I have lived in places where tornados frequently descend, but I’ve never been in a tornado. I have never lived in a place where hurricanes or typhoons destroy and kill. But all of us here tonight know what power even smallish winds can reveal. Some of us were without electrical power last night. Some of us lost trees or other things around our homes. Some of us had property damage – some more and some less. At least two people died in yesterday’s storm – they were all killed by falling trees. Sometimes in such storms such, people die through contact with fallen electrical lines. While storms excite some people, others, especially little ones, can be terrified.
Our daughter, Jackie, texted that they lost power at about 2:00 yesterday. And that when Sahalie got home she was in tears from fear – she had never experienced such force. But she and her mother got down and began to pray, and when they finished, Sahalie was feeling much better. And with that I’d like to begin this evening. This morning I tossed aside the message I had prepared, and I began to gather a few scriptures which speak about God’s power in the storm. I don’t have much of a sermon for you tonight, and I invite your interruption and comments. Feel free to raise your hand and share your thoughts. Let’s consider briefly, and thankfully, God’s power in the wind and in the storm.
What is Jehovah’s relationship to the wind?
He created all the things which combine to give us weather – whether good or bad. And He controls every puff of wind – its strength and its direction – “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” As II Samuel 22:11 and Psalm 18:10 poetically declare – “God rides upon the wings of the wind.” The example is a poor one, but when I ride in a car, I either control it or I ride with someone I trust. The Lord rides upon the winds in the sense that it is His chariot, and it goes where He tells it to go. And when God wants that wind to go quickly, or slowly, the winds obey His will. When the Son of God commands the winds to stop, as He did on the Sea of Galilee, they do so immediately.
Psalm 107:21-31 – “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Jeremiah 51:15 – The Lord “hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his word, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.”
A few years ago, at our other house, a much less severe wind blew down a blue spruce in our front yard. Graciously, the Lord let it drop towards the street and away from any houses or cars. Others may say that was a really nice coincident, but I call it the grace of God. Yesterday, a much larger spruce was pushed over in the Stewart’s front yard. As I understand it, Tami was in the van right beside it, but the tree didn’t fall on her. At the same time, the kids were in the front room of the house, but the tree didn’t fall on the house. Nor did it fall on the fence, or on other trees, creating a domino effect. The Lord placed that tree in the only spot where the damage would be relatively small. Jackie said the same sort of thing about trees which were driven down in their yard. They fell as if the Lord used an engineer to pick the most beneficial spot to drop it. As I was working on the message which I am not preaching this evening, out of the corner of my eye, I could see what the wind was doing in my neighbor’s back yard. From that vantage point, it was impossible to tell from what direction the wind was blowing. The leaves were flying in every direction, and the branches of the trees were twisting and turning as if they were on swivels. Ecclesiastes 1:6 – “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.” But those circuits are controlled by Jehovah – “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
But what about the people who died yesterday in that storm? The only thing I can say is the Lord was in control of those people and those trees which fell on them. I saw an interview with a woman whose car was crushed by a tree, in which she was sitting. She escaped without a scratch, and I heard her praise Christ Jesus for her deliverance. I will grant that the Lord sometimes gives the Prince of the Power of the Air momentary power over the wind, as when he used the wind to blow down the house of Job’s son, but it was with God’s permission. I cannot explain the will of God, but in the case of Job’s children, there was an higher purpose.
Psalm 147 – “Praise ye the Lord; for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is comely. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth; his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool; he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He sendeth out his word… he causeth his wind to blower, and the waters flow.”
What does God do with His sovereign will over the wind and storm?
Sometimes the wind, even the strong wind can bring a blessing. Genesis 8:1 – “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.” Despite the fact that many people will take advantage of yesterday’s damage to make themselves rich, there will be others like Darren, who without raising their rates, will be blessed financially by the storm. Those winds may have blown away some debts and problems of various people.
Sometimes the wind and the storm are a form of divine judgment. Exodus 10:13 – ” Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.” There can be no doubt that tree in the Stewart’s yard is going to be a problem for weeks. And there has been some damage to the house, although not as severe as it might have been. You could say that the Lord sent a plague of locusts upon them. But look what the locusts eventually did for Israel. Who knows what blessings there will be from yesterday’s excitement. Exodus 10:19 – “And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.” Jokingly, Brother Bill mentioned that the Stewarts will have firewood for a long, long time.
Exodus 14:21 – “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.” The Lord used the wind to pave a way of escape for Israel out of Egypt, blessed be the name of the Lord. The wind brought quail into the camp of Israel during the wilderness. Was that a blessing or a curse? Numbers 11:31 – “And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.”
Sometimes the Lord uses the wind to direct His saints. Jonah 1:4 – “But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.” Would Jonah have gone to Ninevah if it had not been for the wind and storm in the Mediterranean? And what about that same storm years later which drove Paul onto the shores of Melita? If it had not been for that storm Paul’s eventual reception in Rome may have been different.
The lessons which the Lord can teach through the wind might be varied and personal – with a different message for every recipient. Jesus used the wind to speak to Nicodemus – “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Later the Lord rebuked the faithlessness of the disciples as He rebuked the wind, saying unto them, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” Perhaps the lesson wasn’t fully learned, but at least the disciples were beginning to look in the right direction – “The men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”
How should we respond to yesterday’s storm? Perhaps Matthew 7 would be our best reply. ‘Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” Is your faith and your soul grounded upon the rock? Or are your emotions, your doctrines, and your faith twisting and turning with every change in the wind?