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I thought I would share this thought provoking article written awhile back regarding earthquakes and disasters occurring around the world.
Excerpts from John Piper’s desiringGod.org*:
No earthquakes in the Bible are attributed to Satan. Many are attributed to God (2 Samuel 22:8; Isaiah 13:13; 24:18–20; 29:6; Psalm 60:2; Nahum 1:5–6; Revelation 6:12; 8:5; 11:13f; 16:18).
This is because God is Lord of heaven and earth.
“He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him” (Luke 8:25).
“He sends forth His command to the earth. . . He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; who can stand before His cold? . . He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow” (Psalm 147:15–18).
“He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke” (Psalm 104:32). “[He] shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble” (Job 9:6).
And if the devils try to intrude on his control, “He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him” (Mark 1:27).
Earthquakes are ultimately from God. Nature does not have a will of its own. And God owes Satan no freedom. What havoc demons wreak, they wreak with God’s permission. That’s the point of Job 1–2 and Luke 22:31–32. God does nothing without an infinitely wise and good purpose. “He also is wise and will bring disaster” (Isaiah 31:2). “The LORD is good” (Psalm 100:5). Therefore, God has good and all-wise purposes for the heart-rending tragedies in the world.
God’s unilateral taking of thousands of lives is a loud declaration that “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). The message for all the world is that life is a loan from God (Luke 12:20) and belongs to him. He creates it and gives it and takes it according to his own will and owes us nothing. He has a right to children (2 Samuel 12:15) and to the aged (Luke 2:29). It is a great gift to learn this truth and dedicate our lives to their true owner rather than defraud him till it is too late.
*John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.
BRINDA BLAIR
MAGEE, MS
