So where was God?

Pat Robertson really needs to keep his mouth shut.

Just about every people group has that individual that makes you wince anytime you see their lips part.  The Democratic Party's got Keith Olbermann and James Carville.  Republicans have Ann Coulter and the caustic Michael Savage. If you could get past the bombast of these folks, they might actually have ideas worth listening to, but your average Joe doesn't want to put on a chemical warfare ensemble to try and figure out their rhetoric.

Protestant Christianity's got Pat. He's a Southern Baptist by denomination, but I know few Southern Baptists that rally behind his rantings. Every time disaster strikes the planet, Pat pounds his pulpit and pronounces that God has unleashed judgment upon that point of geographic suffering. Most recently, according to Reverend Robertson, Haiti seems to have fallen into the Lord's crosshairs.

(The Presidential Palace in Haiti)

Before I dismiss Pat as fast as I have the other Three Reverend Stooges (Jackson, Sharpton and Wright), a couple of notes about Haiti. While most of the populace espouses Catholicism, they entwine that already iconic religion with the tendrils of voodoo and African mysticism. The God of the Bible loathes such syncretistic blends (2 Kings 17:29-41).  So is there merit behind Robertson's railing?  Is there biblical evidence to indicate God has unleashed his fury upon the tiny Caribbean island?  Or has Pat been hitting the Geritol too hard?

Well, if you believe in no God, then these things just happen.  It was neither good nor bad, just part of life that's red in tooth and claw.  Not much comfort there.

If you believe in the deist God, then he was spectating just as he is spectating now.  Is he like me watching the Vikings?  Again, not a lot of comfort.

If you believe in the "loving God" who has no place for hell, judgment, condemnation, etc., then why would he let such things happen?  That's always a toughy.

Then there is the God of the Bible, Testaments Old and New.

There was a time when that God provided prophets to identify pending disasters as the Lord’s judgment upon the sin and rebellion of his creation. The day of the prophets is arguably long past, so let’s go with GPS precision to God’s own words as he provided the color commentary to such events in the life of mankind (I’ve mentioned this before when disaster has waylaid the planet, but prattlers like Pat make it necessary to resod the same acreage).

As we do throughout the year, the people of Jesus’day endured horrifying news. During one such season, Pilate, the Roman governor who had Jesus crucified, mixed the blood of some of Jesus’ countrymen with his pagan sacrifices. Nice guy. Also in the news was a skyscraper (by their standards) that collapsed and killed eighteen folks. As those around him pondered the news of the day, Jesus pointed back, “Do you think that these folks who perished were worse sinners than all others because they suffered such things?"  (Luke 13:2)

A couple interesting points.  First, he didn't deny the sin of those who died.  It's inherent within all men.  It is our nature.  As such, a just and holy God would have been perfectly in the right to smudge out all of humanity.  God happens to love his creation and man in particular (created in his image and all that).  John 3:16 clarions that love for man, a love that would satisfy the justice and make restoration between God and his children.

Second, God recognizes that such events cause suffering.  In a world marred by man's sin, in a world under the curse of man's sin, even the earth groans under the weight of such sin.  Sometimes it bites back.  But within Jesus' statement is the satisfaction of justice.  The wrath of God upon the rebellion of mankind was satisfied upon his Son as he hung on the cross.  The wrath of God will again be poured out on a humanity that has rejected that gift on the earth.  Finally, those who reject that gift will receive their hearts desire in the afterlife, eternal separtion from God on the day of final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

Third, Jesus never gives God's reason for allowing such things to take place on the earth today.  He forces the surmisers' eyes off of those who died and upon the inky darkness of their own hearts.  "No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5).  Whoa.  There's that sin thing again. 

So what the Lord was saying was that when such devastation strikes so very close to home, perhaps we should use such an event to take inventory of our own hearts before God.  It was Jesus first sermon as he started his ministry.  "Repent."  For those of us not crushed by the cement of a cities collapse, we can take stock of our lives before God.  And he has provide the means for our cleansing, our healing, and our restoration to him.  No point in contemplating the why's and wherefore's the darkness that devastated Haiti.

Perhaps Pat Robertson--and the rest of us--should be taking stock of the darkness a little closer to home, and reaching out a hand to those in desperate need tonight.

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(Apart from prompting existential pondering, such disasters give humanity the opportunity to reflect the greatest attributes of God, those of charity, compassion, and sacrifice.  While you and I may not be able to go, there is much that we can do to help...with no reward.  Two possibilities:

• Pray.  God hears.  God cares.  God works and God moves.  And God is there even now just as he was there before, during and in the aftermath of the upheaval.
• Contact a relief organization you trust to get the aid to the agony to make monetary donations or donations of food, water, or other provisions.