People in Bible times had a much closer connection to nature than we do. With no electricity or lights, they could see the stars most nights. They traveled mostly on foot—and occasionally on animals—and were not insulated from weather as we are in our cars and trains and airplanes. Working outdoors caring for their fields and animals, they constantly looked at skies, fields, mountains, hills, valleys, springs, streams, rivers, lakes, trees, plants, and animals. Without satellites and modern media, they had little ability to forecast the weather and were at the mercy of heat, cold, storms, lightning, winds, and floods.

Seeing so much of nature, people in Bible times recognized that they were at the mercy of a much greater power. Behind nature, they saw the creativity and power of God: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1 NIV); “He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name” (Amos 5:8). Seeing all this often made them humble. Today, sitting in our air-conditioned offices surrounded by our virtual reality and artificial intelligence, we have the delusion that we are the creators and we are in control—until an earthquake, a hurricane, or a terminal disease brings it all crashing down. Just so, the flood that saved Noah overwhelmed the Tower of Babel; plagues of bloody river water, frogs, gnats, flies, animal diseases, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death broke the power of Egypt’s Pharaoh; and the Israelites entering the land of milk and honey were warned that if they stopped following God, God would punish them with “fearful plagues…harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses…all the diseases of Egypt,” as well as drought, crop-devouring insects, confusion, defeat, failure, invasion, and oppression (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Revelation warns that human sin brings death through plagues of famine and natural disasters and disease and war. Our sin continues to destroy nature, and God continues to punish sinful humanity with suffering, which is designed to convince us to humble ourselves and commit ourselves to following Him and His ways.

The apostle Paul summarizes: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20). James advises us, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you…Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:7-10).