We've been studying the minor prophets recently. One thing that was definitely on their minds was judgment from God and accompanying disaster. For example, this verse from Amos:

When a trumpet sounds in a city,
do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city,
has not the LORD caused it?

Amos 3:6

In his commentary on the minor prophets, James Montgomery Boice has this to say about Joel's prophecy of impending disaster:

The most important thing about Joel's handling of disaster is that he sees God as responsible for it. This does not mean that God is the author of sin, as if He were directly responsible for the rebellion of Satan or the original transgression of Adam and Eve. But it does mean that, given the sin-sick, evil world in which we live, God Himself does not hesitate to take responsibility for the occurrence of natural disasters and the resultant suffering.

This is something that has challenged me about the minor prophets. I'm the kind of guy who cringes, for example, when Christians try to draw a connection between disasters (e.g. 9/11 or Katrina) and their favorite example(s) of our moral decline, drawing for example from Old Testament texts and the disobedience-punishment-repentance dance that Yahweh and Israel performed in the OT. Typically, I would dismiss this, saying those OT texts don't apply because the US of A isn't God's chosen nation like Israel was. Problem is, the minor prophets don't reserve this kind of judgment for Israel alone. The other pagan nations get it too. And, generally I would have to agree with Boice...in the minor prophets Yahweh doesn't hesitate to use disasters (natural or from an enemy) as punishment. I don't think I'll be so quick to dismiss this sort of reasoning in the future.

That said, I'll still have a bone to pick with anyone who:

1. Tries to make a specific disaster-punishment connection without sufficient "maybe"s and "I wonder"s thrown in...unless of course he/she is claiming to be a prophet
2. Tries to make a specific disaster-punishment connection by picking on someone else's sin. Take a look at yourself in the mirror first.