Episode 37: The Sovereignty of God and Tornados

To the Ruled Church podcast.

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

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You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

Welcome to the Ruled Church podcast. How's it going, Eddie?

Man, it's going good. We had some storms here last night, and so didn't get as much sleep as maybe would've liked to, but in the Lord's grace, I feel really well this morning.

I started keto, so I don't know how I feel. I feel okay.

Oh yeah, you're doing keto?

Yeah, I started Monday.

Yeah.

Monday evening, actually. But yeah, so that's my storm right now.

How's that going for you?

Ah, you know, it's only like less than 48 hours, so it's, you know, I mean, it's fine.

It's going all right.

So I saw a video. Did you see the Free Grace Press? I'll try to put a link in the show, but did you see the video of the Alex shot of the promo for A Change of Heart?

Yeah, I did. Uh-huh, it was really good. Yeah, I did see it.

Yeah, but did you see how fat I looked?

Well, I did not even think about the way you looked, but.

So I was like, yeah, I was like, thank you, Alex. Now I got to start keto.

But you've been like running and stuff.

Yeah, I know, but it's just, man, since October, it's been a whirlwind. I was, one run in October, I ran seven miles.

Wow.

But since October and everything that happened, it's like, okay, I just got out of habit with running and got a little careless eating. And so I'm like, yeah, all right, enough banter. Welcome to the Rural Church Podcast, episode 37.

I'm your co-host, Alan Nelson. With me is my brother in the faith, co-labor in the ministry, Eddie Ragsdale. Hello again, Eddie.

Hello, brother.

The Sovereignty of God Over Tornadoes and Storms

Today, we want to talk about the sovereignty of God and the storms of life. But we're talking about actual storms because we're in the midst of tornado season in Arkansas. Eddie, did you know, I'm gonna tell you something, I need you to brace yourself.

Did you know there's no such thing as mother nature?

That's right, there's no such thing as mother nature.

Oh, you already knew that?

That is correct, I can confirm that.

All right, where do tornadoes come from?

They come from the same place that everything that is happening in God's created universe comes from, they come from God.

That sounds a little bit harsh.

You know, I was just having this discussion with some folks in our church the other day, and I was just trying to remind them that one of the things we need to remember is that while yes, scientifically, we can look at the world and see the way that God has designed it to work, we can see that a cold front moves into a warm air mass and you have the different things taking place and so we can expect storms and tornadoes and all those kinds of things.

We know that even though those natural processes are happening, it is God who is ordering and decreeing and bringing about His will in those natural processes, just like we know the natural processes that produce children, and yet we know it is the Lord that knits together a person in their mother's womb.

Yeah, how about this? The 1689 is excellent on this, chapter five on divine providence, paragraph two. All things come to pass unchangeably and certainly in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, who is the first cause.

Thus, nothing happens to anyone by chance or outside of God's providence. Yet by the same providence, God arranges all things to occur according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or in response to other causes.

So that's what you're talking about, cold fronts, warm fronts, these things. God is in complete control of these things and they're all working out according to His plan. There's so many directions that we can go and so many things that we need to talk about.

One of the things I would talk about is this. Why do tornadoes happen? Well, in one sense, the reason is because we live in a fallen world.

That's right.

This world is not Genesis two anymore. We're now a Genesis three world where it's fallen. It's fallen under the curse in the world that God made. In Genesis two, tornadoes don't happen, but because of sin and because of God's curse upon the world, because of Adam's rebellion, now we live in a world where there are things like earthquakes and hurricanes and storms and cancer and sickness, disease and tornadoes.

That's right, that's right. And I may be jumping the gun a little here, but one of the things that was proof that Jesus really was God was that Jesus had power over the storms. He had power over the things that were under the control of God and not in the domain of man.

In Matthew chapter eight, it says, when he had gotten to the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep.

And they went and woke him saying, save us Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid? Oh, you of little faith. And then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm.

And the men marveled saying, what sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? We even see in the life of Lord Jesus that his divinity was on display in his command of the winds and the waves.

God's Providence in Tragedy, Judgment, and Hidden Purposes

Yeah, that's right, that's right. And God has a purpose, even though we don't always understand that we're recording this podcast less than a week from when a tornado hit West Little Rock. And you look at the massive destruction and you realize that there's been some deaths.

Actually, I think when Arkansas took more of a brunt than even West Little Rock, believe there were four deaths in wind and one in Little Rock. And it breaks our heart as we think about these things, but the reminder and the comfort for the Christian is God is sovereign over these things.

