Did God Destroy My Home?

The arrival of Hurricane Irma's outer bands have made it difficult to sleep, but what has truly made rest a fleeting desire, is the acknowledgment that at this moment a tremendous amount of lives will have been irrevocably altered.  For certain, an historic amount of property damage will be done; lives surely will be lost. Of course, this statement could be made of the millions of Hurricane Harvey's victims last week, or those individuals whose homes have been stolen by wildfire in Montana.  In fact, there are are a multitude of catastrophic events that compete for our compassion, but it all remains abstract until you yourself are in the line of fire.

That being said, what is our spiritual response?  If you're like me, you may be burnt out by bad news.  An ever increasing torrent of malady, broadcast 24 hours a day via ubiquitous media, has a way of demonstrating that God is absent or at least negligent.

These past few days, as the forecasters predicted the track of Hurricane Irma, they predicted the storm to turn out of the Caribbean and rise up the east coast of Florida, perhaps making landfall just north of where I live in Jacksonville.  As a result, tensions have been high.  Evacuations were surprisingly routine and orderly.  The near miss of Matthew last year taught many a lesson, while brazening the boldness of others.  

Nevertheless, churches have gathered on our beaches to seek the mercy of God.  They worship, sing, and pray the storm away.  Their prayer specifically, "Protect our city."  Surprisingly, as if God had smiled upon their gathering, the next day the storm tracked west, then further west, and more westerly.  While some may consider this a prayer answered, I find it troubling.

Are we to assume that God, hearing our prayers, has protected our city and sent the storm to destroy the lives of our neighbors?  Did the people in Fort Myers let their faith lapse?  Were they caught in arrogance?  Did they not pray hard enough?  Perhaps we had 30 people on the beach to their 29...  Not only do I find this idea to be perplexing, but unbiblical.

Obviously, we're not Jesus, but when Jesus was faced with the wrath of God set to bear down on Him with unrelenting fury, He too prayed that the cup may pass from Him.  We surely do the same.  The storm appears in the forecast, we become anxious, terrified, and in a panic cry out, "Lord if there be any other way, let this storm pass us over!"  But Jesus didn't submit to that temptation.  Rather, he said, "Nevertheless, thy will be done."  

Job had a whirlwind kill all his children and steal all his estate.  Sure, one may point out that the narrative begins by Satan requesting permission to afflict Job, but God granted that permission.  As Job suffered a withering loss of posterity, health, and companionship, he cried out "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him."  

So does God destroy people's homes?  It's not popular to preach, but yes, He does...  God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot and his daughters were saved from the destruction, but we read that "the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land."  

Lot's wife was lost, his sons-in-law were lost, and all that he worked so hard to establish had been lost.  So frightened by the disaster, he took residence in a cave.  His daughters had thought no single man was left alive in all the earth (and if you know the story, you know what happens next).  

The will of God was to destroy those cities.  The citizenry had become fully hardened by sin.  Having forsaken the Imago Dei (their design), they had become not only useless biologically, but had turned their hatred against their Creator.  God reminded them that He was sovereign and that He was still in control.  Yet, by sparing Lot and his daughters, He demonstrated that He was still merciful.  

There is something to be said of intercession here.  Perhaps if Abraham had not prayed for Lot, then maybe Lot likewise would have perished in the flames.  Therein is a principle; that when calamity is upon us, rather than praying for our own protection, we ought to plead for mercy on those who stand to be ravaged.

So if my home is destroyed in the storm, is it God's fault?  This is undoubtedly what millions have thought this past week.  The humanist in me wants to say "Absolutely not!" but the Biblicist says, "Take a deeper look."  There is something priceless to be gained in the storm.  Does the ant fret each time a stray foot destroys his mound?  Does the bird need therapy when her nest is blown from the tree?  

There is an understanding that these creatures work autonomically.  Their homes may be crushed, but rather than philosophize or antagonize nature, or nature's God, their instincts guide them to persevere.

That is not our application, however, because we do.

We are self-aware.  We are spiritually-conscious.  Man does not simply rebuild after calamity, he questions its motive.  Man is transcendent, a little more than just a biological machine.  The storm reminds us this.    

Jesus asked, "Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?"  We are not merely hunter / gatherers.  Human beings do not exist to simply acquire possession and build nests.  Sometimes, we need to be stripped of that vanity, hence the storm is a blessing to be welcomed.

It is difficult to reconcile that some die while others glean a lesson.  It was true for Lot.  It was true of our Lord, but it is nonetheless true.  Romans 9 anticipates our accusation, "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

Thus, as natural disaster comes bearing down on us, instead of praying it away; let us pray to endure.  Let us pray for the stripping away of our vanity.  Perhaps our cities are not to be spared...  Let us discover the Image of God living deep within us.  Let our pride and prejudice be washed away.  Let us uncover our rebellion.  May those to be judged repent and let us escape with our lives eternally.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" - John 11:25