God’s Role in Natural Disasters (2)

As we wander a little away from the busy life of the city, nature begins to present sights that we rarely see. Mountains, hills, waterfalls, lush green plains, rivers, lakes, oceans, beaches, the clear blue sky, bring peace, serenity and tranquility to the spirit within us. When we explore nature further, we begin to feel overpowered by its awesomeness. Raw nature can be disturbing and even frightening, making us think of the mighty hand of God that has shaped all creation. But at times, nature can be angry, furious, relentless and unremorseful. Cyclones, earthquakes, droughts and floods can take the lives of thousands of people and render millions homeless and destitute. And then we ask, “What is God doing?”.

God’s role in natural disasters is clarified in the Bible in the Old Testament, the First Book of Kings, Chapter 19. Here we read about the persecution that the prophet Elijah was suffering under the regime of Queen Jezebel who believed in a god named Baal and King Ahab who did whatever the queen wanted. Jezebel sent Elijah a message that she would get him killed within a day. He was scared and ran for his life towards the faraway land of Horeb. When he was tired, he rested under a tree and asked God to bring an end to his torment by taking his life. But God had other plans for Elijah. He arranged for an angel to give him nourishment every day so that he could continue on his journey.

Strengthened by that food, Elijah travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Bible says that “the Lord was not in the wind.”

After the violent wind storm there was a powerful earthquake, but the Bible again says that “the Lord was not in the earthquake” either.

There was a third catastrophic event that followed the earthquake. This came in the form of a raging fire, but then again the Bible says that “the Lord was not in the fire.”

So where was God?

The Bible narrative continues to tell us that after the fury of all the three violent natural calamities had abated, came a gentle breeze. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Some Bible versions translate it as “a gentle whisper”, others as “a still, small voice”.

I Kings Chapter 19 tells us clearly that God may not choose to speak to people through violent nature. He can talk to us directly through our hearts in a still, small voice that we should train ourselves to hear.

O Worship the King

This hymn written by Robert Grant in 1833 is based on Psalm 104 (see the related post “Praising God for His Creation”

O worship the King
All glorious above;
O gratefully sing
His power and his love:
Our Shield and Defender,
The Ancient of days,
Pavilioned in splendour,
And girded with praise.

O tell of his might,
O sing of his grace,
Whose robe is the light,
Whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath
The deep thunder-clouds form,
And dark is his path
On the wings of the storm.

This earth, with its store
Of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy power
Hath founded of old:
Hath stablished it fast
By a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast,
Like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care
What tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air,
It shines in the light;
It streams from the hills,
It descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils
In the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust,
And feeble as frail,
In thee do we trust,
Nor find thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender!
How firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless Might,
Ineffable Love,
While angels delight
To hymn thee above,
Thy humbler creation,
Though feeble their lays,
With true adoration
Shall sing to thy praise.

Praising God for His Creation

Psalm 104 from the Holy Bible (New International Version)

1 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendour and majesty.

2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent

3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.

4 He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.

6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.

7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.

9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.

10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.

11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 The birds of the air nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.

13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.

14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:

15 wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.

16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,  …..

17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the pine trees.

18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;…..

19 The moon marks off the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.

20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

21 The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.

22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.

23 Then man goes out to his work,
to his labor until evening.

24 How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.

26 There the ships go to and fro, ….

27 These all look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.

28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.

29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.

30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works-

32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.

35 ,,,,, Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord.

The Clouds of the Bible (1)

Nephology is a branch of meteorology that deals with clouds. The nephoscope is an instrument used for the observation of clouds and nephometry is the measurement of cloud dimensions. All these terms have been derived from the Greek word ‘nephos’ meaning a cloud. However, they are not very much in vogue these days and cloud physics, cloud dynamics and cloud chemistry are fast evolving as separate domains of scientific research and observation. For the purpose of describing and classifying clouds, latin names like cirrus (thin and feathery), stratus (spread out like sheets), cumulus (like heaps of cotton) or cumulonimbus (tall thunderclouds) have found common usage.

In the Greek New Testament, the word ‘nephos’ occurs only once but its variant ‘nephele’ occurs in 18 places. These words have been interpreted in English translations of the Bible in most places as ‘cloud’ and in rare instances as ‘mist’.

In the New Testament, ‘cloud’ has been used in the literal or meteorological sense in several references. There is an instance of Jesus admonishing the people around him that they knew how to interpret the appearance of the sky, such as a cloud building up on the west meant that it would rain, but they could not see the signs of the times (Luke 12:54-56).

