Daer PBC Family,
While on vacation last week, a terrible storm rolled through the place where we were staying and knocked the power out. Remember that the temperatures were in the upper 90’s. It was toasty – to say the least. The next evening the power came on at 6 and the air conditioners ran for 30 minutes, then another storm rolled through and knocked the power out again. This one was accompanied by hail, and it seemed to me that there may have been a tornado because the wind changed directions. The next morning a manager told me that it looked as if a small tornado had come through.
I started thinking about how much damage can be done by the weather in just a couple minutes or even seconds. Storms and tornados (whirlwinds in the Bible) are a window into the power of God, and also into the judgment of God. The whirlwind is often used to describe the majesty of God:
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind…
Job 38:1
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power… His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nah. 1:3
God’s judgment is also likened to a whirlwind:
For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
Is. 66:15
Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles…
Jer. 4:13
But for the children of the Lord, he is our protection from his judgment. Jesus shows his power over nature to protect his own in the Gospels. For example, in Matthew 8, while in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, the Bible says, “he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” (Matt. 8:26)
We never need to fear storms, whether they are natural storms or the storms of God’s judgment. He is greater than any storm that we will face.
Blessings,
Jarred