Why All The Disasters?

And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’ “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why he has brought all these disasters on them.’” [2 Chronicles 7.21-22]

It is a simple exchange, really. Blessings for obedience, and curses (disasters) for disobedience.

Loyalty to God was then and remains today the criterion to determine whether blessings or curses ensue.

With the Advent of Christ, much changed in what the practice of loyalty to God would look like going forward. Instead of ritualistic sacrifices and offerings to God involving the blood of animals, grains (bread), and liquids (oil, water, & wine), Jesus' body and blood serve to satisfy all of God's desire for our loyalty. Our loyalty or disloyalty then is tied directly to whether or not we exercise faith in Jesus' sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sin. 

Appropriate faith in Jesus or misappropriate faith in other sources still necessarily warrants blessings or curses respectively.

Even today, the disasters God speaks to Solomon about in the passage above remain attached to disobedience/disloyalty to God as it pertains to faith in Christ. 

The reality of curses still reveal the reality of disobedience. Abandonment of God doesn't look like offering sacrifices to a foreign god, but instead looks like believing (having faith in) a foreign god(s). Curses today therefore are just as much the result of disobedience to trust in Christ as curses in Old Testament times were attached to disobedient offering of sacrifices to foreign gods.

But for some reason, people today think trusting science, medicine, knowledge, technology, education, and even experience (all human reasoning) INSTEAD of trusting God alone has nothing to do with curses they experience. God has not changed His mind though...

Father, may our loyalty be examined and purified of misplaced trust in anything but Jesus for the forgiveness (and all the blessings resultant to it) we need every moment of every day.

NOTE: This subject is much deeper than most of us can imagine (myself included). A simple reading or writing here does nowhere near satisfy our need to immerse ourselves in the true meaning of Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.