Fires and floods ravage the nations of the Western world. Drought, disease and the suffering they bring are becoming routine to hundreds of millions around the world. What is God's role in all this? Why are weather disturbances increasing, and what lesson should individual Christians learn as a result?

This year we have had severe flooding in Kentucky, devastating wildfires in California with over 27,000 acres destroyed, and recently we have had catastrophic flooding in Texas with over 134 deaths and many missing.

Are all these extreme weather conditions just a product of "mother nature"? Most of the climate "experts" will calmly explain that there have always been shifting weather patterns throughout the world. They will say, in effect, that "this too shall pass."

But will it? If these "unusual" weather and related conditions continue to get worse and worse, then you had better "listen up"! You had better be willing to acknowledge that there is a real God—and that it is the Creator God who ultimately controls the weather!

How so?

Because, once you have proved to yourself (and you can and should!) that the Holy Bible really is directly inspired of God, then you should really study this "Manual for Survival" and acquaint yourself with the fact that the true God has always used the weather as a tool to chasten rebellious nations and sometimes even individuals. You should then be willing to ask yourself: "Where have we gone wrong? Is there some 'lesson' we should learn from the severe weather conditions that God predicts will be widespread just before Christ's coming?"

WILL OUR NATION REPENT?

In a dual prophecy for Israel that certainly applies to us today, God tells our peoples: "'Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,' says the Lord. 'I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,' says the Lord. '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" (Amos 4:6–9).

Notice that—in chastening His own people—the Creator will sometimes bring drought on one area and floods on another! But His purpose is always the same. It is to bring His people into heartfelt repentance from their mounting sins!

In another such prophecy that very obviously applies to the end-times, Joel describes God's coming intervention in the weather: "Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.… The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished" (Joel 1:2–4, 10–11).

Then God commands His ministers: "Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty" (vv. 14–15).

The "Day of the Lord" is mentioned about 30 times in the Bible. It occurs at the "time of the end"—at the time just before and including Christ's Second Coming. So our Creator is warning all who will listen to "cry out" to Him and ask for forgiveness!

In the earlier fulfillment of this dual prophecy, Joel says: "O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures" (vv. 19–20). Then God commands: "'Now, therefore,' says the Lord, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.' So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm" (Joel 2:12–13).

Even though our nations as a whole continues to indulge in illicit sex and gorge themselves on brutally violent and sexually titillating films and television shows, even though the use of illegal drugs continues to rise especially among our young people, even though the worldly liberals continue to dominate our media, our politics and even most of our churches, you personally should begin to see "the handwriting on the wall" as God's intervention in the weather becomes more and more obvious. You, personally, can begin to seek God with all your heart. You can turn to Him in heartfelt repentance and faith through the true Jesus Christ of the Bible and let God rule your life!

Then, you will have God's promised divine protection in the years just ahead. You will have His blessing and guidance through the traumatic situations all humanity will soon face. "Then" as God told ancient Judah: "you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12–13).

After describing the terrifying events just ahead of us, Jesus instructed: "Watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36). May God help you to do just that! And may He guide you to act on the knowledge you have just received.