“Our local prognosticators predict rain for today. You say “Good!” Those in another state are looking for a warm, sunny day, and call that “Good!” Why do people call one good, and the opposite good as well?”
Because both are good!
“How can that be?”
Simple. God is the ultimate Prognosticator—He always predicts what He has decreed! Since He decreed it—it is good. It’s good because its purposes are His purposes. And His purposes are good.
“Oh! But what about those floods in the Midwest—or in New Orleans? I can see wiping out a portion of a place that calls itself ‘Sin City,’ – but farms and farmers in the Midwest?? And the consequent prices in food for all??”
“Or” you’ll ask, “ How about earthquakes, tornadoes, Tsunamis, great forest fires, and the like?” How can they be good?
“Exactly. What’s your answer?”
I already gave it to you.
“Huh?”
Yeah. Whatever happens, happens because God plans it, and in His good providence, brings His plans to fruition. In other words, God is always up to something (usually countless numbers of things) when He does something—all of them tied together into one great, good, purpose or plan.
“Wow!”
Exactly.
“But how can those sorts of things be for good?”
In countless ways. We’ll never understand them all—or even a fraction of them. God uses Assyria or Babylon—pagan nations, He plans to destroy—to punish His people before He does so. He warns His people Israel of judgment to come if there is no repentance by drying up their crops for three years. Of course, we don’t have an earthly theocracy any longer—and we don’t have prophets to interpret the weather. But we still can learn from the biblical principles involved.
“That means our country is receiving such weather from God’s and is also receiving a message from it! We ought to learn, take heed, repent. But we don’t! Our country goes on sinning in every area of life.”
Right. God spoke to Israel through “four severe judgments” (Ezekiel 14:21) to bring them to repentance.
“WOW!”