NOTES for Isa 25:6-10; Php 4:12-14; Php 4:19-20; Mat 22:1-14
We are astonished and horrified by what is happening in the world now, and many speak of the end of the world. Sometimes we accuse God, saying that He is not good if He sends such calamities upon the earth; at other times we begin to believe in a punishing and cruel God and lose faith in His love.
Consider these words: “the curse devours the earth,” “the vine languishes.” God created this earth, created the sky, created the animals, created the vine, created humanity... Neither the earth nor the sky, neither the birds nor the fish nor the beasts nor the vine have sinned.
Humanity sinned: in its pride it turned away from God. But God entrusted all His creation specifically to humanity. The Lord charged human beings with naming every creature, and in the Bible a name is the essence, the very heart. And so animals began to eat one another, and at times the earth cannot bear our sins.
God punished humanity only once: He sent the flood upon the earth. And He promised that this would never happen again. Yet now, whenever a cruel and terrible flood occurs, we blame God for it. But God truly has not sent another flood upon the earth. The earth itself cannot bear our sins. The more we sin, the more often earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions occur in the world. Such is the responsibility of Christians: believers truly are responsible for this world.