Southeast Asia Tsunami: How Can God Be Called Merciful?

As the death toll from Sunday, December 26, 2004’s Tsunami has climbed to over 155,000 people, a question could possibly come to peoples’ minds: where was God in all of this? How could a merciful, loving God allow this to happen? Is God impotent? Is He evil and sadistic? Even questions as to who really is the “divine force” or “higher power” in the universe.

The Bible is absolutely clear for situations such as this. God was completely in control. He is merciful. He could have stayed the tsunami, but it was in His plan—yes, God ordained the tsunami. Even in this, despite how this blows our feeble minds, God is not evil, but loving and merciful toward His creation—especially toward mankind.

Let us consider that God is not impotent. If He had pleased, he could have calmed the sea and stopped the tsunami, as Jesus did to the sea when He was with His disciples (I’ll consider this later). What does God’s Word say about His sovereign hand over creation? “The LORD is great and… our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. He causes the vapors [or clouds] to ascend from the ends of the earth; who makes lightnings for the rain, who brings forth the wind from His treasuries” (Psalm 135:5-7). As the psalmist recognizes, the LORD, or YHWH is above all gods. There is not a duality of gods. There is not a struggle in or among the gods. There is not an evil force equally battling the good force. YHWH is a personal God, and He is in complete control.

Consider the words of Elihu, as they are appropriate for this present circumstance. “Listen closely to the thunder of [God’s] voice, and the rumbling that goes out from His mouth. Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, and His lightning to the ends of the earth…. God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend. For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’ He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work…. Out of the south comes the storm, and out of the north the cold…. Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for correction, or for His world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen” (Job 37:2-13). This applies to tsunamis and earthquakes all the same.

Let us not forget Jesus, God the Son. While sleeping in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, when a gale arose that threatened the life of Him and His disciples (though He was always in control, being God), He does not fret (an example for us, as Jesus was perfectly human, and so showed us that we ought to trust in God). When His disciples awoke Him, “He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.” His disciples, in response to this exclaim, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:37-41). Let us not be of little faith, as the disciples were. Let us respond like Jesus with perfect faith toward God. And we will only trust God if we believe He is sovereign over all and merciful, and that He is causing all things for our good out of His pleasure. If God will not intervene, either because of human freewill or that He does not want to step into the natural order, then we simply should not trust Him. Rather we should trust our own ingenuity. But that is not the God I worship. My God is the God of Jesus.

Let us take comfort, as Jesus did, in God’s sovereignty. After all, Jesus faced death on the cross in accordance with God’s plan (Acts 2:22-24). He faced death and the full wrath of God for all who will believe. Jesus became sin on the behalf of the Church so that all in the Church would not face the wrath of God, but would be counted righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). He died to save people from all tribes, tongues, people groups, and nations (including those who died in the tsunami). He died for all who will believe. Now that is mercy—that God would send the Son to take the punishment of sinful man. God has truly shown Himself merciful. This is the ultimate show of mercy and the mercy that extends to every situation that befalls the creation.

However, some may still respond, how is God merciful in all of this; and in all natural disasters? He is able to stop them but He does not. In fact, He even ordains them—they are part of His plan and He is behind them. That sounds like an evil dictator, not a loving God. Yet this is the case only because our minds are not trained. We have errors in our thinking.

First, does not God have the right over His creation to do as He pleases? After all, He is the creator. He is the potter, we are the clay. As Paul asks in Romans 9 (not the context of Romans 9, but it fits here with the question at hand), “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” (Romans 9:20-21) God has every right over His creation. He created us from nothing and sustains us. Everything we have comes from God. Therefore, we must respond with Job, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” In moments like these we can either bless or curse God. We can either worship the Almighty for His great power and mercy toward us and toward all of His creation, or we can curse Him because we fail to understand His ways. If we respond in this manner, like Job, we will be found without sin on our lips (Job 1:21-22). We will respond like this only from faith; only if we have the “peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Philippians 4:7).

Why must we not curse God? Why is it that we should respond in worship toward the God who causes this? Because His purposes are good, and they will stand. He is good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot comprehend. We must trust Him and obey Him, and we will see at a later time, at the latest on the Day of Judgment, that His ways were without fault. As Paul continues in Romans 9, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory…” (22-23). God is patient with His creatures, even though mankind is in rebellion against Him. God shows His patience toward even the vessels of wrath who are destined for destruction. He is going to make His wrath and power known, yet He endures sinners with patience.

