, who by His shed blood has atoned for sin, one who is no weak and gentle man, but one clothed with awesome divine power and glory and one before whom men tremble and seek to hide their faces from Him, whose eyes of deep discernment accompanied by the lightning bolts coming out of His hand, penetrate the depths of the heart, the mind and the consciences of men!
Everything not established by God will be shaken
Indeed this earthquake will absolutely shake the whole heavens and earth. All work and activity of man on earth will cease on that day when the name of the Messiah our Lord Jesus is heralded to the nations, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
As the LORD also speaks through the prophet Isaiah; “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 in the day of His fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:13). The context of this verse is the Second Coming of Messiah which is the final consummation of the Day of the LORD (Vss. 9-12). And again Isaiah proclaims; “The LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire” (Isaiah 29:6).
The prophet Nahum also writes; “The mountains quake before Him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at His presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before Him” (Nahum 1:5-6). This one and the same earthquake is mentioned in two other passages of scripture.
(Revelation 11:13) “At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
The context of this earthquake mentioned in Revelation chapter 11 is directly connected to the Second Coming of the Messiah (Vss.14-19). It is also mentioned again in verse 19 as seen coming out of God’s temple in heaven. The city may well represent the unsaved world and the seven thousand killed a portion of the unsaved killed. This part is not easy to understand, however, we also need to look at the other passage also in Revelation.
(Revelation 16:18-20) “Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of His wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.”
Here we are told that this is the earthquake that destroys the empire of Antichrist and all the nations in rebellion against God. It would have to be part of that time spoken of by the Messiah our Lord Jesus when He said; “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matthew 24:21-22) See also (Daniel 12:1).
Babylon in scripture prophetically refers to the last World Empire of the Antichrist which John tells us will be split into three parts as the cities of the nations associated with this empire also collapse due to this severity of the earthquake. It is the cup filled with the wine of the wrath of God poured out without restraint upon the unsaved inhabitants of the world.
The fact that the text also mentions “where every island fled away and the mountains could not be found” refers to the kingdoms that men had set up in defiance of God. The nature and characteristics of Babylon the Great has its roots in the Babylon of Nimrod, the first major type of the Antichrist in scripture who sought to establish a kingdom opposed to God. He was a rebel “in the face of God” (Genesis 10:9 Hebrew rendering). He was an arch rebel!
See the four part study on this website “Fallen, Fallen is Babylon”
Can you imagine the great skyscrapers in cities around the world collapsing? Hollywood’s long list of disaster movies will pale into insignificance compared to the devastation and wholesale destruction that will rock entire cities on a global scale. It will be the day of slaughter when the towers fall! After this catastrophe the Messiah will inaugurate His Millennial Kingdom, and in that day from every high mountain and every raised hill or kingdom that He will establish, streams of living water will flow. The regeneration of the earth will commence and Eden’s state restored (Isaiah 65:47-25).
The Epicentre
Now the epicentre of this earthquake will occur in Israel because the Messiah’s feet will once again touch the Mount of Olives at Jerusalem. The prophet Zechariah foretells this event. He prophesies…
(Zechariah 14:1-5) “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.”
Israel as a nation as yet is to enter the darkest hour in their entire history where it looks like they will cease to be a nation. Jerusalem will be invaded and occupied, the city ransacked and the women raped and another partial exile taking place, something I do not like to even contemplate or have to mention. I love Israel and the Jewish people and believe in their full and complete national and spiritual restoration at the end of this present age after the Messiah has returned to rescue the surviving remnant, having destroyed all opposition and inaugurated His Messianic rule from Jerusalem.
God has not abandoned His covenant people! The New Covenant was made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah and not with a gentile church (Jeremiah 31:31). Gentile, New Covenants believers are spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel and partake of the blessings given to Abraham’s descendants the people of Israel, the Jewish nation, or as scripture calls them the Israelites! (See the teaching articles related to Israel on this matter in the menu of this website).
The prophet Zechariah also writes about this terrible time to come for Israel and I might add for the gentile nations. “It will come about in all the land (Israel),” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’” (Zechariah 13:8-9).
Jeremiah also spoke about this terrible time that is coming for Israel but also speaks of their deliverance as a nation (Jeremiah 30:1-10). Having said these things we also read that after these terrible things happen to the Jewish people in Israel that the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. Woe betides to all who do not support Israel on that day when the Messiah takes the fight to Israel’s enemies! We are also told that Judah will also fight at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:14).
The refuge for the righteous
Today there is a fault line at the centre of the Mount of Olives that runs from east to the west. When the Messiah returns to the Mount of Olives on the east side the Mount shall be split from east to west by a very wide valley as half of the mountain moves northward and the other half southward. Through this valley the faithful surviving remnant of Jews living in Jerusalem will have a way of escape being also a place of shelter, much the same as the Israelites had at the Red Sea in the time of Moses. They will not be harmed by the earthquake any more than the Israelites fleeing from Pharaoh were harmed as they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground.
It is written, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10). In that day the surviving remnant who have embraced the Messiah (Zechariah 12:10-13:1), will be gathered to Him for safety and protection just as a mother hen gathers her chicks under its wings.
