Ezekiel 38:19-20 - Homiletics

An earthquake.

In the day of God's jealousy and wrath there is to be a great shaking of sea, air, and land, so that the very fishes and birds, as well as the beasts of the earth, will feel its shock.

I. AN EARTHQUAKE MAY OCCUR . There were once two opposed schools of geology—one believing that our earth had reached its present condition after successive violent catastrophes had wrought great and sudden changes on its surface; the other holding that the most striking results could be produced, and, therefore—on the principle that the minimum cause is the only one that one can affirm—have been produced, by the operation of the very forces which we now witness. This latter, the uniformitarian theory, has been so well established by Sir Charles Lyell, that few would now think of reviving the more dramatic hypothesis. Nevertheless, even this theory admits of many great and violent movements under the operation of present laws and forces. Earthquakes do now occur. So is it in the world of men. We are governed by orderly Divine laws. Yet we meet with great shocks in political changes, when empires topple to the dust; in social changes, when the old order is upset, as in the French Revolution; in domestic changes, when a man's quiet home-life is ruthlessly upset, and sudden poverty, or the death of those he loves most, or fearful family divisions, shake him like an earthquake. There are earthquakes in religion, when the old beliefs are shaken or the old practices disturbed. Such an earthquake occurred at the advent of Christ, at the Reformation, etc. There are also spiritual earthquakes in the breasts of individual men. The crust of self-confidence is widely torn, and great chasms opened in well-settled notions. Some day the easy-going sinner will be astonished at the earthquake shock that will disturb his misplaced confidence.

II. MEN SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR AN EARTHQUAKE . In countries where such an occurrence is frequent it is necessary to build the walls with especial solidity, and to bind them together with iron bands. Yet even there the lessons of experience fade away in a season of long security. It is strange how villages creep up the sides of slumbering volcanoes which may at any moment overwhelm them in torrents of lava. We ought to be prepared for the coming of trouble, although all is now quiet and smiling. This does not mean that we should be "anxious about the morrow," for "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." But the best way to dismiss anxiety is to be well fortified against the possibility of disaster. If we would be prepared for the upset of our earthly home comforts, we need to have a deeper foundation on which to rest, so that when the things which are shaken are removed the things which cannot be shaken may remain ( Hebrews 12:27 ).

III. AN EARTHQUAKE MAY BE A BLESSING IN DISGUISE . At first it is ruinous, and the destruction, misery, and death that it spreads make it appear as a huge calamity. But in changing the face of the earth it may prepare for a better future. Political and social earthquakes throw down old abuses and clear the ground for a new and better order. God' upsets a man's life that he may lead the man to build afresh on a more sure foundation. Earthquakes in human affairs should make us look above the earth and have our treasure in heaven—"seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."