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Reason #7: Jesus rose from the dead … to give us a “Kingdom that cannot be shaken.”

[by Harriette Asseslstine]

    If you have ever experienced an earthquake, even a mild one, you know how terrifying it can be. All our control and strength evaporate as we are tossed around by a force we often forget is right beneath us.

    And in some ways, if we were to come face to face with the holy God, we would probably feel the same terror and helplessness.  The Bible authors seem to have felt this, as they often associate earthquakes with God. In Psalm 29, David writes that God’s voice “shakes the desert and twists the oaks.” Psalm 104 says that when God “looks at the earth, it trembles.”  Isaiah the prophet sees a vision of God, and as the angels proclaim the glory of God, the doorposts and thresholds of the temple shake, terrifying Isaiah, who believes he will die for having seen God. (Isaiah 6).  

    The force an earthquake exerts is immensely heavy.  It crushes and displaces that which is lighter, more ephemeral.  When Jesus died, and when he arose, two massive earthquakes shook Jerusalem.  In his book, God of All Things, Andrew Wilson says that these earthquakes show that the Lord “was more substantial than the two mightiest and fiercest enemies we have: sin and death.” Jesus Christ vanquished Satan, crushing his head forever, as prophesied in Genesis 3.

    Finally, earthquakes signify the judgement of God, graphically described in Revelation 6.  Jesus states in Hebrews that “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.”  (Hebrews 12:  26 – 27)

    And what will remain are the things of Christ.  We don’t need to be terrified in this earthquake. As Paul says in Colossians 1:17, “In Christ all things hold together”, so if we are “in Him”, we do not have to be afraid.  He will hold us fast and usher us into the glorious “Kingdom that cannot be shaken.”  

    Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Heb.12: 28 - 29)