Language of God: drought
By Elizabeth Prata
After a terrible natural disaster, people often wonder, “Where was God in all this?” Others wonder “Did God cause it? Did He allow it? Did Satan do it? Was it just the natural outcome of a fallen world?” And the biggest question, “Why?”
In the Garden, He would walk in the cool of the day. (Gen 3:8). With Moses He spoke face to face. (Exodus 33:11). Or through a bush! (Exodus 3:1).
He spoke to the the prophets (Jeremiah 36:2). In this way He sent the Law and then later He sent the Spirit to inspire the words of the bible, written down by the chosen apostles and disciples. (1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). He sent angels with messages (Acts 8:26; Luke 2:9). He speaks to us through discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11) and trials (1 Peter 1:6-7). Sometimes He even uses a donkey (Numbers 2:28).
He uses symbols. “And God said to Noah: I will make a covenant with you. Never again will all men die because of a flood. This is my token to remind you of my promise. I will set a rainbow in the sky.” (Genesis 9:11-17). Bread is a symbol of Jesus’ life sustaining eternal truth. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life…” (John 6:35)
If you think about the myriad ways God spoke to us in the past, it is amazing. There is another way He speaks. He uses ‘natural’ events. Earthquake, fire, hail, thunder, drought…are all ways God had sent His people His word and expresses His will.
In today’s time He still allows or causes natural disasters, but unlike the Israelites of the past, we can’t know that THIS disaster is specifically tied to a judgment or exactly what God might be saying through it. We do know He is sovereign over it all, and when it happens, we should acknowledge that God is sending or withholding the rain- for whatever reason.
God is the creator of the earth and all the universe. (Psalm 24:1). He can and does use anything in it to get His point across. In Revelation we see 100 pound hailstones, a sun that turns up the heat, earthquakes, and at one point, no rain for three and a half years. (Revelation 11:6).
Remember that everything that happens on the earth, God either indirectly allows to happen, or directly causes to happen. Allows, or causes. That’s it. When people mock the notion that a particular natural disaster event was due to God, they are wrong. We don’t always know the reason behind the event’s occurrence but because God is sovereign, He either caused it or allowed it. Here is God causing an event:
“Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:1)
Let’s focus on drought as one of God’s vocabulary words. Drought is not a sudden cataclysmic event like an earthquake. It takes a long time to happen and its build-up is more creeping than instant. That is what makes it even more amazing. Only God who knows the end from the beginning, knows how to start a drought years prior and allow its progression to increase to the point of pain just at the moment the people need to be pricked. That is the heavenly dynamic.
This article from NASA explains the earthly dynamic,
“While much of the weather that we experience is brief and short-lived, drought is a more gradual phenomenon, slowly taking hold of an area and tightening its grip with time. In severe cases, drought can last for many years, and can have devastating effects on agriculture and water supplies. … In general, drought is defined as an extended period–a season, a year, or several years–of deficient rainfall relative to the statistical multi-year average for a region.”
Australia is susceptible to droughts– “Why are droughts dangerous? When there is a drought, there is less water available for growing crops, farming animals, industry and our cities. Droughts also impact the environment by causing erosion, harm animals by destroying their homes and cause people to pay more for food and affect our water supplies. Droughts are hard to predict and also hard to live with.” (Source)
Places in Africa are in a terrible drought. “Two of Africa’s impoverished drylands – the Horn of Africa in the East and the Sahel in the West – have experienced devastating droughts and famines in the past two years: the rains never came, causing many thousands to perish, while millions face life-threatening hunger.”
This verse is a direct example in the Bible of how He had uses the language of drought to squeeze His people and warn them they need to repent-
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” (2 Chronicles 7:13)
God is telling us a few things here. First, He controls the heavens and allows or disallows rain. Second, when God shuts up heaven and prevents rain it was because they have turned their faces away from Him. Third, He makes a promise, if they repent and turn their faces toward Him, He will re-open heaven. What a blessing! God is holy- He hates sin. God is kind, He warned His people.
In this next biblical example, God is telling us that His decision to send drought or rain is extremely precise. He is very much in control.
“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;” (Amos 4:7).
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| Annie Vallotton Amos 4:7 illustration Good News Bible “Still you did not come back to Me” |
In the book Famine and Drought by Ellis, R. B. (2003), we read:
Drought was the most common cause of famines mentioned in the Bible. Drought caused famines in the time of Abraham (Gen. 12:10), Isaac (Gen. 26:1), Joseph (Gen. 41:27), and the judges (Ruth 1:1).
Famine and Drought as the Judgment of God God created the world as a good environment that would normally provide ample water and food for mankind (Gen. 1). However, the productiveness of the earth is related to people’s obedience to God. For example, the sins of Adam, Eve, and Cain resulted in unfruitfulness of the earth (Gen. 3:17–18; 4:12).
Israel’s relationship with God also directly affected the fertility of the promised land. When the people obeyed God, the land was productive (Deut. 11:11–14).
However, when they disobeyed, judgment came on the land by drought and famine (Lev. 26:23–26; Deut. 11:16–17; 1 Kings 8:35). Furthermore, the NT reports that famine will be a part of God’s coming judgment of the earth in the last days (Matt. 24:7; Rev. 6:8).
While the Bible states that some famines and droughts are the judgment of God (2 Sam. 21:1; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 8:1; Jer 14:12; Ezek. 5:12; Amos 4:6), not all such disasters are connected to divine punishment (Gen. 12:10; 26:1; Ruth 1:1; Acts 11:28).
When God did send drought and famine on His people, it was for the purpose of bringing them to repentance (1 Kings 8:35–36; Hos. 2:8–23; Amos 4:6–8). Moreover, the OT contains promises that God will protect His faithful ones in times of famine (Job 5:20, 22; Pss. 33:18–19; 37:18–19; Prov. 10:3). See Ben-hadad; Jerusalem; Nebuchadnezzar; Samaria; Water. Bob R. Ellis. Famine and Drought. (2003).
God either directly causes or indirectly allows each thing to happen on this earth and in heaven. Every drop of rain is noted by Him. Each arid seed blowing down a Kansas drought-stricken path is seen by Him. God speaks to us in many ways, praise His name! One way is through what the secular world calls ‘natural disasters’…but I call it the loving Hand of an angry God who seeks to turn His rebellious children from their sinful ways, One who sends the rain to bless the obedient and the sinful alike.
Further Reading