Chapters 11-13 of the Letter to Hebrews, which may be described as a call to faith, remember the deeds of people from Abel to Rahab who stood firm in their faith, lived by faith and died in faith. Besides those mentioned by the author of Hebrews, he was aware that there were other people about whom he did not write. He names this assembly of innumerable anonymous faithful men and women as a ‘cloud of witnesses’ around us (Hebrews 12:1) just as a real cloud in the sky is formed out of millions of water droplets and snow crystals.

An analogy with real clouds is also drawn in two other places in the New Testament, in the context of the nature of ungodly people. They are said to be like mists driven by a storm (2 Peter 2:17) or like clouds carried away by the wind without giving rain (Jude 1:12). These comparisons vividly bring out the dry, empty and purposeless existence of such people.

Apart from the few literal usages mentioned above, all other references to clouds in the New Testament evoke a sense of God’s glory and majesty. It is important to note that the transfiguration of Christ, his ascension into heaven after his resurrection, and his second coming or return to earth, all have an association with clouds.

As per the three accounts of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8 and Luke 9:28-36) Jesus was standing on a mountain with Peter, James and John, when a bright cloud suddenly overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is my son, my beloved, on whom my favour rests, listen to him. Jesus’ disciples were terrified when they entered the cloud, such was the glory of its presence.

Acts 1:1-9 tells how forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, he was lifted up and a cloud removed him from the sight of people watching him.

When his life on earth was coming to a close, Jesus had told his disciples that that the Son of Man will return on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory (Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26). Even in the course of his trial prior to his death, Jesus had claimed before the high priest that the Son of Man would be seen seated at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64, Mark 14:62). In Revelation 1:7 John reasserts: Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye shall see him. At that time the celestial bodies will be shaken and the sun will be darkened. These are obviously not the clouds of precipitation formed out of normal atmospheric processes as we now know them to be, but heavenly spectacles of awe and splendour that would exude the glory of God.

Paul envisioned that it will be a time when the dead and the living will be caught up in the clouds to meet their Lord and be with him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Jesus himself said that angels will gather his chosen from the four winds from the farthest bounds of earth to the farthest bounds of heaven (Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27). Revelation 14:14-20 has more vivid imagery of this event. It pictures the likeness of a son of man riding a white cloud, wearing a crown of gold and holding a sickle to be put to the earth that is ready for harvest including the grapes of God’s wrath.

In 1 Corinthians 10:1, Paul talks about ‘the pillar of cloud’ which guided the Israelites during their journey to the promised land. I plan to write more of this in a subsequent post about the clouds of the Old Testament.

The Floods of the Bible

There are many beautiful and awesome things that we see in the sky: clouds, lightning, the blue colour of the clear sky, the panorama at sunset, the silver lining around dark clouds, the sun’s rays penetrating the morning mist. But there is one particular phenomenon that is glorious and colourful, majestic and beautiful, that bridges the earth with the heavens and runs from one end of the sky to the other. It is the rainbow.

The Bible has numerous passages, particularly in the Psalms, in which natural phenomena like clouds, rain, hail, snow, dew, frost, lightning, thunder or earthquakes are regarded as being symbolic of God’s majesty, power and splendour. But God has chosen to associate Himself specifically with the rainbow and it is His sign of peace with mankind and all living beings. Whenever we see a rainbow in the sky, it should be our time to remember God’s tender mercies, love and salvation.

The first rainbow appeared in the aftermath of the great flood, the story of which is narrated in detail in the Bible (Genesis, Chapters 6-9). Here, the Bible tells how God was grieved due to man’s wickedness and the evil inclination of man’s thoughts and decided to wipe out His own creation. But there was one man, Noah, who had found favour with Him and God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; and you will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

And then, as the Bible says, all the springs of the great deep burst forth, the floodgates of the heavens were opened and rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished, but Noah and those who were in the ark were saved.

When the flood waters had receded, and God’s purpose had been accomplished, He said: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, and never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease….Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.”

God has certainly kept His promise and from the Bible we can see that He intends to keep it to the end. The Bible itself has not reported any other instance of widespread flooding. When the Israelites were on their journey to the Promised Land, as many as ten different plagues of increasing severity were inflicted upon the Pharaoh and the Egyptian people (Exodus, Chapters 7-11). They included pollution of river waters, attacks by frogs and locusts, and death of the first-borns, but not floods.

