ULDAH MINISTRY

No,112　　FEBRARY . 2005

　　　　【 THE EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI DISASTER】

　　　The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, set your face towards the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the southland. Say to the southern forest 'Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to set fire to you and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that I the LORD have kindled it; it will not be quenched.'"
　　　Then I said, "Ah, sovereign LORD! They are saying of me, 'Isn't he just telling parables?'" The word of the LORD came to me; "Son of man, preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel and say to her; 'this is what the LORD says; I am against you. I will draw my sword from its scabbard and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. Because I am going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. Then all people will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword from its scabbard; it will not return again.
　　　Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. And when they ask you, 'Why are you groaning?' You shall say, 'Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every knee become as weak as water.' It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD."
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Ezekiel 20:45~21:7.

　　　The onset of natural disasters; fires, floods, storms (El Nino phenomena, hurricanes and Typhoons), drought and earthquakes in the past decade has claimed a lot of lives and whenever such disasters happened people were prompted to find out reasons for them. The colossal scale of the latest Indian Ocean earthquake which marked 9.1 on the Richter scale and the subsequent tsunami, on Boxing day, 26th Dec. '04, whose epicentre was off coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra was beyond our comprehension. Its devastating ripple effects hit even Somalia, located in the coast of East Africa, 3,600 miles from the epicentre, seven hours after the first tremor. According to the British Geological Survey, the energy that was released by the quake in one go was more powerful than all the earthquakes in the world over the past five years put together. The death toll rose day by day up to 160,000, twelve countries were severely affected and tourists from at least forty four countries were involved and still many are missing and unaccounted for. While the whole world responded to this catastrophe in Asia by pledging donations and relief aid with unprecedented generosity, the post disaster spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid is feared from past experiences, to claim the lives of many more people than the disaster itself.
　　　Witnessing such inexplicable disaster, how can we interpret the enormous scale of this tragedy: Why does God allow such terrible things to happen to His creation and man? Many have been challenged to answer this question. The chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth of Nations, Jonathan Sacks, answering the classical question, commented with some biblical remarks (The Times, Jan.1 '05). He refers to divine anger written in the Hebrew Bible, where God-caused catastrophes tend to be interpreted as punishment against sinful gentile nations. However, he points out that it was God-fearing people that usually asked Him the most challenging questions about their fate rather than the unbelievers. Abraham, Job, Moses, David, Jonah and Elijah did so, whenever incomprehensible misfortunes and disasters took place. Whereas pagans simply regarded natural disasters as independent forces of evil and the rage of gods of Nature, the biblical prophets and God-fearing Israelites interpreted them in awe and asked the question; what should they do, instead of the question: why did this happen? Rabbi Sacks argues, 'The religious response is not to seek to understand, thereby to accept. …the only adequate religious response is to say: "God, I do not know why this terrifying disaster has happened, but I do know what You want of us: to help the afflicted, comfort the bereaved, send healing to the injured, and aid those who have lost their livelihoods and homes." We cannot understand God, but we can strive to imitate His love and care.' Reminding us of God-oriented institution of a renewed social order that was to honour human life as the image of God after the catastrophic flood in the days of Noah, Rabbi Sachs concluded his comment in the following way: 'Having seen how small and vulnerable humanity is in the face of nature, might we not also see how small are the things that divide us, and how tragic to add grief to grief.' While there are many who simply want their god to care about his creation as they desire and also to be supremely powerful to prevent every calamity from befalling them and accordingly, who reject such a God that allows natural disasters to fall upon man for His incomprehensible and inexplicable purposes, what the Scripture testifies is that God is totally in control whatever happens to man and this world. Accordingly, as Rabbi Sacks commented, our Creator God can be neither indifferent to human suffering, nor powerless to prevent it, nor malevolent at all. God is still loving, merciful, compassionate and sovereign enough to save all men out of hell, the ultimate destination of the spiritually dead as the result of the bondage of sin.
　　　This was exactly the understanding that the prophet Habakkuk reached after wrestling and arguing with God over His unfathomable ways: 'Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes in the vines, though the olive crops fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.' (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Isaiah, pleading with Israel to return to the Lord while He might be found, delivered God's Word to her: '"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," … "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. …so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.' (Isa.55:8,9…11). Also, the wisdom teacher, "qoheleth" summarised God's sovereignty over the world and time from the view point of man in the following way: 'He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.' (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In other words, he admitted man's limitations to fully understand God's plans and purposes of eternity and to enjoy them within the present limited life span, i.e., 'under the sun' in his unique terms.
