God and the Weather #7

The State of Texas is currently experiencing the 3rd worst drought on record. John Nielsen-Gammon, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, who also serves as state climatologist, says that at least 50 percent of the state is designated as being in an “exceptional drought,” the highest level, and many parts of Texas are anywhere from 10 to 20 inches behind in rainfall. Some parts of the state have received less than six inches of rain since last summer and some of the state’s lakes are 30 to 40 feet below normal lake levels. “People keep asking if this is the worst drought in the history of Texas, and the answer is not yet,” Nielsen-Gammon explains. “The years 1918 and 1956 were worse, but of the 20 worst May droughts in Texas history, we currently rank third.” Reliable record keeping began in Texas in 1895, he points out.

Here in Bryan/College Station, God has blessed us with two evenings of thundershowers this last week. The weather almanac at KBTX television station said we receive less than .40 inches of rain total. Not much, but it is better than nothing. These thundershowers were unique because those clouds moved east to west over the sky instead of the common west to east in the northern hemisphere. The clouds in the southern hemisphere like in Argentina moves from east to the west. A good example of this was made by Discovery Channel and Tornadovideos.net.

Elihu in the Book of Job in the bible said many things about the nature of God and God's ways of doing things towards Job that relates to weather. Here are some of the things Elihu said about God and questions that Elihu asked Job to ponder.

• Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises. Job 36:26-33
• Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it. Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens. From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancings or hoverings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge, you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? Job 37:2-17

God himself spoke to Job in a whirlwind. God challenged Job's pride and arrogance that he can questioned God's nature and God's counsel because of the circumstances and sufferings that Job faced throughout the Book of Job. These questions by God are designed to put Job back in his place, to shut his mouth and to humble himself before God.  Here are the questions God said to Job:

• “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass? “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together? Job 38:22-30, 34-35, 37-38

In the end of the Book of Job, the Lord blessed Job and restored his wealth, his extended family showed him sympathy and comforted Job because of all the disasters that the Lord had brought upon him. The Lord blessed him with 10 additional children which those children borne his grandchildren and then his great grandchildren of which he saw with his own eyes. And Job died, an old man, and full of days.