Deluge: You - Part 1

We’ve seen over the past weeks, that Scripture teaches God is sovereign over natural disasters and He has temporal purposes in these things including Judgement, Mercy and Purification. We’ve also looked at the ultimate purpose for these events, which is the same as that for which the universe was created and for which His blameless Son was crucified: the exaltation of His glory.

During our time of focus on this we’ve seen the floods that started in Queensland spread  across four states. Shortly after that Category 5 cyclone Yasi decimated a path hundreds of kilometers wide from North Queensland inland, and this was followed by the Earthquake in Christchurch that killed over 160 people. Finally, just this week the 9.0 quake in Japan which generated a Tsunami which has caused enormous loss of life and the threat of nuclear catastrophe. This surely reminds us of the passage which initiated Job’s trials, when each messenger bringing news of some affliction had not even finished speaking before the next messenger with news of another disaster arrived.

These events highlight one thing for us: suffering will come, including suffering as a result of calamity. 1 Thessalonians 3:3 tells us that we are destined for suffering. Over 50 million people die every year. That means in the time it has taken you to read to this point, almost a hundred people have died, and most of them died in absolute agony. This doesn’t count in the aborted unborn whose silent screams have been heard only by the Almighty who will judge the guilty at the relevant time. By God’s grace we are sheltered from this, (He hears the screams of each of these people) but it is worth reminding ourselves of this because we can easily forget that we live in a world where suffering is the status quo. Some of those who read this may die this year, be diagnosed with an incurable terminal illness, be paralysed after a car accident or lose someone in their family.

Acts 14:22 says that we must enter the Kingdom of God through many tribulations. As Christians who live in this world and minister to the needs of others, we’d better have a theology of suffering on which to base our lives. The conclusions you reach from a careful study of Scripture are difficult to come to terms with, especially in the context of a post-modern, first-world society that worships convenience and comfort. Sadly, the Church has avoided teaching about topics like suffering and this has left the flock inadequately equipped to live biblically in a world of suffering. However, we need to know how to deal with living in a world like this and our dealing with it must be biblical. Romans 8:16-17 even links the existence of suffering in our lives to our assurance that we are children of God, saying “we are children of God … provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” So this is very important.

Scripture reflects a number of the ways in which we should respond to disaster and suffering in general.  This post we’ll look at the first two…

1 Worship

Most importantly our response to any natural disaster should be to worship God. Job’s reaction to the suffering that “the Lord had brought him” (Job 42:11) was to worship Him in acknowledgement of God’s sovereign decision to send suffering, saying in Job 1:21 “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”.

The early chapters of the book of Hosea describe in detail the Lord’s anger at Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness to God and mention famine and whirlwind as examples of the many impending consequences of God’s judgment. God says at the end of Chapter 5 that He will turn away from them until they acknowledge their guilt and seek His face. Then Hosea 6:1 indicates the response which should follow saying, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” Similarly, Psalm 57 shows how the psalmist exalts and worships God, taking refuge in Him in the midst of storms of destruction.

Hebrews 12 instructs us to look to the sufferings of Jesus as the example we should follow in trials. In doing so, it draws into the argument both the example of persecution (which Jesus endured) and the struggle against sin (which we endure) in illustrating that the very existence of suffering in our lives is evidence of us being legitimate children of God. God’s use of suffering in our lives to achieve His infinitely wise purposes in us needs to draw us into thankful, submissive worship.

2 Weep

Disaster should lead us to weep for and with those who suffer and to mourn over our sin. The new heart which Christ gives us in the new birth causes us to feel for those who are suffering. The first thing to do after a calamity is not to give people answers. They need love and care and they need help getting their lives in some kind of order. There will be plenty of time for giving answers after comfort has been provided.

Calamity brings to light the immense potential within people for doing good. We see dim reflections of the nature of mankind before the fall. A friend who is not a Christian and who lost everything made an amazing statement after the floods earlier this year. After recounting the experience and the extent of his loss, he began to speak about his being “blown away” by the generosity of strangers who just showed up to help. Then he said “I think we should have a flood like this every ten years!” That is amazing! In fact a bible scholar in the time of Martin Luther once said that seeing the sinful nature of the world, he was surprised there was not a Noahic deluge every year!

Romans 12:15 says we should “Weep with those who weep” without any qualification. Our weeping with those who suffer does not depend on the cause of the suffering. We know from our reading of Scripture that the Lord sovereignly decides which disasters will and will not come. Empathy comes from the pain and is unrelated to the cause.

We know that the Lord is just in sending disaster, because the horrific nature of the sin of mankind in stark contrast to the worthiness of God to receive our worship and obedience means we are deserving of nothing better. However, this should not undermine our compassion for those suffering either. We are sinners too, and we feel their pain.

We should weep with those who suffer regardless of their faith or their lack thereof. Mercy is by nature undeserved, which is why Luke 6:27 says “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you”.

The other reason for weeping is over sin. We know that creation groans as described in Romans 8 because of the effects of the fall which resulted from sin. In James 4, in giving a warning against sinful worldliness, verses 8 to 10 tell us that the appropriate response is to “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Not only is sin often directly or indirectly the cause of calamity, but the depravity of man is evident even during and after disaster. It is tragic how many examples you see of people who, not being affected personally by a natural disaster, continue on in the midst of the destruction as if nothing has happened – mowing the lawn, jogging, having haircuts etc. Some who are much less affected than others help themselves first even as they receive help from those who choose to help them first. Others instantly move into a “victim” mode and instead of being happy for those whose lives and property is spared, they show anger and bitterness that they were not spared. Still others vent the stress in road rage, family arguments, and deceitful scheming to take advantage of government financial assistance, not to mention looting and theft.

As always, our response to sin should be sincere and godly repentance. We should mourn over the contribution our sin makes in general to a fallen world, we should be sorrowful if our response in disaster is not what it should be and we should repent for the fact that it is only when we experience disaster that we selfishly focus on all these things. Every day around the world, the majority of people on earth experience worse than we do in disasters, and yet we rarely even notice. Where are the good Samaritans among us?