1 Thessalonians 5:2–3
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (ESV)

God has three instruments of judgment that to the uninformed mind look to be natural or manmade disasters, but to the mind informed by the Word of God are seen to have the unseen hand controlling. They are The Sword – wars and criminal activity; Famine – aka Climate Change (which is always declared disastrous whatever the weather happens to be doing at the moment. Government and advocacy groups are the Goldilocks of our age.); and Pestilence or Disease.

Reading the Old Testament prophets and their almost continual warnings that continued rebellion by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah would result in national disaster cannot but be a warning to God’s people of today. Look, I know that there is no national counterpart to the place of those ancient kingdoms today. Israel and Judah were the forerunners of the Church not America the beautiful. As much as I would like to think of The United States as a Christian nation, it is not now, nor has it ever been such. America was founded as a secular state with many Christian citizens and its non-establishment clause in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution was put there to protect against denominationalism not Christianity. But . . .

But while it is true that no nation today can claim special status with God, it is also true, as the scripture makes clear, God holds the nations to account for how closely they hew to his directions given in scripture. So looking at America and its place in the world today, I am forced to say that the “natural” events that are prevailing are not all that natural. God sets up kings and kingdoms and takes them down, and what looks like civil unrest or the ignominy of America slinking out of Vietnam or Afghanistan are the “natural” result of God’s judgment upon the nation. The floods and droughts that plague us, the disease that is now causing so much fear and uncertainty, while natural events, are they really all that “natural” or are they reminders from God that we are but mortals whose lives are as brief as dew upon the morning grass?

We should look at the sword, both internally and externally, at pandemics and floods, as calls to examine ourselves, to check our behavior, to look beyond ourselves to those around us, and repent.