Is every deadly calamity a merciful call from God for the living to weep, as John Piper says? “Weep with those who weep,” the Bible says. John says “let us also weep for our own rebellion against the living God. Lesson one: weep for the dead. Lesson two: weep for yourselves. I would also say, weep for the living dead – those who want to rule their own lives!
Job was righteous before God, and – and yet he suffered terrible deadly calamity. Even then he was not rebellious. So why does God allow bad things to happen to His people? It was an example to satan – and more importantly, an example to us. Think on that: Deadly calamities happen to the most righteous of men who serenely suffer through it and will tell you to trust in God – for His “good ends.” How do they do it? Why?
David Hart, writing in the Wall Street Journal, “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.
Repentance is a gift! May God grant it! Believe and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remittance of your sins. (Acts 2:38).
Jesus’ first words in Mark 1:15: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” What gospel? It’s in the previous verse: The Reign of God is here! God reigns in the heart of man. Ask Job. Ask Joshua. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus consummated the new covenant – our union with Him.
(Partially From John Piper’s article, “Tsunami and Repentance.”)