That valley will run from the west to the eastern gate of the city which at present is bricked up. The earthquake will shatter those bricks to pieces opening that eastern gate so that the Messiah can enter into the city as Israel’s Lord and saviour and rightful King. Ezekiel the prophet saw this in a vision.
He prophesies; “Then he (the one that looked like a man) brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east. And it was shut. And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way” (Ezekiel 44:1-3).
In His first coming the Messiah our Lord Jesus came in the character traits of Joseph the Suffering Servant. In His Second Coming He will come in the character traits of David the Warrior King, having destroyed the Antichrist and all of Israel’s enemies by the splendour of His Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9; 2:8) (Ezekiel 38:19-39:1-6) (Joel 2:18-20;3:1-3,12-16) (Revelation 14:17-20) (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Revelation 19:11-21).
Epilogue
(Isaiah 26:20-21) “Go, My people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.”
We know from the Word of God that this final totally devastating earthquake will occur just before the return of the Messiah and transitioning into God’s wrath upon a rebellious world that has rejected the salvation only found in the Messiah our Lord Jesus and in no one else (John 14:6) (Acts 4:12). In the Book of Revelation we see the tribulation period encompassing the six seals and the faithful Body of Messiah still on earth suffering persecution on a global scale.
Then, between the sixth and the seventh seal, we see two people groups that are one body in Messiah, having been redeemed by the Messiah’s atoning blood. You have a Jewish and a gentile remnant mentioned together (Revelation Chapter seven). Both are in the tribulation and in verse 14 we have a multitude that are seen coming out of great tribulation primarily I think through martyrdom (Revelation 7:9-17) (Revelation 13:5-8; 20:4) (Daniel 7:21,25).
This remnant is further seen in Revelation 14:1-5 and these are the 144,000 we see in Revelation Chapter seven and the description of them aligns with all New Covenant believers described in the New Testament. Israel and the church are like two sides of the same coin, distinguishable from each other yet one. Gentile New Covenant believers are spiritually grafted into Israel and together they are the Israel of God. Both groups have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14-17) (Revelation 14:3).
See the study on this website titled “Who Are the Israel of God?”
It would seem that those seen coming out of tribulation (in the Greek text rendered in the present continuous sense), actually speaks about the rapture and resurrection occurring between the sixth and the seventh seal? As the text is rendered in the present continuous sense it can also apply to all of the redeemed of all the ages who have come out of tribulation either through natural death or by martyrdom.
For the most part of the history of the Body of Messiah persecution and martyrdom has been their lot in this world as the Lord Jesus and the apostles spoke and wrote about.
When you consider western Christendom since the great revivals of the 17th to the early 20th centuries the Body of Messiah in the west, for the most part, has been free from persecution, a historical phenomenon. However, this is going to radically change before the Messiah our Lord Jesus returns (Revelation 13:5-18).
The persecution will only cease when the Messiah returns to judge the Antichrist, His empire, all who have rejected salvation and to save Israel and rapture and resurrect the Body of Messiah (Matthew 24:29-31) (Daniel 7:20-22,24-27). Notice that Daniel tells us the saints inherit the kingdom after the tribulation which refutes the Kingdom Dominion, Kingdom Now doctrine being perpetrated widely within the wider Body of Messiah.
See the seven part study series on this website titled; “The Seven Seals of the Lamb”
As New Covenant Bible believers we will suffer tribulation in this world. The Messiah our Lord Jesus and the apsotles told us this would be so (Luke 21: 12-19) (John 15:18-21) (John 16:33) (Acts 14:22) (1 Peter 4:12-13). Today around the world approximately 388 million Christians worldwide are suffering persecution as of 2026. This figure represents an increase of 8 million from 2025.
While we are called to experience tribulation in this world, we are not destined to experience God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). While His wrath is being poured out we will be spared and protected from it. During the transition from the time of tribulation into the time of wrath we will be snatched away to meet the Messiah in the air as He descends to earth immediately after this time of tribulation when that last trumpet is sounded and the bowls of God’s wrath poured out (Matthew 24:29-31) (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) (Revelation 11:15).
Our text in Isaiah 26:20-21 has a prophetic application to God’s elect remnant both Jewish and Gentile New Covenant believers that they will be protected from the wrath of God. At present God’s judgements are in the earth to bring men and women to repentance and to a saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus. As we read; “For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).
There is a difference between judgement and wrath. God’s judgements allows for repentance unto eternal life because the LORD is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with men and women, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), whereas with His wrath there is no reprieve.
See the study on this website titled “Destined for Tribulation but not for Wrath.”
The day will come when after the day of great slaughter has occurred, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. After the final earthquake, which will have seen city skyscrapers collapse and the wrath of God completed, the earth will start to experience the regeneration after the Messiah has returned to establish the Millennial Messianic Kingdom with Jerusalem as the capital of the whole world. Israel will come into their full inheritance nationally and spiritually. The resurrected glorified Body of Messiah along with the remnant of Israel will co-reign on earth with the Messiah (Revelation 5:10) (Revelation 20:4) (2 Timothy 2:12).
In that day we are told in God’s Word; “And it will come about in the last days That the mountain (kingdom) of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains (kingdoms). It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For from Zion will go forth the law (Torah), Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:1-2).
And again it is written in the prophet Habakkuk; “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14) Selah.
