Is God Judging Joplin? Thoughts About Natural Disaster and the Sovereignty of God (Part 1)

(This is a 3 part article; see also Part 2 and Part 3)

With the death toll over 450, 2011 has been the deadliest year for tornadoes in more than half a century. Between April 25 and 28 an outbreak of tornadoes decimated towns across the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, with Tuscaloosa, AL being the hardest hit. Many of us in the Midwest sat in front of our TV's, watching the coverage from a safe distance, and feeling much of the same pathos that we felt watching the coverage after Katrina. We were pained by the loss of so many lives and appalled at the magnitude of destruction. But there was also a disconnect. Unless there were friends or relatives involved, there was no personal loss; and being so far away, there was no personal threat.
 

Residents of Joplin walk on 26th Street near Maiden Lane after Sunday's tornado.

Then there was another round of tornadoes: Reading, KS; North Minneapolis, MN; Joplin, MO. Now the pathos is intensified, the disconnect diminished, the threat increased. Joplin is only a few short hours from Wichita, KS, where I live. My wife was born in Joplin and has family there. We have friends who live in Joplin. We know people who frequently travel between Wichita and Joplin. All of a sudden, we begin to realize, "That could be us. That could be my home, my family, my children. That could have been me."
 

Then the inevitable happens: some self-proclaimed prophet of the Lord seeks to come to your aid.
 

"Yes, the destruction is horrible, but it is not pointless. What you really need to know is that those people deserved it! The death and destruction are really the judgment of God on the city of Joplin for its gross degradation and rampant wickedness!"

Every time some terrible thing happens, someone is going to make this assertion, as if God is behind every catastrophe, exacting vengeance on the wickedness of those who are affected. Some people are wondering if there is any truth to such claims. Others are repulsed by the idea that God would be so vindictive or cruel. How are we to respond?

First of all, anything we say must be informed by God's revelation of himself to us in the Bible. To make any theological assertions at all about the purpose or cause of natural disasters is to make assertions about the mind and will of God. It is to say that one knows with certainty what God's motives and purposes are with regard to such things. So how are we to make any theological claims about them? We can't read God's mind (1 Cor. 2:11, 16). The only way for us to have any kind of certainty about such matters is if God were to tell us. And he has - in the Bible.

I am not saying that God has told us everything about what he does and why he does it. Nor am I suggesting that natural disasters are always the judgment of God poured out on sinners. I am saying that God has given some principles to us that help shape and direct our thinking about these matters.

Sometimes it's judgment, but not always

While the Bible teaches that God has, at times, used natural disaster as a form of judgment (e.g., Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:23-29), a locust plague (Joel 1:2-12)), it also tells us that his judgment is not always, or even most of the time, the reason for the disaster. In fact, the only reason that we know that certain natural disasters in the Bible were acts of judgment is because God revealed that fact to his prophets. I doubt whether God has revealed anything of the sort to anyone concerning Joplin.

Consider some biblical examples of natural disaster that were not the product of divine judgment. The most obvious is the case of Job. One day, while his ten children were hanging out in the oldest brother's house, a great wind, probably a tornado, demolished the house and killed all of them (Job 1:18-19). This was just one of the many calamities that came upon Job, and his friends were quick to pronounce judgment: "Your children were sinners!" (Job 8:4); "You're guilty and God is punishing you less than you deserve!" (Job 11:6); "You, sir, are a horrible sinner! There's no end to your wickedness!" (Job 22:5). Yet, none of these things were true. Job was a blameless and upright man, "one who feared God and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). Why, then, did he suffer if it were not the judgment of God?
 

The answer may be a bit uncomfortable. We are told initially that the reason for Job's suffering was because Satan challenged Job's integrity before God (Job 1:8-12; 2:3-6). So his suffering was merely to prove that Job was who God said he was. It was designed to strengthen and confirm him. In the end, when Job finally gets to speak with God, however, no such explanation is given him. He is merely confronted with the greatness and majesty of God and forced to acknowledge that he, a simple human, is in no position to question or counsel the Almighty Creator God.

Other examples could be multiplied; I will give just one more. Joseph's brothers were jealous of him and so sold him to slave traders who took him to Egypt. After some time, he was thrown into prison for a crime he didn't commit. After several years, God gave Pharaoh a dream that only Joseph could interpret. There would be seven years of abundant harvest followed by seven years of famine. This famine would be so severe that no living thing would have survived if God did not make provision. At Joseph's counsel, Pharaoh ordered that for seven years, grain would be collected and stored in order to provide for the seven years of famine. The famine eventually reached Canaan, where Joseph's father and brothers still lived. Through a series of events, the family ended up moving to Egypt under the protection of Joseph and survived the famine.
 

