FURIOUS PLANET

There will be a great many Americans who will be giving God sincere thanks for the deliverance from a full scale disaster from Hurricane Irene. There will be many petitions, too, for the many for whom the hurricane did spell disaster. The pictures were distressing to watch, very reminiscent of the Tsunami scenes. None the less, there was a deliverance – the wholesale flooding of Manhattan does not bear thinking about; it would have made the New Orleans’ tragedy seem small. But it was a close shave. The vulnerability of the U.S. continues to be highlighted, even though the grace of God stilled the fury of the storm.


We live on a very dangerous planet. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, not to mention asteroids, all make it at best uncertain, at worst terrifying. God made it that way! Why? By contrast, the new creation will be very different; for one thing, as Revelation tells us, “There will be no more sea”. That removes a great source of danger, something that has taken untold numbers of lives – it was the danger New York faced! The fireball of the sun will be replaced by the light of God Himself. That removes the fire element that still burns dangerously at the heart of our planet. So why do we live with such danger now? Why is the planet like it is, a dangerous place?


I have often reflected on that issue, and I have come to the conclusion that in the great wisdom of God the very planet itself (and even the universe) was made in such a way as to remind a sinful race of the appalling dangers spiritually that surrounds it. When a redeemed race comes to populate a new creation such reminders will not be necessary, and the new creation will not have them. Put another way, there will be no need for the new creation to reflect in anyway the danger of the anger of God since it will be a place with people who have come to a full redemption through the work of Jesus. If it doesn’t have to reflect the anger of God big changes can take place.


Take the sea again. From one perspective it is a phenomenon of great beauty, and it speaks of the vastness and power of its creator. From another perspective it can be seen, as one writer put it, as “The Cruel Sea”. It is merciless and destructive. It can be whipped up into a fury. Humanity cannot survive in it. More than that, it is referred to in Scripture as the “abyss”, a term for hell itself. The very creatures that live in its depths are gruesome and grotesque, not to say ferocious and devouring. They reflect the denizens of hell. This is a picture in creation itself of something very real, but something to be aware of and avoid. It has a clear spiritual message for humanity in its present sinful predicament – it is surrounded by the appalling danger of a spiritual abyss.


Or take the sun. Again it speaks of the glory of God; it provides us with light and life. But at the same time it is highly dangerous to humanity if treated without respect. It’s the sun’s rays that control the weather and create the storms that bring distress. Those rays can bring a powerful message, if required, about the spiritual condition of humanity and its rejection of God. In fact the very structure of the creation brings us warnings from all directions, warnings that have been verbalised in the written revelation to the effect that we need to make peace with our Creator.


That is why the lessening of the hurricane into a storm as it neared New York needs to be seen as a mark of the grace of God; it was precisely measured to spare, yet to warn of the need to get back to the ways of God



Bob

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