Lessons from the Earthquake
Selected Scriptures
I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday I was trying to get over to the college because I've been doing a lot of radio programs across the nation, just responding to people on Christian Broadcast networks who wanna know about what's happening. I got up on the 14 Freeway, thinking I took a route that would be clear, and I ran into this unbelievable traffic thing.
And I thought, Oh, I'm never gonna make it to this interview on the radio, and I've got to get there. And I was sitting in this traffic, and I thought, well, I think I'll just have to go back and get off this thing and find another way.
So I pulled into the shoulder, and I put it in reverse, and I started backing up the shoulder. And I came around this bend, and there was a highway patrol. Or was it a highway patrol? Yeah. Highway patrol car. And I thought, oh no.
And I pulled up beside the highway patrol car, and I looked over, and standing by the car was Dave Bloomfield, who is a member of our church. And he was the highway patrol officer, and I said, "Hey Dave. What are you doing out here?"
And he said, "Well, we had an accident, I'm just trying to help. What are you doing out here?"
I said, "Well, I have to get over to the college for a radio interview."
He says, "No problem. Follow me." So he turned on all the lights on that car and he said, "Just stay right on my bumper."
Talk about fun. I'm telling you, we had a great experience. We got there in nothing flat, I want you to know. So Dave, thanks, my friend, wherever you are. Wow. That was great.
The Lord has the right people in the right place at the right time. In fact, I was speaking in chapel the other day, on Friday, and four tremors went through the place while I was speaking. And the Lord was saying Amen to my points in my sermon, and one student leaned to the other one, he told me later, and said, "If there's one more quake, I'm getting on McArthur's back because I know the Lord's not through with him yet."
Anyway, God has been very gracious to us through all of this. The other day I was listening on the radio - I think it was yesterday - and one of the city councilmen was being interviewed, and he was saying we've got to learn some lessons from this. And this was his big hue and cry; we've got to learn some lessons from this. We've gotta learn how to better design buildings, how to better design roads and emergency supplies and response agencies, and how to process people in the event of disaster. There's so many things we need to learn.
We've gotta take this as an opportunity to go through the building codes and all the codes and all of the operations that we have in emergencies and learn from these things. And I would agree with that to some degree. I think there are definitely some things we need to learn on the temporaral side, on the earthly side, about buildings and roads and emergencies and processes and all of that.
But those kinds of things aren't really, what I think this earthquake is intended to teach us. I think there are some lessons that are far more profound than anything that is temporal. And that's what I wanna speak to you about this morning, as I have contemplating the reality of what's gone on from a Biblical perspective, from the perspective of the Lord, and how it is to be viewed in line with his purposes and his will.
I've come up with two categories that I want to speak to this morning, and that is lessons who are Christians and then lessons for those who are non-Christians. Or, lessons for those who are prepared to die, and lessons for those who are not prepared to die.
And I think those two categories can lead us through a process of understanding that can bring some tremendous reality to what we're experiencing. Now, there are some lessons to be learned. An earthquake is a great teacher. It doesn't make any suggestions; it's making commands. It doesn't ask for our attention, it demands it. It doesn't just hope we'll contemplate and act, it brings about almost instant obedience.
This is a profound teacher, an earthquake like this. And the lessons it teaches are equally profound. First of all, let's talk about the lessons for those who are Christians, for those who are prepared to die, for those for whom death is a settled issue, meaning only entrance into the presence of God.
Those of us who know the Lord, those of us who belong to him, those of us who can see this from a Biblical perspective, who can have the divine angle on it, there are seven lessons that I wanna mention. There might be more, but here are some that will hopefully embrace at what is important.
First of all, God is sovereign. And not necessarily are we learning these for the first time, but they are being reiterated to us in rather memorable fashion.
First of all, God is sovereign. We are reminded in a time like this that nothing is out of control. That something isn't happening beyond God's ability, beyond his design, beyond his purpose, or beyond his will. God is sovereign, and his sovereign purposes are coming together as he directs all the events of the universe to accomplish his own plan.
So this all fits into the eternal plan of God. God has not lost control; satan can't make the earthquake. No usurper has taken his place. God hasn't gone away on a deist vacation and letting everything kind of do whatever it will do on its own. God is still sovereign; God is still on the throne. He is still in complete and absolute control of everything and every one.
In Exodus 8:22, it says, "I am the LORD in the midst of the land." That is to say, he is not a far off, somewhere in space, but he's right here and he is the LORD.
Deuteronomy 4:39: "Know, therefore, today and take it to your heart, that the LORD, he is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Deuteronomy 10:14 says, "Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it."
Joshua 2:11 says, "The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath." Psalm 21 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all that it contains, the world and all who dwell in it." Psalm 47:2, "For the LORD most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth." "The heavens are thine," says Psalm 89:11, "the earth also is thine, the world and all it contains thou hast founded them."
The prophet Jeremiah said in chapter 10 verse 10: "The LORD is the true God, he is the living God, he is the everlasting king, at his wrath the earth quakes."
James 4:12 reminds us, "There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy." Paul said in 1 Timothy 6: "He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen."
His dominion is forever, it is over the universe, it is over the heavens and the highest heaven; it is over the earth and all that is in it. God is sovereign, and he has permitted this. This fits within his sovereign purpose and plan and will and he has brought it to pass to fit his own eternal purpose.
Taking that a step further, his sovereign purposes, intended for his own children, are always for their good. Are always for their good, for their ultimate benefit. In Ezra, chapter 8 verse 22, the scripture says, "The hand of our God is upon all who seek him for good." What a tremendous promise, but on the other hand, his power, the power of his anger, is against all those who forsake him.
Psalm 73:1 says, "Surely God is good to those who are pure in heart." Lamentations 3:25, "The LORD Is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him." Matthew 7:11, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father, who's in heaven, give what is good to those who ask him."
Romans 8:28, "All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose." James 1:17