| After the
loss of his ten children owing to a “natural disaster” (Job 1:19), Job said,
“The Lord gave,
and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”
(Job 1:21). At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job’s
understanding of what happened. He says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted
him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him”
(Job 42:11). This has several crucial implications for us as we think about
the calamity in the Indian Ocean.
1. Satan is
not ultimate, God is.
Satan had a hand in
Job’s misery, but not the decisive hand. God gave Satan permission to
afflict Job (Job 1:12; 2:10). But Job and the writer of this book treat God
as the ultimate and decisive cause. When Satan afflicts Job with sores, Job
says to his wife, “Shall
we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
(Job 2:10), and the writer calls these satanic sores “the
evil that the Lord had brought upon him”
(Job 42:11). So Satan is real. Satan brings misery. But Satan is not
ultimate or decisive. He is on a leash. He goes no farther than God
decisively permits.
2.
Even if Satan caused the earthquake in the Indian Ocean the day after
Christmas, he is not the decisive cause of 100,000+ deaths, God is.
God claims power
tsunamis in Job 38:8 when he asks Job rhetorically, “Who
shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb . . . and said,
‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be
stayed’?” Psalm
89:8-9 says, “O
Lord . . . you rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still
them.” And Jesus
himself has the same control today as he once did over the deadly threats of
waves: “He . . .
rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm”
(Luke 8:24). In other words, even if Satan caused the earthquake, God could
have stopped the waves.
3.
Destructive calamities in this world mingle judgment and mercy.
Their purposes are not
simple. Job was a godly man and his miseries were not God’s punishment (Job
1:1, 8). Their design was purifying not punishment (Job 42:6). But we do not
know the spiritual condition of Job’s children. Job was certainly concerned
about them (Job 1:5). God may have taken their life in judgment. If that is
true, then the same calamity proved in the end to be mercy for Job and
judgment on his children. This is true of all calamities. They mingle
judgment and mercy. They are both punishment and purification. Suffering,
and even death, can be one or the other.
The clearest
illustration of this is the death of Jesus. It was both judgment and mercy.
It was judgment on Jesus because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was
mercy toward us who trust him to bear our punishment (Galatians 3:13; 1
Peter 2:24) and be our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Another example
is the curse that lies on this fallen earth. Those who do not believe in
Christ experience it as judgment, but believers experience it as, merciful,
though painful, preparation for glory. “The
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who
subjected it, in hope”
(Romans 8:20). This is God’s subjection. This is why there are tsunamis.
Who suffers from this
fallen world of natural disasters? All of us, Christians included: “Not
only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of
our bodies”
(Romans 8:23). For those who cast themselves on the mercy of Christ these
afflictions are “preparing
for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”
(2 Corinthians 4:17). And when death comes, it is a door to paradise. But
for those who do not treasure Christ, suffering and death are God’s
judgment. “It is
time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with
us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
(1 Peter 4:17)
For children, who are
too young to process mentally the revelation of God in nature or Scripture,
death is not the final word of judgment. God’s commitment to display his
justice publicly means that he does not finally condemn sinful people who
could not physically construe natural or special revelation (Romans 1:20).
There is a difference between suppressing revelation that one can mentally
comprehend (Romans 1:18), and not having a brain sufficient to comprehend it
at all. Therefore, when small children suffer and die, we may not assume
they are being punished or judged. No matter how horrible the suffering or
death, God can turn it for his or her greater good.
4.
The heart that Christ gives to his people feels compassion for those who
suffer, no matter what their faith.
When the Bible says, “Weep
with those who weep”
(Romans 12:15), it does not add, “Unless
God caused the weeping.”
Job’s comforters would have done better to weep with Job than talk so much.
That does not change when we discover that Job’s suffering was ultimately
from God. No, it is right to weep with those who suffer. Pain is pain, no
matter who causes it. We are all sinners. Empathy flows not from the causes
of pain, but the company of pain. And we are all in it together.
Finally, Christ calls us to show mercy to those who suffer, even if they do
not deserve it.
That
is the meaning of mercy—undeserved help. “Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you”
(Luke 6:27). Therefore, pray earnestly for Scott Purser and his team as they
investigate the best way that the Global Diaconate can mercifully respond
with the love of Christ to the calamity around the Indian Ocean.
TSUNAMI AND REPENTANCE
by John Piper
From pulpits to news
programs, from the New York Times to the
Wall Street Journal,
the message of the tsunami was missed. It is a double grief when lives are
lost and lessons are not learned. Every deadly calamity is a merciful call
from God for the living to repent. “Weep
with those who weep,”
the Bible says. Yes, but let us also weep for our own rebellion against the
living God. Lesson one: weep for the dead. Lesson two: weep for yourselves.
Every deadly calamity is a
merciful call from God for the living to repent. That was Jesus’ stunning
statement to those who brought him news of calamity. The tower of Siloam had
fallen, and 18 people were crushed. What about this, Jesus? they asked. He
answered, “Do
you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in
Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise
perish.”
(Luke 13:4-5).
The point of every deadly
calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little
to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not
praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his
power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend
our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast
ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and
resurrection of his Son.
This is the point of all
pleasure and all pain. Pleasure says: “God is like this, only better; don’t
make an idol out of me. I only point.” Pain says: “What sin deserves is like
this, only worse; don’t take offense at me. I am a merciful warning.”
But the topless sunbathers
amid the tsunami aftermath in Phuket, Thailand did not get the message.
Neither did the man who barely escaped the mighty wave with the help of a
jungle gym and palm-leaf roof. He concluded, “I am left with an immense
respect for the power of nature.” He missed it. The point is: reverence for
the Creator, not respect for creation.
Writing in the
New York
Times, David Brooks rightly scorns the celebration of nature’s might: “When
Thoreau [celebrates] savage wildness of nature, he sounds, this week, like a
boy who has seen a war movie and thinks he has experienced the glory of
combat.” But Brooks sees no message in the calamity: “This is a moment to
feel deeply bad, for the dead and for those of us who have no explanation.”
David Hart, writing in the
Wall Street Journal, goes beyond
Brooks and pronounces: “No Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities
about God’s inscrutable counsels or blasphemous suggestions that all this
mysteriously serves God’s good ends.”
These responses are
foreseen in Scripture: “I killed your young men with the sword . . . yet you
did not return to me, declares the Lord” (Amos 4:10). “They
cursed the name
of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him
glory” (Revelation 16:9).
Contrary to Hart’s
pronouncement, the Christian Scriptures do indeed license us to speak of
God’s “inscrutable counsels” and how he works in all things for mysterious
good ends. To call this banal and blasphemous is like a bird calling the
wind under its wing wicked.
Jesus said that the
minutest event in nature is under the control of God. “Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your
Father” (Matthew 10:29). He said this to give hope to those who would be
killed for his name.
He himself stood on the sea
and stopped the waves with a single word (Mark 4:39). Even if Nature or
Satan unleashed the deadly tidal wave, one word from Jesus would have
stopped it. He did not speak it. This means there is design in this
suffering. And all his designs are wise and just and good.
One
of his designs is my repentance. Therefore I will not put God on trial. That
is my place. And only because of Christ will the waves that one day carry me
away bring me safely to his side. Come. Repentance is good place to be.
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