What are the signs of Christ’s eminent return? We will see false Christs (Mat 24:5) and false prophets (Mat 24:11). There will also be wars and clashes between countries, civilizations, ethnic groups, political systems and religious sects. All the turbulence we see in the natural are a reflection of the shaking taking place in the spiritual realms, as the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Luke 21:26, NASB). All these are signs of his coming (Luke 21:27).

The shaking is from God (Heb 12:26), with the intention of shaking off whatever is created and not of God (Heb 12:27). The righteous are not the intended target of God’s shaking (Pro 10:30) but if there is any shaking in our lives it shows the areas of our lives that are not built on Christ and the sure foundation of His Word. God wants us to now set our house in order.

The main target of the shaking is the world’s financial system, because it is built on a dishonest system of unjust weights and measures, which the Lord hates (Deu 25:16-17). The shaking is to free God’s people from bondage to the system. Israel in Egypt is a type of the church in the world (1 Cor 10:1, 11). Israel went into Egypt to avoid famine (Gen 45:7) and God made them fruitful there (Exo 1:7). But when they were oppressed God decided to deliver them (Exo 3:7). The current financial system is holding God’s people in bondage through debt (Pro 22:7).

The plagues God sent on Egypt were not unto death, but to repentance. God wanted Pharaoh to release the Israelites, but when he kept refusing God eventually sent them judgment unto death, when the angel of death struck down all the firstborn. And just as the Israelites were spared from judgment because of the blood of the Passover Lamb (Exo 12:23) we too are saved from wrath through the blood of Jesus, who is the Passover Lamb for us (1 Cor 5:7). The shaking of the Egyptian system also served to decouple the Israelites from that system. God wants his people to be set apart from the people of Egypt, so that the difference is clear to all (Exo 8:22-23). ‘Goshen’ means to draw near to God, where we will not come under the same judgment as the world.

The Word of God tells us that God is continually giving us the power to create wealth (Deu 8:18, NASB), which necessitates a relationship. The market is collapsing because of the massive amounts of fake wealth in the monetary and trading system, created for the sake of bringing people into the slavery of debt (Pro 22:7). The Anti-Christ cannot come into power unless the financial system to enslave the world is in place (Rev 13:16). In the midst of all the false wealth in the world, God wants to give us the power to create true value. And that will draw the wealth of the world into our stewardship.

God has planned for the wealth of sinners to be transferred to the righteous (Pro 13:22), into the hands of those who remember the LORD even in the midst of prosperity (Deu 8:18). Some of his people are caught in the financial system of the world, and God wants to deliver them out of it, because the worldly financial system cannot last (1 John 2:17). God wants to transfer wealth into our hands so that we will do good and be generous with it (Pro 28:8). So we are to show ourselves to be faithful stewards of what he has already entrusted to us (Luke 16:11-13) and use our money to honour God (Pro 3:9-10).

Points to Ponder:

1. Why is God shaking the systems of this world? How should we respond to it?
2. What do we need to do to be unaffected by the shaking now taking place?
3. Why should God’s people avoid debt whenever they can? What are the practical steps we can take?