Earthquakes in the Lord's Day - "Fall Over Us and Hide Us"

 John's words continue: "And the kings of the earth and the top-ranking ones and the military commanders and the rich and strong ones and every slave and every free person hid themselves in the caves and the rock-masses of the mountains.  And they keep saying to the mountains and rock masses: 'Fall over us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" - REVELATION 6:15-17. 

When Hosea was pronouncing Jehovah's judgment on Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, he said: "The high places of Bethaven, the sin of Israel, will actually be annihilaed.  Thorns and thistles themselves will come up upon their altars. And people  will in fact say to the mountains,  'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall over us!' (Hosea 10:8) How were those  words fulfilled? Well, when Samaria fell to the cruel Assyrians in 740 B.C.E., there was nowhere for the Israelites to run.  The words of Hosea express the feeling of helplessness, abject terror, and abandonment that the conquered people felt.  Neiter the hills nor the mountainlike institutions of Samaria could protect them, even though they had seemed so permanent in the past.

Similarlym when Jesus was being led to his death by the Roman soldiers, he addressed the women of Jerusalem  and said: "Days are coming in which people will say,  'Happy are the barren women, and the wombs that did not give birth and the breast that did not nurse!'  Then they will say to the mountains, 'Fall over us!' and the hills, 'Cover us over!'  (Luke 23:29, 30)   The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E. is well documented and it is evident that Jesus' words had an import similar to that of Hosea's .  There was no hiding place for the Jews who remained in Judea.  Wherever  they tried to hid in Jerusalem, or even when they fled to the mountaintop citadel of Masada, they were unable to escape the violent expression of Jehovah's judgment. 

Now the opening of the sixth seal has shown that something similar will happen durin the coming day of Jehovah's wrath. At the final shaking of this earthly system  things, those committed to supporting it will desperately seek for a hiding place. But they will not find one.  False religion, Babylon the Great, has already failed them miserable.  Neither caves in the literal mountains nor symbolic mountainlike  political and commercial organizations will provide financial security or any other kind of help. Nothing will shelter them from Jehovah's  wrath.  Their terror is well described by Jesus:  "Then the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in lamentation, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." - MATTHEW 24:30.

Yes, those who have refused to recognize ther authority of the victorious Rider of the white horse will be forced to admit their error.  Humans who have willingly been part of the second seed of the serpent will be faced with destruction when Satan's world passes away.  (Genesis 3:15; 1 John 2:17)  The world situation at that time will be such that many will, in effect  , ask: "Who is able to stand?"  They will apparently assume that no one at all can stand approved before Jehovah in that day of his judgment. But they will be wrong, as the book of Revelation goes to show. 

Next time: Sealing the Israel of God

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