Quakes
Earth-Quakes
The book of Nahum describes the destruction of Nineveh, capital of Assyria. From the creationist point of view, what is interesting is the way that the LORD’s revenge against Assyria is described: “[T]he LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers. . . . 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. . . . [H]is fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. . . . The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. . . . All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.” (Nahum 1:3b-4a, 5, 6b; 2:6, 3:12, KJV) We learn that the LORD uses storms, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and fire to implement His wrath against His enemies. Nineveh is described as a bloody city, “full of lies and robbery,” and full of so many slain that they stumble over their corpses! Nineveh is described as a “mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.” (Nahum 3, KJV) Nineveh’s overthrow was prophesied by Nahum, when he wrote, “And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste. . . . ” (Nahum 3:7a, KJV)
Sure enough, in the study of archaeology, it can be ascertained that Nineveh fell with resounding finality in about 607 B.C. at the hands of the Babylonians and the Medes, giving fulfillment to Nahum’s prophecy. Located on the Tigris River, near the town of Mosul in present-day Iraq, Nineveh’s ruins were found by British archaeologists in the 1800’s. Nineveh is especially interesting because it was founded by Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, soon after the Flood; of course, Nineveh was colonized by the older Babylon, according to cuneiform tablets which in effect give archaeological confirmation of Genesis 10: 10-11, where it is also stated that Babylon came first, then Nineveh. In effect, Babylon spawned Nineveh, had a rivalry with Nineveh, then crushed Nineveh. Babylon was the center of Babylonian power, and Nineveh was the center of Assyrian power some 300 miles north of Babylon in the Euphrates River Valley. (Henry H. Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965, pp. 82, 369-70)
If the mountains quaked during the destruction of Nineveh, then surely a much more powerful picture of the mountains (and the whole landscape for that matter) existing at the LORD’s pleasure comes in Matthew 27:50-54, where we read this: “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.” (KJV) Indeed, the LORD that can come back to life and make dead men walk can certainly move some dust around (i.e. cause earthquakes)! The Lord Jesus cried out, gave up the ghost, and an earthquake ensued. Again, in Matthew 28:1-6a, we see another earthquake, this time marking the Lord Jesus’s resurrection: “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 the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered 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. . . .” (KJV) Earthquakes marked Jesus’s death and His resurrection, indeed, showing that His creation bows to Him!In Exodus 19:18, it came about that “mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.” (KJV)
In 1 Samuel 14:15, we learn that after Jonathan and his armor-bearer came up victorious in a battle with the Philistines, the garrison and the spoilers trembled and there was a very great trembling of the earth as well—the wholesale routing of the enemy by Jonathan and his armor-bearer was a case of the LORD saving Israel (Verse 23), and the hand of the LORD in that battle set people to trembling and the earth to trembling as well. People-Quakes and Heavenly Quakes
We just saw above (from Matthew 28) that the keepers of Jesus’s sepulchre quaked and became as dead men upon the sight of the angel of the Lord. In Hebrews 12, we’re likewise reminded that Moses verily quaked with fear, apparently at the sight of the mountain that burned with fire (i.e. Mount Sinai, where he received the LORD’s commandments). In Hebrews 12:25b-26, we see that the One who “speaketh from heaven” has a voice that shakes the earth, and that He will shake not just the earth, but heaven also—He will shake heaven and earth: The shaking of heaven and earth will act as a sifting process, whereby “those things that are shaken” will be removed, and “those things which cannot be shaken” will remain and receive the “kingdom which cannot be moved,” the kingdom of God. (Hebrews 12:26-28a, KJV) In Daniel 10, Daniel saw a vision of a holy figure that appeared to him alone—amazingly, even though the men with Daniel at the time did not see the vision, they nevertheless trembled so much that they fled to hide themselves. In this instance, just to have been near one who saw such a vision as Daniel’s was enough to set one to trembling.