When Jesus’ disciples asked Him about the signs of His second coming, He said that among other things, famines and earthquakes will occur in various places, but He did not speak about floods (Matthew 24:7). Even the Book of Revelation that very vividly describes the horrible tribulations which the earth will have to face at the end of this age, does not make any mention whatever of floods on earth.

However, while there is no further record of global floods in the Bible, it recognizes the reality that river floods have occurred and continue to occur on earth. Jesus Himself talked about floods in two different contexts. Jesus said that a person who hears His words and acts upon them is like a wise man who built his house on a firm foundation, so that when the river burst against it and the flood rose, it could withstand it (Luke 6:46-49). In another discussion, He told His disciples that just like the people on this earth were living life as usual, unaware of the impending flood, until Noah entered the ark, no one would know about His second coming except the Father (Matthew 24:36-39, Luke 17:27).

The Bible also acknowledges that floods are a part of the earth’s natural processes. In the account of the Israelites camping on the banks of the river Jordan and waiting to cross it, we are told that the river was in flood, as it always is during harvest (Joshua 3:15). However, water from upstream stopped flowing and piled up in a heap a great distance away and the entire nation of Israel was able to cross over on dry ground (Joshua 3:16-17). If this were a unique geohydrological phenomenon, no explanation is forthcoming in the Bible, and if it were a miracle, God has not taken credit for it.

However, David summarizes the situation beautifully in Psalm 124: “If the Lord had not been on our side….the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away….Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

In today’s times, floods do occur for various reasons. Rivers get flooded when there is a prolonged spell of heavy rainfall in their catchment areas and upstream regions. Rivers change course and take people by surprise. Cities get flooded because of inadequate drainage systems. Vast croplands get deluged when reservoir floodgates are opened to release water. So, floods are going to be there around us. But there is one difference: God is now on our side. And if God is for us, then who can be against us?

Climate Change – Guidance from the Bible

Does the Bible offer any guidance on issues related to climate change? The answer is yes.

The first verse of the Bible expresses the great story of God’s creation in just ten words: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Later on the Bible reasserts: The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands (Psalm 19:1), and once again: The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1). There is no ambiguity in the Bible whatever about who owns this earth, it is God.

Immediately after the narration of the sequence of events in the process of creation, the Bible gives a clear indication of the relationship that God wanted to establish between man and nature: God wanted human beings to fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living creature that moves on the ground….I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it (Genesis 1:28-29). Thus everything in nature was made freely available to man for use and enjoyment. The exploitation of nature by man has God’s sanction.

The Bible is clear again about man’s ownership rights, that he has none. We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it (1 Timothy 6:6). A man…as he comes so he departs, he takes nothing from his labour that he can carry in his hand (Ecclesiastes 5:14).

Even if one does not believe in the Bible, no human being can possibly stake a claim to the ownership of the earth. Even what we legally own, be it land, material wealth or intellectual property, is ours only in a temporary and relative sense. One of the most famous short stories of Leo Tolstoy had as its title this question: “How much land does a man need?” The answer provided at the end of the story was “six by three”, signifying that a plot of that size would be enough to bury not just a man’s body but also his ambitions and greed.

There are two parables of Jesus (Matthew 21:33-44, 25:14-30) about a master who has to go away leaving his property in charge of servants. The master expects his trusted servants to take care of the property and put it to good use in his absence, but that does not happen. These parables are equally applicable to man’s use of the environment. Man is still free to use all that nature provides and that includes land, oceans and the atmosphere. Nature does not ask for a payment in return for oxygen, water or sunlight which are essential for our remaining alive. However, with this great power to exploit nature, comes an equally great responsibility. When we get something free, we have a choice: we can either be careless and destroy it, or we can be caring and nurture it. It is very clear what God expects us to do, to reap nature’s benefits without being reckless. Man need not bear a feeling of guilt while exploiting nature, but he must be aware of his limits.

Agriculture is perhaps the most legitimate and inoffensive manner of exploitation of nature by man: A man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7). The Bible does not always speak of this law in its agricultural context, but it also uses it in a figurative and illustrative way. In another parable (Matthew 13:23), Jesus explained the spread of the word of God in terms of the scattering of seed in different environments and the varying results. Paul advised: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6).

The law of sowing and reaping, however, is not that linear or straightforward as it appears. One may sow but another may reap (Ecclesiastes 6:2). The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant, or favour to the learned (Ecclesiastes 9:11). On a spiritual plane, Paul likens sowing and harvest to the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power (1 Corinthians 43).

The sowing-reaping law does not operate on its own. Paul said, I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God made it grow (1 Corinthians 3:6). This is an indication that God can and does have the override switch in the process. David wondered in one of his psalms: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4). The truth is that the Maker of heaven and earth does care for each one of us and He does intervene in earthly matters.

