Prophecy and Promise: Devotions from Time of GraceSample

There Will Be Famines and Earthquakes One of the sadder outcomes of Adam and Eve's rebellion is that all of nature is out of whack. The beautiful world that God made as our home now fights with farmers who must wrest a harvest from dry, thorny ground by their own sweat. In Eden all of nature was Paradise. Now our world goes crazy occasionally, unleashing enormous blasts of destructive energy. Tsunamis, hurricanes, avalanches, earthquakes, and tornados strike suddenly, and they destroy and kill. And then there is the slow death of drought and famine. In Eden, water distribution was predictable and consistent. For millennia now, rainfall and snowmelt are erratic and sometimes completely absent. Crops shrivel. Animals wither. People can die. Expect these things, says Jesus. "There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains" (Matthew 24:7,8). Someday these disasters will be no more. For now, they are part of our environment. Heads up.