In the previous post, I explained what the Bible teaches about weather in regards to the source of weather and the start of our weather. The source of weather is God, and the start of the weather our world now experiences was the flood of Noah. So, now let’s move on and see what the Bible teaches about the service of weather and the storms of weather.

III. The Service of Weather

The fact is that weather plays a number of roles in service to God. While there are many different passages by which the Bible teaches this, I’ll select just one from the list. That passage is Job 37:13, a verse that uses three basic categorizes to describe many of the roles weather plays in God’s plan.

You might recall that I used Job 37:9-12 as a reference in talking about the source of weather. In those verses, we learn that God is the source of the snow, the gentle rains, the heavy rains, the ice, the water-freezing temperatures, the rain clouds, and the lightning. Now let’s look at verse 13, which says in reference to God and all that weather:

He causes it to come, Whether for correction, Or for His land, Or for mercy. (N.K.J.V. emphasis mine)

First, God uses weather is His service as CORRECTION. What we are talking about here is God sending weather as a form of either chastisement or judgment. Of course, the greatest example of God using weather in this way was the flood of Noah. Why did God send that flood? Genesis 6:5 says:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (N.K.J.V.)

There are, however, other Bible stories where God uses weather as a means of chastisement or judgment in order to produce correction in peoples’ behavior. For example, Psalm 48:7 talks about God breaking the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. Similarly, Psalm 107:23-30 describes sailors who do not know the Lord getting out onto the sea and finding themselves in the midst of a windstorm that God sends to churn up the waves. Those terrified sailors cry out to the Lord in their time of trouble and He calms the storm for them.

Another example is found in 1 Samuel chapter 12. In that story, the prophet Samuel tells the people of Israel that even though they now have their first king (Saul), they must continue to fear the Lord and obey Him. Then, as a visual aid to what will happen to those people if they disobey God, Samuel calls upon the Lord to send thunder and rain down upon the wheat harvest that very day. Along those same lines, in Deuteronomy 11:17 Moses warns the Israelites that if they turn from God and begin worshiping false gods, God’s wrath will be kindled against the Israelites and He will create a time of drought by shutting up the heavens so that it doesn’t rain.

That warning reminds us of the three-and-a-half years of drought that God inflicted upon Israel’s northern kingdom during the days of Elijah the prophet. And in that same vein, in Isaiah 5:6 God says that He will lay waste to the city of Jerusalem by commanding the clouds to not send rain upon it. Likewise, in Amos 4:7, God tells the citizens of Israel’s northern kingdom that He has withheld rain from them.

Second, God uses weather in His service as A MEANS of WATERING the Earth (“His land”). This category is all about God using the weather to keep His earth watered and fertile. In the previous post, I provided a quote from Dr. Henry Morris about the hydrologic cycle. That cycle is how God has kept the earth watered since the days of Noah’s flood. Now let me expand upon that thought by citing a few passages in which the Bible describes this cycle.

In Ecclesiastes 1:6-7, we read:

The wind goes toward the south And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. (N.K.J.V.)

In Isaiah 55:10-11, we read:

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water 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 goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent.” (N.K.J.V.)

Jeremiah 10:13 says of God:

When He utters His voice, There is a multitude of waters in the heavens, And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth (that’s talking about evaporation). He makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out of His treasuries. (N.K.J.V., explanation mine)

Finally, in Job 38:22-29, God asks Job a series of questions. He asks him:

“Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war? By what way is the light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth? Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water, Or a path for the thunderbolt, To cause it to rain on a land where there is no man; To satisfy the desolate waste, And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth?” (N.K.J.V.)

Third, God uses weather in His service FOR MERCY. This category involves God sending beneficial weather as a means of simply being merciful upon us, and I think the best reference here is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48 about how God treats His enemies. After telling His followers that they should love their enemies, bless those who curse them, do good to them that hate them, and pray for those who use them and persecute them, Jesus says of God the Father,

“…He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (N.K.J.V.)

Why would God bless the evil and the unjust with rain? Why wouldn’t He keep those kinds of people in a continual drought? It’s because of His mercy upon them. He gives them beneficial weather they don’t deserve simply because He is merciful toward them.

IV. The Storms of Weather

There is weather and then there is WEATHER. And WEATHER involves storms! Therefore, it isn’t surprising that storms plays a major role in multiple stories from the Bible. One such story is found in Luke 8:22-24, which says concerning Jesus and His chosen 12 apostles:

Now it happened on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. (N.K.J.V.)

You see, even Jesus (God the Son, God in human flesh) had to deal with storms while He was here upon this earth, and His chosen 12 apostles had to deal with them as well. And let’s not miss the fact that in this instance those men got nailed by a storm even though it was Jesus’ idea for them to cross that lake in that boat. This proves that you can be right smack dab in the middle of God’s will for your life (and even have Jesus in your boat with you), and yet you can still get hit with an awful storm of weather. Welcome to life on planet Earth.

So, to sum up this post, weather has its service in God’s grand plan for life on earth, and it also has its storms. In terms of God’s service, Job 37:13 tells us that God uses weather as a means of correcting people who need correcting, as a means of keeping His earth watered, and as a means of Him showing mercy toward undeserving people. And somehow God even uses weather’s storms to accomplish those three purposes of service. In the next post, we’ll look at what the Bible tells us about the schooling of weather and the stabilizing of weather. Both of those topics are loaded with helpful information, and so I hope you will join me for that final post of this little series.