Perilous
Times
Pastor: What is the meaning of pestilence, famine,
earthquakes?
By Pastor Leon King
Published on Saturday, April 30, 2011 10:10 PM AKDT
Pirated airliners piloted by Muslim terrorists fly the planes and
their passengers into the Twin Towers and into the hub of our
military operations, the Pentagon. A preacher says it was the
chastening of a holy God. The media cried against him until he
backed off.
Hurricane Katrina poured its devastation on the city of New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast, taking lives and destroying millions
of dollars worth of property. A preacher says it is the judgment
of God. The media and others pooh-pooh him until …
A terrible earthquake followed by a devastating tsunami hits
Japan, taking thousands of lives. Water and food are scarce,
thousands frantically search for their relatives. According to
Conservative Alerts (March 28, 2011), “The governor of Tokyo,
Shintaro Ishihara, says he fears the Japanese people were being
‘punished.’”
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This writer agrees fully. We need to take stock of ourselves and
see just where we stand in the eyes of a holy God. This excerpt
from “Man’s Misconceptions of the Works of God” by Horatius Bonar
(1808-1880), ought to get our attention. People, we need the Lord
Jesus Christ as savior and Lord!
“By His mighty acts He governs the people.” — Job 36:31, King
James Bible
Bonar continues:
“God’s purpose comes in contact with earth and its dwellers; not
generally and by means of laws, but directly and minutely. His
will, his voice, his hand his arm and all come into contact with
this world, as well as with all other worlds, the creations of his
power.
“He has not left them alone.
“He sustains and rules as truly as he creates them. Not for a
moment does he let go his hold.
“He is the governor among the nations.
“He rules by his power forever.
“His eyes behold the nations. He does according to his will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
“It is with no distant, unheeding God that we have to do; but with
that God who fixes the bounds of our habitation, who counts our
hairs, who feeds the ravens, notes a sparrow’s death, and clothes
the lilies of the field.
“God governs the people by means of the changes of nature. We use
‘nature’ for lack of a better word. We mean earth and sky with all
their motions, and alternations and transformations, great and
small, all ‘natural phenomena,’ as they are called.
“These phenomena, or appearances, appear to us common things; by
some ascribed to ‘chance,’ by others to ‘laws of nature.’
“Here they are ascribed directly to God.
“They are … his voice by which he speaks to us; his finger by
which he touches us; his rod by which he corrects us; his sword,
by which he smites us.
“It seems to be the thought of many that in none of these can we
or ought we to recognize, directly and specially, the
interposition of God; that it is fanaticism to interpret them so
as to make them special messengers of God to us. But the words
before us are very explicit, ‘By his mighty acts he governs the
people.’
“The things by which he is here said to govern the people, are the
common things of the day and year — the rain, the clouds, the
lightning and such like. He uses these as his voice in … warning,
or commanding, or chastising, or comforting.
“These common things do not come by chance, or at random, or by
dead law, but go out from God as his messengers. Thus everything
has a divine meaning and a heavenly voice. Let us listen and
interpret and understand.
“Summer speaks to us with its green fields and fragrant gardens;
winter speaks to us with its ice and snow and frost. By these God
governs the people … the pestilence, the famine, the earthquake,
the lightning, the storm, the shipwreck, the overthrow of kingdoms
and kings.
“Each of these has a special message to the nations — and to each
of us. Let us see God drawing near to us in them; showing his care
and love, manifesting an unwearied concern for our welfare.
“Woe to us if we either misinterpret them, or refuse to interpret
them at all.
“The common daily changes of personal or family life, all speak in
the same way. Not only the sweeping calamity that carries off its
hundreds; but the sickness, the pain, or the gentle indisposition
— these have a voice to us.
“He who has an ear, let him hear!
“We disjoin God from creation and so see nothing in it of divine
life and power.
“We disjoin God from the changes of creation and so find no
meaning in these.
“We disjoin God from the beautiful or the terrible and so realize
nothing in them, which awes, attracts, purifies, or comforts.
“We have so learned to separate between God and the ‘works of
God,’ that we seem to imagine that they contradict each other. The
fair sky, and the clear stream, and the green hills — all speak of
divine goodness.
“This separation of God from his works is one of the awful
features of human unbelief.
“How much more of him would we know, were we to interpret his
works aright and hear his voice in each, whether in love or
discipline.
“By his mighty acts he governs the people.”
Leon King is pastor of the Hidden Hills Sovereign Grace Baptist
Church in Willow.