Every time a significant natural disaster occurs where lives are lost and homes are destroyed it is very natural to ask WHY? You could also extend this to any time a tragedy strikes. The sudden loss of a friend or family member in a car accident. The discovery of a terminal disease. A miscarriage or the death of an infant. Even those with a nominal belief in God will be asking things like...
In Job ch. 1 we read of the righteousness of Job and how there was no one on earth like him in God's eyes. And yet horrible disaster comes upon his livestock, servants, and children. It has nothing to do with Job's sinfulness - although his friends will try to convince him it does later in the book.
Does the Bible record times where God brought things such as a tornado upon a city or group of people as a punishment? Yes. Does that mean every disaster or even most of them occur for that same reason? No. And just because God has punished people this way in the past, we have no right nor perspective to say he is doing so now. That's not only extraordinarily insensitive but arrogant and foolish as well.
2) God is in full control of the universe.
One thing we cannot escape however is that even when horrible things like tornados and tsunamis and hurricanes happen God is still in full control of the universe. God is never surprised by anything that occurs and he is never powerless to stop any of it. Indeed, nothing happens in the entire universe unless God either causes it directly or permits it to happen.
Now that brings us to an obvious and extremely important question we mentioned above. If God has the power to prevent this, why didn't he? This question has led many people to give up on their commitment to God or belief in him altogether.
Surely God has complete power over his creation. He does with it what he pleases. (Job 42:2; Ps. 115:3; 135:6) The Bible leaves no doubt about this.
We also see that God is 100% good and completely righteous in all his actions (Ps. 92:15; 145:17; 1 John 1:5)
So why does God allow so much evil and destruction in the world? I honestly can't give you a good reason. What I can say is that God is wise beyond all human understanding.
His plans and his ways are unsearchable and inscrutable (Rom. 11:33). He is working all things together for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). And part of faith is trusting that he knows what's best for his creation better than we do.
3) When sin came into the world it broke everything.
When Adam & Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter 3 it didn't just affect them and all humans after them, it affected the entire universe. Sin broke everything.
We get a hint of this in Gen. 3:17 when God says to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you." We also see in Romans 8:20 that creation has been "subjected to futility." In other words, sin not only negatively affected human beings but also nature as well.
Mosquitos bite. Weeds grow. Termites chew up your house. People get colds. Babies die. Divorce happens. Cancer exists. And natural disasters destroy homes and lives.
When we see a tornado we should think: sin. Not the individual sins of the people in the path of the tornado, but the effects on sin in the world.
4) Jesus is the cure.
When Jesus died on the cross he gave us the opportunity to be set free from our bondage to sin. He defeated Satan and instituted part one of God's two-part plan to heal this broken creation.
One day Jesus will come again and complete part two. He will set right all that was broken by the entrance of sin into the world. And Rev. 21:1 says God will create a new heaven and a new earth - a place where things like weeds, cancer, and natural disasters don't exist anymore.
Why did this happen?
Why is God doing this to me?
If God has the power to prevent this, why didn't he?
So what can we learn from the Bible about how to think through natural disasters and God's involvement? Here are a few lessons.
1) We can never say that natural disasters are God's punishment for the sins of the people affected.
In Luke 13:4-5 Jesus says,
Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you.It's very clear Jesus is saying that natural disasters often do not have anything to do with the sinfulness of the people affected. Indeed we're no better than any of those people in Moore, OK and something could just have easily have happened to us.
In Job ch. 1 we read of the righteousness of Job and how there was no one on earth like him in God's eyes. And yet horrible disaster comes upon his livestock, servants, and children. It has nothing to do with Job's sinfulness - although his friends will try to convince him it does later in the book.
Does the Bible record times where God brought things such as a tornado upon a city or group of people as a punishment? Yes. Does that mean every disaster or even most of them occur for that same reason? No. And just because God has punished people this way in the past, we have no right nor perspective to say he is doing so now. That's not only extraordinarily insensitive but arrogant and foolish as well.
2) God is in full control of the universe.
One thing we cannot escape however is that even when horrible things like tornados and tsunamis and hurricanes happen God is still in full control of the universe. God is never surprised by anything that occurs and he is never powerless to stop any of it. Indeed, nothing happens in the entire universe unless God either causes it directly or permits it to happen.
Now that brings us to an obvious and extremely important question we mentioned above. If God has the power to prevent this, why didn't he? This question has led many people to give up on their commitment to God or belief in him altogether.
Surely God has complete power over his creation. He does with it what he pleases. (Job 42:2; Ps. 115:3; 135:6) The Bible leaves no doubt about this.
We also see that God is 100% good and completely righteous in all his actions (Ps. 92:15; 145:17; 1 John 1:5)
So why does God allow so much evil and destruction in the world? I honestly can't give you a good reason. What I can say is that God is wise beyond all human understanding.
His plans and his ways are unsearchable and inscrutable (Rom. 11:33). He is working all things together for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). And part of faith is trusting that he knows what's best for his creation better than we do.
3) When sin came into the world it broke everything.
When Adam & Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter 3 it didn't just affect them and all humans after them, it affected the entire universe. Sin broke everything.
We get a hint of this in Gen. 3:17 when God says to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you." We also see in Romans 8:20 that creation has been "subjected to futility." In other words, sin not only negatively affected human beings but also nature as well.
Mosquitos bite. Weeds grow. Termites chew up your house. People get colds. Babies die. Divorce happens. Cancer exists. And natural disasters destroy homes and lives.
When we see a tornado we should think: sin. Not the individual sins of the people in the path of the tornado, but the effects on sin in the world.
4) Jesus is the cure.
When Jesus died on the cross he gave us the opportunity to be set free from our bondage to sin. He defeated Satan and instituted part one of God's two-part plan to heal this broken creation.
One day Jesus will come again and complete part two. He will set right all that was broken by the entrance of sin into the world. And Rev. 21:1 says God will create a new heaven and a new earth - a place where things like weeds, cancer, and natural disasters don't exist anymore.
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