Chapter 14: Natural Phenomena And Cataclysms As Signals 1. On the first page of the Holy Book, it is recorded how God created lights in the firmament of the heaven on the fourth day of Creation. Those lights are called the sun, the moon, and the stars. Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years. In the first place the signs are mentioned, and then seasons, days and years. The signs—for whom are these signs? For men of course, for those who can read and understand them. 2. In earlier times before modern inventions, the stars were signs to navigators, and caravans, for their orientation of the vast spaces of the sea, and of the desert. In speaking of symbols, we have said that those greater and lesser lights on the firmament represent symbols of spiritual realities. Now we shall try to describe when and how they serve as Gods signals. It is written that when Christ was dying on the Cross, From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour... and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose ... and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Verily, these are clear signals of Christs innocence and of Gods anger. The sun, which is otherwise considered a symbol of God, here is a sign, a signal of Gods anger. 3. Joshua, after first praying to God, ordered the greater lights on the firmament to stop moving and they obeyed. Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened not to go down about a whole day. This is Gods signal to men that He loves His faithful servants and does the will of those who love Him. 4. When King Hezekiah was sick unto death, he prayed with tears for the prolongation of his life. Then came Isaiah as Gods messenger who said to the king that he would be healed and his life prolonged. Hezekiah then asked: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me? And Isaiah, the prophet, cried unto the Lord to bring the shadow of the degrees on the sun dial of King Ahaz, and lo and behold, He brought the shadow of ten degrees backward. That was a signal to Hezekiah to continue to serve God with thankfulness and humility. Soon, he lost Gods favor by his pride. This usually happens with men in great position. 5. The star which guided the wise men of the East to Bethlehem certainly was a signal of God. It was a signal that a great King was born. We have seen His star in the East, and we are come to worship Him. Of course that star was exceptional but if we plunged deeper into the mystery of Gods signals, we could understand that even the ordinary stars have often been, and will continue to be, signals to men. 6. The universal flood was a signal of Gods anger because of universal wickedness of men. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at the heart. And when the flood ended God said to Noah that He had set a rainbow in the cloud as a sign that there would be no other universal flood. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. It does not mean that the rainbow did not exist before the flood, but that God, at that same time made it a token, a sign, to men. It is just as if He had said: Here it is! Although the universal flood has not been repeated, though limited floods, calamities, and inundations that happen frequently in our times as in the past, are Gods signals. 7. Blizzards and rains are Gods signals. The aged prophet Samuel spoke to the people of Israel and said that their demand for a king to rule over them was not pleasing to God. It was the time of wheat harvest, but there was no rain in that land, nor was it expected at that season. To prove what he had said, Samuel called unto God to make an extraordinary sign before the sight of the assembled people. So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. 8. Thunder is a signal both of Gods anger towards heathens and of Gods protection of the faithful. In answer to a prayer of Samuel in a war with the Philistines the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. 9. Droughts are also a signal. The ground is as brass, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. So pictures Jeremiah a drought in Gods dealings with sinful people. The prophet Elias prayed to God to stop a rain because of king Ahabs apostasy. And it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. The fire that fell from heaven on Elias sacrifices and at other occasions was also a signal from God. 10. The prophet Amos clearly says, that the Lord God sends the rain in one place and withholds it from another place, all according to the spiritual and moral states of the people. The Lord speaks: I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain up on another city; one piece was rained up on, and the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. 11. The earthquake signalizes Gods displeasure with mankind because of disbelief and of mercilessness of man to man. Shall not the land tremble for this? asks the prophet. And the great Isaiah cries against the godless city and says, Thou shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. 12. The earthquake may sometimes typify heavenly joy and triumph instead of sadness and anger. So at Christs resurrection the earth quaked. And behold, there was an earthquake. When the Christians were assembled to pray together and ask Gods help, behold, when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they all were filled with the Holy Spirit. The same happened to Paul and Silas at Philippi. While in prison they were praying and praising God so that all other prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and, immediately, all the doors were opened, and everyones hands were loosed. 13. Hail, the multitudes of locusts, as well as mice, serpents, and other creeping creatures, are Gods signals. He used them once in Egypt. The prophet Haggai speaks in the Name of the Lord, I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord. The Psalmist says, He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. 14. Thunderings out of season, falling stars, and the eclipse of the sun, have been understood by the simple people of the Balkans and elsewhere as Gods signals of some approaching great event, especially war. Before the Serbian insurrection against the Turks in 1804, it was said that thundering occurred in the midst of the winter, the stars like bloody flags struggled against each other, and the sun was covered in darkness. The same celestial struggles were observed in 1885 on the eve of the Serbo-Bulgarian war. Of course such popular interpretation of the physical phenomena could be called superstitious, had not the succeeding events justified them. Had not the Messiah foretold such happenings as the signals of the end of the world drama? We ought to know that secondary causes, which are taken as the primary, are nothing but the effects of the first cause. And the first cause of all the calamities is the sin of man and people. St. Nikolai Velimirovich The Universe as Symbols and Signs: An Essay on Mysticism in the Eastern Church
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 18:05:20 +0000
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