God and the Weather #6

The month of May will go down in history as producing the worst, the most devastating tornado since the early 1950's in Joplin, Missouri. Many lives were lost and much of the town was destroyed. In Oklahoma, that state experienced a superoutbreak of tornadoes as well. I followed many storm chasers live-streaming videos as they give commentary and close-up of tornadic cells including this one.

Here are some new sermons about storms and tornadoes:

• The Great I Am is with us - Haven Today Radio Program
• The Sovereignty of God in Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Floods, Tornados, Hurricanes, etc
• God send tornadoes
• The Tornado and God
• Tornado Myths Debunked
• Rebuild

Horrific as all this weather is, what is the God's view in the bible? So far as we read verses from Genesis to 2 Chronicles; we see the weather was used as a sign to hard-hearted people that their sin was great and God was judging them; we remember when Benaiah, a doer of good deeds, struck down his enemies on a day that snowed; we see it when there was a famine and it didn't rain because of King Saul's sin and the Israelites sin during King Ahab's time and lastly we see it when people repent, God sends the rain.

Now we turn to the bible below to continue to see what God's view of the weather. In the passages below, we see that the weather reflects God's wisdom and knowledge and mankind's ignorance in how the weather was created.

Ezra

• Heavy Rain

Nehemiah and Esther has no weather-related terms.

Job

• Rain
• Thunder
• Famine
• Snow
• Hail
• Wind
• Whirlwind
• Storm
• Clouds
• Lightning

God and the Weather #5

Tornado Update From The Associated Press: "Washington - Preliminary government estimates say there were more tornadoes in a single day last week than any other day in U.S. history. Government analysts said Monday there were 362 tornadoes during last week's outbreak, including a record-setting 312 in one 24-hour period. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the largest previous number on record in one event occurred from April 3-4, 1974, with 148 tornadoes. NOAA says 340 people were killed during the 24-hour-period from 8:00 am Wednesday to Thursday. It was the deadliest single day for tornadoes since the March 18, 1925, tornado outbreak that had 747 fatalities across 7 states."

What an amazing storm system that was! Thankfully, a lot of people are helping out the citizens of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee with food, water, clothing and money. Our church is collecting money to help people in Alabama and Georgia.

Pastor John MacArthur wrote several sermons that referenced to the weather over the last 40 years. Some of the references are about discernment, judgment, and the end times. Here are those sermons:

• The Failure to Discern the Times and the Threat
• The Destruction of Mankind
• The Story of the Calm
• Will the Church Go Through the Tribulation?

Today, we turn to 1&2 Samuel, here we found a few scriptural references to the weather in which the Lord uses with his people:

• Thunder and Rain
• Rain
• Snow
• Clouds
• Famine
• Lightning

Next, we look at 1&2 Kings, here are some more scriptural references:

• Wind
• Rain
• Famine #1
• Famine #2
• Wind and Rain
• Whirlwind

Lastly, we look at 1&2 Chronicles, here are those scriptural references:

• Rain
• Famine

God and the Weather #4

This last week will go down in the history books as the worst Superoutbreak of tornadoes since April 3-4, 1974. From April 26-28, tornadoes were spawned in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. Countless lives were lost to these storms. Many homes and businesses were devastated. On April 26th, 105 tornadoes were reported, on April 27th, 263 tornadoes were reported and on April 28th, 14 tornadoes were reported by the Storm Prediction Center.

At the beginning of the week, I had my first opportunity to do some storm spotting of local Texas weather since becoming an official Skywarn Storm Spotter back in March. Here are a few photos that I took in Teague, Texas.

Here is the video of the storm I took pictures of from above.

Here are some photo links from different websites from the April 26-28 storms:

• Fox News
• Boston.com
• ABC 33/40 TV Station
• Fox Channel 6

Here are some video links from different websites from the April 26-28 storms:

• April 26, 2011 Tornadoes! Ben Wheeler, TX
• April 27, 2011 Tornado Outbreak - Mississippi and Alabama
• 4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al
• Tornado Emergency - Live Broadcast - Tuscaloosa, AL - April 27, 2011
• Tornado Tuscaloosa AL
• 4/27/11 - Tuscaloosa Tornado
• Empire Alabama Tornado 4-27-11
• Jim Cantore in Tuscaloosa, AL - Tornado Aftermath
• Jim Cantore in Tuscaloosa, AL (part 2) - Tornado Aftermath
• See and hear deadly Alabama tornado
• Watch tornado cross the road
• April 27th, 2011 Enterprise, MS Tornado
• Storm chaser: Most violent I've seen
• 'Absolutely terrifying' video of tornado

Now we shift to what the bible says about God and the Weather. In all the scriptural references below, God relates to his people in a variety of ways:

• He guides his people in the way to go and he protects them from the heat
• He makes his presence is known to his people
• He provides food to his people
• If his people obeys his commands, God blesses them with rain, if they disobey his commands, God curses them with drought
• God destroys his enemies with hailstones 
• He causes his people to relocate because of famine.

In the book of Leviticus, there is no weather-related terms. In the book of Numbers we find that God related to His people through:

• Clouds
• Wind

In the book of Deuteronomy we find that God related to His people through:

• Rain
• Cloud

In the book of Joshua we find that God related to His people through:

• Hail

In the book of Judges , there is no weather-related terms. In the book of Ruth we find that God related to His people through:

• Famine