“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?”
(Amos 3:6)
It is God that inflicts judgments on the children of men, especially his people when they are wayward. Where did the fall come from but God’s curse on sin? Where do trials come from but his chastening hand? Where do persecutions and difficulties in this life originate? The prophet Amos responds with this rhetorical question, “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6).
Consider the dreadful plight of famine. Yet it is God who sends famine on a land, and this fact is evidenced by many proofs: 1) God’s own testimony, for he says of himself, “I have given you … want of bread in all your places,” (Amos 4:6). 2) God’s threatenings of this judgment (Jer. 8:13). The things which God himself threatens come from God. 3) Predictions of famine by such as were imbued with the spirit of God (like Joseph). 4) The fact that God is the giver of plenty says that the lack of plenty must also necessarily be from him. 5) The causes of famine, which are sins against God, provoke God’s wrath which then inflicts judgment. And famine is one of God’s chief forms of judgment in Scripture. 6) The means and secondary causes of famine are all ordered by God. And secondary causes all depend on the primary cause, which is God’s will. Therefore, all secondary causes are his servants.
God makes the heavens withhold rain which then causes the earth to become dry and barren. The Lord says, “I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass,” (Lev. 26:19). And sometimes God makes the heavens shower down rain in such an unusual abundance that crops are destroyed. The ultimate example of this is, of course, the great flood that killed every living thing outside the ark in Noah’s day.
So God causes barrenness and famine, and he causes torrential rains of destruction. But what of hard winters and extraordinary frosts, snow, hail, mildew rotting seeds underground before they come to maturity? What of locusts, grasshoppers, caterpillars, cankerworms, palmerworms, and other insects that by their innumerable multitudes eat up all the grass, corn, herbs, and fruits of the earth? God refers to such as these as his great army, so they are therefore also at his command, disposed by him.
Why does this matter? Because if judgment and chastening come from God, then who should be sought for removing them but the Lord? As William Gouge said, “As in these, so in all other means of famine the Lord has an overruling providence. So as these secondary causes give witness to this, that God sends famine… God is to be sought for removing and taking away famine.”[1] No creature can take away that which the Creator sends. None can reverse judgment but the Judge of all the earth himself.
Contemplations:
- What are all your works Lord? I know they are either of creation or providence. And what should I believe about creation? That you are eternal, but the world you created had a beginning. It is incredible to consider, Lord, that everything was made by you, from nothing but the sheer word of your mouth, at your command.
- Everything you created, Lord, was good. But the fall, in your providence, brought a curse on both man and creation. And yet you still see all things and know all things and attend and sustain all things, upholding and governing and disposing of your world as you will.
- I know, Lord, that all things both good and evil – whether hard providences of sickness and famine and earthquakes or what we consider good providences of health and prosperity – are all upheld and continue through you (Psalm 119:91).
- Your providence extends to all things – even the microscopic components of atoms that make up the universe. All things both visible and invisible are governed and upheld by you (Rom. 11:36). And yet, you extend your loving care and faithful mercies to “the sons of men” above all other creatures (Prov. 8:31). So I know that whether good or evil befalls me, it is not without your providence (Amos 3:6).
- The truth of your providence causes me to better understand that you do whatever pleases you, both in heaven and in earth (Psalm 115:3), and that the dominion of King Jesus is an everlasting dominion (Psalm 146:10).
Further References for Amos 3:6:
Isa. 45:7, 14:24; Psalm 66:11; Job 2:10, 5:17
[1] William Gouge, God’s Three Arrows Plague, Famine, Sword, (London: George Miller, 1631), 161.
