“When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:” I Kings 8:35 KJV
The purpose of the “Heaven” posts is simply to go through every verse in the Bible that mentions the word “Heaven” and to pull from the verse a devotional thought for the day. As I was pondering today’s verse I began to think of some of the natural disasters that have faced our world in the last few years.
It is so easy to say “God didn’t cause that. He’s a God of love.”
We face a temptation to tell the world to discount all that’s gone on in the natural order lately because we don’t want men thinking we serve a God capable of great destruction. The truth is though that this is an aspect of God’s character and He has built into nature a “kill switch” which is activated by excessive sin in a culture.
“And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations
that were before you.” Lev. 18:28 NIV
“‘Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am
bringing you to live may not vomit you out.” Lev. 20:20 NIV
Does God desire to destroy us? No. He has done everything in His power to shield us from it by sending His son Jesus to die in our place and seal us for eternal life. While that is true it is also true that destruction is a part of His plan to hinder and undo the works of the Devil. Where we line ourselves and our cultures up with the Dark One’s schemes we put ourselves in the way of natural disaster.
Because of sin we live in a world that is continually groaning in eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8). The groaning will only get louder as that revelation draws closer.
Reinventing the We'll 