June 2, 2010
“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?” (Job 38:25-27)
Quite a storm yesterday – torrents of rain, 70 mph winds, thunder, lightning, hail, a tornado or two. Seems we fared pretty well. At one point, an excited radio voice announced, “We have damage reports … a privacy fence down … branches in the streets … more information as we receive it!”
Branches down? Privacy fence blown over?
Reports received this morning include 2-3 inches of volcanic ash all over the city. 30 people, mostly children, buried alive in mud slides. 150 confirmed dead, another 50 missing. People swept away by flood waters. An overwhelming need for food, clothing, medicine, mosquito netting, and water filters.
No, not Omaha … Guatemala City. Just one week in that country did not make an expert of me, but it left an indelible impression on my mind. I see faces, mostly children. Last Thursday, a volcano near Guatemala City erupted, raining ash all over the city. On Saturday, Agatha, the first tropical storm of the season, raked across Guatemala, leaving the dead and mourning in its wake.
I don’t question God as Job did but neither have I experienced the agonizing loss and pain as did Job. Perhaps I’m not inquisitive enough but I don’t often question God, even about life’s tragedies.
But neither do I have the answers. God’s sovereignty is, to me, one of the most precious and powerful truths in Scripture. I do not doubt his capable control, his perfect plan, his secret strategies.
“To bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man” (or children!!) seems perfectly fine with me. But why rain down on a land with steep hills and children living in remote villages at the bottom and burying them … year after year after year? Why do earthquakes shake the vulnerable remote lands so little prepared … Chili, China, Haiti?
Some folks, of course, are so quick to offer God’s divine reasons, like … “Well aren’t those little children better off in heaven with Jesus?” While I cannot diminish their joy in the presence of Jesus, such ill-timed counsel seems awfully unkind to agonizing parents holding the mud-caked body of their lifeless little baby. (People with advanced diarrhea of the mouth have even offered that little piece of ‘comfort’ for tiny victims of abortion! Twisted truth and twisted logic – both!)
In Job’s day, in Jesus’ day, and probably in our own, the ‘gods’ were thought to control nature. Job knew better, but still wanted an audience with the storm God. Jesus warned some folks about assigning blame and sinful behavior on eighteen people killed when a tower fell on them. God controlled nature and not for the sole or primary purpose of punishing people.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God revealed in the Judeo-Christian Bible is the God who both created and controls all of nature (see Job, chps. 38-41; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-3). In doing so, not one of his purposes is left behind, unfinished, or unfulfilled (Job 42:2; Psalm 57:2; Isaiah 14:26-27; 46:10; Romans 9:17).
Whether he rains havoc on one village and sends blessing to another, whether he brings tragedy into one life and wealth into another, and whether he brings drought to one country and abundance to another, he is fulfilling all his purposes.
And some day we may (or may not) understand all of his purpose, from one end to the other. But whether we will ultimately receive that information or even understand it … we, every knee, will bow before him, not to the One who is then, finally, in control, but TO THE ONE WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN CONTROL and accomplishing his divine purposes.
What amazes me is that someone who loses a privacy fence may be beside themselves with their loss, while one who loses a child may crumble with tears in humble reverence to the God who chose to take that child. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 12:6)
Pastor Don