Wild Fires Burn Western USA

A sobering headline from a recent news article read “Extreme Weather Watch: August 2015—The Western US Burns Up” (San Diego Free Press, September 8, 2015). This year, over eight million acres have burned, primarily in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and California (National Interagency Fire Center, September 6, 2015). Firefighters have come from around the globe, and the U.S. Forest Service is spending $10 million per day to fight fires (San Diego Free Press, September 8, 2015). “In 1995 16% of the Forest Service’s budget went to fight forest fires. Today it’s 52% with 70% predicted in the next decade if present trends continue… According to the Washington Post, there are only six other years that have seen more than 8 million acres burned—2012, 2011, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004—based on National Interagency Fire Center records that date back to 1960. It is hard not to notice that all of these years came since the year 2000” (ibid.).

Long ago, God warned the Israelite nations that if they turned away from Him and despised His laws, “I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze” (Leviticus 26:14-19). The prophet Hosea warned, “Israel has forgotten his Maker… I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces” (Hosea 8:14). The prophet Ezekiel records that God will bring “disaster upon disaster” upon backsliding Israelite nations until they learn that they have defied the God who gave them the blessings that they have enjoyed (see Ezekiel 7).

As the end of the age approaches, we will see even greater conflagrations as God uses natural disasters to get mankind’s attention. For more on this subject read Who Controls the Weather?