A whispered sign?

The God of Creation is a god of action.

A timeless message about life’s true meaning.

The Prophet’s appeal to common sense.

Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right.

No-one repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.”’ (Jeremiah 8:4-7)

In this passage Jeremiah makes an appeal to common sense. He says: when someone stumbles and falls over, if they are a normal, healthy human being, they don’t stay lying on the ground bemoaning their plight - they get up. In the same way, if someone finds he is going in the wrong direction, he doesn’t just increase his speed hoping that he will get to the right place in the end! He recognises that he has to turn around and go in the right direction – it’s plain common sense!

Jeremiah then makes an appeal to nature, saying that even the birds in the air know the times and seasons, observing their times of migration so that they are not caught in the wrong place in wintertime. When they see the signs of winter approaching, they fly away to warmer places. If they did not observe the signs of approaching danger, they would not live to survive the winter storms.

The citizens of Jerusalem and the general population of Judah were so stupid, they were not even exercising ordinary common sense and recognising the danger that was plainly to be seen, if only they would open their eyes. If the birds were able to see the signs of approaching winter, the people of Israel and Judah ought to have had no difficulty in perceiving the signs of danger on the international horizon. There was plenty of news from travelling merchants that the Babylonian army was actually on the move and heading towards the land of Judah.

Jeremiah appeals to the people of Jerusalem and Judah to exercise plain common sense and open their eyes to the obvious danger ahead.

God’s Conditional Promises

Of course, Jeremiah knew that the major responsibility for this national blindness lay firmly with the priests and prophets. They proclaimed publicly that the Temple was a holy place where the Lord God of Israel had his presence. God would divinely protect the building that Solomon had created and dedicated - he would never allow it to fall into enemy hands.

But Jeremiah knew that when Solomon had prayed at the opening of the Temple, he had recognised that God’s presence and blessings were conditional upon the obedience of the nation, that they should have no other God than Yahweh the God of Israel.

Idolatry was everywhere to be seen: not only at countryside shrines and high places up in the hills, but even in the streets of Jerusalem, where the people baked cakes to Astarte, the goddess of the Assyrian Empire who was also worshipped by the Babylonians. She had obviously blessed the Babylonians greatly, so the people of Judah thought that she might do the same for them.

Common Sense Ignored

Jeremiah was horrified at the extent of spiritual idolatry right across the nation and while he primarily blamed the priests and prophets, there was really no excuse for the people, because from infancy each one was taught the Shema:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up… (Deut 6:4-7)

The first of the Ten Commandments was “You shall have no other gods before me.” Everyone in Judah should have known this, so there was really no excuse for spiritual ignorance. If the people simply exercised basic common sense, they should have known that God would not protect an unrighteous city and a land full of idolatry. They should have known the basic ‘requirements of the Lord’.

It was the responsibility of the priests to teach the people the terms of the covenant between God and the people of Israel that had been agreed by Moses when he called the assembly at Mount Sinai. But it was the responsibility of the prophets to look for signs of danger to the nation, including on the international scene. Both priests and prophets were failing in their duty, which is the reason why the people did not know the requirements of the Lord.

Jeremiah blamed the priests and prophets for the idolatry in the nation – but there was no excuse for the people either.

Disaster Ahead

Jeremiah was a lone voice on the streets of Jerusalem; banned from the Temple and even threatened by his own family. “Beware of your friends: do not trust your brothers,” he was warned. “Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie” (Jer 9:4-5).

Jeremiah wept much for the people of Jerusalem because he could see what was going to happen to them: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people” (Jer 9:1).

If there was no excuse for not knowing the requirements of the Lord in Jeremiah’s time, there is surely even less excuse for us today. We not only have the teaching given to Moses by God; we also have the Gospel in the New Testament and the revelation of truth in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus our Messiah. Our generation has rejected truth and does not even have the common sense to recognise that we are heading for disaster. Will we stop and turn around before we reach the edge of the precipice?

