Amos 4:7

"And I also have withholden, the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered."

The disaster in view here is that of drought. The ultimate authority and power for sending either rain or drought is resident not in men but in God. Man finds it absolutely impossible to predict weather even for periods that lie immediately in the future; and all over the earth are startling evidences that areas once favored with abundant rains are now arid and barren. Look at the ancient rain forests of Arizona. Its huge trees are now almost as hard as diamonds; and they lie glistening in the desert sun, startling adornments of an environment which now provides hardly enough rain to grow a cactus. God is the author of such changes, despite the eagerness of some men to deny it.

The perversity, if we may call it that, of man's natural environment is a condition ordered and directed by God himself as a response to the human race which is in open rebellion against God, a situation that has existed ever since God cursed the ground for Adam's sake (Genesis 3:17-19), and a condition that should not be expected to change. Despite the sorrows and; inconveniences that come as a result of environmental woes, God's purpose in it is surely that of leading men to repentance, and not merely that of punishing men.

"When there were yet three months to the harvest ..." This was drought at the most critical part of the crop-year, with the result of almost certain crop failure.

"Rain upon one city ... not to rain on another ..." This merely describes the capricious and indiscriminate aspect of the drought; but there is no thought here that cities blessed with rain were any more righteous than the ones without it. Jesus taught quite clearly that the "rain falls on the just mid unjust," and God sends the sunshine upon the good and bad alike. It is the over-all condition that is sent by God, the controlling pattern which produces failures and blessings indiscriminately mingled. Men proved to be undependable in their responses to the will of God; and therefore, God has sent them an environment in which to live which is also not dependable. Men should get the message and repent and turn to God.