The book of Jeremiah goes like this:
Jeremiah: Hey Judah, stop worshiping Idols and being evil or bad things will happen!
Judah: Yeah, whatever. Then they get conquered.
Jeremiah: Hey Judah, really, stop worshiping idols!
Judah: yeah, whatever. Then Babylon takes them away in exile.
Remnant: Jeremiah, tell us what God says and we will listen.
Jeremiah: Remnant, don't run to Egypt, bad things will happen!
Remnant: You are lying. I think we are going to Egypt.
Jeremiah: Hey King, Babylon is coming, don't resist and you will be ok.
King: I think we need to fight Babylon.
Over and over again, people refusing to listen to the truth.
Today, we also struggle with idol worship. Our entire economy is dependent on people spending more than they have for stuff they worship but don't need. And this system is causing all sorts of destruction. There is evidence all around us. Look at any aspect of life and see the brokenness. Are we listening though?
For the last 10 years, I've lived in a half dozen cities and visited many more. Everywhere I go, people tell me how weird the weather is. I moved to Spokane and there was record snowfall - 136 straight days.Corvallis had bad flooding. Seattle had wierd amounds of snow. Kansas city has had "weird" weather for 3 straight years culminating in this summer that is setting all kinds of heat records.
There are two ways of looking at this: First, this is just random occurance. Whatever is happening, humans aren't really the cause. Sadly, I think that many Christians are in this camp. Part of this is due to a general
negativity and skepticism towards some science. (That is really another topic entirely)
I'd suggest that climate change is real and man definitly has a hand in it. The scientists are delivering a message they themselves probably don't even realize. Recall in Hosea that the land mourns as a result of human choices. Have you seen the moon rising red in the evening on a smoggy day? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Lakes drying up and turning opaque red from algae. There is evidence all around. The land mourns, church, and we, collectively, are causing it.
Are we listening? Really listening?
The good news is that there is always an offer of redemption and restoration. God always seeks to restore, no matter how far we have strayed. Are we living in such a way to enable and display that restoration? Hard work, to be sure, but worth it.
