in Times of Great Disaster

STANLEY
THE

CHARLES F.

SPIRITUAL F O U N D A T I O N S SERIES

In Times of Great Disaster Copyright 2005; all rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update. Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1994.

IN TIMES GREAT DISASTER

N DeCemBer 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake registering 9.0 on the richter scale struck about 100 miles from the western coast of Indonesias Sumatra Island. The slippage of the earths tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean generated a mammoth tsunami that, within hours, had caused death and devastation in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and several other countries. The unforgiving waves wrenched children from their mothers arms, swallowed whole families, and wiped out entire villages. more than 150,000 lost their lives. The destruction affected people across the entire globelocals, tourists, and extended families. As the awesome tragedy played itself out, we watched in aching horror and our hearts broke. We stood speechless, not understanding how or why such an awful thing had happened and wondering where God was in the midst of it. In times of disaster, people ask legitimate questions: Where was God when this happened? Why does He let such catastrophes occuris it divine judgment upon a certain group of people? Was God involved at all, or was it just some bizarre quirk of nature?
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Sometimes we feel guilty about asking questions like these, but we should remember Jesus words from the cross: my God, my God, why have You forsaken me? (matthew 27:46) In times of crisis, it is natural that we pose the question Why? much of the time, people answer questions like these based on their personal relationship with God (or lack thereof) or on their knowledge of Scripture (or poor understanding of it). Thus, there is confusion and contradiction as people struggle to make sense of calamity particularly when authority figures weigh in with their own interpretations. The viewpoints we hear are often totally unscriptural, and yet, we frequently listen and assume they are true. But as Christians, we have access to the one source of dependable truth: the Word of God. From Scripture, we can derive a completely reliable and genuinely helpful perspective. In the midst of our myriad questions, we know one thing for sure: life is uncertain and we are not in control of our circumstances. There are things around us more powerful than we are. When disaster strikes, it not only affects us on a national or international level; it also affects our lives individually. God has not spelled out all the answers we would like, but He has provided enough for us to live with assurance and confidence regarding His purpose and sovereignty. So what do we know for certain?
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1) God is in control. Psalm 103:19 says, The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. That means everythingall times, all people, all nature, and all events. Did God know about the tsunami before it struck? Yes. Could He have stopped it? Yes. Then why didnt He prevent the devastation? None of us know. Our finite minds are limited; there are things that we simply cannot understand because we are earthbound. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. God clearly reveals the things He specifically desires us to understand and knows we are able to understand, so that we can obey Him without confusion. But our inability to grasp Gods ways does not at all diminish His absolute control over the circumstances. 2) God cares for every person. matthew 10:29 assures us that Gods loving care extends even to the sparrow, the most commonplace of birds. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. He could have mentioned the beautiful bluebird or the industrious hummingbird, yet God purposely singled out a creature worth only half a penny. If His loving attention extends even to an ordinary bird, then there is certainly no
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aspect of our lives that escapes His providential care. God loves every single person, sinner and saint alike; whether we respond to His love or not is a different issue. So in the midst of hardships we dont understandin those moments when we feel helpless and bewildered about why tragedy has struckwe can know God is still there, caring for us. 3) Gods desire for all mankind is redemption through faith in Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17). religions around the globe profess gods of judgment and harshness. But the God of the Bible is a God of love. John 3:16 tells us that our heavenly Father so loved the worldwhich includes the areas hit with the devastating tsunamithat He gave His Son to enable mankind to escape spiritual death and live forever. This verse underscores the fact that Jesus came to save, not judge, the world. The cross was an amazing expression of divine lovethere, the Son of God hung in humiliation and agony for your sake and mine in order to pay our sin-debt in full. Our Creator wants us to acknowledge Him as our Father and His Son as our Savior so that we can enter into a per$ 6 $