And that even in these terrible tragedies, God has decreed before the foundation of the world whatsoever comes to pass. And so even in these tragedies, God has purpose. Now, the reality is we don't always identify, we're not always able to identify, well, this happened because of this.

Sometimes we have to be able to say, I don't know. But here's some things I do know. I know that God is good. And I know that God, all things are working together for good for God's people, the church.

And I know that even in difficult situations, God is sovereign. So I wanna also mention this and just something to toss out there for you. Not sure if you've thought about it before, but in Job 1, it says, let's start in verse 18.

It says, while he was yet speaking, there came another and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house.

And it fell upon the young people and they are dead. And I alone have escaped to tell you. Where did that great wind come from? Well, we know from the context of Job that it came, that Satan, right? That God allowed Satan to test Job, as it were.

And so it seems to me that in that passage, God allowed Satan to bring about some sort of wind storm, whether you actually call it a tornado or not, that would be maybe a different debate. But do you agree that Satan has certain powers that the Lord allows him to do?

Yeah, but I think we wanna remember exactly the language you used. He's on God's leash. So he can, but he can as he's allowed to by the Lord. He can't, I don't think he can go beyond what, of course, God is gonna let him do for God's purposes, which I think what we see in the case of Job, Satan keeps having to come back to the Lord for permission and to do the next thing that he would do.

And so, yeah, I think clearly Satan had purposes to try to steal glory from God through Job, and God had purposes to glorify himself through what was happening with Job. And we see that, yes, the Lord allowed Satan to do that.

You know, I think that it's important in all this, whether you say, so let's say a tornado ravishes a community. You have perhaps three options. One, the Lord directly intervened and brought about a storm as an act of his judgment.

And we see that in Jonah, correct? I mean, over and over again in the book of Jonah, it says

God appointed, yeah.

God appointed, that's right. God appointed the storm, he appointed the fish, he appointed the, he just kept appointing things. So that's right, we see him doing that.

Option two, you have God has allowed Satan in his fury. You know, that's a secondary cause that God has allowed Satan in his fury to bring about some sort of event. Or thirdly, you might say God, and for purposes unknown to us, and his wisdom has just sovereignly orchestrated the secondary means of a cold front and a warm front.

And, you know, and it just happened, not purposelessly, right? But it happened. And we can't really identify maybe why it happened. But one thing I wanna bring us to in this episode is in Luke 13, let's go there real quick.

In Luke 13, I think we have a great example of how we should respond to these sorts of events. Really, how the people in Little Rock and Wynn and Arkansas and all over the United States, as they see a hurricane or one of these tragedies.

Jesus says this in Luke 13, there were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?

No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?

No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So the idea here is from our Lord, the teaching that sometimes events happen, we can't say, oh, the people in this county, they were worse, that's why it happened.

No, we live in a fallen world, this thing did happen. The reality is, unless you repent, you too will perish. And as we consider a storm, I was driving with a friend yesterday and we were talking about this, but as we consider a storm, think about the awesome is not the right word because awesome, we wanna use only for God.

Think about the amazing power that a storm produces. Think about an EF3 tornado and think about just, that's only midway and that's what hit Little Rock. You think about the things it did, think about what was it that hit Valonia?

Was it a F4 or F5?

Yeah, I'm not even sure.

I think it was a big, it was at least F4. But you think about, and you and I were out there in that aftermath and you think about the things that you saw, you think about the power of a storm, that should cause a sinner to tremble for a holy and awesome God.

Yeah, something to point out here about what the Lord says. He says, don't think that they were worse sinners. They were sinners though. And his point is, so are you. And so the point is not that those Galileans weren't sinners, they were.

They were sinners and judgment came on them. And Jesus is proclaiming, unless you repent of your sin, you're also going to perish because they're not worse sinners than you, but they were sinners and so are you.

And I think something else for us to remember, and it's one of the reasons why we want to be careful about sometimes when storms come, sometimes the false prophets will come out and they'll say, the Lord sent Katrina on to New Orleans to judge that wicked city or something like that.

And we want to be careful not to speak in such great generalities, but to point out the fact that does the Lord judge people in a storm like this?

Yes.

Does he administer mercy and grace in the midst of storms and things like this? Yes, he does. And one of the problems for us is that it's impossible for us to account for the millions, maybe that's too small of a number, millions of different individual things that God is doing when the storm comes.

So some are being judged, some are receiving grace, some are in the midst of grief and pain and loss, still receiving something from God in his wisdom that we couldn't even know because God knows the future.

