Tall buildings swayed slightly in Geneva, slight tremors were felt in Lausanne. Sensing the sudden instability of the solid earth, people felt a clutch of apprehension in Yugoslavia. It was in northern Italy that several hundreds of people went to bed in their homes for the last time, dying under debris as the earth shifted and buildings fell, while others waited in pain to be released.
For some, exposure to that earthquake in Italy was simply a matter of an interrupted radio program: for a moment the news of tragedy took the place of music. The listener heard about villages unknown to him. Persons who so short a time before had been full of the joy, sorrow, excitement, boredom, weariness, fear, and hope of human life became just a number. “The death toll has risen to 240. More bodies are expected to be found as the search continues.” The news voice fades out. There is music again.
Mountains and rocks, earth and trees, seas and shores—such comfortingly stable surroundings, day in, day out! We walk along our usual paths and find familiar landmarks a reassuring continuity in life. I wonder how often Elijah had stood on “the mount” to think, to pray. When the word of the Lord came to tell him to stand upon that mountain, it must have been a familiar place.
But what a terrifying and awesome sight it must have been to stand there alone and feel and see the great, strong wind, which would have moaned and whistled with terrific force. Elijah must have felt he was going to be blown over as this wind split the mountains and broke rocks as if gigantic sledgehammers were tearing them apart. After this wind Elijah felt the earth shift and move, because he stood there through an earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire swept through the area.
Whatever else was happening, Elijah was seeing the power of the living God in the elements. He had been complaining that he was the only one left in the world who worshiped God, and God was about to speak to him and tell him that there were seven thousand who had not bowed to the false god Baal but were faithful to the true and living God.
We are told that the Lord spoke, not in the wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire, but in a still, small voice after Elijah had observed these things. However, as I read and heard about the earthquake in Guatemala and the earthquake in northern Italy, my imagination brought Elijah to mind as a picture of a man alone being given a demonstration of the power of God in the earth he had created. O Elijah, I thought, you were being shown that you were not alone. You had the living God, who was able to command wind and fire and earthquake.
Elijah learned that not only he but seven thousand others worshiped this powerful God. Furthermore, he was to be given Elisha, who would be his assistant, his apprentice, and would one day follow in his footsteps. There was to be an unbroken line of God’s children down through the ages.
Other earthquakes in the Old Testament brought destruction. And earthquakes are prophesied as coming “in the time of the end.”
The news of an earthquake should cause a shaking of minds and hearts. It should cause people to consider what is stable, has continuity, changes not. If the mountains can fall apart, if men’s buildings can crumble like a child’s blocks and solid earth turn into a canyon, what is lasting? What is stable?
People want authority when things fall apart. They want something to hold on to when the familiar things disintegrate. Nations look for leadership not only after a physical disaster but also when yawning caverns open up in the solid ground of public behavior. “Who will lead us? Where can we find authority?” Even while these longings are stirring, those who could preach with authority are giving up the very source of authority, and allowing the ground upon which they stand to be split, not by God but by other human beings.
“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from thedoor, and sat upon it.… and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here for he is risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:1–6). This earthquake preceded the bursting forth of the risen Jesus from the tomb. It announced in a graphic way that the “still, small voice” of God had not been silenced by death on the cross but would speak to many “Elijahs” who would be following one another as his children, his people. All who would die from that time onward too had their resurrection “announced” or “preceded” by this earthquake.
I like to think that the rumble of the earth announced this fantastic event, although Jesus himself was to speak quietly to people one by one, and then to small and larger groups, of all that had taken place. Elijah was not the last one to stand in the midst of unbelieving people. Nor are any of us today the last. The God who is able to shake the earth will do it again.
And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed” (Acts 16:25, 26). Here an earthquake shook the prison so that the men of God were released to do more preaching and teaching outside the prison, as well as to lead the prison guard and his family to a knowledge of God and of how to be saved. The earthquake that released Paul and Silas also shook up the guard so that he was ready to listen to the “voice of God” through Paul and Silas. He and his family were released in a permanent way—from bondage to Satan and sin into the freedom of salvation and light! This was a special earthquake indeed, one that made a difference in the eternal history of individual people at that time and has been the means of convincing many others of the truth of the God who sent that earthquake.
We are told in Matthew that earthquakes are among the occurrences that will signify the end days, and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should remember that as we hear about earthquakes, which seem to be increasing. However, we should pray for the “release” of many, many people, before Christ returns, release from the variety of bondages and prisons into which Satan thrusts people in this moment of history.
May we earnestly and seriously pray for that with which God comforts us in Haggai 2:5, 6: “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land: and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”
EDITH SCHAEFFER