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Wonders of Creation’ by Stuart Burgess, Andy McIntosh and Brian Edwards (Day One Publications, 2017)

This is an excellent and attractive production which combines hundreds of magnificent colour photos and diagrams with a clear explanatory text full of fascinating details.

On page after page we are shown the many incredible complexities of the world around us which point to the creative power and design of Almighty God. Across a multiplicity of topics, we gain not only a wealth of information but also a sense of awe at the amazing designs that our Creator has placed into his (and our) world.

Beauty and Functionality

The opening section covers land mammals – including the horse, kangaroo and sheep as well as man’s best friend, the dog (including information about how it smells!). Other groups within the animal kingdom (sea creatures, birds, insects) are equally well-documented, including the remarkable capability of birds to fly and whales to sing.

Leaving Earth for a while, we are taken into the mysterious realms of the other planets and stars. This section is full of useful information that is perhaps not usually known and adds to the sense of reverence and inspiration that the book as a whole induces.

Back in our own world we examine the beauty of flowers and trees, and learn about why certain colours are prominent and how birds manage to sing in the wonderful ways that they do (including in harmony). The next section, on mathematics and music, continues to fascinate - not just because of the patterns they display, which speak of the Lord - but also because of the ability of our brains, which he made, to enable us to understand and appreciate such things. Even if we are not particularly mathematical we can agree that the “Beauty and elegance in mathematics reflects the very wisdom of God” (p151).

Across a multiplicity of topics, we gain a wealth of information and a sense of awe our Creator’s amazing designs.

The sections on the human body and how it functions may contain familiar material, but this is also well-explained, and some of the facts and figures are quite startling. Clearly we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

The book also talks of other aspects of the natural world, rocks and minerals, fossils, dinosaurs and radioactive dating.

Inspiration to Gratitude

We are then told there is no doubt that everything we have been considering was created in six literal days and that the account in Genesis is definitely “history and not poetry” (p202). It is perhaps rather unnecessary to the aim of the book to insist on this, which seems like an intrusion especially as there is no discussion as to what ‘literal’ means in this context. There is also the unfortunate implication that anyone who thinks the time periods involved might not be exactly 24 hours each are classified as evolutionists.

Nevertheless, these few pages should not spoil the enjoyment of a book which is a convincing tour de force. It glorifies God on every page and should make us look around with more gratitude than ever. It should inspire us to say a big ‘thank you’ to God, not just once but several times each day.

A convincing tour de force that glorifies God on every page.

It is also a book that can be shared with friends, whether believers in Creation or not. The facts it contains will help with sharing and witnessing, and as a ‘coffee table’ book it could well spark conversations you might otherwise not have. As the subtitle ‘Design in a fallen world’ suggests, the authors do not shirk from saying that this world with all its brokenness and suffering is no longer the world that God originally intended. They do not hesitate to mention the Fall and salvation in Jesus, which brings the book to a satisfying conclusion.

Highly commended.

‘Wonders of Creation’ (216pp, hardback) is available from the publisher for £25. Also available elsewhere online with discounts for bulk buys.

What do we learn about God from the instances in Scripture where he uses the weather as a prophetic sign?

The prophets of the Old Testament believed that Yahweh, the God they served, was in absolute control of the weather - that good weather was a sign of his approval and that unfavourable weather was his way of reproving his often disobedient children and of keeping them in check (Deut 28:15, 22-23; Amos 4:7-8).

The prophets delighted to point out Yahweh's superiority over the idols and rain-gods whose help the children of Israel were only too prone to enlist (Jer 10:11-13). Typical of this was the stinging sarcasm addressed to the prophets of Baal by Elijah on Mount Carmel after their total failure (1 Kings 18:26-29).

The prophets believed that Yahweh was in absolute control of the weather – and delighted to point out his superiority over idols and rain-gods.

