You Will Not Be Shaken

 

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

—Isaiah 54:10

Whenever we think about earthquakes in the United States, we immediately think of California. In fact, many comedians have included California earthquake jokes in their repertoire: “Someday, during a earthquake, California is gonna detach from the mainland, float out into the Pacific Ocean, and disappear.”

That joke is not funny for those Californians who have lived through an earthquake. In fact, one of the most devastating earthquakes in modern times took place in 1906 in San Francisco. One of the many results of that quake and subsequent fire was that 97 insurance companies went out of business, creating an enormous financial crisis.

But, did you know that the most active seismic area in the United States is located in the middle portion of our country? Geologists call it the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). It is located in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, western Kentucky and southern Illinois. Southwestern Indiana and northwestern Mississippi are also close enough to receive significant shaking from large earthquakes occurring in the NMSZ. Here’s a bit more about this phenomenon, courtesy of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources:

The active faults in the NMSZ are poorly understood because they are not expressed at the ground surface where they can be easily studied. The faults are hidden beneath 100- to 200-foot thick layers of soft river-deposited soils called alluvium. Fault scarps and traces in the soft alluvium erode in a very short time, or may be rapidly covered by new deposits, thereby quickly hiding evidence of earthquake fault lines. Faults in places like California, where rocks are at or near the ground surface, are much easier to study because the faults are readily found, seen, measured and analyzed.

Location of earthquake epicenters in and near the New Madrid Seismic Zone (circles scaled according to magnitude.)

Knowledge about some of the NMSZ faults is obtained by seismograph recordings of the frequent small earthquakes. St. Louis University, University of Memphis, the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Kentucky operate more than 30 seismograph stations to monitor earthquake activity in the NMSZ and Central U.S.

Microseismic earthquakes (magnitude less than 1.0 to about 2.0), measured by seismographs but not felt by humans, occur on average every other day in the NMSZ (more than 200 per year).

A series of three to five major earthquakes (believed to have been magnitude 7.0 or larger earthquakes) occurred in the NMSZ in the two month period between December 16, 1811 and February 7, 1812. Several thousand additional “smaller” earthquakes occurred during the three month period from December 16, 1811 to March 16, 1812. These included 15 earthquakes believed to have been magnitude 6.5 to 8.0 (the size range of the 1989 San Francisco, 1994 Los Angeles, and 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquakes) and 189 earthquakes magnitude 5.0 to 6.5.

Two thousand were felt by people, indicated by crude seismograph instruments and recorded in personal journals at Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, which are respectively 250 and 350 miles away. The New Madrid area was at the very frontier of European settlement at this time so there were very few non-native Americans living in the immediate area to report the earthquakes.

That is startling information. While most people thought that if they stayed out of California, the chance of significant earthquakes was greatly reduced. Yet here, in the very center of our country, lies the most potentially deadly earthquake zone that would affect literally millions upon millions of our citizens.

No one—no one—wants to endure such shaking. And, that’s equally true when it comes to a shaking in our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual lives, as well as in our physical lives. We want to rest on a secure foundation with no possibility of being tossed to and fro. That is exactly what led the Prophet Isaiah to report the following words from God, as found in Isaiah 54:10:

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

God’s love is unshakable. His foundation is secure. His covenant will not become nullified. We can totally rest on the solid rock of His mercy, grace, and love. There is no “New Madrid Seismic Zone” in the Kingdom of God.

 

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