Heard in Heaven: plaintive cry of Greta Thunberg?

2nd April 2020, hej

One thing that should strike someone reading the Bible is how interactive the God of the Bible is; right from the beginning and to the end. So did something change? What if it didn’t? What if what we are seeing is God's manipulation because of the Cry of Children led by Greta Thunberg? A huge case of "be careful what you wish for?"

To set the scene

We have the Nation of Israel rescued out of Egypt by miracles so staggering that they could not be dreamed up, including the sudden death of all and only the first born males, except for those protected by blood of lamb on the doorposts and a nation walking through parted water only to have the Egyptians following swallowed up in the waves.

Then in the wilderness, where the Israelites are fed with miraculous bread and they have all they can need, the nation complain they want flesh / meat. Moses is distressed at the people’s cry and calls on God.

Where should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. (Numbers 11:13)

The reply should cause us to pause for thought! God had heard the complaint!

Say thou unto the people, “Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?” (Numbers 11:18-20)

God gives them what they want, which is not good for them, but so much of it they are sick of it! It shows a less than noble nation. It is totally incomprehensible a people would include such an incident in their history, unless it was true. By miracle, a wind brings a multitude of quail that ‘just happens’ to fall from the sky right where they are! Instead of thanks and gratitude, the people, to put it crudely, pig out.

“while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.” (Numbers 11:33)

Many cases of God reacting

This is not an isolated incident.

The God of the Bible changes the way He does things at the people’s request, due to their fear.

The LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. (Deut 5:28)

King Solomon is given a very special promise as his words were heard,

The LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. (1Kings 9:3)

King Hezekiah who prayed for his role as leader of his nation facing invasion is heard and healed,

Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. (2Kings 20:5)

The God of the Bible tells Jeremiah

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. (Jeremiah 23:25)

God rebukes the nation, when they sought peace but not by their God.

They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. (Jeremiah 5:12-15)

God says he hears the words of the people of Mount Seir, words repeated by their successor Modern Jordan - in the modern world.

Thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them. Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. (Ezekiel 35:12-14)

We can’t even escape God reacting to knowing the collective national thoughts:

It shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. (Zephaniah 1:12)

Fast forward some thousands of years

Due to wonderful miraculous advances, the increase in knowledge Daniel was told of (Dan. 12:4) we can measure atmospheric gasses including Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Despite increased knowledge of the complex role of atmospheric Water Vapour in Climate as written of in the Bible, some gain cult status and promote Godless fear about climate change from human CO2 production. They reject both the evidence of historic climate change and the huge natural Carbon and Carbon Dioxide exchanges, including the necessity of exhaling for human and animal life. They reject the good of inexpensive power, which has allowed leisure, to complain about human actions.

The absolute crescendo of complaint came before all the nations at the UN (and God) with a cry of a teen, Greta Thunberg who wept that those not acting to cut all ‘unnatural' human CO2 to air were ruining her childhood.

“How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” Speech at UN 23 September 2019

Greta had cut school to protest in Sweden. This was supported by many, mostly young and by school students globally, who also went on ‘strike’ from school.

Why this was a challenge to God

It is affirmed in the Bible by no less that Christ that God gives all good, and controls both the rain and sun.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matt 5:44-45)

Regarding the ecosystem, it is said by Christ that God even cares for all the sparrows,

But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? (cp. one not fall to the ground without your Father Matt 10) But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.(Luke 12:5-7)

The psalmist points out that God looks after all creatures of the ecosystem,

These wait all upon thee; that thou may give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou open thine hand, they are filled with good. (Psalm 104:27-28)

It is also states God ultimately controls life,

Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:29-30)

Christ points out that God had control over the only life that matters.

Strange Parallels: from UN to Wuhan

Thunberg’s speech before the nations at the UN was the 23 September 2019 and the global children’s and youth climate action protest was between 20 Sep 2019 – 27 Sep 2019. Not long afterwards in Wuhan China in November 17 they had the first known case of a virus that China sought to cover up. Just before the first known infection on 2 Nov, Greta in America tweeted, 'It turns out I’ve traveled half around the world, the wrong way', seeking help to get from America to Madrid without taking a plane, as the Climate Conference COP25 moved from Santiago to Madrid, due to anti-government violence. Half way between, on the very day of the infection Prince Harry says to a global audience of Greta, 'She may have been just one person at the beginning, but she had a belief, a mission.. and now the whole world is paying attention. Not long after nations began banning flights to prevent the virus spreading.