Now the question is, why the famine? Did Egypt and Canaan commit some heinous crime that demanded punishment from the Lord? Surely there was sin, as there is with any people, and that sin demanded punishment, but the Bible does not say that the famine was the means of that punishment. Instead, Genesis makes it clear that the only intention for destruction was on the part of Joseph's brothers. They carried out their plans in order to accomplish evil; God carried out his to accomplish good (Genesis 45:7; 50:20). God was behind the scenes, orchestrating events, in order to accomplish his purpose. He used the treachery of his brothers to bring Joseph to Egypt. He used the treachery of Potipher's wife to put Joseph in prison (Gen. 39:11-20). He used the carelessness and forgetfulness of the chief cupbearer to bring Joseph to the attention of Pharaoh at precisely the correct time (Gen. 41:9-13). He used the famine to bring Joseph's family to Egypt. And he did all of this in order to fulfill his promise to Abraham and to make his name known throughout the earth (Gen. 15:13-16).

These two examples demonstrate that natural disasters are not always the result of divine judgment. Sometimes, they are the way that God proves his faithfulness and prepares a people to receive his blessing. Sometimes, they are designed to test, to purify, and to strengthen. Most of the time there are dynamics involved that we cannot see. This is, I believe, the case with the Joplin tornado, as well as every other natural disaster that has occurred in my lifetime. I simply do not have enough information to make a judgment, nor will I ever, unless God tells me directly – something he is not frequently in the business of doing.

God is in control, not Satan
 

There is another extreme that people lean towards. Instead of saying that God is directly responsible for natural disasters, they seek to excuse God from all responsibility. They reason like this: natural disasters that claim the lives of hundreds of innocent people are bad; God is good and cannot be held responsible for evil, either moral evil or natural evil; therefore, someone, or something, else is responsible. This other person is usually identified as Satan.

This scheme fits nicely the contemporary understanding of good and evil. God is on one side of the battle fighting for the good and future of humanity. Satan is on the other, fighting against us, seeking our ruin and destruction. This appears to be a satisfactory answer to the age old question of how God can be good while allowing evil to exist. The problem with this explanation, though, is not only that it fails to account for God's omnipotence, but that it fails to account for the biblical evidence which teaches something very, very different.

As with the story of Job, the evidence makes us squirm. Consider the following:

• "Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?" (Amos 3:6)
  
• "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things." (Isaiah 45:7)
  
• "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?" (Lamentations 3:38)
   

These are just a sampling of the passages that make it clear that God himself takes responsibility for natural disasters. This does not mean that God is culpable for evil, but that he is directing and restraining it. The places where the Bible gives us a more in-depth view of the dynamics involved, stories like Joseph and Job, show us that we need to think about the issue in terms of primary and secondary causes.

Consider, again, the story of Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, but who was ultimately responsible for his presence in Egypt? He was blackmailed by his master's wife, but who was ultimately responsible for his presence in the dungeon? He was recommended by the chief cupbearer, but who was responsible for giving him an audience with Pharaoh? He was promoted by Pharaoh, but who was responsible for placing him in a position of power and authority? The answer to all of these questions is: "God was." His brothers, Potipher's wife, the cupbearer, and Pharaoh were all secondary causes. They did what they did because there was another, primary Cause working in and through them, in spite of the wickedness frequently meditated, to accomplish a greater purpose.

The story of Job shows us the same dynamic at work, this time with three layers. The Sabeans took Job's oxen and donkeys and they killed his servants (Job 1:15). Lightening ("the fire of God") killed his sheep and more of his servants (Job 1:16). The Chaldeans took the camels and struck down even more servants (Job 1:17). A tornado claimed the lives of his children (Job 1:18-19). All of these were immediate causes, they directly caused the catastrophes mentioned, but there were forces at work behind them. Satan directed these atrocities, but even he is not the ultimate or primary cause. God, himself, has given Satan permission to wreak havoc in Job's life. This perspective is reinforced by Job's own response to his bereavement. Twice he attributes his circumstances to God, and twice the author tells us that Job was right in doing so (Job 1:21-22; 2:10).

 

The primary example of God's governance of evil is found in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Surely no Christian would deny that the trial, torture, and execution of Jesus Christ was a horrific evil. The sinless Son of God suffered the greatest agonies at the hands of men who owed him their worship. Herod, Pilate, and the Jewish Sanhedrin were all guilty of shedding the innocent blood of the Messiah.

And, yet, what does the Bible tell us about why these events took place? In his sermon at Pentecost, he says that Jesus, who was killed and crucified by the hands of lawless men, was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Later, when the disciples were gathered together, they prayed that God would give them boldness to continue preaching the name of Jesus Christ. In that prayer they say that the things done to Jesus were exactly what God's "hand and [God's] plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28). In these instances, men were the secondary cause, God was the primary cause. God used the actions of sinful men in order to accomplish his ultimate purpose.
 

These examples show that God does not abdicate himself from being involved with disaster. They do not, however, answer all of our questions. How can a righteous God use evil to accomplish his purpose? Why would he choose to do so? These questions are only met with same response that Job experienced: God is sovereign. And the odd thing of it is, this answer is enough. We have a God who is in control of everything. No evil, no disaster, no misfortune will ever compromise God's plan to make sinners eternally happy in him. No person, no tornado, not even the devil himself, will be able to frustrate God's purpose or hinder his promises. Disaster will come, but when it does, we may be sure that it will go only as far as it is permitted and no further. 

(For part 2 of this article, click here.)