Posts tagged ‘10 Commandments’
Kilauea’s Fury and God’s Promise
It’s destruction in slow motion.
When Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano began erupting a week and a half ago, cracks in and around the volcano began to emerge, spewing molten lava and dangerous gas. So far, 18 fissures have opened in the ground, 36 structures have been destroyed by creeping lava, and 2,000 residents have had to evacuate their homes. And geologists have no idea how long these eruptions will continue. Officials now worry that the lava lake in Kilauea’s crater will fall below the level of the groundwater, which could spark dangerous stream-driven explosions, spewing boulders – some weighing many tons – into the air.
The flow of lava is nearly impossible to stop. Its temperature checks in at around 2,000 degrees, which makes dousing it with water ineffective. Because the lava is so heavy, diversion channels also do not tend to work. The lava will simply flow over them. Residents can only stand by and watch in horror as melted, red-hot rock destroys everything it is path. David Nail, who lives on the gentle slopes of Kilauea in Leilani Estates, had his home consumed by a 20-foot tall pile of lava. “All we could do was sit there and cry,” he explained.
Natural disasters such as this raise a perennial question about faith: why, if there is a good God, would He allow such terrible disasters to happen? Christianity is unique in its approach to this question because it not only seeks to grapple with this quandary philosophically, but to empathize with people who have to endure the pain wrought by natural disasters personally.
Christianity teaches that the overall sinfulness of humanity affects and infects every part of creation. The sinfulness of humanity is why earthquakes topple communities and hurricanes flood them. The sinfulness of humanity is why severe weather strikes the south and volcanoes erupt in the west. Because of sin, creation, to borrow a memorable phrase from the apostle Paul, “has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth” (Romans 8:22). In this regard, the natural disasters we experience are anything but natural. Instead, they are a result of an alien sinfulness first thrust onto the world by our forbearers, Adam and Eve. Thus, nature doesn’t like these disasters any more than we do. Natural disasters are painful to nature, just as they are to us.
With all of this being said, Christianity also doesn’t just wag its finger ignominiously at the sinfulness in humanity for causing the suffering of humanity. Christianity teaches that God is in the midst of suffering. At the heart of Christianity is the cross – an agent not only of deep suffering, but of cruel torture. Christianity teaches that God came into suffering through His Son and endured the ultimate suffering as He bore the sins of the world in His death. Though we may not have all the answers to why God allows suffering, we do have a promise that God is deeply familiar with suffering. He suffers with us.
When Moses receives the Ten Commandments on top Mount Sinai, the scene looks downright volcanic: “The mountain…blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness” (Deuteronomy 4:11). The Israelites at the base of the mountain who saw what was happening on the mountain, understandably, “trembled with fear” (Exodus 20:18). And yet, for all the fear Sinai’s violent eruption may have caused in the people who saw it, Deuteronomy also reminds us that “the LORD spoke…out of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:12). Sinai may have been spewing fire and ash, but God was there, speaking His words to His people.
Kilauea is not Sinai. I highly doubt anyone will come striding down Kilauea after its eruption with a couple of stone tablets in hand. And yet, just as God was present with the Israelites camping in the shadow Sinai, God is also present with the Hawaiians living in the shadow of Kilauea. And the words that He spoke at Sinai to Israel, He still speaks to us today: “I am the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:2). God still invites us to be His people so He can love us as His children. Of this, every Hawaiian – and every person – can be assured.
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