Around 2,800 years ago there was a drought in Israel lasting 3½ years, brought about because of Israel’s disobedience of God’s laws. The leading example of the nation's wickedness was their King, Ahab, so, Elijah the Prophet strode into his palace, announced the coming drought, and strode out again.
…Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 1 Kings 16:33
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 17:1
While we cannot claim that the present drought has arisen because of any specific rebellion against God, there is strong evidence that it is linked to climate change, aggravated by man’s abuse of his environment.
The warming of the earth has resulted in permafrost thawing, so damaging and destroying houses – see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59915697 .
The melting of ice has changed the axis of rotation of the earth – see https://thebulletin.org/2021/04/earth-has-shifted-on-its-axis-due-to-melting-of-ice-study-says/#post-heading .
The rate of warming is horrifying – see https://thebulletin.org/2020/02/earth-is-heating-at-a-rate-equivalent-to-five-atomic-bombs-per-second-or-two-hurricane-sandys/#post-heading .
Those last two articles are from the successors to the scientists who designed and built the first nuclear weapons - weapons that changed the nature of warfare. These eminent men are greatly concerned with other,increasing, risks to man’s survival on earth.
With such threats to our continued existence here, should we be worried? Terrified, even? We have not even considered the hazards of pandemics, of diseases transferred from animals to humans with devastating effects, of diseases considered conquered but now re-emerging, such as polio; nor have we weighed up the distressing situation in Ukraine with its threat of nuclear escalation, nor the sabre-rattling between China and Taiwan, manifest in air and sea exercises.
There is still reason to hope, despite the heightening gravity of world problems. God's three-fold promises provides unconditional reassurance that all will end well.
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Numbers 14:21
This promise was given to Moses on the borders of the promised land, but the majority of the Children of Israel who came out of Egypt doubted God’s ability to fulfil His promise to give them the land, so He sent them back into the wilderness where all but two of the Exodus generation died. Their children took the land that the doubters rejected - God keeps His promises, but not always in the way men expect.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9
This second promise was given not long before Israel’s continued existence was threatened by the Assyrian army. The threat was swept away by the angelic slaughter of 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night and the Assyrian king [Senacherib] fled home, where he was eventually assassinated by his own sons.
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14
This third promise, combining the other two, was given shortly before the southern kingdom of Judah was taken captive into Babylon. But their captivity, as promised by God in the mouth of Jeremiah the Prophet, lasted only until Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians who allowed them to return.
All these promises are linked with God’s ability to keep His promises to His people, ensuring the continuance of His chosen nation. This should give us confidence in His other promises.
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 31:35-37
A similar promise from God, given after the flood, guarantees the continued existence of the earth in a habitable form, providing food from the ground and contrasting seasons.
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22
Man’s abuse of his environment will be cut short. Divine intervention will ensure that, not man’s vague and ineffective treaties...
And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Revelation 11:18
There are many signs that the time for the fulfilment of this is approaching fast. Browse the Signs of the Times pages for evidence of this, and read Psalm 72 and Isaiah 35 to see the promised outcome. The drought in Elijah’s time ended very dramatically as we read in 1 Kings 18:30-46. While the present drought may not end so impressively, we should remember that when God acts, He often does so in unexpected ways in fulfilling His promises.
Rest assured that a better time is coming, and we all need to prepare for it by responding to God’s invitation to life revealed in the Bible, His infallible Word.