Good Friday Earthquake: March 27th Devo

 

Good Friday Earthquake

Matthew 27:50-51

March 27th Devotional

      On this day in 1964, a massive earthquake shook South Central Alaska.  The quake struck at 5:36 PM on Good Friday.  The quake measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, making it the second-highest recorded earthquake with an instrument.  It was over two times more powerful than the great 1906 earthquake which leveled San Francisco.  The ground shook for nearly five consecutive minutes!  The earthquake was felt over a distance of ½ million square miles.  Over 600 miles of the fault line ruptured destroying anything in its path.  Land masses were thrust upward of 60 feet (82 feet was the highest recorded) and land masses sunk by as much as 8 feet.  The earthquake caused two major tsunamis.  One particular tsunami struck Hawaii and Japan.  The other tsunami struck the coast of Alaska.  One particular wave was recorded as being over 220 feet high!  Coastal flooding devasted the area, mainly the West Coast of the United States.  There would be over 10,000 aftershocks over the next few months.  Some of the aftershocks measured over a 6 on the Richter scale.  Miraculously only 131 perished in the wake of the earthquake due to how densely populated the area was at the time. 

      This earthquake wasn’t the only one that occurred on Good Friday.  Another earthquake struck on the first Good Friday.  Jesus hung on the cross suspended between heaven and earth.  The perfect Lamb of God is offered as the sinless sacrifice for mankind.  Matthew tells us about the closing events at Calvary that dreadful day “and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rock were split (Matthew 27:50-51).”  On the day that Christ crushed sin the earth shook violently.  There is topographical evidence that an earthquake happened in that area around the year 30 AD!  One of the most important details of this earthquake is that it was divinely sent by God.  The earthquake’s primary purpose wasn’t the destruction of the earth but the destruction of the separation that once kept man from God.  The earthquake split the curtain of the temple, which was no mere task.  The curtain of the temple was so strong that two horses could not pull it apart.  Behind the curtain was the holy of holies, a place considered so sacred that only the high priest could enter once a year to make offerings.  It was a wall that symbolized the separation between God and man.  When the veil was torn it showed the world that all are welcome, that all can come, and that God had come to earth to crush our greatest enemy, sin.  The veil being rent was an invitation for us to worship God in His holiness.  It was an invitation sent by God to be His child, to be redeemed, to be saved.  This earthquake simultaneously destroyed separation and made a way for man’s reparation.  Mankind had wronged God but God repaired the damage done through Jesus Christ.