Natural disasters have a way of waking us up to the reality of death, making us think about the sort of issues we don’t usually think about in the relative ease and comfort of our first world lives. To a Christian, coming face-to-face with death and the destruction of the highly predictable world we are accustomed to can confront us with questions about what caused the calamity.
The most common explanation is to say that “God did not cause it, but he can use it for good”. This sort of statement has become a kind of slogan which even people who are not saved affirm in the face of calamity. It sounds reasonable at one level because God is good and compassionate and He is not the author of evil. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Habakkuk 1:13 says “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”
However, does this mean that God could not or would not act to bring about a flood like the one we experienced? Instead of trusting our fallen instincts we need to know what the Lord has revealed in scripture. We can’t believe something just because it sounds right, especially if it contradicts the clear teaching of scripture. So what does the Bible teach? Before we go looking for answers, let’s be sure to recognise that there is the potential for every fiber of our being to want to reject what the Bible says if the answers we find don’t fit with what we feel must be right. We are fallen and we live our lives immersed in a culture that has subtly but very effectively manipulated how we view the world we live in. Scripture says we should “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). So let’s be vigilant and tread carefully…
The book of Job is a natural place to start. The events in chapter one of Job present one of the most compelling incidences of suffering by natural calamity in scripture. Verse 19 describes how Job lost his ten children as a result of a “great wind”. Although Satan was the agent in Job’s affliction we see in verse 12 that it was God who gave him permission. In fact, in verse 8, God initiates the discussion that leads to the affliction by asking Satan “Have you considered my servant Job…?” In verse 21, in responding to the news of this natural disaster Job says “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”.
In chapter 2, the heavenly discussion between God and Satan that initiated the events in chapter 1 is repeated – God asking Satan to consider Job again in verse 3. Then in verse 5 Satan says to God “…stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” Then in verse 7 it says that “Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores”. Here we see that Satan’s delivering this affliction is the result of God’s “stretching out His hand”. Satan is real and his intentions are evil, but he did nothing which God did not permit him to. Then in verse 10 after Satan afflicts Job, Job tells his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Moving further into the book, in Job 9:6 the inspired author says “who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble” and in Job 9:12 he says “Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?” In Job 38:8-11 God asks Job “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, …and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” Job’s understanding of what happened in the first chapters is confirmed towards the end of the book where in Job 42:2 he says in prayer “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Again a few verses later it says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).
There is little doubt in this instance, that God is ultimately decisive in this calamity. But what about the rest of scripture - is Job’s affliction an isolated case? The Psalms are another part of scripture that is filled with suffering and affliction and a number of verses specifically relate to our quest. Psalm 135:6 says “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Psalm 89:9 says “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. (89:9); Psalm 104:32 says [He] looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! Also Psalm 147:18 says “He sends out his word, and … makes his wind blow and the waters flow”.
The book of Isaiah likewise makes it clear that God is sovereign over calamity when in Isaiah 45:7, God says “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. Isaiah 31:2 says “And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words”. The book of Amos asks rhetorically "If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?" (Amos 3:6). Similarly, Lamentations 3:38 says “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”
The global deluge that destroyed the entire world with the exception of Noah and his family is described in Genesis 6. In verse 13, God declares “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” In response to the depravity of Sodom in Genesis 19, the Lord “rained on Sodom and Gomorrah Israel
What about the New Testament - do we see the same declaration of ultimate sovereignty over nature and natural disaster? Jesus showed His control over nature when He rebuked the waves in Luke 8:24-25, and commanded unclean spirits in Mark 1:27. The smallest events in nature are shown to be under God’s control including even the death of a sparrow (Matthew 10:29). Also, the very hairs on your head are all numbered according to Matthew 10:29-30.
In Luke 13, Jesus is questioned about the tower in Siloam which fell on and killed some Galileans. His response indicates that the event was an intentional form of temporal judgment saying in verse 5 “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” James refers in James 5:11 to the afflictions of Job as “the outcome of the Lord's dealings”.
Make no mistake, our conclusion is a hard truth. Floods are ultimately from God. In spite of the world’s tendency to attribute disaster to “Mother Nature”, the creation does not have a will of its own. God is sovereign and Satan has no freedom other than what God gives him. God governs everything in creation including natural disasters that result in pain and suffering. That is what the Bible teaches, and in light of that fact, no matter how good our intentions are we cannot say that He was not ultimately decisive in bringing the floods we suffered through.
There is good news though, and we’ll look at that next post…
For now, let us sing to the Lord as David in his Song of Deliverance:
“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me. . . This God—his way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31).
