Thought for Today
Genesis 7:4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground."
Judges 5:4 "Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens poured, the clouds indeed poured water.
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
This morning, when I stepped out to get the newspaper, it was 11F and 42% relative humidity. I ‘stepped’ as quickly as I safely could. Thankfully, the driveway was clear and dry, there was no black ice or snow left on the asphalt.
The experience reminded me of all of the stories I have read in the Bible and in fiction about God’s involvement in the weather. Many pagan religions included gods of weather: Thor in Norse mythology was the god of lightening, thunder and storms; Zeus was the Greek god of sky and weather.
Even in the Bible, our ancestors-in-the-faith wrote of God’s bringing rain for 40 days and 40 nights, causing the Great Flood and the story of Noah and the Ark. The judge Deborah and her general Barak defeated the army of King Jabin of Canaan and his general Sisera because God brought rain to the plains of Megiddo, rendering the chariots of Sisera by bogging down their iron-clad wheels.
Is God somehow punishing so many Americans right now by wielding the forces of nature to bring so much snow and such cold temperatures to so many? Especially by bringing this weather to the southern climes not used to this sort of winter?
We are in the earliest stages of a presidential campaign and election. It seems certain that one of the major issues during this process will be global warming and how the candidate will deal with the issue. This winter’s frigid conditions might prove to complicate the discussions.
What is your own belief? Is God responsible for every rainstorm? For every snowstorm? For lightning? For thunder? Is God the proximate, active cause for all atmospheric and geological situations and conditions? When you see news coverage of hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, tsunamis and other devastations, do you believe God is responsible for all the loss, suffering and grieving? And if so, how do you explain Jesus’ words, “he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous?”
In my engineering education, my area of concentration was thermodynamics. I still have a book of psychrometric charts in my library. “Psychrometrics (or psychrometry, . . . is the field of engineering concerned with the physical and thermodynamic properties of gas-vapor mixtures. . . Although the principles of psychrometry apply to any physical system consisting of gas-vapor mixtures, the most common system of interest is the mixture of water vapor and air, because of its application in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning and meteorology. In human terms, our thermal comfort is in large part a consequence of not just the temperature of the surrounding air, but (because we cool ourselves via perspiration) the extent to which that air is saturated with water vapor.” (Wikipedia)
I believe God created Creation to include certain fundamental laws of chemistry, physics, geology and other sciences. These laws govern when and where it will rain, sleet or snow. The study of plate tectonics and vulcanology help us understand earthquakes, tidal waves, etc. I believe Jesus reminds us that no one, neither the righteous nor the unrighteous can transcend the laws God created to govern Creation.
I admit that I strongly prefer precipitation to come in liquid form rather than solid form, Rain is better than either sleet or snow. ‘Normal’ rainfall amounts are better than either the extreme of drought or flood. I do not believe God uses any of these phenomena to punish evil doing or evil doers. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Although, I admit that some days it seems like the unrighteous have stolen all the umbrellas . . . and the heavy coats.
Stay safe, thank God for Creation, trust God,
Pastor Ray