God and Disasters 

The question of whether God brings disasters, natural and otherwise, should really be whether God still brings such disasters; for the record of Scripture is clear and unambiguous. The burden of proof is on those who say that God is not the same today as He revealed Himself to be in the Bible. The prophets Isaiah and Amos declare with unmistakable clarity that God is responsible for all calamities and disasters. 

Isaiah 45:5-7:  “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, 6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. 7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”  

This is a general statement about Jehovah, not limited by time, place, or circum-stance. Isaiah has the LORD say, “I bring prosperity and created disaster.” This is a general proposition about God’s nature and work. 

There is a powerful need in the human heart to justify God and to deny that He is in any sense responsible for what we call evil. Every pious soul wants to “justify the ways of God to man.” That need has perennially given rise to what we call theodicy. A theodicy is an attempt to answer the question, “If God is good, why does evil exist?”   

The Persians, even as early as Cyrus, adopted the ideas taught by Zoroaster, a Persian prophet. The Western Aryans thought it simpler and more natural to explain the existence of evil in a moral universe by two equal, or nearly equal, gods who are in perpetual struggle with each other. They believed in a god of light and a god of darkness, a god of good and a god of evil. This dualism attributed everything good, pleasant, bright, happy, holy, pure and sweet to Ahura Mazda, and everything dark, unpleasant, evil, unholy and bitter to Ahriman, the evil god. Thus every calamity, every sickness, unpleasant event comes from the evil god and every good thing from the good god. 

It seems certain that Isaiah is addressing this dualism in his prophecy. There are not two gods, but one God, who creates both light and darkness, prosperity and disaster. Isaiah does not say that God creates moral evil; the holiness of God is affirmed on almost every page of the Bible. But the Bible also speaks of catastrophes as evil—“no evil shall come near my dwelling.” God does not cause sin, or moral evil, but He does cause “evil” circumstances, such as storms, famines, invasions, and the like. 

In the same way the prophet Amos affirms that God is the cause of disasters. 

Amos 3:2-6: [Speaking to Israel, God says:] ”You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins. 3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?  4 Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey? Does he 5 Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set? Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch? 6 When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?” 

The point of this series of rhetorical questions is to show that there is a cause for every effect; and whenever the effect is a natural disaster or invasion, God is the cause. Everything has its cause: there is no smoke without fire, no rain without clouds, no triumphant roar of a lion unless the lion has caught its prey. And no calamity comes upon a city unless the LORD has caused it. 

The Devil, demons, and evil men may be God’s instruments in some cases—indeed they often are; but God is the cause. Biblical writers are at pains to affirm that God is responsible for natural disasters. I grant that Satan, with God’s permission, may have some power over the elements: for example, Satan caused Job’s tragedy by a series of calamities—but only after God gave him permission. The ‘fire of God’ destroyed his cattle and servants; Chaldean raiding parties completed Job’s losses; and a ‘mighty wind from the desert’ killed his children. But only by the express permission of Jehovah was Satan allowed to touch Job, his family, or his possessions. So far as I know this is the only time Satan was credited with any great power over the elements: and even then it was only with God’s express permission. Behind the scenes we see that Satan caused Job’s misery, but only so far as God allowed. We’re not for a moment allowed to forget that while God protected Job with a ‘hedge,’ Satan couldn’t touch him. In the Bible Satan is nowhere represented as the source of natural and political disasters. In fact the opposite is the case. Nor are disasters the result of mere natural causes. 

God’s will is behind all the natural forces. Psalm 104 provides the most beautiful affirmation of this fact. 

Psalm 104:1-4; 7-16; 27-32: “Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. :2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. 4 He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants...7...at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; 8 they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. 9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. 10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. 11 They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. 13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate — bringing forth food from the earth: 15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.... 27 [All creature, including man] look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. 30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works —32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.” 

As beautiful as the Hebrew poetry is, it would be a sad misunderstanding to think of it as mere poetry. It is prophecy spoken as poetry. It tells us things about God that we need to know. For too long Bible readers have been influenced by the modern, mechanical view of the universe. The universe is not like a machine; it is more like an organism, of which the Spirit of God is the animating principle. God never has to break into His universe, to intervene. His Word upholds it, His breath animates it; His power keeps it in existence. So intimately is He involved with His creation, that Paul could say of Him that He is “over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:6), and that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 

Quietly, secretly, God enforces the laws of His creation. The laws of nature are not mechanical laws, but God’s regular, chosen means of governing His universe. He also directs it where He will, and none can deny Him.  

We have to resist any attempt to “get God off the hook,” so to speak. We would know very little about God if He had not revealed Himself. But He has revealed Himself—in the Bible. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself. In it God has told us and shown us what He is like. We need to take Him at His word, no matter how hard it is to fit any particular scripture into our theology. If God says, “I create disaster,” we do not do Him a favor by saying, “God does not cause disaster.” 