sonal relationship with Him. And no matter what we go throughno matter how much pain, separation, and heartache you and I experience, and no matter how sinful we might bewe know for certain that Gods love never changes. 4) God always works with a sense of purpose. God does not react to circumstances; rather, He has a plan and a reason for everything He does. As an example, the Israelites who cried out for Gods help probably wondered why He had allowed Pharaohs oppression or whether He had control over the situation at all. (exodus 3:9) And yet, romans 9:17 confirms that God truly was in charge: For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. In a similar way, Jesus crucifixion may have looked like a scheme His enemies devised against Him, but Acts 4:27-28 reveals that everything they did was a part of what God had predestined to occur. Jesus Christ came for the purpose of giving His life as a ransom for many. (matthew 20:28) In earthly terms, He died as a result of crucifixion by the romans, instigated by His enemies. And yet, God had predetermined that this must take place. It is important to remember, however, that while God always has a reason for what He initiates, we will not always understand His purpose,
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and He does not owe us an explanation. But we can trust that His purpose is always righteous and that He will use the circumstances for our good as He promises. (romans 8:28) While we live on this earth, we can see things only from our finite vantage point, but our heavenly Father sees how everything works together for His larger purpose. Disaster does not catch Him off guard so that He merely responds to it. God allows even tragic things to happen for a purpose, perhaps known only to Him presently. But whatever His reason for allowing the recent tsunami, we can be certain that the whole world has been shaken into the realization that life is fragile. each one of us must consider that when disaster strikes, everything in which we have placed our confidence will be tested. If we have built our lives around things that are temporal, such as earthly possessions, they will crumble, leaving us bitter and hopeless. Hebrews 12:27-28 says that God allows these times of shaking in our lives so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. If, as the old hymn says, our faith and security are built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, they will stand. In matthew 7:24-27, Jesus compared this unshakable kingdom He has given to usmade up of everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on themwith a house that a wise man built on solid rock. Instead of collapsing like the house built
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on sand, when the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the house it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 5) God sometimes uses His creation to accomplish His purpose. Genesis 19:24 tells us that the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire to destroy the evil in those cities; more than likely, this was a volcanic eruption of hot molten ash. earlier, in Genesis 7, God warned Noah that He planned a worldwide flood to destroy the wickedness of mankind and start over. At that time, His purpose was to judge the rebellion of the people. However, that does not mean judgment is necessarily the reason He allowed a tsunami to devastate so many people in our day; we simply do not know His reason behind the disaster in Asia and Africa. But was God aware it was coming? Yes. Could He have stopped it? Yes, but He didnt. He allowed it to carry out some purpose that we may never grasp. What we do know for certain, though, is that He sometimes uses creation to accomplish His plan. 6) Because Gods ways are not our ways, we often rebel. How often do we hear, A loving God would not have allowed this to happen? When people cannot see a reason for pain and sorrow, they tend to blame God or even question His existence. Isaiah 55:8-9
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addresses this complaint: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Our perspective is incredibly limited while we walk on this earth. Demanding that God act according to our perspective would be similar to an ant claiming that he sees everything the eagle sees. God is the sovereign Lord of the universe who sees all, knows all, and is in control of all. Without Gods sovereignty, the whole world would live in precarious moment-by-moment instability. We would have no assurance of anything, living as victims of fate and circumstance. But God has not left us hopeless and helpless. He has revealed Himself to us and continues to impart knowledge of Himself to us through His Spirit. And so, although our understanding is limited and rationale for tragedy escapes us, as we look back on our hardships, His purposes often come into focus. History is rife with calamitywars, plagues, natural disasters; we live in a continuum of death and rebirth. every day, people all over the world lose their lives in numbers rivaling the tsunamis toll. The United States Census Bureau reported in November 2004 that worldwide, more than 150,000 die every day. Some die of old age or disease; some unjustly die because of violence or even persecution. As terrible as it may seem to us, death is a part of every$ 10 $

