I am afraid it is a fact of life that this world is under a curse.
It all began when our
ancestors rejected the
Instructions of the Lord our God.
When that happened God told our ancestors directly that,
“… cursed
is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.”
Gen 3:17
Not all of the environmental problems we have are because of trash or plastic bags or oil on the ground or in the water. Our sins bring a curse on both our work and on our environment.
Now God can either help us or
oppose us,
and He often does.
The prophet Jeremiah spoke of how God often deals with nations.
“7 At what instant I shall speak concerning A nation, and concerning A kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; 8 if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. 9 At what instant I shall speak concerning A nation, and concerning A kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.”
Jer 18:7-10
God is the one who gives us prosperity or discipline. We may think our work gives us what is good, but God says,
“17
and lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has
gotten me this wealth. 18 But you shall remember Yahweh your God,
for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may
establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this
day.”
Deut 8:17-18
He can send people to oppose us, or can give us peace with other men.
“When
a man’s ways please Yahweh,
He makes even his enemies to be at
peace with him.”
Prov 16:7
God Himself disciplines the nations
Sometimes we may think God doesn’t even know what we are doing, but the Bible says something different in Psalm 94.
“8
Consider, you senseless among the people;
You fools, when will
you be wise?
9 He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear?
He
who formed the eye, won’t he see?
10 He who disciplines the
nations, won’t he punish?
He who
teaches man knows.
11 Yahweh knows the thoughts of
man,
That they are futile.
12 Blessed is the man whom
you discipline, Yah,
And teach out of your law;
13 That
you may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is
dug for the wicked.”
Psa 94:8-13
We live in a world in which
things have gone wrong,
WE have gone wrong.
So now things can go wrong against us! Including things like viruses.
“From
war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong
arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts
increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
“Refresh
Thy people on their toilsome way,
lead us from night, to never
ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And
glory laud and praise be ever Thine.”
From our National Hymn, “God of Our Fathers.”
Romans 8 speaks of that
principle of Physics
called “entropy,” or the Second Law
of
Thermodynamics.
It calls it vanity, and our “bondage to decay,” and does say that one day,
“that
the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of
decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
Rom
8:21
It hasn’t happened yet, but it will ! Jesus offers it through His gospel. Despite Covid-19
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901