A Christian & Disaster

The sinful mind will never be able to find a satisfactory and true answer for disasters like the one our nation just witnessed and experienced when planes full of people came crashing into buildings full of people. The world searches the wreckage and hunts for clues as to who may have done this. But finding who did it is far from understanding why it happened. And even believers like ourselves are left open mouthed, staring at the TV screen, confused, wondering, searching for answers.

The mind of God is beyond our comprehension. No true answers will be found sifting through pieces of wreckage. Nor will answers be found within our minds and hearts as we ponder the events. We Christians look to God's Word for answers. The good Lord may not tell us everything we would like to know to our satisfaction, but he does tell us a great deal.

God is in control. When evil people succeed in their plans as we just witnessed, the natural thing for us sinners to do is ask: Where was God? Why did he let such a thing happen? God was right where he always is--ruling his creation. The Bible tells us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground or a single hair falls from our head without the Lord's authority (Matthew 10:29-30). Nothing happens outside of God's control. Nothing!

Even when Satan and evil people seek to hurt and harm, God is in control. Read the first two chapters of Job and see how Satan had to come before God for permission to touch Job and his family. Nothing happens outside of God's providence.

But be careful; do not accuse God of evil when he allows such disasters. People who study the Bible are careful to call God giving permission for something to happen Divine Concurrence. God co-operates in the act but not the evil intent of the act. When Joseph's brothers, full of hate, sold their little brother as a slave, God was certainly in control of every action. But the goals of the hateful brothers and the goals of the God of love were millions of miles apart. Joseph looked back on his ordeal and said to his brothers: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done (Genesis 50). God is in control even when disasters come.

God has his reasons. People are looking for a reason this may have happened. I doubt if there is one reason; there are, no doubt many, many reasons that God did what he did. It's likely that the death toll will reach far into the 1000's. Add to that all the lives that go on, but now forever changed-spouses, parents, friends who are lonely and sad. God could very well have different reason in mind for each person involved, even for each person like you and me who only watch from a distance. The Almighty God who created this world is quite capable of directing the details of billions of people every day, and making one event have different effects on different individuals.

For someone the time of grace was finished. Seek the Lord while he may be found (Isaiah 55:6). He had kept putting off to tomorrow that for which the Lord gave him today. And for him, there was no tomorrow. God never lies, not about Jesus and heaven nor about sin and hell. God has his reasons.

For someone the call to seek the Lord took on new meaning. He was just worried about this life. Death, meeting God, that was stuff for grandpa's and grandma's. Now was the time to enjoy life. But then came the news...a brother, a sister, a friend, a person (stranger though he be) was here yesterday and gone today. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart (Hebrews 3:15). God has his reasons.

Someone else was pulled closer to God. He always went to church, hardly missed a Sunday. He even read his Bible sometimes. Why? He could not really explain. He learned why once a long time ago. Now it was just something he did. But then came this disaster - one of seemingly too many recently. Then came the flurry of prayer, the wrestling with the important questions of faith. The faith was there all along. Thank God! But thank God also for the wake up call! He remembered a passage from his early years - do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). God has his reasons.

Someone had run his course. He was not particularly old, by the world's estimation. It was just time - God's time. God could have used all kinds of ways - a car accident, cancer, heart disease, old age - he chose to use a high profile event, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. It was not like this was a last minute, snap discussion on God's part. Nothing happens by accident in God's world. The Lord had his gracious eye on this person already before he created the world. Jesus was thinking of him when he lived, died and rose again here as Savior. The Holy Spirit had come to him personally and worked faith in him years earlier. The Spirit had made sure that faith stayed alive. The Triune God had it all planned. And then God did it - God took that person home to heaven. Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world (Matthew 25). There were hours and hours of news coverage, but so precious few knew the really big story. Most were like blind people trying to describe colors. They did not have a clue that God was doing something wonderful for someone right in the middle of all that wreckage, pain, and confusion. God has his reasons.

Pastor Jim Hoff

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