Earthquakes in the Lord's Day -The Great Earthquake

 Yes, these critical last days have a time of earthquakes-literal and figurative. (2 Timothy 3:1)  But not one of these quakings is the final great shaking  that John sees at the opening of the sixth seal.  The time for advance tremors is ended.  There come a great earthquake that is totally new to human experience. It is so great an earthquake that the upheavals and convulsions it causes cannot be measured by the Richter scale or by other human gauge.  This is no mere local shock but a cataclysmic shaking that devastates the entire "earth," that is, all depraved human society.

Others of Jehovah's prophets foretld such an earthquake and its catasphrophic  consequences.  For example, about 820 B.C.E., Joel spoke of "the coming of the great and fear-inspiring day of Jehovah," stating that then "the sun itself will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood."  Later, he adds these words: "Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decsion, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision.  Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actuallyd withdraw their brightness.  And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice.  And heavenb and earth will certainly rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people, and fortress for the sons of Israel." (Joel 2:31; 3:14-16) This rocking might apply only to Jehovah's execution of judgment during the great tribulation.  (Matthew24:21)  So the parallel account at Revelaton 6:12, 13 would logically have the same application. - See also JEREMIAH 10:10; Zephaniah 1:14, 15.

Some 20 years after Joel, the prophet Habakkuk said in prayer to his God:  "O Jehovah, I have heard the report about you.  I have become afraid, O Jehovah, of your activity.  In the midst of the years O bring to life! In the midst of the years you have made it known.  During the agitation, to show mercy my you remember ."  What would that "agitation" be?  Habakkuk goes on to give a graphic description of the great tribulation, saying of Jehovah:  "He stood still, that he might shake up the earth. He saw, and then caused nations to leap. . . .  With denunication you went marching through the earth.  In anger you went thrashing the nations. Yet, as for me, I will exult in Jehovah himself; I will be joyful in the God of my salvation." (Habbakuk 3:1, 2, 6, 12, 18) What a mighty shaking  Jehovah will cause in all the earthwhen he threshes the nations!

Ezkiel too foretold that when God of Magog (the debased Satanb) makes his final attack upon God's people, Jehovah will cause "a great quaking" to occur "in the soil of Israel." (Ezekiel 38:18, 19)  Though literal earthquakes may be involved, we should remember that Revelation is presented in signs. This prophecy and the other prophecies  cited  are highly symbolic.  Hence, the opening of the sixth seal appears to disclose the culmination  of all shakings of this earthly system of things-the great earthquake in which all humans opposed to Jehovah God's sovereignthy are destroyed.  

Next time: Earthquakes in the Lord's Day - A Time of Darkness

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