Preparing ourselves for an uncertain future

People often say they don’t watch the news because it’s too depressing. But it’s only depressing if you don’t understand what’s happening. If you know what’s going on and you can see some purpose being fulfilled, it takes away fear.

Understanding God's deeds...

The problem with most people is they don’t know the purposes of God and what he’s doing! Throughout the Bible God is known through what he does – the prophets called this “the deeds of the Lord”. They often reminded the people of Israel how God had brought them out of Egypt, saving them from slavery, and the many other times he had blessed the nation.

But the prophets also taught the nation that God is not only a God of love but also of justice, who expects his people to follow his teaching which sets boundaries for right behaviour. When we ignore the teaching and things start to go wrong he sends warning signs. If they are ignored we bring trouble upon ourselves.

When God commissioned Jeremiah to the prophetic Ministry he said, “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10). There are six verbs in this sentence, four are negative (tearing down and destroying); two are positive (planting and building up). From this Jeremiah knew there was a lot in the nation that had to be uprooted before anything creative could be done.

"When greed, corruption and lies are widespread in national life, God lifts his cover of protection allows us to do as we please until we get into such a mess that we cry out to him for help."

When greed, corruption and lies are widespread in national life, they have to be faced and eliminated for the well-being and prosperity of society, otherwise destructive forces drive the nation. When we do nothing about it ourselves God lifts his cover of protection from a rebellious people and allows us the freedom to do as we please until we get into such a mess that we cry out to him for help. That’s what happened to Israel many times in history as recorded in the Bible.

God's allowance of disaster

The prophets did not distinguish between the direct will of God and his allowable will: the things he actually did and the things he allows to happen. They were so convinced that God is the Lord of history that they didn’t bother to distinguish between his actions and his permission. Hence you get statements such as:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isa 45:7).

Of course, we don’t like to think of God creating disaster! But Isaiah was giving the reason why God had allowed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the exile of many people from Judah to Babylon. In the same chapter he said that God was going to anoint Cyrus, the pagan ruler of Persia, to overthrow Babylon and let his people go back to rebuild Jerusalem. They went back totally cured of idolatry and with a new commitment to prayer and teaching in the family and local community, rather than relying upon the rituals of animal sacrifice in the Temple.

The synagogue, which was born in Babylon not in Jerusalem, prepared the way for 2000 years of dispersal. But the experience of the great disaster – 56 years in Babylon (596 BC to 539 BC) was intended by God to produce “a redeemed people”. They would be “a light for the Gentiles” (Isa 49:6). They would teach the world to know the true God who created the universe, flung the stars into their orbits, and created human beings in his own image to have fellowship with him. From them would come a Messiah who would fulfil the purposes of God, making it possible for every individual to enjoy a personal relationship with God as their Heavenly Father.

Final shaking of all nations

This is God’s great purpose revealed in the Bible. But the Bible also teaches us that our human nature has the propensity to destroy us with greed and violence, as we discover more of the secrets hidden in nature and as our technology becomes more sophisticated and destructive. So the warnings that God sends when we are heading for disaster become more urgent.

There is a prophecy in the Bible that many scholars believe is actually being fulfilled in our lifetime. It was first given in the year 520 BC, just after the exile in Babylon. But it was repeated near the end of the first century in the Christian era when it was still in the future. The prophecy says:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the Earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations” (Hag 2:6-7).

The repeat of this prophecy nearly 600 years later says the great shaking will “remove everything that can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb 12:26). It also links the great shaking with God preparing the way for his Kingdom.

"The news is only depressing if you don’t understand what’s happening. If you know what’s going on, it takes away fear."

A foretaste of the danger facing us today began with the First World War in 1914 which slaughtered millions of men in the trenches. Millions more were slaughtered only 20 years later in the Second World War and many millions more were slaughtered in the Communist eras of Russia and China, making the 20th century the most bloody in the history of the world.

But the violence of the 21st century could eclipse that of the 20th century with the sophisticated mass-destruction weaponry now available. We have seen the ‘stop at nothing’ atrocities of the Islamic State fighters who mercilessly torture and slaughter: if the chemical weapons of Syria or the nuclear weapons of Pakistan fall into the hands of these terrorists, they could destroy the world.

Signs of the times

Is God warning us of the great danger facing the nation today? Is this the reason why he is shaking the nations and the world of nature? In the past 50 years there have been more earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, droughts, floods and plagues – from AIDS to Ebola – than for centuries past. The nations also are being shaken in their economic, political and social systems. Just look at what’s been happening in Britain in the last 10 years. All our social institutions are being shaken and hidden corruption is being exposed.

• 2008 began the financial crisis, banks went bankrupt, great financial houses collapsed, greed and corruption in the banking system was exposed. The City of London, known for its integrity, was shamed.
• 2009 saw Parliament rocked by the MPs’ expenses and allowances scandal that shook the 800 year old parliamentary system that was a model of democracy and integrity for the world.
• 2010 revealed the Rotherham child abuse scandal with the conviction of a gang of five Pakistani men. Rotherham Borough Council continued in denial until February 2015 when it was taken over by the Government following further revelations, raising questions concerning the integrity of local government in Britain.
• 2011 saw journalists and newspaper moguls shaken with revelations of the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone following her murder in 2002, which led to the collapse of the News of the World and ongoing revelations of media corruption.
• 2012 began the shaking of celebrities with the revelations about the sex crimes of Jimmy Savile in an ITV programme, that led to Scotland Yard launching a criminal investigation which spread across the celebrity world.
• In 2013 the ‘pleb-gate’ Andrew Mitchell row began the shaking of the police revealing corruption among police officers and adding to revelations of police lies in the Hillsborough disaster.
• 2014 saw a great shaking of the NHS, which became a battleground for politicians over long waiting times to see GPs, failing hospitals and overcrowded Accident and Emergency departments.
• 2015 began a shaking of Islam in Europe. This had begun in Tunisia in 2011, spreading across North Africa to Syria and Iraq. The Islamic State atrocities and the Paris shooting of Charlie Hebdo journalists prompted President Sisi of Egypt to call for a ‘revolution within Islam’ to determine its teaching, as Muslims throughout Europe began questioning their religion.

How are we to interpret all the great shaking that is taking place? Is this God warning us of the very grave danger we face? If so, what should we be doing?