It is clear that we have sown carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and we are now reaping the harvest of global warming. Again, like the Teacher of Ecclesiastes, we are experiencing the flaw that while one sows, another reaps. It is the western industrialized nations that have sown carbon dioxide, but it is the poorer developing nations who are reaping the ill-effects through the unified climate system of the earth. And like at many other compelling moments in our lives, we are raising the clichéd question: Where is God and what is he doing? Or is he just a bystander in the climate change process?

There are innumerable instances mentioned in the Bible wherein God has used nature and natural phenomena in a seemingly supernatural manner to accomplish his purposes. But there is no Biblical account of man having brought about climate change. Thus the present episode of anthropogenically induced global warming and climate change has no analogue in the Bible. However, we have this promise of God to reassure us: As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease…never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth (Genesis 8:22, 9:11). God is certainly mindful of what man is doing to his earth and he will certainly act at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner in order to keep his promise.

Man’s vision of the future climate is a product of climate models. These models can make projections for the next hundred years or so, on the basis of what are called emission scenarios that reflect varying levels of energy consumption. But the most final and beautiful scenario that the Bible paints before us, is of that heavenly land supplied with boundless energy, watered by the river of life, and lined by the trees of life that will give fruits in due season, and where man will not have to toil anymore (Revelation 21:4,23, 22:1-2).

Understanding Extreme Weather Events

An article entitled “Understanding the Extreme Weather Events”, with special reference to the Mumbai rain event of 26 July 2005, by Prof. R. R. Kelkar was published in the November 2005 issue of the Newsletter of the Indian Water Resources Society. It discusses the nature of monsoon rains, Mumbai rains and flooding, forecasting urban flooding and disaster management. Click here to read.

God’s Role in Natural Disasters (1)

On 15 January 1934, at 2:21 pm IST, there was a massive earthquake of magnitude 8.3 on the Richter scale with its epicentre located at latitude 26.6 °N and longitude 86.8 °E on the Bihar-Nepal border (Ref. 1).

Tremors of the Bihar earthquake were felt as far as Allahabad, where Jawaharlal Nehru had been standing in the verandah of his house talking to a group of farmers. He could hardly keep his balance and had to cling to a column nearby. Doors were banging and the tiles over the roof of Swaraj Bhawan were sliding down. The shocks ended after some time and the episode was soon forgotten. Nehru wrote that he could not have guessed what those two or three minutes had meant to the millions of people in Bihar (Ref. 2).

In fact, as many as 7,000 people were said to have perished in Bihar and another 3,000 in Nepal, although unofficial estimates put the casualty figures much higher. The district towns of Monghyr and Muzaffarpur suffered the maximum damage and loss of lives, but Kathmandu and Darjeeling were also badly affected.

Nehru later went on a tour of the earthquake-affected areas, when he read with a great shock a statement of Mahatma Gandhi to the effect that the earthquake had been a punishment for the sin of untouchability. On this, Nehru raised several rhetorical questions like: If the earthquake was a divine punishment for sin, how are we to discover for which sin we are being punished? Why did not the earthquake visit the land of untouchability itself? Was it a judgment on the prevailing zamindari system since many rich land owners had suffered losses in the earthquake? Could the British rulers interpret it as a divine punishment because Bihar had been taking a leading role in the freedom movement? Since Nehru did not attempt to answer these questions, it is obvious that he had posed them just to indicate that Gandhi’s logic was flawed or difficult to understand. Nehru concluded that it was astounding to suggest that human customs could cause movements in the earth’s crust (Ref 2).

There was another person who was equally surprised and disturbed by Gandhi’s statement about the Bihar earthquake: Rabindranath Tagore. However, Tagore took the cautious route of first checking with Gandhi whether he had really said what had been ascribed to him. True to his character, Gandhi did not disown his statement, nor did he give any excuse of being mis-reported, but confirmed that he had indeed linked the Bihar earthquake with the sin of untouchability while he was at Tinnevelly. He added that he had spoken with great deliberation and out of the fullness of his heart, and he had spoken what he had believed.

Gandhiji responded to Tagore with fairness and openness. He printed Tagore’s criticism in his own journal, Harijan, but followed it with a spirited rejoinder (Ref. 3). Accusing Gandhi of unreason, Tagore had argued that physical catastrophies must have their origin in physical facts. He believed in the inexorableness of the universal law in the working of which God himself never interferes. He felt that our own sins and errors, however enormous, could never have enough force to drag the structure of creation to ruins.

