Amos 3:3-6
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?
Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?
5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it?
Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?
6 If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid?
If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?
In a recent post, I suggested that the debacle on Wall Street is the judgment of God towards America. I want to qualify that statement a bit, not because I think that it's untrue, but because it's likely to be misunderstood.
First, judgment does not need to mean condemnation. I think that much of the offense that people have towards the idea of God's judgment comes from the assumption that God is simply angry and vindictive. The truth is that as long as you have the ability to realize God is judging you (i.e. fire and brimstone aren't falling out of the sky on your head), then God hasn't condemned you yet. God's temporal judgments - short of the kind of thing that happened to Sodom and Gomorrah - are actually His merciful warning system so that you will repent and not be condemned.
Second, we do need to be careful not to fall into the trap of Job's friends. Terrible things happened to Job, and in their theology, bad things only happened to bad people; therefore, Job was a sinner, regardless of whether there was any objective evidence of sin in his life. The truth was that Job was actually suffering because he was righteous (Job 1:8). It is never wise to reason backwards from tragedy to root cause.
However, as Christians, we cannot allow the idea that things happen randomly. If God is sovereign (and He is, e.g. Deut 32:39), then there is simply no such thing as coincidence.
Therefore, if something bad happens to a person (or a nation), and that person or nation is manifestly living in rebellion against God, then we can reason forward from the sin to the tragedy and we are fairly safe to conclude that God is trying to get the their attention. This is all the more true when the tragedy is directly related to the cause (e.g. God may get the attention of an unrepentant alcoholic through a DUI).
In the case of the American financial industry, both of the above are true. America is manifestly in rebellion against God on many fronts, not least "You shall not kill" and "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex 20:13-14). And power brokers in the financial industry have apparently been directing their companies not altogether unlike drunk drivers for the past 15-20 years. (Note that Warren Buffet predicted at least part of this fiasco in 2003). And of course the root of this irresponsible behavior - regulations, etc. aside - is also a sin:
1 Timothy 6:9-10
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
We dare not point the finger at executives with 70 million dollar bonuses, however. Covetousness and greed are pervasive in American society. Take a look at the statistics on Americans trying to live beyond their means and lottery ticket sales.
The question that remains open is whether or not we will get the message and repent, or whether God will have to "turn up the volume" for us.
