Thought for Today
Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
Judges 5:4 "LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens poured, the clouds indeed poured water.
Matthew 8:24 A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.
Matthew 27:51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.
I don’t really have a bucket list. Were I to ever assemble one, I cannot imagine that it would include experiencing an earthquake. But, following yesterday’s events, if I had one, and if it included experiencing an earthquake, I could cross that off the list. I’m sure if any of our California family or friends read this, they would dismiss what occurred yesterday off the coast of York, Maine, as a mere tremor. It was initially rated as a magnitude 4.1 and later downgraded to 3.9. We are 55 miles from York. Greta and I heard what I thought was a gurgling noise from the refrigerator. During our Bible Study last night, one of the participants who lives close to the church said there was a loud noise and a perceptible shaking.
Last week I read an article about a growing geological rift in Africa. The African and Arabian tectonic plates meet along what is known as the Great Rift Valley. When we read about Sodom and Gomorrah, about the Jordan River, the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee we are reading about the Great Rift Valley. Evidently the African and Arabian tectonic plates are moving apart as an observable rate. Some geologists are speculating that they will separate and a new continent will emerge when they do.
Geological, geothermal and meteorological phenomena are familiar to anyone who reads the Bible. Sodom and Gomorrah are thought to have been located in a very active geothermal area along that Great Rift. Many areas along the eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea are geologically active. Some areas along the northern coast are also. “Super volcanoes are volcanic centers that have experienced the eruptions ranked at level 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI).” (Bing search) One of those super volcanoes is “The Campi Flegrei ("burning fields") or Phlegrean Fields . . . a large, 13-km-wide nested caldera located under the western outskirts of the citiy of Naples and under the Gulf of Pozzuoli.” (www.volcanodiscovery.com) “Some researchers believe that the decline of the Mycenaean palatial system was caused by large natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, evidenced by broken pottery and damaged walls. These disasters would have been devastating and volcanic eruptions could have impacted the climate.” (www.science.smith.edu)
Were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by a volcanic eruption spewing out flaming lava and rocks? Was the rainstorm which flooded the plains of Megiddo caused by natural weather phenomena? The Galilee is notorious for violent windstorms which occur naturally. Did tectonic plates shift concurrently with Jesus’ crucifixion? If all of those scientific explanations are correct, are the results any less directly attributable to our Creator God?
God created our earth as a very complex thing. We have a molten iron core, a crust composed of floating plates. We have 24-hour rotation around an axis tilted to the plane of the ecliptic combined with a 12-month rotation around our sun. Both resulting in regular periods of night and day and in a cycle of seasons. There are polar ice caps and saltwater ocean currents allowing cooling of the equatorial regions and amelioration of the extreme Arctic and Antarctic cold. All of this resulting from, “Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth . . .”
Whenever I think about it all or read about it, I am left with the psalmist’s question attributed to David, “8:1 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens . . . 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
Stay safe, ponder God’s majesty and love, trust God,
Pastor Ray