Gandhi’s defence was that we do not know all the laws of God nor their working. Taking a broader view, Gandhi expressed his belief that visitations like droughts, floods, earthquakes and the like, with seemingly physical origins, were somehow connected with man’s morals, though this connection cannot be proved. While the physical effects of an earthquake would be forgotten and repaired, the moral lessons would have to be learnt. Disagreeing with Tagore, Gandhi asserted that human sins do have the force to ruin the physical world. His message was that natural disasters should draw us nearer to God, humble us, and make us readier for facing God (Ref. 3).

The questions raised by Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru in the aftermath of the Bihar earthquake of 1934, were not new. These issues had been a subject of debate for thousands of years before the event, and such questions are put forth even today. In the Holy Bible, there are literally hundreds of references in the Old Testament which make no secret of God’s intentions to bring disaster on the nations of the earth. God seems to be ever ready with his package of sword, plague and famine, with earthquakes and hailstorms added. But He also acts fair in the sense that He gives the vulnerable populations sufficient advance warnings of the impending disasters, either directly or through His messengers. He always explains to the people the reasons behind His decrees and also what He expects to accomplish by inflicting the planned disasters. Out of His many purposes behind disasters, the most common one is to make people leave their sinful ways and realize that He is God.

Even in the New Testament, where God’s image changes to that of a loving father, no respite is offered to humanity from disasters. The package of sword, earthquake, famine and pestilence would be unleashed at the end of the age. It is interesting to read an account of how Jesus reacts to the news of two local disasters, the slaughter of some Galileans by Pontius Pilate and the collapse of a tower in Jerusalem killing several people. Jesus’ audience is perhaps expecting from him an explanation about the role of a loving God in a suffering world. Instead, Jesus confronts the gathering around him with a question of his own: Do you think that those who suffered were worse sinners or more guilty than all the others? He then goes to answer his own question: I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish (Ref. 4).

Historical records tell us that down the ages, millions of human beings have perished in natural disasters. At the same time, we also know that in the day of disaster, countless people have sought refuge in God, dwelt with Him in safety, and received His protection, comfort and consolation. To me, the key issue here is to try to comprehend that neither God’s wrath, nor His love, nor His forgiveness, nor His grace, is limited by or is in proportion to the degree of human sinfulness. Had it been otherwise, divine judgment would have been a terror for the earth and human salvation an impossibility.

References: (1) IMD web site www.imd.gov.in, (2) Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography, Chapter LVIII Earthquake, 1936, (3) Sabyasachi Bhattacharya: The Mahatma and the Poet, Part IV, Documents 3-6, 1997, (4) Holy Bible, New International Version, Luke 13:1-4, Luke 21:10-11.

P. S 1: Another earthquake struck almost the same place on the Bihar-Nepal border on 21 August 1988 but it had a lesser magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale. It took a death toll of 850, caused structural damages to thousands of buildings and totally ruined many villages in Bihar. But this time there was no speculation about the earthquake having been the result of a divine intervention. Perhaps secular India had come of age.

P. S. 2: If human beings are really incapable of interfering in natural processes, then what is all this talk of climate change about?

Stormfury

The weather over north India in the winter season is largely controlled by what are known as ‘western disturbances’, so named because they approach the country from the west. Although these disturbances keep coming throughout the year, they are more predominant during the winter season. They are the primary source of winter rains over the country, which sustain the winter or rabi crops, the southwest monsoon having withdrawn by October. Western disturbances also produce heavy snowfall over the slopes of the Himalayan mountains, at times giving rise to avalanches and causing a disruption of normal life. As these disturbances move away eastwards and weaken, temperatures drop in their wake, leading to cold waves, frost and fog across large parts of India.

The path of the western disturbances can be traced from India to as far back as the Mediterranean Sea, where they originate as low pressure areas. If they can maintain their strength all the way to India, it is easy to imagine what fury they would have over the regions close to the Mediterranean Sea. One such region is what is presently known as Lake Tiberias or Lake Galilee, and described in the Bible as the Sea of Galilee. This is in fact not a sea but a fresh water lake about 166 sq km in size and situated 40 km to the east of the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 200 m below sea level and has steep slopes on all sides.