　　　When Habakkuk started complaining to God, crying for help, 'How long?' it was about the nation's heavily oppressed situation. Under the reign of a cruel king Jehoiakin, the people in Judah had been suffering injustice, wickedness, spiritual and moral corruption, strife and violence. He expressed in the dialogue with God: 'Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.' (Habakkuk 1:3-4). Out-cry of the nation against the greedy landowners and leaders, represented by the voice of the prophet Habakkuk reached the Lord and His answer to them who shared the prophet's challenge to God was a promise of sending more wicked and ruthless Babylonians than the leaders of Judah to execute judgment and punish the nation. In Scripture, rather than appointing a wicked gentile nation, i.e., a human means as a divine rod, God would often use natural disasters to punish wickedness, strife and oppression. Thinking of the particular situations of the countries devastated by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami this time, we may be able to apply some of these biblical principles to interpret the unprecedented disasters.
　　　Indonesia that was hit hardest by the quake is understood to be a most populous Moslem country where in the past years many Christians have been killed in horrific ways as burning, torture, beheading, mutilation and the gouging out of eyes by them, in the name of Jihad, meaning "Holy War" for their understanding against Christians and the Church and in its broader meaning, against all that oppose Islam. This trend is said to have recently been accelerated and the Indonesian Army, having co-operated with Muslim groups is said to have openly joined in the slaughter of civilian and Christians in East Timor. The province of Aceh, the northernmost of the island of Sumatra that was reported to be devastated by this tsunami was commented to be 'a particularly vulnerable part of a politically brittle state.' According to a commentator, the province that formed an independent Islamic kingdom in 804 is distinct from the rest of Indonesia. In 2003, in an attempt to subordinate Aceh to Jakarta's rule, the Indonesian government launched a military campaign against the separatist rebels and massacred many children and since then the conflict has persisted. Thus, Aceh is one of the regions placed under oppressive and brutal rule because of Jakarta's grip on valuable natural gas and oil deposits there. From this information it would be deduced that the people who had unfairly been oppressed and traumatised in the province of Aceh would have been crying out for help and justice and as the result, the latest natural disaster, having struck the most troubled province, has exposed the evil structure of the state and its humanitarian crisis. The same can be said of Sri Lanka, India, and Somalia. In Sri Lanka, twenty years of civil strife persist with a vague talk of a cease-fire. The report is very symbolical that the damage caused by this one-off disaster is far bigger than that caused by years of strife. India, despite their big problem of poverty, has long been hostile against rival Pakistan in a race for nuclear supremacy. Also, violence towards, and murder of Christians and desecration of churches have been growing. The following information might not be up-to-date but according to a report in Dec.'99 (Prophecy today Vo.15 No.6), while the authorities took no action against escalated hate- attacks and campaign, missionaries were accused of misleading tribal people. Hindu extremists switched their focus and targets from Muslims to Christians because churches were reaching out to the 'Dalits' who are the outcasts and underclass of Indian society and who make up a quarter of its population. Missionary work to convert and educate them was taken as a threat to its social order and accordingly the persecution against Christians has been growing in every means. What is behind the scene of these trends is apparent. It is man's selfishness, i.e., sin. Somalia which has been talked about by everyone; foreign aid-workers, journalists and even Somalis themselves: 'This is the land that God forgot'; is literally a barren, and unproductive country. It is said that visitors used to be impressed by the poverty, violence, looting, killing, greed and destruction that overwhelmed the land as if cursed, until the state of lawlessness and anarchy was restrained by the multi-national military and relief forces in 1992. What changed Somalia, whose entire area was said to be covered in tropical rain forests a century previously, into such a deserted and godless degenerated state? Man's sin, especially leaders' sinful ways of governance would be responsible for the country's plight. Somalia has already been afflicted by the worst famine in Africa. However, if it were not for God's further drastic intervention by natural disasters, its deeply rooted problems might not have been effectively resolved, though humanitarian relief effort and evangelism have been continuing.
