Whose Fault Is It?
Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3
When catastrophes or tragedies strike quite often we become like the disciples in John 9 when they met a man blind from birth. Their immediate reaction was that it was the judgment of God upon either this man or his parents. When the devastating earthquake struck Haiti many were quick to pronounce it as the judgment of God. As Christians, we need to be careful when assessing the cause of tragedy. Christ pointed out to His disciples that the blindness of the man they encountered was not a judgment on him or his family but an opportunity to show the work of God. It is natural to ask, “Who or what is to blame when tragedy or disaster strikes?” Let us examine this issue.
I. There are times when disaster is part of living in a fallen world
A. We have all heard the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Their sin moved God to make a series of declarations that transformed part of creation in addition to the pronouncements made to Adam and Eve. Prior to the fall of man, everything on Earth was in harmony. Since the fall, there has been conflict between nature and mankind. In Genesis 3:17-18 we read:
• Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.”
The entire earth would feel the effects of the sin of mankind. Before he sinned against God all nature was in harmony. But when Adam sinned, God cursed the earth, and it no longer was the perfect environment man had once enjoyed.
B. Many of the natural disasters that we experience are merely the consequence of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.
C. The law of entropy states that everything in the universe is continuously and irreversibly decaying.
D. The world is full of natural disasters because we live in a fallen world. Sin has polluted our perfect world.
E. Jesus said in Luke 21:11 “And great earthquakes shall be in different places, and famines and plagues...”
II. There are times when disaster is the result of Man’s actions
A. Man in his sin has failed to keep the command of the God given in Genesis 1:28.
• “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’”
B. The stewardship of the earth has been given to man. This responsibility is illustrated in Leviticus 25:2-8 where the Israelites were to rest the land every seventh year. But man has continually failed to obey God.
C. An example of this plundering of the planet is seen in the disaster ridden nation of Haiti. Once known as the Pearl of the Antilles for its beautiful forested mountains, Haiti is no longer covered with forests. Seeking to survive economically after the bloody revolution from France, in its poverty the nation began to harvest their forests to the place that less than 2% of the country’s original forests remain. The impoverished country depends on trees for 71 percent of its energy use: firewood in the countryside, wood charcoal in the cities. For an impoverished peasant, stripping the forests has become a way to get by. “If I’m a farmer and my crops are failing, what can I do?” said one peasant. “Do I die today? Or do I extend my life for the next few days by cutting trees and selling charcoal so I can buy medicine? So I can buy some fertilizer so I can grow some lettuce?” When the forests are gone, the slopes can’t hold on to their soil. Entire villages are lost to mudslides. Roads and bridges are damaged. The slums continue to swell. Haiti sinks deeper into poverty. Pressed to survive, another farmer chops down another tree. - copied
D. Man made disasters are the result of our imperfections and fallen nature. Another example occurred in 1969, a subsidiary of chemical powerhouse Union Carbide Corporation built a pesticides plant in the middle of Bhopal, India. On December 3, 1984, a tank holding more than 40 tons of toxic methyl isocynate overheated and released the heavier-than-air gas. It rolled along the ground like a poisonous foggy avalanche. To date, as many as 20,000 people have died. - copied
E. Man-made disasters often cost the most in terms of human suffering, loss of life and long-term damage.
III. There are times when God permits Satan to cause disaster
A. That Satan causes disasters is seen in
• Isaiah 14:16-17a “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness...’”
B. Got at times allows Satan to bring disaster into the lives of godly people.
• Job 9:9-12 “So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!’ And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.”
C. Satan was allowed to bring tragedy into the life of Job in order to refine Job. The attack was not the result of any sin in Job’s life. God often will allow Satan to put us through difficulty or crises in order to grow us into conformity to Christ.
• Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
D. Paul speaks of affliction coming from Satan as a refining tool.
• 2 Corinthians 12:7 “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”
IV. There are times when God sends disaster.
A. Understand that God is Sovereign.
1. God controls the rain
Job 5:10 “But as for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause - Who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields.”
2. God is Sovereign over all nature including the hurricane, floods, and earthquakes
Nahum 1:3-5 “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves[b] at His presence, yes, the world and all who dwell in it.”
3. God is the cause of tempest, hailstones (Isa 30:30). Fire, hail, snow, vapors "fulfill his word" (Ps 148:8, Ezek 28:32).
B. There are times God causes natural disasters as a judgment against sin.
1. Deuteronomy 11:17 “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. “
2. Psalm 9:16-17 “The LORD is known by the judgment which he executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
3. In a book entitled Down to Earth, John Lawrence tells the story of a city that dared God to show Himself and paid a terrible price. It seems that the city of Messina, Sicily, was home to many wicked, irreligious people. On December 25, 1908, a newspaper published in Messina printed a parody against God, daring Him to make Himself known by sending an earthquake. Three days later, on December 28, the city and its surrounding district was devastated by a terrible quake that killed 84,000 people.
4. 2 Chronicles 7:22 “Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’”
C. God sometimes causes disasters as a wake up call
1. Sometimes God allows disasters to happen so people will wake-up to their mortality and need for God. Only during these times of dire hopelessness do many people allow God to approach and accept To cause us to remember, repent, and return.
• 2 Chronicles 15:4 But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.
2. Sometimes God brings calamity into the lives of Christians to wake them up as to how they have distanced themselves from God
a. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will 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.”
b. Often our priorities get out of order. During a time of disaster, we realize that relationships are more important than things. Our relationship to Christ becomes the most important followed by our relationship to others
3. Philippians 3:8 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
D. God sometimes causes disasters to give opportunity to spread the Gospel
1. God commanded the church to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. The disciples remained in Jerusalem. It took persecution to scatter them throughout the world with the message.
2. Acts 8:1-4 “Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.”
Conclusion: In Luke 13:1-5, Christ spoke of two tragedies that took place during His ministry. One involved Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate, the other eighteen who died in a building collapse. Christ pointed out that these individuals were not any greater sinners than you or I. Calamity and tragedy could strike any one of us at any time. Therefore, we need to be ready by having both our priorities and our relationship to God right.
