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Posted:

2nd March, 2009


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Deadly Victorian bushfires: a sign of the times?

Like untold millions of Australians, I am breathing a sigh of relief today. Yesterday's potential for a rerun, or worse, of the fires that killed about 240 Victorians three weeks ago has passed almost without mishap. Temperatures were expected to soar into the 90s and winds were predicted to reach up to 90 mph; these conditions, combined with the tinder-dry condition of the bush after twelve years of drought, created the formula for another disaster. My mother, sister and family, daughter and family (including three gorgeous little girls) and numerous friends live in Victoria. I was concerned. Though punishing winds did lash the state, temperatures stayed down and just enough rain fell - first in three months - to quell the rage of four big fires still gnawing away at the bush.

Surely every disciple of Jesus Christ suffers whenever his fellow man suffers, regardless of the cause, and will do what he can to alleviate the agony of others. After all, even God suffers with His children in their self-inflicted misery. But what if.?

At least one pastor believes the fires were sent by God to punish the state because it recently legalized abortion after decades of turning a blind eye to the hitherto illegal practice. Some other Christians would - even if "under their breath" - agree with Danny Nalliah. Did God send these fires? Can we know? Let us reason together.

God most certainly has visited mankind with "terror", and will do again:

God came from Teman. Before Him went pestilence, and fever followed at His feet. He stood and measured the earth. Your bow was made quite ready; oaths were sworn over Your arrows. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, at the shining of Your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger (Hab. 3:3-12).

But what He does at appointed times after sending His prophets to warn of impending wrath and what He may do day to day, today, are two completely different things! To those who believe God fired arrows of pain and death into

Victorian bush towns I ask, is God administering the death by fire of 163,000 people in India every year because they worship Ganesh and Vishnu? You've got to be kidding! God is love, not torment. To those who stridently present such events as evidence of the imminence of Jesus' return I say, well. I'm not sure what to say without sounding crass or pompous. (Jesus will return, prophecy will come to pass, but seems more and more to me as if we need prophets to make sense of prophecy.) Look, one does not have to resort to prophecy to find an "explanation" of such horrors. Consider the words of the wisest of men:

There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say, "Enough!": The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water - and the fire never says, "Enough!" (Prov. 30:15-16).

Fire will keep burning as long as conditions are conducive. And God decreed mortality as part of the human experience. He has set no limit on the day-to-day, seductive power of the grave. Climate is changing. Some areas are growing wetter and some areas, such as Victoria, appear to be deserts in the making. Those who fear God will, of course, look to Him in hope of His gracious deliverance from the potentially disastrous consequences of these developments. But, as we have just learned the hard way (though hindsight tells us we should have seen it coming), when mortal humans live in potentially dangerous areas, the results can be devastating and tragic. At such times we should remember Jesus' words:

Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:4).

The deadly fires may not be an act of God, but this fact leaves no room for complacency. Every one of us will die. "Time and chance" rules over all. And while we live we come under the watchful eye of Him Who will raise us from our graves and, if we have feared and loved Him, say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your lord". Death, like life, is temporary and fleeting.

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