Shaking – Part 1

Between one siren and the next, I sometimes wonder: what is happening in the heavens during this war on earth? What does God see from there, through clouds of smoke and pyrotechnics?

Tectonic Plates

The Middle East sits on 60% of the world’s oil reserves. That is one reason for some of the wars we’ve been experiencing – perhaps even part of Trump’s considerations when he entered this war.

_{The Syrian-African Rift Valley in full context: A Continental Overview}

This region also sits on two massive tectonic plates – the Arabian and the African. Between them runs a rift that begins in Syria in the north and ends in Mozambique in the south. These plates move a few centimeters a year and collide at a rate of about 30 earthquakes per week on average. This is the region where the garden of Eden was planted, and it is also the route of the “highway” spoken of in Isaiah 19, stretching from Africa to Assyria, with Israel at its center.

Shaking out Wickedness and Evil

The names by which Yeshua presents Himself in His letters to the seven churches in Revelation are proven to be so steady in the midst of all the shaking around us. He is indeed the “Faithful and True Witness,” the “Lord of Hosts,” the “One who Rules the Nations with a rod of iron and shatters them like pottery,” the “God of wrath, vengeance, and judgment.”

He is also the “One who holds the Key of David” and continues to build His Kingdom (Rev. 3:7-8). One day this Kingdom will have geographical borders, when He will establish His throne on Mount Zion – right in the heart of those same tectonic plates. Zechariah describes a powerful earthquake that will take place on the Day of the Lord (14:4), when a deep valley will split the Mount of Olives in two as Yeshua’s feet stand upon it.

But until then, God is building His kingdom in hearts, joining one heart that calls on His Son’s name to another and another, bridging over cultural and ethnic differences and forming One Body. His mighty hand and outstretched arm, the same that brought the ten plagues upon Egypt and led the Hebrews out of slavery, are still at work today, exposing the wicked and shaking them.

In Job 38:13, God describes what we seem to be witnessing these days:
“He holds the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it.” It sometimes feels as though He is looking down from His dwelling place – beyond smoke and missiles, beyond oil reserves and tectonic plates – holding the map of the world as if it was a tablecloth, and shaking the wicked off it, shifting the balance of power and reshaping the entire map.

I love the final verse in Esther 8: “Many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.” The writer documents a mass conversion of idol worshipers to faith in the God of Israel, after the decree that King Ahasuerus sent had reached all corners of his kingdom. Idol worshipers from 127 provinces underwent a profound spiritual upheaval when they saw how the God of the Jews shook the wicked out of their midst. These are the very same regions that today are being shaken through this present war.

Why Did All Those Multitudes Convert?

Because the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

I pray that what happened then will happen again today. Not that Iranians or the residents of southern Lebanon or the Emirates would fear the Jews, but that the fear of our God will take hold of their hearts and shake them. That they will realize He is still the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel who is faithful to what He promiesed, the one who rules the nations with a rod of iron and shatters them like pottery.

Join me in prayer for the people of Israel. Our God is certainly protecting us from horrendous disasters these days, but He is also judging our nation and calling us to return to Him, to recognize the Jewishness of His Son. Pray that beyond the distress of sirens and the fear for life that accompanies them, we would lift our eyes to His mighty Hand and outstretched Arm, and return.

The plates keep moving. We, in turn, MUST recognize the bleeding Hands that hold them, and call on His name!

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