What the droughts of 2022 teach us
Baby Boomers sparked the sexual revolution of the ’60s and now claim the power to tame the climate. Our pride has swelled through the years but its peak is still ahead. The days will come when we learn that God controls the climate and that is when our pride will peak — when we know God rules and we curse Him.
I get this from reading several Old Testament prophets and John’s visions in Revelation. Drought and heat come up often in the context of our behavior and God’s response. Climate change is real.
We cannot deny the facts when stories like these come out daily.
Mexico declares drought emergency (July 13, 2022)
Satellites capture Europe broiling in a record-breaking heatwave (July 18, 2022)
Drought-Ravaged States Face Another Round of Water Cuts (August 16, 2022)
Heatwave, Wildfires & Dry Rivers: How Europe is reeling under severe drought (August 18, 2022)
Factory Shutdowns, Showers for Pigs: China’s Heat Wave Strains Economy (August 18, 2022)
Reservoirs are dry, as are lakes and rivers. The summer of 2022 has scorched continents. Climatologists no doubt are right, “Climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels … is making extreme and unprecedented heat events both more intense and more common.”*
We have not been good stewards; we are reaping the consequences.
The difference is in the solution
If we agree we have abused the earth, the solution is where Christians differ. The multi-billion-dollar energy programs rolling out from the Biden administration and governments around the globe have this premise: We will solve this crisis.
Christians contend we can turn this around only on our knees, not with our wallets.
We contend for repentance, not environmental revolution, because our blight bores deeper than our carbon footprint. Look at our imprint on the social landscape in our lifetime. We
- revoked laws that preserved one day of the week for faith and family;
- introduced no-fault divorce;
- made abortion a constitutional right;
- toil by the mantra “the best never rest” and labor 24×7;
- stretch marriage laws to embrace same-sex couples;
- parade aberrant sex under rainbow banners;
- confound gender;
- regard gods of all kinds in the name of diversity and inclusion, yet dispose of the God of the Bible.
We have so thoroughly dismissed God from our thinking that we live like the miscreants the Psalmist watched.
He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”
He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account.” — Psalm 10:11, 13
Scoff, but look again
Scoffers will dismiss droughts, heat, and super storms are God’s way of calling, “Consider your ways,” but we cannot deny the record. (The italicized words in these verses are the English translation of the Hebrew for drought.)
“I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” —Haggai 1:11
“I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate.” —Ezekiel 29:10
“So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.” —Jeremiah 44:6
“The LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation.” —Jeremiah 44:22
“Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.” —Ezekiel 5:14
“I shall lay your cities waste, And you shall be desolate. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” —Ezekiel 35:4
Who can doubt when you read these that God is behind the parched fields in the news? We experienced global desolation during the lockdowns of COVID-19 — no traffic, offices closed, and public venues vacant. Is God, who was moved to bridle our behavior before, suddenly oblivious?
The desolation of 2020 and the droughts of 2022 warn that God protests the “evil of our doings,” but we will not heed. In one of the last visions in Revelation, the Apostle John sees the earth
scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory. —Revelation 16:9
Not long after,
“Huge hailstones, each weighing about 100 pounds, fell from the sky on people, who cursed God because the plague of hail was so terrible. —Revelation 16:21
See how the thinking changes. Today, we presume we cause climate change and curse ourselves. Then, the world will know it is God who has power over these plagues and they will curse Him.
3 ways to respond
What are we to do? Three things.
- Acknowledge the weather is hotter, drier, and stormier, but discern why. We must ask, who is right? Those who say we will destroy the planet unless we radically change how we heat our homes, buy our cars, and use energy? Or the Bible, which says God will not allow us to destroy the world and is intervening even now by this dramatic weather, drawing attention to our behavior and His solution.
The answer determines what we do next: Build an ark of government programs or call for National Days of Prayer.
- Lead by personal repentance. We lived with a veneer of Christianity for decades, but now those who chafed under a Judeo-Christian culture have their way. They have stripped the deterrents and have achieved the desire of Psalm 2:3, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”
We cannot expect Christian behavior from non-Christians. Relief will come when the people of God, responding to God, lead the way. Remember God’s promise,
“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.” —2 Chronicles 7:14
David makes it personal.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me.”
—Psalm 139:23-24
The prophet Jeremiah describes repentance best, “I’ve listened and I’ve heard, and what they say is not right. No one repents of his evil and says, ‘What have I done?’ They all turn to their own course like a horse racing into battle.” Jeremiah 8:6.
Jesus opened His ministry by saying, “Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.” The Gospel gets people asking, “What have I done? Where am I headed?” Jesus’s answer inevitably comes down to this, “Repent. Stop, turn back, and come to me.”
- Trust God. Jesus said times like this would come — days that literally scare us to death because of what’s happening. But when I searched the Bible about drought, I also found great comfort. Among the fearful passages are these about God’s protection (emphasis mine).
For the one who trusts in the Lord shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
—Jeremiah 17:8
For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
—Isaiah 25:4
The Bible tells us that “now” is the day of God’s favor, today is the day of salvation. His favor extends deep into the last days of Revelation, but not forever. God help us to shed our pride and do now what will not be done in the fiercer days ahead: Repent.