(Matthew 24:7) “There will be… earthquakes in various places” (Revelation 6: 12) “I watched as He opened the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake.”
According to a report in israelAM online this week it stated; “On Tuesday two small earthquakes were felt in northern Israel within a few hours of each other. Geologists are now warning that a major earthquake could hit Israel in the near future, since Israel is situation along the Great Rift Valley, a particularly active fault line. Major earthquakes in the area happen on average once every 80 years, and the last occurred over a century ago. Geological experts warn that close to a million buildings in Israel are in danger of collapsing if such a devastating tremor does hit, potentially causing countless casualties and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless across the country.”
Earthquakes are mentioned numerous times in the Bible and one of the “birth pains” the Lord Jesus mentioned in His discourse on the signs occurring in the last days in Matthew Chapter 24. Before the big one comes there are usually smaller intermittent earthquakes that can indicate a final one to come which could even go off of the Richter scale as it were with its intensity, destructive and devastating power. We are told in the prophet Isaiah that “Suddenly, in an instant the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames and a devouring fire against the nations that attack Israel in the Last days (Isaiah 29:6-8).
We are also told in the prophet Ezekiel that God in His zeal and fiery wrath will see Him declare an earthquake in the Land of Israel to devastate the armies of the Antichrist attacking Jerusalem and that the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves across the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at God’s presence. At that time the mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.
When this occurs God will summon a sword against the Antichrist, causing his armies to turn on one another. God will execute judgement upon the Antichrist and his armies with plague and bloodshed and pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulphur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. In doing this the Lord will show His greatness and His holiness and make Himself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that He is the Lord! (Ezekiel 29:18-23).
This great earthquake will occur just prior to the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. In the Book of Revelation this happens when the Lord Jesus opens the sixth seal. There will be a great earthquake that will see the sun become black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turning blood red and the stars in the sky falling to earth as meteorites. The sky will recede like a scroll rolling up and every mountain and island removed from its place.
At this time the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every servant and free man will hide themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; calling 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?” (Revelation 6:12-17). The sky will be rolled back like a scroll revealing the awesome splendour and grandeur of the very eternal throne room of God and the glorious might and power of the Lord Jesus as He descends to earth with His powerful angels!
Also at this time He will gather every New Covenant believer to Himself. As Matthew writes; “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 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. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other “(Matthew 24:19-31).
The prophet Zechariah also writes about the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus who will set his feet once again upon the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. At that time we will see this last great earthquake occurring in Israel that will split the Mount of Olives in two from east to west as His feet touch the ground. As this occurs the surviving remnant of Jewish believers in the half of Jerusalem who were not taken into exile will flee into the great valley of refuge and safety and there to be protected by the Messiah Himself who will bring about a devastating judgment upon Israel’s enemies that have defiled and desecrated Jerusalem!
And so the prophet Zechariah writes; “For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!” (Zechariah 14:2-5).
We are also told in the Book of Revelation that when the Lord Jesus comes back that after He has raptured and resurrected every New Covenant believer that this same earthquake will see a tenth of the cites of this world collapse in the earthquake killing seven thousand people and the survivors giving glory to God as they see His awesome devastating power beyond anything man could produce! (Revelation 11:11-13). This final great earthquake, unlike any that has occurred in past history, will spread across the globe and the kingdom of the Antichrist will be split into three parts and the cities of the nations will collapse.
God will give the ‘Babylon’ of this world with its empires arrayed against Him to drink of the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. Islands will no longer be isolated, mountains will be levelled and no longer found, From the sky huge hailstones of about 100 pounds each will fall upon men who will curse God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague will be so terrible (Revelation 16:17-21).
According to a report two days ago in the Times of Israel Online which was written back in December of 2020 part of that report stated; “A major earthquake, large enough to cause hundreds of fatalities, is expected to hit the country in the coming years, Tel Aviv University researchers warned Tuesday, unveiling the results of a study that bored deep into the bed of the Dead Sea. “In the coming years, it is likely that a devastating earthquake will hit, causing hundreds of deaths,” the university said in a statement about the findings. Researchers estimate the quake will have a 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, enough to destroy poorly built buildings, cause damage to stronger ones and be felt hundreds of kilometres away. The study found an earthquake of that scale occurs in Israel, on average, every 130-150 years, but said there have been occasions when the lull was just a few decades. “The geological record does not lie and a major earthquake in Israel will come,” said Professor Shmuel Marco, head of Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.”
The big one is yet to come and when it does God will most certainly grab the world’s attention! The collateral damage from this awesome earthquake will see untold numbers of people killed and devastated by this earthquake like nothing that has ever occurred in the past. Even many of the great skyscrapers in the cities around the world will collapse as a result of this earthquake of global proportions. Isaiah the prophet spoke about this when he wrote about “the day of great slaughter when the towers fall” (Isaiah 30:25b). We are going to see more earthquakes in Israel and these will increase in intensity and frequency and this will be the pattern in other nations. These earthquakes are all harbingers or foreshadows of the big one that is to come that will see the kingdoms of this world collapse at the return of the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
On that day when His feet stand once again on the Mount of Olives there will be no place to hide from His awesome power. Just like God parted the Red Sea through Moses so that the Israelites could be rescued out of the hand of the Egyptians, so when God splits the Mount of Olives in two through the power of the Lord Jesus the remnant of Jews remaining in half of the city of Jerusalem not taken into exile will escape into that valley and be rescued out of the hands of the Antichrist’s armies.
As the Messiah our Lord Jesus descends to stand on the Mount of Olives once again He will gather all of His faithful New Covenant believers to meet Him in the air at His Second coming. They will be protected from this great and final earthquake that will see the nations of the world collapse and usher in the Messiah as His kingdom smashes all other kingdoms arrayed against Him and then fills the whole earth (Daniel 2:32-35; 44-45).
If you have repented of all known sin, have been baptised, born again, justified by faith in the Messiah, washed by His blood from all unrighteousness and have received the Holy Spirit having been sealed by Him for the day of redemption, then you will never experience the wrath of God including the devastation of the great earthquake to come. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus the Messiah who rescues us from the coming wrath! (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18) (Romans 5:9) (1 John 1:7-9) (Acts 2:38-39) (Ephesians 4:30) (Revelation 7:3; 9:4) (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).
