This is part 6 of a series examining the will of God and natural disasters. If you want to read the previous parts you can access them here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I recommend reading from part 1.
International evangelist Winkie Pratney says the following:
Look at the nations of the world that suffer from the greatest poverty, sickness, drought and sickness, where ecological disaster seems to be a constant curse. Then ask: what is the dominant religious mindset in this place? In what ways do they mirror the true and living God and think and live how He says to think and live?
Many people do not understand the authority mankind has over the earth, so they do not understand the power our actuons have over the environment to make it better or worse. Therefore, when natural disasters happen we naturally – and religiously – blame God when it is our sins that actually make the earth sick.
In Leviticus 18, we find out that if people defile themselves by sinning, then they defile the land, and eventually the land will, in King James English, “vomiteth out her inhabitants” (Lev. 18.25, KJV). If the people living in an area keep sinning, that actually makes the land sick, and it reacts to our sins. Tornados, hurricanes and other natural disasters are not God judging the land, they are the land becoming our enemy as a natural response to sin.
Some people get disturbed when they read about the holy wars in the Old Testament, when the people of God engage in war, but one of the issues is that their sinful behavour was destroying the land that they lived in. God had to remove them before the land was destroyed completely, and started impacting the whole planet.
When people turn their backs on God, society has no foundation, but you also have to realize that these evil societies affect creation too. In Leviticus 18, God actually lists the sins that the heathen nations are committing that will defile the land. The list includes incest, bestiality, homosexuality, adultery, murder and child sacrifice. A society that is engaged in these sins will defile their land and the land will get sick and eventually vomit.
God told the Israelites that if they disobeyed Him and defiled the land, then the land would also vomit them out. The land knows no favourites, it is not choosing, it just reacts to sin. Sadly, our nations in the West are now involved in these sorts of sins, and the weather is changing. The problem is not global warming, it is global sinning. It is not God judging the people, it is just that our rebellion defiles the land and makes it sick. The fault is ours, and the only thing that can heal the lands and stop those natural disasters, is if people change! That’s the only solution.
In Leviticus 20, this concept of the land getting sick and vomitting out the people is mentioned again, specifically in reference to homosexuality, incest and bestiality:
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.
20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
21 And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
22 Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. (Lev. 20.13-22, KJV)
We must understand that these sins defile the land, especially in the light that even churches are now accepting some of these things and saying they are acceptable and not sins. We have to be Biblically correct, not politcally correct. As we move forward in time, the Bible will contrast more and more with society about what is right and wrong, but sin is sin, and the sin will affect the land. One of the reasons our nations are in turmoil is sexual immorality of various forms.
God loves you. No matter what you do, have done, will do. God never gives us a command that is not for our own good, He is not just trying to prove He is the boss and make us do what He wants. Satan will tell you that, satan will tell you God is a control freak who just wants to boss us around, and that God is holding back from us, but it simply is not true. Satan does not want us to realize that sin has consequences, that God is trying to get us to choose life, but choosing sin is always choosing death (Romans 6.23). God is anti-satan because God actually loves us, and if we fail to co-operate with God’s laws, then as individuals and as society, we will face sicknesses and natural disasaters and you cannot blame God for you just reaping the harvest of the seeds you sowed.
Psalm 106 tells us that the people sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils, and that this polluted the land with their blood (Psalm 106.37-38). One modern issue that is happening in the UK is abortion. A foetus is a human being, and children are a reward from the Lord. I do not care what some scientist or doctor says, the Word of God is our authority, and if we kill the fruit of the womb while still in the womb we are committing a murder. Now there is grace and love and forgiveness for doing that, but let us not use grace as a way of saying a sin is not a sin.
Abortion has no difference from the child sacrifices of the ancient Israelites to false gods, and it is done as a sacrifice to the Western idols of an easy life and sexual immorality. These are just as much idols as the wooden and stone idols the Israelites would sacrifice their children too. And this pollutes our land with blood. The only way to cleanse a land from blood is through blood (Numbers 35.33). This is one of the reasons that God introduces capital punishment after the flood of Noah so the build-up of pollution never gets so bad, the entire earth shakes so much and is so sick that it brings about a world-wide flood. By enforcing the death penalty, the land is cleansed from the blood that the murderer has spilled. Now, the good news is that in the New Testament, whatever your sin you can find cleansing and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus and when you do that, the blood of Jesus does not just forgive your sin but it actually starts to cleanse the land.
God loves unborn babies, He also loves women who have had abortions, He also loves abortion doctors. He loves the callous, hard-hearted man who pushes a woman to get an abortion to save money and their lifestyle, He loves them all. God does not want you to have an abortion because it destroys so much on every level.
But the point I am making in this post is that God is not sending those natural disasters as punishment. It is the land reacting to being polluted. God actually led Israel through a wilderness and protected them and loved them as they were on their way to the promised land. The land would have destroyed them, but God protected them. But even in the promised land, the sins of the Israelites defiled the land. In Jer. 3, we find out that the people corrupted the land with reckless behaviour, and then says “that is why the rains have failed”. Their sin stopped the rain, and their sin made the earth sick. God was not judging them, it is just that sin has consequences. In fact, in Jeremiah 3, we find out that God actually divorces Israel because of its prostitution. Now, without God there, the land is defiled and God is not protecting and providing, so the land leads to drought. God was not beating the people with drought to get them to submit, that is not the kind of husband He is, but when Israel threw Him out of their house, that house reacted badly to their sin and their selfishness.
God is not to blame when this happens, it is the sins of the people that cause it to happen (Jer. 5.23-25). People are just reaping what they have sown, God is not involved in that judgment or disaster.
The earth hates sin.
4 Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. (Hosea 4.1-3, KJV)
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. (Jeremiah 12.10-11)
Our sinful acts can hurt the planet we live on – bringing drought, desolation and disaster. Plant life, animal life, the weather, can all be affected by our sinful actions. The problem with planet earth is sin. It started with Adam and we have all made it worse. We have rejected God and kicked Him out of our house, and we pushed away His grace, His provision and His protection.
And right now, the earth is yearning for redemption, it is yearning to be made new (Romans 8.18-22), it wants to be free from the death and decay we have imposed on it. You see anything that is separated from God just decays, it is not God cursing it, it just does not have access to His life-giving life anymore. When Adam sinned, the earth under his feet had no more access to God’s life and started to decay.
So – do not blame God for natural disasters. It is our sin that has been causing them. The fault and blame is on us, and we need to rather than blame God thank Him for such a great plan to redeem this planet when the sons of God manifest their fullness. But God does not require us to wait until the end of time to start to bring healing to our land, just like God heals our bodies when we turn to Him in faith, He can start to heal our cities, our nations and our land too. God is not the destroyer, bringing natural disasters, and in fact if we work with Him He will work with us and help us overcome satan and sin and make the whole world a better place.
Tree of Life Blog 
One thought on “Natural Disasters and God’s Will 06: The Earth Hates Sin”