Water Emergency in Cape Town!

In Cape Town, South Africa, a city of nearly four million people, drought conditions and fires have made headlines lately. But recently the world learned the true seriousness of the drought. “Dam levels in Cape Town have dropped and with many Capetonians still using more than the restricted limit of water, Mayor Patricia de Lille announced on Tuesday that Day Zero had been brought forward by seven days to April 22… Day Zero refers to the day when Cape Town’s dam levels reach 13.5% or less. In that event, the city will close taps and set up 200 sites where people will queue to collect water” (Mail and Guardian, January 9, 2018)! Despite water restrictions, only about half of the residents of the Cape are adhering to them. The drought is obviously also hurting farmers and businesses reliant on water.

Although the severe drought now plaguing Cape Town is not the ultimate fulfillment of end-time Bible prophecies, it gives sobering insight into what lies ahead—especially for the Israelite-descended nations, due to their rejection of God and His laws. For example, God warned through the prophet Isaiah, “For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away… Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst” (Isaiah 50:1-2). God also prophesied that “if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God… your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 23-24). What we now see is a foretaste of the very difficult times ahead if our nations fail to repent and return to God.

However, Bible prophecies reveal that the coming times of famine and drought will be short-lived. The prophet Isaiah states, “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you” (Isaiah 54:7). Jesus Christ is going to return and usher in the Kingdom of God, a time of abundance when even the deserts will blossom like a rose (Isaiah 35:1) and when the obedient will be blessed with rain in due season (Zechariah 14:16-19). For more insights into extreme weather events and why they will occur in the future, be sure to read or listen to Who Controls the Weather?