Like Wax in Fire

Yesterday I wrote about Mount McLoughlin and how it is one of several volcanos in The Cascade Arc.

The Cascade Arc includes over 20 major volcanoes, twelve of which are over 10,000 feet in height. The two highest are Mount Rainier and Mount Shasta. The major volcanoes in the arc include Mount Silverthrone, Mount Meager, Mount Cayley, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Three Sisters, Broken Top, Mount Bachelor, Newberry Volcano, Mount Thielsen, Mount Mazama (Crater Lake), Mount McLoughlin, Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, Mount Tehama and Lassen Peak. (Source: wikipedia dot com)

Do you have any idea how many volcanoes there are in the world? I took a guess Monday morning before doing my online search. My guess: 135. I was way off.

According to usgs.gov there are about 1,350 potentially active volcanoes worldwide, not counting the volcanoes under the oceans. In addition, world atlas dot com says there are 5 prominent dormant volcanoes: Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Fuji, Mount Rainier, Mauna Kea, and the Three Sisters.

The Bible, although never uses the word ‘volcano’, speaks of them.

“The mountains melt beneath his feet and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire, like water pouring down a hill.” Micah 1:4 NLT

“The mountains melt like was before the Lord…” Psalm 97:5 ESV

“he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.” Psalm 104:32

I love the mountains. I have this little game I have played since I was a child, where I will search the ridge of the mountains, or distant hills and try to find profiles of people, of course always laying on their backs. You would be surprised what you can find if you look for it.

Mt Olivet is not a volcano but plays such an important role in earth’s history, including Jesus’ 3rd coming.

We know well all about His 1st coming as a newborn child. We look forward to His 2ndcoming as spoken about in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, but what about His 3rd coming?

Now, this is not an expression that I have heard in church, or anywhere else for that matter, although I am sure I am not the first to call it such. But the Bible does talk about an event when Jesus will come to earth a 3rd time.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” Revelation 21:1-3 ESV

The New Jerusalem is currently in heaven, but John saw it, sometime in the future, coming down from heaven to the earth. Where will it sit? At the site of the very historic Mount of Olives.

“On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.” Zechariah 14:4 NIV

The Holy City, New Jerusalem, will settle in that great valley.

Zechariah is one of the twelve minor prophets, and he wrote about that day, “a unique day.”

“And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses. And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security.” Zechariah 14:7-11 ESV

Some translations say, “there will be continuous day!” some say, “one day”.

I like “unique day”. It will be unlike any day before it.

The day is coming when the Holy City will descend from heaven. When the earth has been made new, and the gates will be opened, and we will reinhabit the new earth.

“…the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:10-13 ESV

by Jeanette Stark – Tuesday, April 25, 2023