The Earth Shakes Because We Are Broken

While sitting in my office on Tuesday, I experienced my first earthquake. And I will admit, it was frightening. A part of the fright is the great peculiarity of the event. I've been around now for 40 years. Never has the earth shook under my feet. The earth is one of the few things we really count on to remain stable. So when it moves, that's weird.

Two thoughts regarding it:
1 - God shakes the earth to show us that we are sinners. At the fall of Adam and Eve, God cursed the ground. The earth is broken. And it groans until it is redeemed (Rom 8:19-22).

My wife and children were in a Target store when the shaking began. So when we went back to that same store on Wednesday, my 3 year old daughter commented on the experience. She wondered if we went inside, would the shaking start again. She thought perhaps the quake was caused by a giant. So I took just a few seconds to try to communicate to her what the shaking is actually about. Shifting tectonic plates? Well, yes. But there's much more. There's the God of all grace who governs said plates in a way that calls us to turn from our sinfulness, and trust Him, so that we may escape the ultimate consequences of the curse -- His forever wrath. It is as J.I. Packer wrote in his book "Knowing God" - God is good to those who trust Him, and He is terrible to those who do not.

2 - Earthquakes are often associated with unseen spiritual activity. Both Old and New Testaments give repeated witness to this (i.e. 2 Sam 22; 1 Ki 19; Ps 18, 77; Is 24, 29; Mt 24, 27-28; Ac 4, 16; Re 6, 8, 11, 16). Earthquakes sometimes signify God's anger, which makes sense in the light of the paragraph above. Sometimes they indicate angelic visitation. Sometimes they are connected with prayer and God's work in responding to His people. And they sometimes communicate other realities. What earthquakes are not, however, are random occurrences without meaning. They are signs, pointing us  not only to our own sinfulness, but to God's righteous rule and activity. I wonder what was going on Tuesday, in the unseen world?