The Earthquake in Messina

Lately i have seen the earthquake in Messina used as a sermon illustration.

From a sermon by Bobby Scobey

Judgment Against Civil Rulers.

“You rulers make decisions based on bribes; you priests teach God’s laws only for a price; you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid. Yet all of you claim to depend on the LORD.

“No harm can come to us,” you say, “for the Lord is here among us” (Micah 3:11 NLT).

“Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field; Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins! A thicket will grow on the heights where the Temple now stands” (Micah 3:12 NLT).

Sometimes the cup of iniquity is full and the people are ripe for judgment. In such a case it may happen as it did in the flourishing and extraordinarily beautiful city of Messina, Sicily, the third largest city in Italy. In the early morning of December 28, 1908, the city was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake and associated tsunami that killed about 60,000 people and destroyed most of the ancient architecture.

Only a few hours before that devastating earthquake, the unspeakably wicked and irreligious condition of some of the inhabitants was expressed in a series of violent resolutions that were passed against all objections.

The journal Il Telefono, printed in Messina, actually published in its Christmas issue an abominable parody, daring the Almighty to make himself known by sending an earthquake! And in three days the earthquake came!

God cannot be avoided.


From Revive Our Hearts

Nancy: One hundred years ago Messina was a prosperous, gorgeous coastal city on the Italian island of Sicily, just off the toe of the boot there. This city of Messina had a population of about 150,000, but it had become a wicked and irreligious city. On Christmas day of 1908, a local newspaper in Messina published a blasphemous parody against God. In that article they dared God to make Himself known by sending an earthquake.

Exactly three days later, December the 28th, 1908, at 5:30 in the morning, a huge earthquake and a massive tidal wave came and utterly destroyed Messina and dozens of nearby towns. I’ve read some different estimates as to the number of deaths that resulted—somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 it appears. It’s considered the deadliest earthquake in European history.

As you read about a story like that where men just defy God and say, “Show us that You’re God. Prove it by an earthquake.” Three days later the earthquake comes and destroys the city. You ask, “Was this an act of God that was directly in response to the challenge that was issued in that newspaper?”
Well, I want to be quick to say that you and I cannot fathom the heart and the thoughts and the ways of God. But we do know that there is a God, and we know that He is a holy God. And we know that all sin—that’s all sin—must and will be judged.