As Hurricane Laura raged toward Louisiana’s coast in the US, the warnings were dire. One sheriff, noting the 150-mile-per-hour winds, issued this jolting message: “Please evacuate. But if you choose to stay and we can't get to you, write your name, address, social security number and next of kin and put it in a Ziploc bag in your pocket. Praying that it does not come to this.” Rescue crews knew that once Laura hit land, there was little they could do. They could only watch the storm’s destructive path—helpless in its wake.

Whenever God’s people faced calamity in the Old Testament, however, His words were much different, far more certain and hopeful. Whether they faced natural disasters or the effects of her own rebellion, God promised His presence in the midst of their destruction. He said that He would “look with compassion on all her ruins; [and] will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3). And more, God always assured His peop