Strong earthquake rocks Haiti, killing hundreds

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake violently shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to an impoverished country reeling from a presidential assassination last month and still recovering from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago.

The quake overwhelmed hospitals, flattened buildings and trapped people under rubble in at least two cities in the western part of the country’s southern peninsula. At least 304 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured, according to Jerry Chandler, the director general of the Civil Protection Agency. An untold number were missing.

“The streets are filled with screaming,” said Archdeacon Abiade Lozama, head of an Episcopal church in Les Cayes, one of the afflicted cities. “People are searching, for loved ones or resources, medical help, water. ”

The disaster could hardly have come at a worse time for the nation of 11 million, which has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7.

Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake in 2010. Disasters like these cause some to ask why a loving God would allow them. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, theTrumpet.com managing editor Brad Macdonald produced an article titled “Is There Hope in an Earthquake?” He wrote:

Intense tragedy often comes with a beautiful yet fleeting byproduct: humility. In the days after the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of blood-spattered Haitians were hurt, dazed and vulnerable.

While God took no pleasure in witnessing the earthquake and its aftermath, He loves the state of mind that such disaster often produces. In Isaiah 66:2, God says, “[T]o this man will I look, even to him that is poor [needy, humble] and of a contrite spirit ….” Surely the tragedy in Haiti created a comparatively humble attitude and a “contrite spirit” in many Haitians, and even some onlookers.

Overwhelming crises have a tendency to remind us of how small, how vulnerable, how insignificant we truly are. Sadly, such meekness is often short-lived. Nevertheless, God Himself looks to the person with such an attitude. He considers true humility gained through catastrophe a primer for greater understanding.

And He gives that understanding in abundance. Through the pages of the Bible, God explains in detail why such catastrophes happen. The causes are spelled out from Genesis through Revelation for those with humble and open minds (see “Why God Didn’t Stop the Haiti Quake”).

For some perspective, consider the Haiti quake in the context of a prophecy in Matthew 24.