It was on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, in a town named Capernaum, that Jesus had delivered the Sermon on the Mount, which was in a sense his inaugural address, containing the most significant of His teachings. On one of the early days of His mission in Galilee, Jesus had narrated the first few of His parables, and gone ahead with His work of teaching and healing. He was being followed by crowds who were gathering in large numbers. At the end of this busy day, Jesus wanted to have a time of rest and seclusion, and decided to go along with His disciples to the other side of the lake or the Sea of Galilee in a boat.

In the mean time, a low pressure area had perhaps been brewing over the Mediterranean Sea and had been moving eastwards on its long journey towards India, passing over the Sea of Galilee on its way. In the Bible, there are three parallel accounts of the storm that caught the disciples of Jesus by surprise later in the night. (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 8:22-25). Compared to what we now call a hurricane, the storm described in the Bible was a very insignificant one. It could have been just a squall. Yet it had left the disciples shaken and made them feel helpless. They felt all the more deserted because Jesus who was with them, had been sleeping soundly in the midst of all the chaos as if unconcerned with their plight. When they woke Him up and sought His help, Jesus got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and commanded, “Quiet! Be still!”. That was enough for calm to be re-established. The disciples were astonished and said, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

There is always a tendency to view the events of this type, or miracles, narrated in the Bible, with a degree of skepticism, because they go against the laws of nature as we understand them. But in fact, the Son of Man was just doing, and succeeded in doing, something that Man has forever been trying to do. The most cherished human ambition is to have control over nature.

It is worth recalling that in the aftermath of several devastating hurricanes, the U. S. had launched Project Stormfury in 1960 with the specific aim of taming hurricanes. This experiment was based upon the concept that hurricanes could be weakened by dropping silver iodide into their wall clouds. The project continued for 20 years, but was eventually terminated after the results were found to be inconclusive.

God’s ways and man’s ways are not the same, and there is no reason why they should be the same. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).

The Four Winds of the Bible (2)

Unlike the east wind of the Bible which is a distinctly powerful, dry and hot wind, the winds from the other three directions do not appear to have any particular attributes. In fact, the west wind finds a mention just once, in connection with the plague of the locusts, in which it was used to send the locusts away from Egypt (Exodus 10:19). The north wind is said to bring rain (Proverbs 25:23), and there is an instance of a windstorm coming out of the north, accompanied by brilliant flashes of lightning (Ezekiel 1:4). The north and south winds appear to go round and round in an unending course (Ecclesiastes 1:6). The north and south winds are welcome winds; when they blow on the garden, its fragrance is spread abroad (Song of Solomon 4:16). The south wind could be hot (Luke 12:55) or gentle (Acts 27:13).

The four individual winds blowing from the east, west, north and south directions are described in the Bible in the same way as a human observer would describe, even today. We get an idea of the strength of these winds, the weather phenomena associated with them, and their effects. However, the phrases ‘four winds’, ‘four winds of the earth’ or ‘four winds of heaven’ are used in the Bible in a very different manner. The four winds are referred to in the context of extraordinary events or situations as foreseen by prophets, made known to select persons by God in the form of visions, or revealed by Jesus Himself to His disciples.

The four winds are sometimes associated with the four corners of the earth or the four quarters of heaven. This should not be considered as being suggestive of an image of a flat earth having four corners, but should be taken to mean the whole earth. Likewise, the four winds should be construed not as winds blowing literally in only four directions, but as winds blowing in all directions. Such an interpretation is indeed justified, because a wind having any speed or direction can be regarded as a combination of two north-south and east-west components.

A look at the weather charts used by today’s meteorologists would tell that the earth’s atmosphere at any given time is made up of high and low pressure areas in different regions. Winds blow out of and around an area of high pressure or anticyclone, and they would randomly scatter whatever that came in their way. On the other hand, over an area of low pressure or cyclone, intense winds would blow around and into it from all directions, and thus gather instead of scatter.

The power of the four winds of the Bible is tremendous, both figuratively and practically. It can churn the great sea, it can uproot and scatter powerful empires (Daniel 7:2, 8:8, 11:4, Zechariah 2:6). The combined power of the four winds of heaven was to be deployed against the nation of Elam, to scatter the people in all directions (Jeremiah 49:36).

On the contrary, in another situation of a positive nature, the four winds were called upon to gather together and breathe life into the slain so that they may live (Ezekiel 37:9). But of greater significance is the reference to the four winds in the events that would occur when the Son of Man returns in His glory (Matthew 24:31, Mark 13:27). He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other, or from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

There is a third kind of role that the four winds will be playing in the last times. John, in his vision, saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree (Revelation 7:1). This would amount to a circulation pattern of the atmosphere in which there are no highs or lows whatever, or an atmosphere of infinite calm!