Climate alarmists have been with us for some time. Back in the 70’s and 80’s the threat of “global cooling” was made public in various documentaries and science publications. Predictably, various plans and strategies were proposed to combat the looming specter of another ice age. In the 90’s and into the new millennium, the narrative changed from global cooling to global warming. Governments began treating this supposed threat like a “political football,” running with it as far as they could to achieve their goals. Since actual scientific support for global warming is dubious at best, climate alarmists have switched to the much more ambiguous term “climate change;” this is the new political football for our day. Today’s verse passage is intended to soothe the shattered nerves of those who stress over these things. God guarantees that natural processes, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, will proceed with law-like regularity. This guaranteed regularity in the created order not only provides the needed foundation for induction—reasoning from specific instances to general conclusions—it creates in us a love and appreciation for God, whose faithfulness and dependability are reflected in the regularity we see around us. Unfortunately, many refuse to acknowledge God in this way. “But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart;” wrote the prophet Jeremiah, “they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest” (Jeremiah 5:23-24). Real climate change is coming, and Christians are instructed to pray for it. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The kingdom age will be a return to Eden-like conditions (Matthew 19:28 cf Luke 22:29-30; Acts 3:21). Looking ahead to this blessed time, Ezekiel wrote that “the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fenced and inhabited” (Ezekiel 36:34-35). With a perfectly restored climate, crops will be sown and flourish even on the tops of mountains (Psalm 72:16). Amos, who earned a living as a farmer, was particularly interested in this. He wrote that in the kingdom age, “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt” (Amos 9:13). Let us praise God both for the regularity we see now and the stupendous climate change that is slated for the future!
God bless,
Pastor John
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