Why does God endure with patience sinners? Because He is making “the riches of His glory” known to the “vessels of mercy.” God’s greatest purpose in all of this is that His glory be made known through His causing all things that ever occur to happen for the good of the Church (Romans 8:28). This tsunami happened ultimately for the purpose of God advancing His Kingdom and purifying the Bride of Christ, the Church, that He will receive the glory (and God is deserving of all honor and glory, for He alone is God).

He has shown Himself patient with mankind. He has shown Himself patient with the many who died in Indonesia, India, and East Africa. How so, you ask? Little children were killed who never got a chance to live. The reason we have this mistaken understanding of God’s patience, thinking that He was impatient and was unmerciful toward all those killed, who lost loved ones, and those who have been left homeless, is because we misunderstand sin.

All of those people were deserving of hell. Perhaps many of those killed were even Christians; we simply do not know. What we can say, is that God is just if any of them do face God’s wrath at the judgment for they are all sinners. I am speaking of people who are totally depraved before God (I wrote a couple articles on how bad sin is; please read it if you disagree with my observations here http://www.fallennotforsaken.com/lenny/2004/11/justice-of-hell-why-loving-merciful.php and here . http://www.fallennotforsaken.com/lenny/2004/11/whatever-happened-to-sin.php). What will happen to the children? I honestly am not certain. God is just and merciful. Perhaps they are covered by the blood of Jesus. Yet let us not get sidetracked; death is mankinds’ fault, not God’s’.

The fact remains that you, my reader, may be a sinner, as Jonathan Edwards said, in the hands of an angry God. Perhaps this disaster was ordained for the very purpose of saving your own soul, and maybe the souls of countless others (I’ll return to this in a minute.) Jesus faced a similar situation. One which was a natural disaster and one which was brought upon people by an evil man (sounds like a similar example to September 11, 2001). He warns and exhorts His audience, “Do you suppose that [they] were greater sinners than [you and all the rest of mankind] because they suffered this fate?” Take a moment to pause before you read on to consider your answer. “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2-5). Perhaps tsunamis do not threaten your part of the world. Perhaps earthquakes do not either. Perhaps it is a long-shot that terrorists would attack your hometown. Yet car accidents still occur, and heart attacks, and floods. Maybe, and hopefully, none of these will come upon you. Yet you will still face the judgment of God. So unless you repent (http://www.fallennotforsaken.com/lenny/2005/01/what-is-true-repentance.php), you turn from your sins and follow Christ, you will perish as those in the tsunami did. Heed this warning, for it comes straight from Christ. It is relevant to you.

I do not claim to know why God purposed this tsunami. God remains completely joyful in Himself in heaven, and I rest in the confidence that because God is completely happy, so will I be and can be, for I trust in Him and look forward to being filled with the joy of Christ for eternity (the joy, though to a lesser degree, that can come to all who hope in Christ). If God were ever to be unhappy not only would He cease to be God, but my eternal happiness and my grounds for happiness would be demolished. Though God is not an emotionless God. He is a God of complex emotions. From Scripture He seems to be a God who is sorrowful over the loss of life, and so He is, on one level, saddened at the death of these 155,000 people. He is a personal God, and so He feels the proper emotions in this situation along with His creatures.

However, God’s purpose in this, without a doubt, is for the furtherance of the gospel and His Kingdom. How is this slated to take place? I do not claim to know that answer. Perhaps Christians will be those who help out the most in this disaster and so the doors will be opened for the gospel in countries that are currently opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps this will serve to get Christians on their knees in prayer and to get them mobilized for missions. Perhaps the survivors of the victims will hear the gospel and God will grant them faith. There are countless possibilities for why God did this. Only He knows, and His counsel stands. We can be certain that He works all things according to the counsel of His will, and that nothing will thwart His purpose (Job 42:2). He is sovereign. “Stand and consider the wonders of God” (Job 37:14).

Only God knows how many times He has relented of causing disastrous earthquakes, tsunamis, and countless other “natural” disasters. Only God knows how much worse this tsunami could have been (it could have killed 155,000,000!) This only shows us how feeble we, as humans, truly are. Thankfully, a personal, merciful God is in complete control. Only a sovereign, all-sufficient, completely happy God is a true comfort in times such as these. Do not curse God; rather worship Him for His great power and might. “Tell of His might, sing of His grace; whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, and dark is His path on the wings of the storm.” “Frail children of light, and feeble as frail, in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail. Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and friend.” (O Worship the King, by Robert Grant, verses 2 and 4).