Wild fires were ravaging through neighborhoods. They interviewed one guy whose house was spared while his friends and neighbors houses were destroyed. In the interview he states that the Lord was watching out for him. What does that say about his neighbors? The Lord was not looking out for them?
For questions like this, while we can speculate about why things like this happen, we can’t speak with any authority. There was a tornado in our area several years ago. I remember reading of one house that was destroyed while the tornado spared all the other houses in the area. Why? Who can know the answer to that? We do know that God is sovereign. What does that mean? The word, ‘sovereign’ means to have the greatest power, or to have supreme power and authority. To Christians, it simply means that God is in control. Psalms 115:3 says, “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” Just because we can’t explain why things happen, doesn’t mean we should ever doubt God’s sovereignty. We do know his ways are above our ways and we don’t always know why He does what He does or allows to happen. We read in Romans 11:33 – “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
To say the Lord was ‘watching out’ for the man who’s house was spared, like He was not watching out for the others, was not the best response this man could have given, but I’m sure he really felt that way. But, perhaps the Lord was watching out for him. Maybe this was a wake-up call for this man to realize how fragile things on earth are and how quickly our life could end. However, that’s just speculation.
We do know of instances in scripture where the Lord allowed calamity, as in the case of Job in Job 1:12 – “And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.” There were times when He caused calamity, as in the case of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. We read in 2 Corinthians 12:7 – “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” There are times when the Lord absolutely protects, as is said several times of David, that the Lord preserved him. We read in 2 Samuel 8:14 – “And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.”
All these things are in the power of the Lord to do. Daniel 4:35 tells us that, “…he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” In other words, the Lord doesn’t answer to us for what He does. However, we are assured in Genesis 18:25 – “…Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” When we don’t understand, we simply need to trust.