“Catastrophes”… Then And Now

WED., MAY 10, 2000, 8:50 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Your Scripture study is taking you through Numbers, with catastrophes galore. It was “The Great Escape” when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, with help from a catastrophe to the pursuing Egyptian soldiers, “engineered” by Me, the Yahweh God. Now they are in the “wilderness”, but many of them want to go back to the “luxuries” of being slaves in that African land. You do wonder how that number of people can continue to live in what is called a “wilderness” – men, women, children and animals, all needing food and water. It seems exaggerated. Perhaps it is… or is not.

The story tells of many causes of death, but the most “prominent” one is “My Hand”. I decide what sins have been committed and what the penalties shall be… and often it is rather instant death (which is better, for the victim, than stoning, which could be pretty gruesome). It does make you wonder, if I Am the Same God, why I don’t zap sinners today, as I did in that time. Maybe I could say that it didn’t seem to be truly effective, so, as I became Jesus, I took a less violent “tack”. Now, it has been about 2,000 years. Is it time to switch again? Do you earth folk deserve more catastrophes?

All right, I’ll then mention the one, early this morning, that was yours to suffer. As you figure, you lost two Aracana hens and Mohammed Ali, the big rooster, to some “in the dark marauders”. When you return home you’ll recheck all of the fencing and try to determine how this happened. But it did, and now a distinctive, (and sometimes irritating) sound is gone from your Farm. You could admit that the loss is more symbolic than critical. You didn’t need that many hens, and Mohammed was getting mean, even with you. So there was a minor rebalancing of life, not of your “doing”… but affecting you. Such rebalancing is not wholly unexpected, but it does seem at least semi-catastrophic.

Back to the Hebrew people again: they don’t seem to be “good sufferers”. Even though Moses and Aaron tell them what I expect of them, they don’t seem “to get it”. You can imagine it isn’t very pleasant out there, “walking the wilderness” – to no place in particular. You can imagine that if, say, the Christians in your church were in some similar situation you folks wouldn’t act much differently. The delay in the construction of your church’s addition is explainable, but if the new portion were constructed… and then it collapsed, with some injuries and loss of life, would you accept that this was of “My Doing”, for sins committed by some of you. (For in “that time” I often punished family members for the sins of a few. Was that “fair”? Do I still do it, but unacknowledged?)

Both of your parents have come back on over, after extra long lives. Their deaths were not catastrophes, certainly, for the quality of their lives was poor and deteriorating in their latter years. In contrast, the deaths of sons Peter and Michael were more catastrophic, because of the potential happiness and productivity that each didn’t realize. Was I responsible for either or both of their deaths. You are quite aware of the “objective” causes of those deaths, but you also accept that “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away”. Perhaps you shall some day know more assuredly, but never give up the premise that I was part of those losses… and I may be for these of the morning, as well.

What this calls for is more direct and firm acknowledgment that I have the Ultimate Power in this Earth Realm – to act, to prevent actions, and to allow “natural” consequences. Everything that “happens” could have come out differently. None of you, whether because of age, experience, or commitment to Me (and My Holy Scriptures), can know what will happen or why. I am sometimes consistent, but I have no compulsion to be, or to appear to be, so.