An EF-5 tornado barreled through Greensburg, Kansas on the night of May 4, 2007. The super cell cut a path 1.5 miles wide, killing ten people and totally destroying the town. There has been tremendous flooding recently throughout the American Midwest. Thousands of people were evacuated in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma when the Missouri River crested, spurring a flood that was compared to the flood of 1993, which caused more than $20 billion in damages. Unchanging weather patterns suggest more soaking rains will be in store for that region of the country (Denver Post, May 8, 2007).
While the Great Plains flooded, fierce wildfires were roasting Southern California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Minnesota. In Florida alone, there have been more than 200 separate wildfires—including a blaze on the border of Florida and Georgia that burned more than 500,000 acres and cost $6.5 million to fight.
The weather pattern dumping rain in the Midwest is also depriving the California coast, Florida and southern Georgia of much-needed rain. In May—even before the fire season had officially begun—scientists at the Florida Department of Forestry predicted that this weather pattern will remain in place for much of the summer.
The situations just mentioned relate only to the United States. Weather across the globe also appears to be consistently severe and unusual. So, what is happening with the weather? Is this an anomaly—a fluke—or is there a reason behind it all?
We in God's Church know that the peoples of the United States and British Commonwealth nations are descended from sons of the biblical patriarch Jacob, or Israel. God prophesied to the ancient Israelites and their modern progeny: "If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit" (Leviticus 26:3–4). Later, God warned that if Israel would not obey Him, "…I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze… your land shall not yield its produce…" (vv. 14, 19–20).
Droughts and floods both act to prevent land from yielding its produce. The prophet Amos foretold, "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" (Amos 4:7). Jeremiah prophesied of a time when the ground would be parched because of no rain, due to the sins of Israel (Jeremiah 14, 1–8).
God is allowing extreme weather conditions to occur in order to get the attention of people He cares about—including you and me! He wants His people to repent of their sinful ways and obey Him once more. These severe weather events are an exciting sign of the impending return of Jesus Christ to establish His Kingdom. "Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the harvest of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely" (Leviticus 26:5). When He returns, Christ will restore truth to the earth and its peoples will obey. True prosperity will encompass the earth, and there will be no more starvation, and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1).
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The above is adapted from one of the many commentaries, discussing vital topics facing our world, available at the www.lcg.org and www.tomorrowsworld.org Web sites.