When Things Start to Shake Us

Divine shaking is a good thing:

With so many people now closely following the situation in Iran, considering the possible fallout and aftermath of it, many might be feeling all rather shaken at the moment. Add to this all the other worries and trials of life, and lots of people – including Christians – can feel very fearful and quite concerned.

But the believer knows that the unshakeable and unchangeable God can use ‘a whole lotta shaking going on’ to achieve his purposes. They would include: to wean his people away from things that offer false security; to strip away our false gods and idols; and to get our focus, trust and attention fully on him.

So there are good purposes indeed in all this shaking that God allows or brings upon us. In his book Mere Christendom, Douglas Wilson had a useful thing to say about this:

We cannot pray for the purification of the silver, and then despair when we begin to approach the furnace that removes the dross. The church in America is shot through with corruptions. If we want that corruption removed, then we must also want God’s appointed instruments for removing it. When God wants to reveal what cannot be shaken, He does so by shaking. That is where we are right now, and it should be a great encouragement to us. That is, it should be a great encouragement for those whose ministries are not chaff, dross, or loose unmortared stones.

Such divine shaking can come in many forms to individuals, but there is also a bigger picture here. Scripture often speaks of the shaking of God which also includes the heavens and the earth. There is the ongoing work of God’s judgment and/or discipline now, but there is also an eschatological shaking that God has promised. Consider a few of these passages.

In Isaiah 2:19-21 we read this:

People will flee to caves in the rocks
    and to holes in the ground
from the fearful presence of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to shake the earth.
In that day people will throw away
    to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
    which they made to worship.
They will flee to caverns in the rocks
    and to the overhanging crags
from the fearful presence of the Lord
    and the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to shake the earth.

Later in Isaiah (13:13) there is found this strong word:

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.

Haggai 2:6-7 says similar things:

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

And in Hebrews 12:18-29 we read about a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Here is what it says in verses 25-29:

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Plenty of helpful commentary can be appealed to here, but one writer I have quoted before on this is R. Kent Hughes. He titles his 2015 expository commentary An Anchor for the Soul. In a world that is shaking and quaking, we certainly do need a solid anchor.

Hughes offers these helpful words:

The initial historical event where God’s voice shook the earth was at Mt Sinai when he verbally spelled out the Ten Commandments with a thunderous voice. Imagine how terrifying it was to have the ground under one’s feet tremble in response to God’s audible word. There were no sleepers in the congregation at Sinai!

 

But there is an infinitely greater shaking coming, an eschatological cosmic shaking of the whole universe, and it too will be triggered by God’s word. Here the writer has quoted God’s promise from Haggai 2:6 – “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens” (v. 26b) – indicating that every created thing will be shaken to utter disintegration. This is in accord with what the Scriptures teach us about the power of God’s Word. Genesis says that he created everything by his Word as He spoke the universe into existence. Therefore, one “little word” from him can and will fell creation!

 

The Psalmist tells us that creation is transitory. “Of old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment” (Psalm 102:25, 26; cf. Hebrews 1:10-12). Isaiah says of the future, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:13). And Peter identifies it with the day of the Lord: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will disappear with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10). Think of it! All one hundred thousand million galaxies—each containing at least that many stars—each galaxy one hundred light-years across—will hear the word and shake out of existence! Just a little word from God, and it is done.

 

The reason for this is clearly spelled out: “in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain” (v. 27b). The people of God, as a part of the order of things which are unshakable, will survive. But everything else in the universe will be shaken and therefore purged. Everything that is wrong will be eradicated. No sin, no imperfection will remain. Then there will be a blessed reconstruction— “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1).

 

To those who are obedient this is good news. And the preacher means it to be a powerful encouragement to the beleaguered little church to which he writes, in which some feel as though their lives are being shaken to pieces by Rome. “Stand firm amidst the Roman tremors,” he seems to be saying, “because the ultimate shaking is coming when Rome and indeed the entire present evil order, will shake to oblivion. And you, as part of the new order, will survive. Take heart!” On the other hand, to those who are ignoring God’s Word and drifting further away, this was a disquieting revelation and challenge to obedience.

Quite so. In Revelation 3:2 where Christ speaks to the church in Sardis, he says this: “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain”. Bob Dylan famously picked up this phrase in his song “When You Gonna Wake Up” from his 1979 album, Slow Train Coming. The song begins:

God don’t make promises that He don’t keep
You got some big dreams baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up strengthen the things that remain?

Counterfeited philosophies have polluted all of your thoughts
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry Kissinger’s got you tied up in knots.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up strengthen the things that remain?

The closing verses are these:

You can’t take it with you and you know that it’s too worthless to be sold
They tell you, “Time is money,” as if your life was worth its weight in gold

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

There’s a Man up on a cross and He’s been crucified
Do you have any idea why or for who He died?

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and strengthen the things that remain?

In this world very little that exists will remain. That is why we must cling to that which will forever remain, to that which can NOT be shaken. As we do that, we can handle all the shaking that we see happening all around us, be it wars in the Middle East or any other worrying events and circumstances.

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