Greetings!
The weather is a constant conversational topic. This week, the weather is more than a discussion; it is a filibustering oration.
In Oklahoma, we have never experienced a level of freezing like it has been this week. And it has caused quite a bit of conflict, involving heating and water resources.
This is nationwide. It’s a fascinating follow-up to 2020’s COVID pandemic. Somebody called it SNOVID.
The weather is something people cannot control. We can respond and prepare, but nobody can prevent bad weather from happening. For Christians, it should remind us of Who can control the weather.
Check out the opening topic of Albert Mohler’s Thursday edition of The Briefing. This is an excellent observation. I love this description Mohler gives about how God designed Earth to sustain human life:
“You get too far from the sun, and the planet turns into a giant frozen wilderness. You get too close to the sun, and everything simply melts or evaporates. But even as, of course, the cosmic anthropic principle reminds us that the cosmos looks as if on planet Earth there was an intelligent, intentional design to sustain life. We’re living in an increasingly secular age that tries to find any other explanation than for the fact that God created the earth as a human habitation.”
Another great analysis of weather from a Christian worldview comes from Jerry Bridges in his book “Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts”:
“But God has not walked away from the day-to-day control of His creation. Certainly He has established physical laws by which He governs the forces of nature, but those laws continuously operate according to His sovereign will. A Christian TV meteorologist has determined that there are over 1,400 references to weather terminology in the Bible. Many of these references attribute the outworking of weather directly to the hand of God.”
Did you catch the part of 1,400 references to weather terminology in the Bible? That stuck out to me. I’m not going to share all 1,400 (I have no idea what all of them are!), but for my weekly standard, here are six significant Bible passages that emphasize God being in control of the weather.
- Jer. 10:13
“When He thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from His storehouses.”
- Psalm 147:8; 148:8
“Who covers the sky with clouds, prepares rain for the earth and causes grass to grow on the hills.”
“lightning and hail, snow and cloud, stormy wind that executes His command,”
- Job 37: 3, 6, 10-13
“He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.”
“He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’”
“The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters his lightning through them. At His direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever He commands them. He brings the clouds to punish men, or to water His earth and show His love.”
- Amos 4:7
“I also withhold rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.”
- Zechariah 10:1
“Ask the Lord for rain in the season of spring rain. The Lord makes the rain clouds, and He will give them showers of rain and crops in the field for everyone.”
- John 3:8
“The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
I mention John 3:8, as it uses the wind as an analogy for Christian life. Commentary from the Life Application Bible says, “Just as you did not control your physical birth, so you cannot control your spiritual birth. It is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit.”
Weather can be unpredictable, which is a great analogy of how we are limited in our knowledge of God. But we know He is control of our lives—just as He is in control of the weather.