And we don't know all of the factors that God knows and that God is accounting for, not in what is happening, but in his decree of what is happening.

Yeah, amen. We don't know, but we do know this.

But we know that he knows.

We know that he knows. We know that he's in control. So let me shift gears and talk a little bit about this. There is a measure of wisdom and prudence and preparedness that comes with tornadoes, but there's also a measure of sinful fear.

And we're not saying that you need to go stand out in the street with your American flag and say, come get me, tornado, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I see posts all the time of people sinfully anxious about storms. And so if we believe and confess a sovereign and holy and good God, we cannot allow ourselves to be afraid of storms. We can be prepared.

We talked the other night during family worship, they talk about storms are gonna be bad or whatever. So during family worship, we just talked, hey, if a tornado comes, this is what we're gonna do. For us, it's having to get in a hallway.

We're gonna get in the hallway. And we're not just gonna sit around and eat nachos and act like nothing's going on. We're gonna be prepared. We're gonna take precautions. We're gonna, if a tornado is predicted for in the evening, it's not a great day to plan to travel around or whatever, but there's a measure of idolatry of fear.

And we saw this with COVID, we see it with anything, COVID, whatever, a measure of fear where if you truly fear God, then you can't, you can be prepared for the tornado, but you ought not fear the tornado.

Fear God.

Yeah, that's right. Fear God. That's right. You know, we ought to have such a respect and a reverence for God's sovereignty that we neither want to tempt God with recklessness, but we also do not want to fear some outcome outside of God's will.

So look, how's the old statement go? That we are invincible until the moment that the Lord has chosen to end our life, right? I mean, so we don't know when that is. And so while we shouldn't be reckless, like you said, we shouldn't be standing in the street, you know, saying, come get me tornado.

But at the same time, you know, last night, our house is pretty safe. It's concrete. And so, and we have a basement. And so, you know, last night when the storms were coming through, surely, you know, I did stay up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, kind of watching the weather in case we needed to go downstairs to the basement while Corey and Laura slept.

But at the same time, we would have went to the basement because that would have been the safest place for us to be. But had the Lord chosen to send a tornado that even in our, you know, rather safe house was supposed to get, it would have gotten us, you know, because that would have been the Lord's will.

So we wanna be careful that we neither lean toward recklessness nor toward irreverent fear.

Fear of God, Not Fear of Storms

Yeah, wear your seatbelt, eat well, exercise, you know, get in the storm shelter or get in the basement. But don't live your life in fear of the things that only God is in control in. You can't do that.

I know, I remember growing up, I had a teacher and that if there was a cloud in the sky, it was like she had her weather radio and was, you know, was concerned. And it's like, that is a, honestly, that is, remember, if you're listening to this and you struggle with this, that's a slight at the sovereignty of God.

That says, God, I don't trust you. God, I don't trust that you're gonna do this right. I don't trust that you're gonna take care of me. I don't trust that you're good. And so we need to repent, need to repent of those things.

We can't be sinfully afraid of storms and even other things. Take those fears to the Lord. There's no one for your sanctification more than our triune God. So take those fears to the Lord, hand them over to him, repent, trust his grace and ask him to help.

We've all failed in this area, you know, and think about COVID and the recent, of course, it's been three years since then, but just the fear that swept across our nation and even churches and take these things to the Lord when you're dealing with the sinful fear of saying that God's not in control, right?

Yeah, you know, and even with that, we wanna remember that we're not saying, well, if you trust the Lord, then the bad things won't happen. Oh, that's right. We're not saying that. We're saying that we're trusting the Lord that whatever he allows, he has glorious purposes for that.

And so we're not saying that you or someone you love isn't gonna die. We're not saying that, you know, if you, like you said, you exercise, you eat right, you wear your seatbelt and you trust the Lord, then you're gonna live to the ripe old age of 125.

You know, we're not saying that. We're simply saying that no matter what happens in our lives, it has to come through the hands of our loving and sovereign God. And, you know, when God tells us who he is, one of the things that God states when he states his name to Moses, you know, he is gracious and merciful, abounding and steadfast love.

Do we believe that? Do we believe that he is abounding and steadfast love for his people? If we do, then we can trust that even if it's not something we would have chosen, not something we would have wanted, it is the best thing for us.

Pastoral Care, Providence, and the Call to Repentance

Yeah, I think that this helps us too in counseling through these situations. You know, you certainly don't want to start out a conversation when someone just lost their home because of a tornado that, you know, to be careless in our words, you know, like, well, God's sovereign, get over it.

