Are Natural Disasters a Form of Punishment?

It really was just a matter of time. People often make a correlation between pain and punishment.

Yesterday I received an email posing a question related to the coronavirus. Today I received a related question. The first article addressed the issue, “Is the coronavirus a punishment found in the ‘seven seals’ mentioned in Revelation?” Today’s query was more pointed, “Does Isaiah 26:20 mean the quarantine is due to God’s wrath?”

Eventually someone was going to ask the theological question that man has pondered for millennia. Does God punish people and nations because of their wickedness?

There are certainly Old Testament examples of the wrath of God. From the flood in the days of Noah to the Jericho walls tumbling during the time of Joshua, the Old Testament is filled with incidents showing God punishing people because of their sins. Lest we think that God’s people would be exempt, we need only be reminded of God’s wrath upon Israel at the base of Mt. Sinai to know that it happens. Does God – could God – discipline people through a natural disaster like the coronavirus? Certainly.

Is every disaster the result of “sinners in the hands of an angry God?” Not necessarily.

It may seem simplistic, but it is important for us to remember the only reason we know these were the acts of God is because of the inspired revelation of God. We wouldn’t know it was from God if it were not for the Bible. Natural disasters do not come with a Post-it^© note saying, “Gotcha. signed, God.”

All of God’s creation – plants, animals, universe – suffers because of the result of sin. Do you remember the punishment to Adam and Eve in the Garden? The natural events of life, like childbirth and work, will be accompanied by pain and sweat. The earth itself would produce thorns and thistles. The perfection of God’s creation is now marred with mutations and devolutions, deviant anomalies from the design of the Master.

Paul tells us “the creation itself [hopes it] will be set free from its bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:22 CEV).

The rumbles of a volcano, the tumbles of an earthquake and the troubles caused by a virus, cancer or pneumonia may well be the result of the effects of sin in our world. Sin causes a host of other disasters that are natural – greed, jealousy, murder, stealing, and gossip, just to name a few.

The important message about tragedy is not the event itself, but what can lie beyond the disaster. “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28 ESV).

God’s purpose – the desire of His heart – is for your life to be pleasant and carefree. But even if it isn’t, He promises to be busy working things together to bring good out of our chaos.

If that is true, Paul draws the most logical conclusion. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword” (Romans 8:31, 35 ESV)? Or coronavirus, or stock market crash, or forcing your life to become simplified, or a shortage of toilet paper, or the postponement of the Derby, or ….

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37 ESV).

Go, conquer your day.