Act of God

 

The Lord said in his heart, …“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

—Genesis 8:21-22

When we look up a legal definition of an “Act of God,” we find:

An event that directly and exclusively results from the occurrence of natural causes that could not have been prevented by the exercise of foresight or caution, an inevitable accident. ¹

It’s quite amazing to find that humans think Acts of God are inevitable accidents! Yet, the seasons that have never ceased since the creation, neither day and night, we credit “Mother Nature” for the natural order of things and the way they should happen.

Is it not more wonderful to see the absolute regularity of natural things following God’s commands? I love the entire Psalm 104 that expresses so beautifully the way He has designed the order of things. Here’s a taste from verses 5-8, 12-14, and 24:

He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them…

The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sings among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth:…

How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Now, those are truly Acts of God! So too are the tsunamis and earthquakes. None of what happens in nature can truly be called an accident. We have a God who not only created the earth and ordered its weather, but One who sends the storms and knows the boundaries for them. We can exclaim with the psalmist in Psalm 71:16:

I will come and proclaim your might acts, O Sovereign Lord;

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1 West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd edition. Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, Inc., 2008.