“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying:
‘I will shake heaven and earth.’”(Hag. 2:21, NKJV)
In our exploration of the corporate mantle of Zerubbabel we are, in the process, coming to terms with the sixteenth characteristic of this mantle. The Scripture above emphasises the scope of this mantle’s reach, as a type of working that shakes heaven and earth. We should be referring to the Bride as possessing this spiritual power, as true movers and shakers!
Everything must be shaken, and God uses the Bride for this. The Mirror Bible‘s paraphrasing of Heb. 12:26b-28a places this in a remarkably contemporary perspective: “The voice of God (articulated in Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection) has rocked not only the systems on the earth, but also every unseen principality in the heavens, tot their very foundations! In the words of the prophet, ‘Yet once more will I shake every unstable system of man’s effort to rule himself’. God clearly indicates his plan to remove the old and replace it with the new. The second shaking supersedes any significance in the first shaking. Then it was a physical quaking of the earth; now the very foundations of every man-made system was shaken to the core while the heavens were impacted by the announcement of his permanent rule on earth as it is mirrored in heaven. We are fully associated in this immovable Kingdom; an authority that cannot be challenged or contradicted.”
In the previous edition of this teaching, that of Day 1286-1288, we primarily focused on what shakes the earth, with the symbol of earthquake as apt iconic representation thereof, and how it functions as God’s mechanism for overthrowing false structures of authority.
- “The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence, yes, the world and all who dwell in it.” (Nah. 1:5).
- They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily.” (Isa. 2:19-21).
In light of the paraphrased section above it is important to look at how the physical precedes the spiritual (1 Cor. 15:46), and to read the most important Biblical references to earthly/ physical earthquakes in spiritual terms. Obviously most of these are concerned with Him who overthrows the earth in its entirety – Jesus Christ.
The parousia, or appearance, of Jesus, the Son of the Living God (Matt. 16:16), the Living Word (John 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:23), shook the entire earth. In Matt. 10:34 He warns: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” In the week before He entered Jerusalem, when he was crucified, “all the city was moved, saying, ‘Who is this?’” (Matt. 21:10). We’ve already mentioned that earthquakes took place when Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead (Matt. 27:51-54; 28:1-4). His coming to earth branched out to his disciples and followers, like the “life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45) that established Paul and Silas in positions that would allow God to counter all foundations of human bondage through an earthquake (Acts 16:26).
Everyone and everything that is not positioned on the Rock, Christ (1 Cor. 10:4; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:2, 32 & 47; 2 Sam. 23:3; Ps. 95:1; Isa. 26:4), will be shaken. Everyone and everything that is indeed positioned on the Rock, will not be affected by these shakes:
- “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.” (Luke 6:47-48).
- “When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, but the righteous has an everlasting foundation.” (Prov. 10:25).
As the earth is shaken, so the old nature is uprooted from all those who have gained a godly nature (2 Pet. 1:4), they also get what Joel 3:18 promises: “in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.” [Acacia is what the altar of burnt offering (Ex. 27:1) was made of, as well as the table of showbread (Ex. 25:23) and the ark of the tabernacle (Ex. 25:10) – it is represented in every dimension of the tabernacle. It thus clearly symbolises the vehicle with which the believer travels from giving over to God, to His will, and then as glorious carrier of the presence of the Lord. The “valley of Sitim”, as some translations have it, points to the place of Sitim, which was, interestingly enough, “east of the Jordan” (according to Strong) – and which thus points to the continual trek “downwards” (a continuous death to the self, the symbolic meaning of Jordan), closer and closer to the east (before time, or then, the other, eternal reality). In this way they can receive “a kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28) in Canaan, the land of promise, if the fifth seal is opened while they are alive – the soul was slain under the altar – Rev. 6:9]
Once the loose bones of the Bride have been shaken (Ezek. 37:7), a movement takes place, and she starts developing an awareness of the Body, of unity through the Spirit of God that moves her (Judg. 13:25; Acts 17:28; 2 Pet. 1:21). Now God’s army is formed, and “strong is the One who executes His word” (Joel 2:11). In verses 9 and 10 it is spelled out how this earthquake multiplies on earth with seismographic synergy: “They run to and fro in the city, they run on the wall; they climb into the houses, they enter at the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.” Clearly this is the earth that shakes with birth pangs as the birth of Christ’s coming is manifested within us (Gal. 4:19). These earthquakes lead to 1 John 2: 17: “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
- Selah: Explain the symbolic role of earthquakes to someone.
- Read: 44 & 143; Judg. 10-14.
- Memorise: 14:14
