“And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, WHICH HATH POWER OVER THESE PLAGUES (capitals mine): and they repented not to give him glory.”
Revelation 16:9
During the Last Days of the Tribulation (the final 7 years before Jesus Christ Returns at Armageddon), the fourth angel of God “…poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.” Revelation 16:8. While we are not yet in the Tribulation, the Bible is replete with many other past examples of God using heat to bring His Wrath upon a sinful world with the hope man will finally repent of their sins and honor Him as God. Not only does God have TOTAL power and control over the weather, mankind still does not recognize this PLAGUE (hot weather) is a direct result of His Wrath and then repent of their sinful ways! As I wrote previously in my post “Climate change” – Man-made or punishment from God?, while temperatures may be rising today enough to cause concern among men, why it is rising is rarely referred to as a direct result of God’s Wrath. Instead, as the title of that post infers, it is man CAUSED, not man MADE!
Do you remember the story of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah? There Abraham was given time to find only a few in the area who were not sinful (except Lot and his family). He couldn’t! So what happened? God rained “…fire and brimstone” (heat) upon the cities, totally destroying them and their sinful people. By the way, the Bible also indicates the future heat will truly be a “global” warming issue (man CAUSED) when we read in Deuteronomy 29:24:
“Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?”
The Book of Deuteronomy was written by Moses in approximately 1400 B.C. and yet almost 3500 years later we can see at that time all the NATIONS recognized the heat was made by God because of His great anger due to the sinfulness of man. But they did not repent and neither will all the nations in the Last Days repent. I doubt mankind back then even believed the heat was caused by CO2 emissions or cow flatulence. Instead, they blamed God! They understood it was God who controlled the heat and the cold. Why don’t we today? How can we be certain this is what the Bible says?
“While the earth remaineth (i.e., until the NEW earth is created after the 1,000 year Millennium Reign of Jesus on this earth), seedtime and harvest, AND COLD AND HEAT (capitals mine), and summer and winter, and day and night SHALL NOT CEASE (capitals mine).”
Genesis 8:22
God controls the weather! What is the difference between now and while the earth “remaineth?”? It will not be until Satan is finally thrown into hell forever at the end of Jesus’s Reign on earth where we will once again be in a sin free world and God will no longer show His Wrath as one way to gain our attention. Until that happens and until we repent of our sins however, the world will experience heat (and many, many other really bad things). And the more sinful the world becomes, the hotter it will get! Interestingly, as I was writing this post a new study was just released by a group of scientists from Finland and Japan stating man actually has had NO role in the earth getting hotter but rather the heat is caused by low cloud heavenly events (surprised?). I know many will dispute their findings (Finland Study on Global Warming) but the prophecies of the Bible remain. With the political correctness aside, global “warming” has been prophesied for the Last Days.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the Bible is full of examples where God uses heat to not only punish the wicked but also to let us know there is a simple reason why He has made it so hot. He wants us to know we CAUSED the heat because of our personal actions and yet we still have not repented of our sins even if we acknowledge He is in control. While He brought heat upon the ancient Jews for their sinful ways, it is interesting to note the similarities between the sins the people then committed which deserved God’s just punishment are the SAME sins today’s generation are committing TODAY (check out my recent post on what those sins are in We are NOT the “Greatest Generation” but we are THAT Generation!). Compare the Jews in ancient times to what the Bible says will be the characteristics of the Last Generation described in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 and you will see the similarities. Amazingly similar! What exactly did they do?
“And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people (Christians?); I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire (heat) is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.”
Deuteronomy 32:20-22
“They shall be burnt with hunger (heat does destroy crops), and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction:”
Deuteronomy 32:24
Again, heat is just another way God shows us the error of our sinful ways and that He truly wants us to recognize Jesus as our Lord and Savior. BUT, if we do this (of course most of the world WON’T until the VERY END), we are told what will happen to us who do follow God’s commandment in Isaiah 49:10: “They shall not hunger or thirst; neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.”
So, it is now officially summer, and it is HOT!! Once we recognize there is a solution, which we will see clearly in the future, and that is to ask Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, to truly repent of those sins and to open our hearts to Him, not only will things be better, but we are told how comforting things will be. If you are outside sweating and understand the Promises God has made to those who worship Him, you have to be comforted by knowing this heat is only temporary. If you are, I ask again you share this message with your family and friends so we can and will do what God has asked of us all, and that is to “…therefore comfort one another with these words.”
May God Bless you!