He even explains the conditions we must meet before He will intervene for our benefit. Notice this clear summary of His conditions for miraculously intervening on our behalf.

"If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands ... blessings will come upon you and accompany you ... you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country" (Deuteronomy 28:1-3, emphasis added throughout). Specific examples of divine blessings and interventions are then itemized.

But this warning is then added. "However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you ... all these curses will come upon you and overtake you" (verse 15). The list of consequences for ignoring God's instruction includes events that we designate as "natural disasters" (verses 23-24).

God has revealed in the Holy Scriptures what He expects of all human beings. But this divine instruction has seldom been followed, except by a few individuals, during the course of human history.

As King David of ancient Israel explained, "The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God [by applying His instructions]" (Psalms 14:2, New International Version, compare Romans 3:10-12). David's conclusion was, "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt ..." (verse 3).

Paul summarized humanity's neglect of performing God's will in these words: "People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking and to do things they should not do" (Romans 1:28, New Century Version). This problem has remained with us until this day.

God is willing—indeed, He is eager—to bless all of us with His care and protection, if we will only do as He instructs us. David also observed, "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread" (Psalms 37:25, NIV).

Notice this explanation of God's reaction to humankind's universal misperception of the relationship they should have with Him: "They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The LORD says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.' But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?" (Jeremiah 23:17-18, NIV).

From the beginning of human existence such righteous respect for God's teachings has not been the norm for human behavior. Therefore, the problem isn't that God is unable or unwilling to spare human beings from disasters. Rather, all nations and peoples, by ignoring God's teachings, have separated themselves from the full benefits of His blessing and protection.

As the prophet Isaiah noted, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).

God plainly told Adam, the first human, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:16, NIV). Sin invites disaster. And God has revealed that He does not make it His general practice to protect us from the consequences of our own ignorance if we continue to thumb our noses at His commands.

Another question is often asked. Does God regard those who die in such disasters as greater sinners than others? Notice Jesus Christ's answer, "Do you suppose that these Galileans [whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices] were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Matthew 13:2).

Don't go through life assuming that your beliefs and ways comply completely with God's will. Do as Paul says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5, New Revised Standard Version).