Of all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on
sinners here in this world, the most dreadful and destructive is
an earthquake. This He has lately brought on our part of the earth, and
thereby alarmed our fears, and bid us to "prepare to meet our God!"
Earthquakes are the works of the Lord, and He alone
brings this destruction upon the earth. That God is Himself the Author of
earthquakes, and sin the moral cause of earthquakes, (whatever the
natural cause may be,) cannot be denied by any who believe the
Scriptures. Earthquakes are set forth by the inspired writers as God's proper
judicial act for the punishment of sin.
Job 9:5-6 ... Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
Psalm 104:32 ... He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
Psalm 18:7 ... Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
Nahum 1:5-6 ... The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
Sin is the cause of God's anger; earthquakes
the effect of His anger!
Isaiah 13:11-13 ... And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Isaiah 24:1, 19 ... Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. / The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isaiah 29:6 ... Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
Nothing can be more express than these Scripture testimonies,
which determine both the cause and author of this terrible
calamity. We cannot conceive that the universe would have been disturbed by
these furious disasters, before sin entered. Therefore
reason, as well as Scripture, sufficiently assure us that earthquakes are God's
works of judgment; the proper effect and punishment of sin.
[Charles Wesley]
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Psalm 46:8 ... Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
Hebrews 10:31 ... It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Jeremiah 5:22 ... Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?❤
