Water everywhere!

The record rains that flooded huge parts of Australia’s northeast state of Queensland are now moving across the southeast state of Victoria toward the sea.  The flood waters have created an “inland sea” some 55 miles long and 24 miles wide that has closed coal mines and swamped large areas of valuable agricultural land—in what has become “the nation’s most expensive natural disaster in history” (telegraph.co.uk, January 24, 2011).  Across the Indian Ocean, flooding in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces has saturated farms and disrupted rail transport, which has affected coal, maize and chrome exports.

The flooding in Australia and South Africa has brought death, destruction and rising prices for food and coal.  Some parts of South Africa have received two to three times their normal amount of rain. 

Long ago, God warned, “if you do not obey the voice of the Lord… to observe carefully all His commandments … cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country” (Deuteronomy 28:15-19).  Jesus also prophesied that natural disasters would increase just before His return (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8).  Global events are moving in that direction!