Early Friday morning, April 5, I was listening to news while getting ready to start morning work. The announcement came that a 4.2 earthquake centered somewhere beneath New Jersey had shaken the northeast, with 4.8 on the Richter recorded in New York City.
While 4.8 would be barely noticed in parts of California or some of the western environs, an earthquake of any magnitude in the northeast U.S. provokes considerable angst. These just don’t occur that often beneath the solid rock that is Manhattan.
A day or two before the quake, a torrential storm of rain, wind, and lightning struck the New York City area. A photographer caught an explosive lightning strike hitting the Statue of Liberty’s torch. Before that, of course, we know the Francis Scott Key Bridge, named after the author of our national anthem, in Baltimore collapsed when struck by a container ship heavily loaded with environmentally dangerous cargo.
Now, I’ve not been one to easily accept that God necessarily makes His Displeasure Known through Displays of Geophysical Reaction.
However, there has seemingly come the time to acknowledge that things have reached the point that coincidence likely has diminished as a percentage of cause and effect in considering such occurrences as witnessed just recently.
While the earthquake was shaking the Big Apple and regions of the eastern U.S., another report reached my ears.
The audio on one or the other news programs I was listening to had a United Nations official saying that Israel must be dealt with harshly in the matter of its attacks on the civilian populations of Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu must be replaced as Israel’s prime minister and Israel made to cease wreaking destruction on the defenseless Palestinians.
It was reported that, at that time, the U.N. Building was affected by the shaking, as was downtown Manhattan and even Yankee Stadium.
Whether one holds to the notion that God reacts in this way to matters adversely affecting Israel, it can’t be dismissed that there has been, of late, an incremental stepping up of such geophysical gyrations.
The Prophet Zechariah foretold that all nations will eventually come against God’s chosen nation and people. God will, Zechariah says, cause all to be injured who do so (Zechariah chapter 12).
God Himself tells through the Prophet Joel that He will bring all nations to face the horror of Armageddon because of their dealings in forcing Israel to divide His land –the land He granted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob forever (Joel chapter 2).
In that regard, an article makes clear what Israel’s leader thinks about the current pressures being brought against his country.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Thursday with a Republican U.S. Congressional delegation, which was organized by AIPAC, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
During the meeting, which also included the AIPAC senior leadership, the Prime Minister briefed the delegation on the fighting in the Gaza Strip and answered the Representatives’ questions on defeating the Hamas terrorist organization, the unrelenting efforts to free the hostages, and the issue of humanitarian aid…
[Netanyahu gave the representatives 3 points in outlining Israel’s need of help from the U.S., the most important for considering the dividing of the land being the third point.]
“The third thing is this: there is a contrary move, an attempt to force, ram down our throats a Palestinian state, which will be another terror haven, another launching ground for an attempt, as was the Hamas state in Gaza. That is opposed by Israelis, overwhelmingly. We just had a vote in the Knesset: 99 to 9. Do you have those kinds of numbers? I think you might have those numbers if you bring that same resolution, that same resolution to Congress. I think you’ll have a similar or at least a very powerful majority.”
Netanyahu concluded: “I think it’s important because the people of Israel choose life, and life means security, and security means defeating our enemies but also standing together for our common civilization.”
[Source: Netanyahu to Republicans: ‘There’s an attempt to ram a Palestinian state down our throats’ | Israel National News – Arutz Sheva; April 5, 2024]
So many strange things are happening in a seeming convergence of prophetic signals. It is certainly prudent, as Watchers on the Wall, to observe the geophysical gyrations in order to try to discern the Prophetic Forecast. We should keep Watch, as Jesus Instructs.
“And what I say to one, I say to all, watch” (Mark 13:37).