Why does God allow natural disasters?

God no doubt allowed those to be slain upon whom the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:4), and it was a warning for others to be ready when death came, a readiness that comes with repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Many innocent women and children have perished in the wars of mankind, and many questions regarding this may rise in the mind, but the Christian knows that all God’s ways are perfect, and that the judge of all the earth is righteous in all His acts and ways.

Nor does the Lord, to Whom all belongs below as on high, need the apology of man to justify His permission, any more than for the sickness and death, the plague and the famine, the tempest and the earthquake, which He employs providentially in this fallen world. To what purposes of grace does He not turn every one of these inflictions for such as hear His word. So doubtless it was then whether Jews or Gentiles owned the swine.

Whatever may be the extent of creation we may reasonably conclude that the earth is the centre of interest as being the home of man. The place of that being in God's counsels proves this and accounts for the way that things are ruled not to speak of the grand fundamental facts of Incarnation and Atonement. Certain it is that the earth does not travel in her orbit as an isolated unit, unaffected by those other bodies which fill the heavens in a visible way. In the providence of God all this has in view the need of our bodies and the whole animal creation as well "for He openeth His hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." Sunshine and rain, storm and tempest, the lightning's flash and thunder's peal, all speak of divine power put forth beneficially in view of life upon the earth. These things along with others such as pestilence, famine and earthquakes may also be used in His holy government for keeping evil in check and the maintenance of moral order in a fallen race. All is wisely ordered in view of forming the character and shaping the conduct of man and qualifying him to learn the wisdom, power and glory of his God. In this way the material is governed by the moral throughout creation and God's power is seen as servant of His love. He maketh His sun to shine on the just and unjust, He may make it stand still or even hide it in darkness. The moon, too, is stayed in her journey and the stars made to fight in their courses, the wind becomes His messenger, the rain fulfils His command, and the earth itself is made to tremble. All this and much more may be seen as creation's testimony to its God.

Pestilence, which has often swept away its thousands. Ezek. 14:13-21.

Besides these there are in various parts of the earth conflagrations, earthquakes, eruptions, cyclones, avalanches, floods, frosts, shipwrecks, sea-waves, etc., some of which happen every year. These occur in the providential government of God, and by them He continually makes Himself heard, and manifests His power: cf. Job 37:13. But beside this providential government, there are often direct judgements, hence the prophet said, "When thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Isa. 26:9. Such judgements are, alas, too often accounted as natural phenomena or mere accidents or calamities, without any recognition of God, and are soon forgotten. They should warn men; as a slight shower often falls before a storm, so these frequent judgements are but the forerunners of the great storm of the wrath of God that will surely fall upon this guilty world, when the vials of His fury are poured out: cf. Rev. 6 - 20.

Men are apt to dwell on shocking events, and to measure the guilt of the victims accordingly. So it was when the Lord warned of the crisis for the Jewish people which His presence could not but bring about. For He was there in the testimony of the truth and in the humiliation of grace, not yet in the power and glory of the Kingdom; He was there for faith to receive, but for unbelief to refuse or despise. If rejection unto death was before Him, they were on the way to the sure dealings of God in judgment. Then it was that some reported to Him the tragic end of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices. But our Lord in answer corrects their own thought of exceptional guilt in that case, and solemnly warns them that, except they repented, they should all perish in the same way. Nay more, He points to the eighteen men, not slain by an unfeeling and truculent Roman, on whom the tower of Siloam fell. Yet were they debtors beyond all the men in Jerusalem? On the contrary He repeats, "Except ye repent, ye shall 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. And the Lord gives the call divine force: "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

A Common Mistake. — In connection with this line of instruction we next learn of two events which had taken place in Jerusalem, neither of which has found a place, it seems, in profane history. Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed some Galileans, engaged in the act, apparently, of sacrificing. God, whom they were outwardly worshipping in the appointed way, had not protected them. God's altar was no refuge for them (Ex. 21:14). Their blood had been mingled with their sacrifices. Then, too, the tower in Siloam had fallen upon eighteen men, and had crushed them to death. Were these special marks of Divine displeasure? Some, perhaps, thought so. But they were wrong. Those Galileans, and those inhabitants of Jerusalem, who met with an untimely death, were not worse than others. Sinners they were, but not worse than others in the metropolis of Judaism. Men might draw their conclusions, and often, as in these cases, erroneous ones. The Lord would impress on all the true lesson, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:1-5). Those events had a voice for the living, and concerned not only the dead.

He adds another example, where the character of what took place might make it seem more like the special judgment of God Himself, — eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them: were these, at any rate, "debtors" to the justice of God beyond all else of the dwellers in Jerusalem? and again He will not leave it to others to answer, but answers it Himself in the same way as before. The number 18, which is 3x6, speaks of evil manifested in its highest uprise; and note that the Lord says not a word with regard to them to lessen the thought of evil in them: that is not the point. On the contrary, make of it as much as possible, the lesson is only deeper. For the question is, not, were they sinners beyond others? but does the hand of God upon them prove them to be that? had they not been such, could they have pleaded exemption from divine judgment on that account? And to this He answers, No: judgment from God, and even to perdition; will come upon all, except they repent. It is the owning the ruin in which we are alike, which casts us, as sinners, upon unfailing mercy and brings out from under judgment: this, and this alone.

We understand it. The greatest calamity might come, and God send it, and a number of people perfectly innocent might perish just as much as the wicked people — say the sack of a city, or a pestilence sent by God in His moral government. Well, I say, these things are there undoubtedly, and Job stuck to that. All their talk did not at all drive him from the plain fact which they shirked and shut their eyes to. "The earth," he says, "is given into the hand of the wicked." And is not that true? Is not Satan the god, and the prince, of this world? That is wicked enough. And further, "He covers the faces of the judges thereof," i.e., he allows the judges to pronounce altogether wrongly and unjustly. That is, somehow or other their faces are veiled from the light, and they judge according to appearance. It is very certain that that is not a way to judge soundly. "If not, where, and who is he?" Who is he that does that? These things happen; innocent people suffer; guilty people escape; all these things are coming every day — are coming in England. It is not merely in Turkey, or Russia, or Tartary, or China; no, it is in England, in London; and nobody can hinder it. Things are out of course, and will be till the Lord takes the reins.

For it is untrue, on the other hand, that evil has nothing to do with man's suffering in this world. If there were no evil, there had been no suffering. Sin then, no doubt, has an immense deal to do with it as the general rule. Take man here below; take any one indulging in any evil: does he not suffer? Of course he does. Thus it is a positive principle of God's righteous government that evil never can be indulged in without entailing the solemn dealing of His hand, though room be left for the distinct working and even suffering of grace. It is true, not only in the future, but also in the present, that one reaps as one sows. But is it the sole or the whole truth? Is God limited to His government? In no way. There was where Eliphaz and his companions were wrong; and Satan knows well how to bend to his own purposes that particular side of truth which we either choose or overlook.

In this we see not only the wisdom of God but His mercy also. Directly sin entered the world a baffling problem presented itself in the slaying of righteous Abel. Why should the godly suffer? If a man's life really pleases God, why should that pleasure not be indicated by special good being his in this life? There is, of course, the alternative problem Why should the ungodly prosper) — and this is dealt with in Psalm 73. But long before the days of the Psalmists God saw fit in His mercy to solve the enigma for us by permitting extreme disaster to come upon Job, and then causing the story to be recorded and preserved in an inspired writing. The solution was given as soon as "the oracles of God" began to appear.