Haggai 1 and weather

[Eoghan]

I was struck reading this that the bad harvests caused by adverse weather are attributed to a judgment of God.

To what extent can/should we examine the weather and see it as a reward/judgment?

I have a friend who looks at the weather in the US and quite simply calls it a judgment. Is he right to do so? I have some thoughts on the matter but would be interested in hearing others views

 

[Eoghan]

Argentina blessed of God?

I was struck reading this that the bad harvests caused by adverse weather are attributed to a judgment of God.

To what extent can/should we examine the weather and see it as a reward/judgment?

I have a friend who looks at the weather in the US and quite simply calls it a judgment. Is he right to do so? I have some thoughts on the matter but would be interested in hearing others views

Argentina: Record-breaking plum and peach harvest volumes

211,103 tonnes of plums for processingare expected; 4 times as much as last season, and also 100,703 tonnes of peaches.

Growers from Mendoza, Argentina, are expecting to harvest a lot of fruit in the 2012/13 season, especially those devoted to dried plums and peaches for fresh consumption.

Statistics from the Institute for Rural Development confirm it: Mendoza's fruit harvest, unless affected by unexpected weather conditions, will reach 667,946 tonnes combining all species and varieties; the highest production volume in the last 7 years.

The predicted volumes of plums for processing are clearly the highest of all, with 211,000 tonnes. Plums also register the largest inter-annual increase, as the harvest is 4 times larger than last season; a figure still to be readjusted in late January.

Meanwhile, without a significant increase in the acreage, 100,703 tonnes of peaches are expected to be harvested; an increase of almost 25%, although there are concerns about their quality due to the combined effect of zonda wind and hailstorms.

On the other side of the scale, pome fruits are still going through a bad moment, with both pears and apples falling for the second year in a row. There has also been a loss in acreage, from 4,135 hectares in 2009/10 to the current 2,981 hectares.

"These figures can be linked to the recovery in the eastern and northern parts of the country, where last year frosts caused a drop in production, and in turn, industrial plums are strongly entering production in the south, which significantly increases our harvest estimates, although experience tells us to be cautious, as some of the fruit will drop from the trees and this will lead to a readjustment of the figures in the second half of January. Therefore, while a lot more fruit is still expected, we cannot consider the 211,000 tonnes an accurate final estimate at the moment," explains Francisco Gómez, general manager of IDR.


Source: losandes.com.ar

Publication date: 1/4/2013

 

[ShagVT]

I would suggest that there are important differences here ... Haggai 1 is talking about the covenant curses from Lev 24 and Deut 28 which the post-exilic community is experiencing.

Ultimately the answer to your question is going to be a matter of how much you think the covenant blessings and curses of Israel still apply (since the nation of Israel that God was talking to no longer exists and Christ has inaugurated the kingdom of God.)

 

[Jack K]

He makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

There have been specific points in redemptive history where God used the weather to show his favor or disfavor as a way of pointing ahead to the ultimate favor found by those in Christ and the ultimate judgment to be experienced by those who reject Christ. But we should not presume to read some divine statement into weather conditions today. And if we think bad weather is judgment from God we have, frankly, too small a view of divine wrath. Sinners ultimately will wish bad weather was all they had to endure.

God controls the weather still today. Surely he uses it to advance his plans and work all things together for good to those who love him. But what's good for us sometimes looks bad at the time. And all of us, including the most faithful believers, remain subject for now to the effects of the curse which specifically include frustrations in farming. So to look at a bad harvest or a good one and start making judgments about who's being punished by God is both presumptuous and way too simplistic.

 

[sevenzedek]

Can sunny weather be a blessing unto judgment for the one who idolizes beach-going? How much we attribute good and bad weather to reward/judgment seems to be a case-by-case kind of thing.