One of Greta’s complaints was that people use aircraft to travel. Air travel for the masses cannot ever be made without large amounts CO2 to air for a family one flight per year would be half of their total impact. Since the virus outbreak air travel has been systematically reduced. It has a consequence that cargo is now up to three times more expensive to freight by air. Almost nobody can have the leisure now to go on a holiday. If this is the future, then many will not be able to afford air freight. Tourism will be virtually dead. Was youth willing to do this to themselves?

To stop virus spread whole cities have been in lockdown. This has led to massive reductions in car use, and as even electric cars produce CO2 to air in a life cycle, this also reduced CO2 to air.

Now Britain has warned that their fragile low CO2 electricty network, now without the more robust coal-fired power, is vulnerable to loss of maintenance workers to virus, leading to blackouts and even lower CO2 production, but also the total miserable isolation of housebound families who will not be able to buy even food.

Greta said, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood,” when older people who had seen war and deprivation, knew her generation in numbers never seen before on earth had it better than any other - ever. She led a strike from school protest, but many schools have closed or been reduced. Many of the children who chose to strike from school in September 2019, are now a few months later denied access to school for the foreseeable future, for fear they may become very ill or die. Many are with parents who have no job. In some nations it is now so restricted that they cannot have a friend over to their house or go and see a friend, or have a party. They cannot gather at a beach, or a park, or out to dinner or a movie. For the foreseeable future a virus, and fear of a virus, has made Greta’s words real.

Greta said “people are suffering” whereas there was some suffering due to war, now many in Europe and industrialised Asia also have no jobs and are finding it hard to get food. But it goes further. Protest for this suffering is not possible by law in many places, or by common sense as it is a gathering too large and too dense - Any protest organiser has to consider how many of the protesters they wish to become seriously ill and die, as the feminist marches in Spain have shown.

Greta said “people are dying”: But whereas mass death was not a top feature in news, though among 7 billion many die about the world, now each day the grim count of people dying is the top news.

The “entire eco-system” that is collapsing is the economic one- the very one Greta thought too small a thing for the nations to care for. Greta got what she cried for the UN before God, a sudden smashing of the global economic structure has achieved a massive global reduction in CO2 to air. Indeed all who know, such as economists, now know “eternal economic growth” is simply “fairy tales” for the foreseeable future. This generation, unlike others before it, never got to see what a lack of economic growth looks like, as they never considered history: they are going to experience it now. But the death Greta and others feared wasn’t real. The death from this virus is real. It is not over yet: this virus hasn’t yet gone to the developing world….

Curiously the virus came out of the heart of the top CO2 producing region of the world: China. China was a nation that Greta Thunberg never singled out for rebuke, as she went about rebuking leaders of nations: a nation that nobody in Global authority ever rebuked, except the US President. But note, whereas it is likely unseen CO2 is a small matter, both China and Italy, the wost affected regions, had excessive visible mostly uncontrolled lung-harming pollution, which cleared up with the shutdowns of the Covid-19 Virus outbreak.

Does it now matter that it may be 1.5 Degrees Celsius warmer on average globally by 2100? No. All the climate activism, the striving for vanity of being noted, and the complaining, seems totally irrelevant now. People do not care for a possibility in 12 years or by 2100 as they are worried about today and next week. If it could be 1.5 Celsius degrees warmer to get more people out into the sun to increase Vitamin D, this virus could end sooner- everywhere. If we could wish it now, we would! But in fact if people would read the UN’s IPCC the summary of the known science from billions spent, there is no confirmed evidence that the massive reduction of CO2 to atmosphere now will do that much as the atmosphere is complex, but woe to us all if it reduces crop yield and temperature now.

People's complaints heard in Heaven?

Is it now that just as in the past, we are always heard in Heaven: our very thoughts are heard? Have the Children of the affluent nations, who would not give thanks for all the things given them but only complain for things they want ‘right now’, and who had no idea how good the miracles of CO2 were for them, heard by no less than God? Was God happy with the way the nations of the world consume the things He gives without thanks, like greedy pigs? Was the God of Heaven, the God who gives all good, angered?

Every Christian seeks that their prayers are heard. They seek the Mercy of God. But what if the complaint of the godless is also heard? What if He gives them what they cry for, till it comes out of their nostrils? The God of the Bible has not changed. Let us however be encouraged by this thought:

He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:27-28)

Environmentalists, not understating that Revelation is talking of the moral corruption of those rejecting God’s laws, have quoted this passage to me: it comments on the matter of God’s wrath as a response to the anger of the nations,