God is Reliable and is to be Praised

After the flood in the days of Noah, God made a promise that he would be man's faithful provider so long as the world went on. "As long as the earth endures, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease" (Gen 8:22). Hundreds of years later Paul addressed a crowd at Lystra and sought to turn them from their errors to the true God who had borne witness to himself by constantly supplying them with rain. crops and food. "He has not left himself without witness. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season. he provides you with plenty of food" (Acts 14:17).

Earlier on, Joel had encouraged his hearers to rejoice in the Lord who had given them "both autumn and spring rains" (Joel 2:23). Both the 'former' and the 'latter' rains were essential to produce good crops in Israel. The autumn rain was necessary in order to facilitate sowing and the spring rain. which fell in March or April, was important to swell the grain then approaching maturity.

The prophet went on to say "You will have plenty to eat. and You will praise the name of the Lord your God" (Joel 2:26). Even during the wilderness wanderings lasting 40 years God was faithful in providing manna, in a situation in which it was impossible to grow crops. "Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed". It is characteristic of Yahweh that he provided them with plenty (Ex 16:21; Ps 78:23-25).

After the flood, God promised that he would be man's faithful provider 'as long as the earth endures'.

Yahweh is the True God and is to be Obeyed

There were many Baals (or Baalim), Canaanite storm and fertility gods, in the time of Elijah. The Baal favoured by Israel's king Ahab was Melqart, the seat of whose worship was in Tyre, the city from which Ahab's wicked wife, Jezebel, came. She had introduced Baal worship into Israel and had at least 450 prophets working to eliminate the worship of Yahweh, the true God.

In order to bring the people back to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the prophet Elijah was to inform King Ahab that for the next few years there would be neither dew nor rain (1 Kings 17:1). It is significant that the prophet had to bring about this drought through prayer (James 5:17).

At the conclusion of a three-year period during which there had been no dew nor rain, Elijah arranged with the king a confrontation on Mount Carmel as the result of which the prophets of Baal were disgraced and the Israelites were obliged to acknowledge that Yahweh was the real God. Once the forces of Baalim were overthrown the land could again enjoy the rain from heaven, but not before Elijah had prayed persistently until "a small cloud the size of a man's hand" provided him with evidence that rain was on its way (1 Kings 18:19. 38, 41-46).

It is significant that the drought inflicted upon Ahab was brought about by prayer and ended by prayer.

The prophet Moses had previously explained to God's people that the gift to them of good weather was conditional upon their obedience:

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands...all these blessings will come upon you...The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season...However, if you do not obey the Lord your God...the sky over your head will be bronze. the ground beneath you iron (Deut 28:1-2, 12, 15, 23).

God is Sovereign and Claims the Right to Control the Weather

God's people have always had to come to terms with the fact that Yahweh exercises absolute authority over the weather. The position is made clear in the words of Psalm 135:6-7: "The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth...he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses".

In the interview Nicodemus had with Jesus, he was told "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going" (John 3:8). Clearly Jesus is saying that the wind blows where God pleases, and that God is in sovereign control, whether he is referring to the weather in the natural world or the work of regeneration in the human spirit.

There is an element of mystery in the weather even to today's scientifically trained weather-forecasters, as was evident in the hurricane which unexpectedly hit the south of England in October 1987. We must not grumble at the weather God sends nor be like the wife of Job, who suggested that he should curse God. Rather we should follow Job's advice, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2:10 NASV). After all is said and done, he does know best.

God's people have always had to come to terms with the fact that Yahweh exercises absolute sovereignty over the weather.

God is the Source of 'Natural Disasters'

On the day when David had been delivered from all his enemies he was inspired to sing about the weapons in God's armoury that had been used to bring about his deliverance, weapons we call 'natural disasters':

The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook: they trembled because he was angry...Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven. He shot arrows and scattered the enemies, bolts of lightning and routed them. (2 Sam 22:1, 8, 13, 14, 15)

Earlier in their history Yahweh had made use of hailstones in softening up the hearts of Pharaoh and his princes to let the children of Israel leave Egypt. Exodus 9:24 records that they accompanied the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

The last-but-one plague was that of darkness. God said to Moses: "Stretch out your hand towards the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt - darkness that can be felt. So...total darkness covered all Egypt for three days" (Ex 10:21-22). This was a particularly disconcerting event for the Egyptians because their god - the sun god Ra - was seen to be powerless to dispel the darkness. God's selectivity and special care for his children is seen in the fact that. although all Egypt was in darkness, "Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived" (Ex 10:23).