There was a time, not long ago, when we referred to any natural disaster, such as a hurricane, flood, fire, earthquake, or tornado, as an ‘act of God.’ We assumed without question that God controlled the destructive forces of nature. The term is still used in insurance policies for insuring property. The idea was that such calamities were events in God’s providential government of the world. When-ever the Bible refers to God’s judgments (especially in the Old Testament),  the reference is generally not to a final judgment, but to God’s providential government in the affairs of men and working of nature. A judgment is a deliverance for the righteous and punishment for the wicked—in this life. 

Ps. 75:6-7:  “No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. 7 But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.”  God executes judgments all the time, silently, invisibly ruling through His Providence. Political changes, revolutions, elections, wars, and natural disasters result from the righteous judgments of God. 

Ps. 105:5-7: “Remember the wonders [God] has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, 6 descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. 7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.” God doesn’t have a throne on earth; His throne is in heaven, from which He orders the affairs of men and natural phenomena to bring about His sovereign will.  

If a natural catastrophe can be a judgment of God, so can blessings and deliverances be judgments. When David prayed that God would judge between him and his enemies, he was asking God to deliver him and to destroy David’s enemies: 

Psalm 7:1-13: “O LORD my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, 2 or they will tear me like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me... 6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice. 7 Let the assembled peoples gather round you. Rule over them from on high; 8 let the LORD judge the peoples. Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High 9 righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure. 10 My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day. 12 If he does not relent, [God] will sharpen his sword; He will bend and string his bow. 13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.” 

It’s quite clear here that David wants God to judge between him and his enemies here and now. If God will search David’s heart, He will see that David is the innocent party, has been upright and blameless, and that his enemies deserve to be overthrown. David expected that God would intervene on behalf of the righteous and save the upright in heart; and in David’s case He did...repeatedly. This is not speaking of a final judgment, but of the daily judgments of Providence: “He expresses His wrath every day.” 

God’s Judgments Are Unfathomable:  In Psalm 36:6 David said to God: “Your judgments are a great deep.” God’s decisions and judgments are unfathomable to man. We don’t know why God does things as He does unless He tells us. As a chosen nation Israel had prophets, men who spoke God’s thoughts, to tell them (and us), that such-and-such a disaster was a judgment of God. But we have no such people among us today. We learn from the ancient prophets that every natural disaster is God’s doing, but without such a prophetic voice we must be cautious in our pronouncements concerning any particular disaster. Indeed, we can be certain that His judgments are always true and fair (Ps. 19:9)—the right people get punished and the right people are saved. We have to leave that with Him. 

That brings us to a crucial question: Why do His judgments sweep away the innocent with the guilty? This question has haunted the media lately, and they keep asking different religious leaders where God is in all this. So far their answers have been largely unbiblical and unsatisfying. 

Scripture always speaks of God as the cause of disasters, invasions and ‘natural’ catastrophes. After we make allowance for the Jewish tendency to ignore second causes and attribute everything to God, we are still left with a solid core of testimony affirming that nothing, whether natural or supernatural, happens without God’s permission. And lest we think of God as passive, we should not make too much of His ‘permissive’ will. We must not think of God as merely waiting to see how He will react to human choices and chance events. 

It’s true that God does not will sin, and that His perfect will is distinct from His permissive will. Clearly God’s perfect will is not done “on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s rule over the world must accommodate the free choices of rational creatures. While Satan has much power in this present age—so much that he is called the ruler of this world (John 12:31), the god of this age (II Cor. 4:4)—God certainly overrules.  Ps. 103:19-22 says,  “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, O my soul.”  

So we see that even in its rebellion this is God’s world; the weather is God’s weather, and the Devil has very little to do with it. In fact, Satan is God’s Devil; he can only do what God permits him to do. Satan instigates, man proposes, but God disposes. So if anyone, attempting to justify God’s ways to man, says that God is not responsible for disasters such as the recent ones, disasters that sweep away innocent and guilty alike, he is not representing God as God’s Word depicts Him—that is, as God depicts Himself. However we look at it, however we rationalize it, however sinful man may be tempted to judge His Creator, God says of Himself: “I create calamity” (Isaiah 45:7). 

I realize that this gives some rebellious people a case against God, but God does not need to explain Himself. He is God. We are mere creatures, and sinful, needy, mind-darkened creatures at that. Those of us who love Him are perplexed by many of His ways. But we know that He is good and that all of the “judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Ps. 19:9).  And finally:  

Isaiah 26:9:  “When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”  Natural disasters, economic failure, wars and strife tend to cause people to examine their lives. After 9/11 the churches and synagogues were full. This is because, despite the platitudes of their rabbis and pastors to the contrary, they somehow know that these are God’s judgment, and that they ought to change their ways. It is altogether unbiblical, ignorant, and detrimental to the souls of men for any “religious expert” to say, as one recently did: “God had nothing to do with 9/11.”

I hope this will help with the perplexing questions that arise from such events as 9/ll, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, economic instability, political upheavals. Though we can easily assign to them natural causes (for God uses natural causes), they are (nevertheless) examples of God’s rule on the earth and among the nations. God has revealed all He wants us to know: for the rest we are to trust in His love and justice. 

Let’s pray: Lord, we gladly leave the hidden things in your care; we who know and love you, are content to know only what you tell us. Amen.