WEATHER CONTROL
by DON ROBSON
Recently, our minister gave a sermon based on Elijah's great
victory over the prophets of Baal, but, as a personal aside,
mentioned that he did not consider God responsible for the
drought. For me, this took a lot of the sting out of whatever
followed, so I pondered the question in my mind. 1 Kings 17: 1,
begins the story with the sudden appearance of Elijah, "And
Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said
unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my
word." Perhaps Ahab thought as our minister did, that God would
not be responsible for a drought, but St.James disagrees with
them both. James 5:17,18. "Elias was a man subject to like
passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not
rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years
and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and
the earth brought forth her fruit."
So, according to James, God responded to a prayer by shutting up
the heavens thereby providing no rain. It would seem to me that
God controls the rain and other weather elements like, fire,
snow, ice, dew, hail and wind. But what does the Bible say?
Matthew 8:24-27 states, "And behold, there arose a great tempest
in the sea, inasmuch as the ship was covered with the waves: but
he was asleep. And His disciples came to him, and awoke him,
saying, Lord, save us; we perish. And he said unto them. O why
are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
wind and the sea and there was a great calm. But the men
marvelled, saying, what manner of man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey him!" Confirmation is found in Psalm 89:
9, "Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof
arise, thou stillest them." Apart from the resurrection of Jesus
and others like Lazarus, this is perhaps His greatest miracle
demonstrating His Godly authority. All the gospel writers found
this to be important, for each of them deals with this event and
some, like Mark, includes the story of Jesus walking on the sea.
Solomon, the world's wisest man, believed that God could cause
droughts. In his dedi cation prayer of the temple, he says. 2
Chronicles 26,27, " WHEN THE HEAVEN IS SHUT UP, AND THERE IS NO
RAIN, BECAUSE THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST THEE; yet if they pray
toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin,
WHEN THOU DOST AFFLICT THEM: Then hear thou from heaven and
forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when
thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; AND
SEND RAIN UPON THY LAND, which thou hast given unto thy people
for an inheritance." Also, in the first paragraph we mentioned,
"fire." 2 Chronicles 7:1, "Now when Solomon had made an end of
praying, THE FIRE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, and consumed the burnt
offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the
house." So, there is further confirmation.
Then, there is the test of Gideon with the fleece. It is found in
judges 6:37-40. "Behold. I will put a fleece of wool in the
floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only and if it be dry on
all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save
Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so; for he
rose up early on the morrow and thrust the fleece together, and
wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And
Gideon said unto God, Let not thy anger be hot against me, and I
speak but this once, Let me prove, I pray thee, this once with
the fleece; now let it be dry only on the fleece, and upon all
the ground let there be dew. AND GOD DID SO THAT NIGHT; For it
was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground."
So, we have further evidence from the Bible that God controls the
weather elements, in this case, the dew.
AND SO, the Book of Job has some things to say on this subject.
Job 12: 15, "Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up:
also he sendeth them out and they overturn the earth." And Job
28:25-27, "To make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the
waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way
for the lightning of the thunder: Then he did see it, and declare
it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out." Or, Job 37:6."For
he saith the snow, Be thou on the earth." And then there is the
summarizing passage in Job 38:22-30, "Hast thou entered into the
treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the
hail. Which I have reserved against the Right time of trouble,
the against the day of the battle and war? By what way is the
light parted which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who
has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way
for the lightning of thunder; To cause it to rain on the earth,
where no man is; on the wilderness whereon there is no man; To
satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of
the tender herb to spring forth? Hath the rain a father or who
hast begotten the drops of dew! Out of whose womb came the ice,
and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters
are hid as with a stone and the face of the deep is frozen."
In Job 42:2, "Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou
CANST DO EVERY THING!"
For me, this discussion is quite convincing.
To finalize, we quote from the great prophet, Isaiah 46:11, "Yea.
I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed
it, I will also do it." And Isaiah 55:8-11, "For my thoughts are
not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways, saith the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as ditch the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and
returned not thither but watereth the earth and make it bring
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to
the eater; So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth;
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper is the thing whereto I sent
it."
What a statement from God on His infinite power. Being merely
men, we cannot hope to understand His purposes or His thoughts,
but we do trust the Lord and take his utterances on faith.
So, does God control the weather? I hope the evidence presented
persuades you that such is the case. If we do accept it, then we
must consider the spate of disasters hitting the North American
continent. In the last three years, we have experienced
hurricanes, tornados, floods, ice storms, snow storms, bush
fires, floods which froze into place, destruction of
homes by forest fires and crops by hail. Solomon says these
things happen BECAUSE WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST THEE!
There you have it! While our clergy and political leaders re-
gard these "natural" disasters as outside the realm of God,
we treat the symptoms and avoid the root causes, our abandonment
of God's laws. When shall we open our eyes and see? When shall we
open our ears and hear? When shall we open our minds to
understand? Right now, we are the blind led by the blind and
together we shall fall into the ditch. I fear God is losing
patience with us and is determined to drive us to our knees in
repentance, supplication and prayer. Let us not wait to be
forced. Let us begin by confessing our manifold sins and seeking
God's mercy which is in generous supply because the Lord is
anxious to bless and prosper us
Food for thought?
......
From "Thy Kingdom Come" - September 2009 - a publication of The
Association of Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
NOTE:
And we still have as part of the Bible Amos 4:6-13. I will not
venture to try and tell you which horrific weather storm has come
directly from God, but we do know this, all of them are PERMITTED
by the Almighty! Jesus said that before His return there would be
famine, earthquakes, pestilence and wars, in many different
places (Mat.24), and that would include the crazy weather and
storms we are having around the world.
Keith Hunt
|