Jeremiah was commanded to announce that disaster was coming to Jerusalem as well as to the nations surrounding her:

See. I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my name, and will you indeed go unpunished?...The Lord will roar from on high; he will thunder from his holy dwelling...Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation: a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth. (Jer 25:29-32)

The prophets believed that God used the weapons in his arsenal to express his anger. This is not a popular idea in our day when so many seem to have exchanged the Almighty for the 'all¬matey'! Nahum expresses his understanding of God in these words:

His way is in the whirlwind and storm...the mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. (Nah 1:3.5,6)

It is against such a background that the prophet's message becomes so appropriate when he goes on to say. "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him" (Nah 1:7).

The prophets believed that God used the weapons in his arsenal to express his anger – not a popular idea today, when so many have exchanged the Almighty for the 'allmatey'!

God Uses the Weather and 'Natural Disasters' to Test His People

Job had to face a succession of disasters when marauding troops carried off his oxen and donkeys. Then his flocks and the shepherds with them were struck by lightning. Finally, the house where his children were feasting was demolished by a whirlwind, killing them all. Scripture records that "In all this. Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing" (Job 1:13-22).

As the story proceeds and the testing becomes increasingly painful and unpleasant, his friends tried to convince him that he must have sinned against God to suffer such a catalogue of disasters. But he had not sinned. God had allowed these terrible disasters in order to test his servant and to demonstrate Job's utter innocence to satan, the accuser. Prophets today need to be very careful when they so quickly point the accusing finger at those who are passing through severe testing.

Any study of God's power in creation quickly exposes our abysmal ignorance of natural forces and our virtual powerlessness:

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?...Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are...?' do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his? (Job 38:22-24; 34-35; 40:9).

God's Use of the Phenomena is Not Restricted to the Old Testament

When we study the great gospel events we find that they were marked by extraordinary happenings. While Jesus was dying on the cross between twelve noon and three in the afternoon "darkness came over the land...for the sun stopped shining" (Luke 23:44-45); again, "When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit...the earth shook and the rocks split...when the centurion and those with him...saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed. 'Surely he was the son of God!'" (Matt 27:50-54).

When Jesus had been placed in a tomb "there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it" (Matt 28:2).

God's use of nature is not restricted to the Old Testament – in fact, the great gospel events are marked by extraordinary 'natural' happenings.

The Last Days Will Be Marked by Unusual Phenomena

Jesus revealed that before his second coming there would be "great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from heaven" (Luke 21:11). He said also that "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken" (Matt 24:29). After these things (as Jesus told the high priest Caiaphas), "You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matt 26:64).

These prophetic revelations help today's prophets to impress upon this generation the need to prepare, "For the coming of the Lord is drawing near" (James 5:8). In the book of the Revelation, the final prophetic word of scripture, there are warnings that must be passed on to our society; warnings of "flashes of lightning...peals of thunder and a severe earthquake, no earthquake like it had ever occurred since man had been on earth...from the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible" (Rev 16:18, 21).

True prophets believe in a God who in his sovereign power controls the weather, 'natural disasters' and the coming judgment, a God of absolute purity and unquestioned authority who is to be feared. "They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'" (Rev 6:16).

True prophets believe in a God who controls the weather, natural disasters and the coming judgment – a God of absolute authority who is to be feared, but who will one day dwell with his people.

True prophets proclaim a time when God will be with his people: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain" (Rev 21:4). What a message prophets have to proclaim!