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At dawn on the 18th, the rain
was still coming down. The weather
cleared somewhat at 8 o'clock, but
the mud forced Napoleon to post–
pone his attack lest his caval ry and
arti llery become bogged down. By
t he time Napoleon ordered t be
attack at 11 :30, sorne drying bad
taken place, but tbe condition of
tbe ground nevertbeless favored tbe
troops on tbe defensive, namely tbe
Britisb and Prussians.
Frencb a utho r Víctor Hugo
( 1802-1885) observed that "the
shadow of a mighty right hand is
cast over Waterloo; it is the day of
destiny, and the force which is
above man produced t hat day."
Further elaborat ing on the source
of the French defeat, he asserted:
" l f it had not rained t he night
between the 17th and 18th of June,
tbe future of Europe would have
been c banged.... Providence re–
quired only a li tt le rain, anda cloud
crossing the sky at a season when
rain was not expected. That was
sufficient to overthrow an em–
pire...."
• Du ring the spectacular evac–
uation of more than 300,000 Brit–
ish troops from Dunkirk (May 26-
June 3, 1940), the waters of the
English Channel were unusual ly
smooth, calm and placid. This
permitted even the tiniest boats to
go back and forth between Britain
a nd Fra nce in safet y on their
emergency rescue runs. Many sea–
meo knowledgeable of the Cban–
nel remarked at t he s trangeness of
the calm at t hat critica! time. Fur–
thermore, bad weather to the east
grounded the German Luftwaffe
during part of the evacuat ion, per–
mitting t he British to get away in
38
WATERL00 - 1815
safety until the Germa ns were
once again a ble to get their planes
ai rborne. Little wonder the epi–
sode has commonly come to be
ca ll ed " th e Miracle of Du n–
kirk."
• T he Allied landing on t be
beaches of Normandy on D-Day
(J une 6, 1944) is still another
example. June 5-the day origi–
nally c hosen for Operation Over–
lord (the code name for the inva–
sion)- was a weatberman's night–
mare. General Eisenbower wrote
that on tbe morning of t bat day
hi s camp near Portsmou th in
southern England was "shaking
and shudderi ng under a wind of
almost hurr icane violence, and the
r a i n travel ed i n horizontal
st reaks." Continued high winds
and s tormy seas were predicted–
tbe best allies Hitler could have.
For Eisenhower to have mounted
bis otfensive under tbose condi–
tions would have spelled disas–
ter.
Then, sudde n ly, the weathe r
ex perts predicted a lu ll in the
storm-a short one, to be sure, but
long enough to permit a Cbannel
crossing. So General Eisenbower
made bis " final a nd ir revocable
decision" to proceed with tbe inva–
sion early the next morning- Tues–
day, June 6.
Shielded by low clouds, tbe inva–
sion fleet took the Germans by sur–
prise. Furthermore, because of the
storm, the German coastal guards
bad relaxed tbeir vigilance. The
weather , in all respects, had sud–
denly all ied itself witb the All ies!
Reminiscing about the critica!
period just prior to the D-Day inva–
sion, Genera l Eisenbower noted
years later: " I f tbere were nothing
else in my life to prove the exis–
tence of an aJmighty and merciful
God, the events of the next 24
bours did it. ... The greatest break
in a terrible outlay of weather
occurred the next day and allowed
that great invasion to proceed, with
losses far below those we had antic–
ípated"
(Time,
June 16, 1952).
Space does not permit the
recounting of s imilarly unusual cir–
cumstances at many other critica!
junctures in his tory.
The Unseen Han d
Whether or not miraculous circum–
stances are readily apparent at all
cruc ial t u rning points in history,
the Bible repeatedly assures us tbat
God is in complete control of
events.
Tbe prophet Daniel declares tbat
"God removes kings and sets up
kings" (Dan. 2:2 1, RSV). To King
Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Baby–
Ion, Daniel affirmed tbat
"the God
of heaven
hath given thee a king–
dom, power, and s trengtb, and g lo–
ry" (Dan. 2:37). The seven years'
punishment of Nebuchadnezzar
( Dan. 4) was for the purpose "that
the living may know that tbe most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men,
and giveth it to whomsoever he
will, and setteth up over it the
basest of men" (Dan . 4:1 7).
The prophet lsaiah says it is God
who " bringeth the princes to noth–
ing" (Isa. 40:23). King David of
ancient Israel declares t hat "God is
tbe judge; be put tetb down one,
a nd se ttet h up anotber" (Ps.
75:7).
Jt is important to understand
tbat God's intervention in events is
The PLAIN TRUTH