Why does God allow natural disasters?
Earthquakes, storms and floods raise the hardest question people ask about God: if He is good and almighty, why does the ground itself turn against us? The commentators answer in layers — where the disorder came from, what God is doing through it, and what such events are not.
The ruined home
Writers trace the instability of the physical world back to the fall of man, who was set over creation and dragged it down with him.
W. W. FeredayMan, by his sin, has not only brought ruin on himself, but has marred his home, and dragged down all the creatures dependent upon him. Thorns and thistles are marks of man's sin, much more the groans of the animal creation. Man, unlike angels, was made by God the centre of a system of things. The whole of this lower creation either suffers or rejoices with its head. This is its time of suffering.
Providence, not blind nature
Disasters are not loose events outside God's control. One writer lists them and treats them as God's ordinary way of making Himself heard, distinct from the direct judgments He also sends.
Morrish Bible DictionaryIn various parts of the earth there are fires, earthquakes, eruptions, cyclones, avalanches, floods, frosts, shipwrecks, tidal waves, and so on, some of which happen every year. These occur in the providential government of God, and by them He continually makes Himself heard and shows His power… Such judgments are, sadly, too often counted as natural events or mere accidents and calamities, with no recognition of God, and are soon forgotten. They should warn men; as a light shower often falls before a storm, so these frequent judgments are only the forerunners of the great storm of the wrath of God that will surely fall upon this guilty world.
Physical causes and moral purposes
A scientific explanation of an earthquake does not remove God from it. One writer, discussing the cooling of the earth's crust, holds both together.
The Bible TreasuryThe man of science takes account of natural law only; the Christian knows that God can make natural law fit in with His moral purposes; and therefore the appalling events of recent years may quite possibly be a foretaste of that condition of the globe which is ordained, at a time perhaps not far away, to produce not merely earthquakes with long years between, but "earthquakes in various places," implied to be happening at the same time.
Not a scorecard of guilt
When people brought Jesus news of a massacre, and He raised the case of a tower that collapsed and killed eighteen people, He refused to rank the victims as worse sinners. The lesson was turned back on the listeners.
William KellyYet were they debtors beyond all the men in Jerusalem? On the contrary He repeats, "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." This is God's voice to sinful man in the present disorder of the world. Man is no competent judge of the tangled scene; but he is loudly called through such events to judge himself before God — in short, to repent.
Commentators differ in emphasis here. Some stress human cause and effect behind the world's miseries; others, like the writer above, warn against reading any particular disaster as a verdict on those who died.
Severity that is mercy
Writing while a vast catastrophe was unfolding, one commentator argued that the very scale of it measures how deeply men had stopped listening — and that God allowed no more than was needed.
Hamilton SmithGod bears long with evil, but there comes a time when the glory of His name requires that in His providential government men should hear His voice… But how solemn must be the condition of Christendom that makes such a catastrophe, so far-reaching and overwhelming, a necessity. For we may be sure that if anything less than this would have been enough to wake men from their sinful indifference to God, and to wake Christians from their selfish slumbers, this would not have been permitted, for God is full of mercy.
A refuge while the earth shakes
Psalm 46 speaks of mountains moved into the sea, and still refuses fear. One writer draws out what that psalm gives the believer to hold, both now and for the end.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod is our refuge in every storm; God is our strength in all our weakness; God is our help in every trouble; God will deal in judgment with all the evil; God will bring peace to the ends of the earth; God will be exalted in the earth.
Summary
- Cause. The earth groans because its head fell; man marred his own home, and the whole lower creation suffers with him.
- Voice. What looks like blind nature is God's providential government, and through it He continually makes Himself heard.
- Warning. These are light showers before the storm — small, repeated judgments pointing to a far greater one still to come.
- Call. No disaster ranks the dead as worse sinners; it summons the living to judge themselves and repent.
- Refuge. God allows nothing more than mercy requires, and He remains a refuge in every storm until He brings peace to the ends of the earth.