Weather or Not

Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?  Or can the heavens give showers?  Are you not He, O LORD our God?  We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.  Jeremiah 14:22

 

There are many aspects of a hurricane that are hard to understand and downright unlikable.  For me most of it comes afterward.  The devastation along the coast from Irene was hard to watch.  I am always sorry to hear of the deaths that are attributed to winds and water.  It seems with Irene falling trees and flooding were the major hazards. 

What I do love about hurricanes (and other acts of God) is that they are a demonstration of the power of God.  Hurricanes paint a picture for us of the wrath of God while they are in full force.  His power can disable the East Coast if that is what the Lord decides needs to happen to get our attention.  His power is beyond our ability to fathom exactly how much devastation He can bring if He chooses to.  

For some people, this is the hardest thing to understand about hurricanes, earthquakes, and other devastating   “natural events.”  They are acts of God.  The Bible is very clear about this.  Here are some verses to consider: 

Job 37:2-3 Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.  Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. 

Job 37:6 For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. 

Job 37:10-13  By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast . He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.  They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. 

Psalm 147:16-18 He gives snow like wool; he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.  He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?  He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. 

Psalm 147:8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. 

Jeremiah 10:13  When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. 

Amos 4:7  “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither. 

Amos 4:9 “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. 

As you can see it is clear that whether the conditions are good or bad, correction or love (Job 37:13), by Biblical standards these “natural” events are the acts of our sovereign God.  He is in control of the weather.  There is no chance or luck involved when we are hit by a hurricane or an earthquake.  The East coast got both in one week.  

God is our loving heavenly Father.  He sends these things for a reason.  I do not know His mind so I can’t say what those reasons are.  What I do think is that as Christians we need to sit back and ask Him what he wants us to see in these events.  How should we respond?  How are we giving glory to God in the way we to talk to others about the weather?  

In Matthew 22 the Pharisees ask Jesus about marriage in heaven.  His response to them was this:”You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.  Matthew 22:29  As I listened to weathermen and read newspaper reports about the earthquake and the hurricane I thought of this verse several times.  So many people in our country have so little understanding of the scriptures that they fail to see the power of God when it is literally pouring down in front of them. 

Sadly, this is true for many Christians.  We complain about the weather.  We say winter is too cold and summer is too hot.  Snow is too obstructive to our schedules and the rain keeps us from being outside.  Some even assert that God has nothing to do with such disasters as hurricanes and earthquakes.  He is a loving God, after all.  

People listen to too many weathermen and not enough of the scripture. This is in spite of the fact that God is always right and the weatherman rarely is.  God’s power, wisdom, and His love are all demonstrated in the weather.  His timing, placement, severity, and even the blessings of rain and sunshine show us something of God’s character.  We fail to see it because we are paying more attention to the weather channel than we are to the Lord of heaven and earth. 

So, as I have recently been reminded, to complain about the weather is to complain against God.  Most of us fail to connect the two but the truth is that God sends the weather and everything He does is for our good.  When we complain because something He has done has caused us some inconvenience we are denying the power of the work He does for the good of those who love Him.  Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  All things would include earthquakes and hurricanes as well as the sun and rain that come so graciously to nourish our gardens and crops.  It is sin to consider what God sends as misfortune or as if we were some kind of victim.  

We like to trust in the gracious God who makes His sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.  (Matthew 5:45.)  He is the same Sovereign God who unleashes lightning beneath the whole heaven (Job 37:3) and  can withhold water or overwhelm the land with too much of it (Job 12:15).  That same sovereign, gracious, Provider sends rain on the earth and water to the fields. 

It is not hard for me to think that God sends these “natural disasters” as acts of discipline… He disciplines those He loves.  We have walked so far from Him as a nation that it IS gracious of Him to remind us of His power.  In Job 5:17-18, we are given this reminder, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.  For He wounds, but He binds up; He shatters, but His hands heal.”