　　　As examined above, the floods, earthquakes, fire, drought are a spiritual sign of God's judgment. Looking back on the past natural disasters, many lives were protected in supernatural ways and by divine mercy, showing that the Lord's aim to cause disasters was not to bring death to His creation. Many might have lost their properties and belongings but their lives were securely spared. All such calamities were as if they had been warning signs for much bigger disasters, just as the first wave of tsunami was followed by the second wave which came with much bigger force and brought about such destruction as witnessed by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Reflecting back on the earthquakes in Los Angels on 17th Jan.'94 and in Kobe, Japan on 17th Jan.'95, both took place in the early hours of the morning when tens of thousands of people were still at home. Though man-made property was heavily damaged, God-breathed lives were amazingly protected except for a relatively few victims in proportion to the scale of the earthquake. While God's simmering anger against man's sin is reflected in natural disasters, it is also true that God's mercy and love noticeably accompany them. We often hear such encouraging testimonies that God supernaturally rescued those who were involved in disasters in the midst of earthquakes, bush-fires, floods and so on. 'The first thing I noticed was that the place where I was lying down was the only untouched and unharmed place in my room' was also my husband's experience at dawn in Jan.'95 when the massive earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale hit the centre of the industrial and the second largest port city, Kobe in Japan. Realising his survival without any harm in the darkness, he immediately gave thanks to the Lord for His perfect protection. However, there is no guarantee that all the Lord's followers are always preserved to live unharmed though it is foremost God's will and His promise of protection up to an appointed time for each individual: 'no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot, against a stone (Ps.91:10-12). No-one knows why some are scarcely rescued and others lose their lives but God would reason His choice. However, if all these disasters are still God's warnings for the coming judgment, then how can we know the time of shift when these warning signs eventually give way to full judgment.
　　　When the present warnings turn to full judgment, God's protection will completely be removed and it would be the time when Ezekiel prophesied as a time when the Lord will draw His sword to cut off both 'the righteous and the wicked,' i.e., both 'green and dry.' The fire kindled by Him and its blazing flame won't be quenched until it destroys everything, as quoted at the beginning. This complete destruction must happen, otherwise, the 'house of Israel' won't listen to the Lord and won't give up serving idols and will continue to profane His holy name. "Because of the accumulated sinfulness among not only pagans, but also God's chosen Israel, judgment will befall." is a biblical principle for all the nations. 'It is coming! It will surely take place.' This is the Sovereign Lord's declaration. Jeremiah also warned of full judgment. The time which God destined that 'these gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens' (Je.10:11), could be no longer prevented by any means and Jeremiah was prohibited to intercede for the sparing of his country-men's lives. Jeremiah called it a 'time of trouble for Jacob' (Je.30:7). Our Lord Jesus also mentioned the terrible time of judgment by referring to Ezekiel's allegory 'green and dry' trees: 'For the time will come … then " 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills "Cover us!"' For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?' (Lk.23:29-31). Jesus' comforting but stern warning word to the mourning and wailing women in Jerusalem for His horrible plight of crucifixion; not to weep for Him but to weep for themselves and their children, with quotation from Ezekiel and Hosea implicitly suggests that he meant the time of full judgment. If Jesus, the righteous (the green tree) is to be tortured to death on a cross as a curse in place of us, sinners, what would happen to the wicked (the dry tree) who would reject God and His redemption through Christ? Judgment is inevitable for everyone. God's message through natural disasters is clear. Especially witnessing such an unprecedented disaster that brought about so much death and involved many countries including foreign tourists this time, seem to warn us of an intensified stage of judgment.
　　　Unless we heed God's warning and repent of our ways of lives that displease Him; selfishness, greed, immorality and idolatry, not only the developing countries but leading countries would be soon hit to such an extent that there would be no country and no-one able to afford to help others because of the sheer scale of damage. If this is a biblical prospect, what we should do now as a people helper would be very significant. Proposed debt cancellation for severely afflicted poor countries, pledged generous tsunami aid by many nations and humanitarian aid promptly sent to the devastated countries would all please God. In these ways the tragedies might be turned to be God's opportunities to work out His salvation to every nation and at the same time, to be God-given best opportunities for each individual to demonstrate His love by taking action to help those in need. What each of us, Christian or not, does to others in need with a heart of love and compassion would undoubtedly be counted righteous by the Lord at the end time of the gentile nations' judgment, when God will determine who will enter His kingdom (Matt.25:31-46).

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　 This month a money gift has been sent to COMPASSION UK in response to an urgent appeal for the Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund. Compassion India has projects located on the east coast of India whose shore the tsunami hit on Boxing Day '04. Many families in Thailand and Indonesia as well lost everything in an instant; their job, fishing boats, properties, livelihoods and family members' lives. Though it is very difficult to take in such a big figure of victims, five million children and families are estimated to be afflicted by this disaster. Many who survived the tsunami are now facing the trauma of separation from their families, being orphaned, and the threat of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Pray for effective help for those victims' need of food, water and future guidance.