The logic of world events

"Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing? Is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid?" (Amos 3:3-6a)

The listener is supposed to answer "no," "no," "no," "no," "no," "no" to all these hypothetical questions. If two people are walking down the street together in conversation (example No. 1), it is a safe assumption that somewhere along the line there was at least a tacit mutual decision to do so. The walking down the street together is the "effect," you might say, of which the "cause" was this prior agreement.

Amos' examples have been a set-up. He has gotten you on his side: You find yourself consenting to the proposition that nothing that happens happens without a cause. There are no random events in the universe, in the strict sense. The nihilistic mindset behind the bumper sticker philosophy that "Stuff happens" is wrong.

Now Amos will spring his trap. Like a master rhetorician he has saved the example he is really interested in for last, having reeled you in too far for you to retract your assent. Now he retrieves the punch line from his sleeve, not unlike Nathan once did to David:

"Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?" (3:6b)

How it stings. We are forced to answer "no" here, too. We have been outsmarted and must connect the dots between any national disaster and the hand of the Lord. Now it is merely a matter of asking the Lord: Why?

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