Well, yes, God is sovereign, but also God is compassionate. You know, God is good. It's not a careless God. And so as we work through these things and talking about why did this happen? It's like, we don't have an answer for every situation for why it happened, as we've been saying, but we do know that this didn't happen without purpose.

You know, if you just believe in a God who just allows things to happen, he could stop the tornado, but he just allowed it to happen for, you know, just because tornadoes just happened to happen. Then you're talking about a, like you're talking about what happened in West Little Rock and when was for nothing.

It just happened to happen and God could have stopped it, but he chose not to, and I don't know the logic, because a man's free will or something like that, which makes no sense when it comes to tornadoes, right?

You're saying, I don't have the ability to identify every single reason why this happened, but I do know that God is good and I do know that it's not meaningless. And I do know that at the end of days or whatever, as it were, that God is going to be glorified.

He is being glorified even now. He is taking care of his people. And in moments like these, even in moments of hurt and devastation, we need to run to God, not run away from him.

You know, one other thing that I think we ought to mention here, both for our brothers who are in ministry, pastors leading in churches, and just for believers, get your doctrine, your understanding of God's sovereignty down while you're not in the midst of the storm.

Now, God could use the midst of the storm to teach you about his sovereignty. He certainly could do that. But I would say we're much better off if we've already, from God's word and from our study of God's word, come to believe and to know and to trust in God's sovereignty so that when the storm comes, and I would say not if, but when, whatever it is that's gonna come into our life does come, we are able to trust in the Lord's sovereignty throughout that time and not have to learn that lesson in the midst of it.

God may graciously choose to teach it to us that way, or to teach it to us in a more personal and applicational way in the midst of that tragedy. But I would say if we know these things from God's word ahead of time, it prepares our hearts to be obedient to the Lord in the midst of those things.

And I think there's a call to action from the church. You know, as these things happen, as we see our fellow man, you know, some of them entering into an eternal judgment because they've died in unbelief.

We should have compassion. We should, you know, we should seek to help these communities that have been, you know, destroyed or devastated by tornadoes. What I'm saying is belief in the sovereignty of God does not just cause us to be complacent.

Well, that happened. I guess God wanted it to. No, we hold these two truths together in tandem, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Similar to evangelism, God is sovereign. There's not gonna be a person not saved that God wants saved.

And there's not gonna be a person saved that God has even chosen to pass over, right? Because of their own rebellious heart. But the reality is we are also go out and we preach the gospel. These two things work hand in hand.

And for some people, this is very hard. They can't make their brain understand it. And to an extent you get to a point out there, there is mystery, but you just realize both is true. Both are true, I should say, are true.

And, but the reality is when it comes to storms, the church has a call to action, as it were, when these things happen in our communities, we don't just sit in our theological chair and say, well, you know, before the foundations of the world.

No, we have the strong doctrine of God's sovereignty that actually motivates us to be a help to those who are hurting.

And to urgency, a call to urgency as well.

Excellent.

Going back to what you read from Luke 13, Jesus is saying, unless you repent, you all likewise perish. Well, there's a world perishing that needs to hear that message and they need to hear it today. The tornado.

And they need to hear it yesterday.

That's right.

Because we don't know if they'll have next tomorrow or next week to hear it. We need to be urgent about proclaiming the gospel.

That's right. We don't know. The tornado may come tomorrow. That may be the last opportunity. So when you're standing in line and you feel that urge, as it were, or that conviction, I need to share the gospel with this person, I need to hand them a tract or whatever, take the opportunity.

Do it.

That's right.

And so, yeah, this life is so brief and we live in a fallen world and tornadoes are a reality of the world that we live in. So I think it's a pretty good episode, brother. I hope that it's helpful to our listeners as they think through these things.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us. Probably the best way is to reach out to us on Twitter. If you have ideas for a topic you'd like us to discuss, you can find me on Twitter, at Quatro Nelson, C-U-A-T-R-O-N-E-L-S-O-N.

You can find Eddie. You don't have a middle initial, do you? It's just Eddie Ragsdale, right?

Eddie Ragsdale, at Eddie Ragsdale.

E-D-D-I-E-R-A-G-S-D-A-L-E.

That's right.

All right, you got anything else?

Man, I think that's good.

Thank you guys for joining us on this week of the Rural Church Podcast. Say goodbye, Eddie.

See you guys next week.

The Church as God's Work and the Masterpiece of God

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