day life. Because it is scattered throughout the world, we are only vaguely aware of its daily presence. When a large-scale disaster strikes, however, we suddenly see a singular composite view of this difficult reality, and it is alarming. We wonder how God could allow such a thing. In Isaiah 45:9, God confronts our criticism of His ways: Will the clay say to the potter, What are you doing? Or the thing you are making say, He has no hands? In other words, we should think twice before we rashly make judgments about God. This does not mean God will become angry and punish us for bringing honest questions and complaints to him (as Job did). It simply points out the futility of arguing with the One whose ways are far superior to ours. 7) In the end times, God will use nature to remind us of His imminent return. In matthew 24:6-8, Jesus spoke of the earth giving warnings of the end times. You might ask, Havent natural calamities been occurring for years? They certainly have. But as each day passes, the time is getting closer for the Saviors return. mankind will not know the day, the month, or the year, but there will be a generationperhaps even oursduring which the Lord Jesus Christ returns. So when we witness natural events that we personally have never before experienced, we would be wise to let them remind us that Jesus will come back. each
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of us has a responsibility, not to figure out exactly when He is returning, but to be ready for His coming, whether it is for us individually or for the whole world. (matthew 24:42-44) We are to live our lives ready for death; if we are not prepared to die, we are not prepared to live. And we are each to live with this passionate desire in our hearts: to get the truth of the Gospel to those who do not know Christ, without delay. As Jesus said in matthew 24:14, This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. We must never lose sight of Gods desire for the whole world to hear the good news of reconciliation with Him through Christ. While some may say that Jesus is taking a long time to return, Scripture makes it clear that the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). 8) every great disaster is a merciful call to repentance for all who witness it. The mindset of Jesus first-century audience was that disaster and suffering were always the result of sin. In Luke 13:15, He addressed their erroneous attitude by pointing out two horrifying tragedies of the daya massacre of Galileans by the romans, and a tower collapse that killed people in the town of Siloam. The Lord said that this death and destruction did not indi$ 12 $

cate the victims were worse sinners than anyone else. Applying this logic to the terrible tragedy in Africa and Asia, we cannot conclude that this was an act of Gods judgment or that those who died were more sinful than the rest of us. Some of the many thousands who died were no doubt wicked, but wicked people populate the entire earth, including wealthy countries that were not directly affected by the crisis. The Lord stated clearly in this passage and elsewhere that disaster, turmoil, and suffering do not necessarily happen because of sinfulness. Furthermore, it is important to remember that all of the children who died in this disaster have not lost their lives. Because young children die in a state of innocence, they are not parted from God when they pass from this life into the next. They go home to be with God in heaven. (2 Samuel 12:23) WHILe ANY TrAGeDY like this one confounds us, it certainly serves the purpose of getting our attention. If we are open to God, He will use the situation for a good purpose in our lives. In other words, the question to ask about calamity is not Why? but rather What is God trying to say to me through this? In times of hardship, the ultimate question God poses to us is, Are you ready? Jesus said, Unless you repent, you will
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all likewise perish (Luke 13:3, 5). The message in any disaster, whether personal or farreaching, is this: our heavenly Father wants to remind us that He loves us, even when we do not understand His love. He is willing to forgive all our sins, although none of us deserve forgiveness. But unless a person repents of sin, he or she will perish. Are you ready? If not, its time to get ready. First, examine your heart, repent of your sins, and surrender your life to Jesus Christ. If you know Christ as your Savior, share Him with others. Because we are so frail and live in such tenuous times, and because His return is near, Jesus commands us: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (matthew 28:19-20). Second, extend a compassionate hand of faith in action to those who are suffering. James 2:14-17 says, What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. God has given His church the awesome responsibility of being
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the hands and feet of Jesus in times of tribulation. We are called to minister to the broken in body and spirit. Sharing the love and truth of Jesus Christ should be a priority for any Christian. The tsunami of 2004 brought waves of suffering to millions of people who are now desperately searching for hope. everything they have known and trusted has been called into question. Their hearts are open as they seek hope, assurance, and the source of truth. In reality, people all over the world are always searchingtheir brokenness is just more painfully apparent amid tribulation. What is it that drives us to our knees in prayer? What is it that causes us to seek God with all of our heart? Pain, suffering, heartache, and things we dont understand. When I think about all the people who have been shaken by the reality of how fragile life is and how quickly it can be snuffed out, I grieve. I have to ask God if He has allowed this to happen to shake this world into a fresh realization of how desperately we need Him. Despite the intensity and magnitude of our sorrowand it is greatwe know with certainty that God does not act without purpose. We also know that He will bring from this tragedy His goodness and His glory. He will because He promised.
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