Insurance companies happily take our money for reasonable risks. But when it comes to the unpredictable or extreme, they're uninsurable "acts of God." Few people actually think that God's hand is literally involved. You'll be told there's been worse in the past, one can't claim every event is from God, it's El Niño's fault, cyclical climate change, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer or worldwide pollution. Scientists say this, so it must be true!

In part it is true. There have been worse calamities and we shouldn't attribute every tragedy to God. Yet there have also been profound changes in the weather, and the trend is continuing.

Increasingly "worst ever on record" describes weather

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has estimated weather disasters cost the United States approximately $1 billion per week. And a look at the last four years of Atlantic Ocean hurricane activity reveals a period more severe than any on record, with scientists predicting more in the near future (Encarta Reference Library, "Weather"). Weather chaos isn't a new phenomenon; better record keeping and reporting make us more aware of it. But weather problems are getting worse.

While freezing rain is not an uncommon Canadian experience, the 1998 ice storm that hit eastern Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick was exceptional. In fact, it was the worst to hit Canada in recent memory. It brutalized one of the largest populated urbanized areas of North America, leaving more than four million people freezing in the dark for days.

Without doubt the storm directly affected more people than any previous weather event in Canadian history! One million households were without power; and prolonged freezing brought down millions of trees, 120,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) of power lines and telephone cables, 130 transmission towers (each worth $100,000) and 30,000 wooden utility poles (costing $3,000 each). What took human beings a half century to construct took nature a matter of hours to knock down. Many Quebec maple syrup producers, who account for 70 percent of the world's supply, were ruined and their trees permanently destroyed.

Was El Niño to blame for the ice storm? Will there be more? Environment Canada's science advisor says freezing temperatures are likely to occur even more frequently in southern Canada in the future-a disturbing thought to consider. Yet too much ice and snow is contrasted in other areas by drought and no rain.

Is it unthinkable that disastrous weather can be of God?

There are a few opening lines from Banjo Paterson's "Song of the Artesian Water" that give something to consider about upset weather. They hint, too, at the stubborn denial of God's hand at work in our lives. Banjo Paterson was an Australian poet of the late 1880s known for his ballads "Waltzing Matilda" and "The Man From Snowy River." "Song of the Artesian Water" begins: "Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought; but we're sick of prayers and Providence, we're going to do without; if the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil: yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down."

We drill bores and dig wells to get water from artesian sources. Only what happens when the water table drops and wells go dry? Writing from the 1880s, Banjo proposed an interesting alternative for our lack of water-that God hasn't sent it! Now that's a different perspective. You don't hear that possibility presented by weather forecasters. Do you suppose there could actually be reasons other than upset climate or El Niño why we have ice storms, hurricanes, brushfires, drought or floods?

Scripture shows the Creator of weather sometimes uses weather to get our attention.

In a specific example, the prophet Haggai records that God did, in fact, send blight, mildew and hail so the people might turn from wrong living and repent spiritually (2:17). It shows that if a nation or individual pleases God, He'll bless with good weather. Now this isn't to wrongly imply that every weather condition is some fearful warning from God. But unseasonable or destructive weather has been an instrument used to get people's attention.

Of course, if we see only global warming, climate change or El Niño, we won't get any message, will we? Yet if we'd only acknowledge our Creator, how simple it might be. The prophet Zechariah says it all with: "Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone" (10:1). That asking could be part of the solution is food for thought.

Divine weather forecasts

During Old Testament times people were more conscious of God's hand in the weather. "He [God] called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread" (Psalm 105:16). This prediction came true for Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Joseph relates, "God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land...And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass" (Genesis 41:28-32). A later verse shows this famine was in all countries, with only Egypt adequately prepared to survive it.

Consider some further examples. Through the prophet Elijah, God sent a three-year drought (1 Kings 17:1; 18:1). Earlier in the reign of King David was another famine, the result of a sin of former King Saul (2 Samuel 21:1). It was up to David to set the matter right before God.

During the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54), a prophet named Agabus predicted "a great famine throughout all the world" (Acts 11:27-28).

How can we escape catastrophes such as these? Should we not reflect if we are guilty of God's displeasure, whether nationally or personally? After a 2001 destructive tornado, a man interviewed on TV said, "Maybe someone up there isn't happy with us."

In specific Bible references, the divine withholding of good weather is revealed. When God is displeased with peoples' sinful ways, He gains their attention by holding back rain. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 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" (Deuteronomy 11:16-17).

The prophet Amos recorded God's weather prophecy: "'I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city...I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,' says the Lord" (4:7-9). It all sounds so much like today. These scriptures reveal God as the real source of good things, including our weather. If we are not pleasing Him, why shouldn't He powerfully get our attention?

King Solomon clearly linked disastrous life events with disobedience to God. You can read this connection in his prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:35-39).

Can future weather trends be known?

Future weather trends can be known. Consider this. A single nuclear submarine is said to have more destructive firepower than all the combined explosives unleashed by all sides during World War II, including the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. What would be the horrendous impact upon our weather by simultaneous detonations of several nuclear devices? The effect upon air currents, vegetation and temperature levels would be enormous.

In the years ahead, there will be climatic upheavals as a result of unfolding prophesied biblical events. Some startling verses indicate even the delicate balance of our oceans will be seriously disrupted. This ruination of the sea's marine life could be punishment upon humans who are prepared to unleash such horrific weaponry upon earth's fragile environment (Revelation 8:8-9). Our Bible study aid, You Can Understand Bible Prophecy, is enlightening reading. This is the short-term bad news. It's also reason for us to pause and ask: Should we assume all weather catastrophes are just random, isolated events?

Good news about weather

God said to ancient Israel, "And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled" (Deuteronomy 11:13-15). Rain in season. Every time, predictable. Can you imagine this as normal year after year?
The prophet Ezekiel records God saying of the future: "I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you" (36:29). This comes after a "new heart and a new spirit" moves people to keep God's ways (verse 26).

The long-range forecast is good: We are heading for centuries of predictable seasonal climate. It will be a time when God's law and government are restored to earth. Weather forecasters will have an easy job. Good weather will be on time. Rain will come when due. And sunshine aplenty for harvest will be the norm. Year in year out, decade by decade, predictable, sure, guaranteed. That is, as long as humans remain obedient to God's way of give instead of today's way of get.

Notice, however, that nations who fail to respond to Christ's leadership "shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles" (Zechariah 14:17). God will use adverse weather to encourage a voluntary surrender to His sovereignty.

For the present, prepare your life to feel the impact of further unseasonable, catastrophic weather, caused both by man and by the hand of God.