Just another day: Of twisters and quakes

Tornadoes raked across the United States again leaving 39 dead. Meanwhile the earth rumbles in San Francisco (4.0), Argentina (6.0) and the South Pacific (6.6). It seems like there's a lot more people dying and suffering due to natural disaster in recent years than when I was a kid. Some would argue that we have more information at our fingertips, but back then (yes, well after the telegraph), the news media got things out from around the world in minutes. To me, it seems like the world's amped up.  It's getting the attention of others, too (here).

Few people can witness such catastrophe, either first hand or through the media, and not contemplate God's hand in such events (except for Tom Hanks' character in Castaway).

Some scoff at such as Neandrethal musings. A small percentage of humanity has attained to such a level of hubris that they have removed God from any and all equations. "We're smarter than that now," they declare from their mile-high Darwinian throne as they glower down their noses. The rest of us rightly wonder.

If you declare yourself a Christian, nominal or otherwise, or a theist, it wouldn't hurt to know what the Bible has to say.

Job seemed to have a grasp of God's role in wind and rain:

 “God understands the way to it,
    and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight
    and apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain
    and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
then he saw it and declared it;
    he established it, and searched it out.
And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
    and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” (28:23-28)

The songwriters of old had the same idea:

"Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
    in heaven and on earth,
    in the seas and all deeps.
"He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
    who makes lightnings for the rain
    and brings forth the wind from his storehouses." (Psalm 135:6-7)

Jesus credited God the Father as the sender of rain and other celestial happenings:

"For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)

That leaves the question "Why?" sitting on my soul like a wildebeest. So why did 39 die by tornadoes this weekend? I don't know. These things I do know:

1. I can't indict God of wrong-doing. We lack that little quality of omniscience to hold court against the Almighty. David declared, "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works" (145:17). I have a very limited perspective of things compared to an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and holy-in-all-his-ways God.

2.  The world is broken just like man. When man rebelled against God (Genesis 3, in case you missed it), even the earth was cursed. Now, that very place that was to be a haven to mankind has become as friendly as the grizzly bear. Sure it looks cute and cuddly and all that, but! Even the creation groans under the weight of man's rebellion and sin (Romans 8:19-21).

3. Disaster shouldn't make me shake my fist at God but examine the darkness of my own heart. I've mentioned this passage before in this blog (here and here) but it bears repeating. In Luke 13, folks wondered about some atrocities that were making the news around Galilee. Jesus didn't condemn those who died of some greater sin, but he did challenge those who were aware of the events of their own mortality.

"Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3, 5)

On another occasion, Jesus used a natural event in fallen world, a man born blind, to show the glory of God while others were wondering whose sin caused such events (John 9:1-3).

Here's the deal. It's not going to get better. The One who rose from the dead and was taken into heaven will one day return to this earth in the same manner he was taken up (Acts 1:9-11). You'd think the very resurrection of Jesus Christ would seal the deal in the mind of most folks, but in our jaded, CGI-laden, bust-augmented society we have let our thinking become clouded like the minds of Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian in C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair. Before Jesus returns, he has promised that things will get darker and that even the earth will begin to reel as it anticipates his return (Matthew 24:7-8, 29).

And, yes, there will be scoffers.  No surprise. Peter, Jesus' friend, foresaw that very attitude.

I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ...But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

The time is far nearer now than when Peter first put pen to papyrus. We grieve the loss of loved ones. We comfort those who remain. We help those who suffer out of the abundance that God has provided each one of us. We do not know why disaster has befallen these people.  Certain things we do know and we are responsible for them. And we trust the One who has created us, loved us, and redeemed us at the cost of taking on flesh and giving his life for ours.

At the very least, it should cause us to examine where we stand before a holy and righteous (and good) God.
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Note: If you would like to research the problem of evil, suffering and the goodness of God from a biblical perspective, I highly recommend Randy Alcorn's thorough work on the topic entitled If God is Good. He uses the Bible and not his own opinions to come to his conclusions. It's available for $14.99 last I looked through his web-site, cheaper than through Amazon.