Job 37:13
'He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy'.
Last week we started looking at these words spoken to Job by Elihu, a younger man who had listened to Job and his friends speak of the terrible time Job was going through and has now been giving his thoughts.
The 'He' in this verse is speaking of God and the 'it' is his creation and control over the weather.
We had reflected on whether we really believe that God concerns himself with every minute aspect of our daily weather and then briefly touched on how this applies to our circumstances.
Today, we take a closer look at this verse.
Firstly then, 'he causeth it to come...for correction'.
My study Bible suggests 'correction' is meaning a 'literal rod'. So we might think of a rod - in this case the weather - being used by God as punishment.
My mind goes to:
God told the Israelites when they were going into the Promised Land of Canaan that he was giving them a land of hills and valleys which God would watch over from the year's beginning to end - that if they loved him they would enjoy the plentiful rains and harvests in their season and they would have plenty to eat and enjoy (Deuteronomy 11:11-15).
But, he warned them that if they stopped worshipping and serving him his anger would be aroused and they would know it from the absence of rain and consequent famine (Deuteronomy 11:17).
So when calamities occur from the weather in our nation should we not view them as a speaking voice from God - God who controls the weather and is showing us that our nation is rebelling against and rejecting him?
But even in this we see the mercy here - that God is giving us warnings and signs, telling us to repent and turn to him, before that day comes when he will burn the world and all the ungodly with fire (2 Peter 3:7).
We also see the mercy in the accounts above, that God preserved the lives of his chosen people:
But does this suggestion that God may use the weather for correction, as a rod, fill our hearts with annoyance dear reader?
Do we think it is unkind and our heart resists the thought that God punishes?
Perhaps we want to believe that there are no consequences for how we live our lives.
We want to believe that the God of the Old Testament who did these scary things is now the God of the New Testament - a God of love who will take us all to heaven.
Dear, dear reader, if these are our thoughts and feelings, let us remember that God says, 'I am the LORD, I change not' (Malachi 3:6); and we are told of Jesus, the Son of God, God made known in human form, '...the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever' (Hebrews 13:8).
Listen to this!
It is because God doesn't change that we are still here today!
It is because he doesn't change, because he is still a patient, longsuffering, merciful and loving God that we haven't all been totally destroyed already!
Because dear reader we constantly break the rules he has made. We constantly ignore him - and even worse - we reject the way of salvation that he in love made - sending his beloved Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life for us and to bear the punishment for all God's wrath for our sins in death.
Does this still puzzle you, you don't understand why you should be called a sinner, why you should need a way of salvation?
Dear friend, ask God to show you why you need him and to teach you of himself. Read about him in the Bible and ask God to help you understand it.
He knows all your thoughts, your feelings and that right now you are reading this.
God hears all our prayers to him and will answer when we really mean it - and this genuine heart that really wants to know him, he gives you! It all comes from him - he is so kind.
Well, I didn't expect to write that today... what was initially in my thoughts was how we as believers and followers of Jesus are to understand these correcting signs of God through the weather.
Are we to believe that God is punishing us too?
Dear believer - all of your sins have been punished in Jesus.
When God looks at you he cannot see your sins - they are cast behind his back (Isaiah 38:17), they are cast 'into the depths of the sea' (Micah 7:19), they are as far from you as the 'east is from the west' (Psalm 103:12).
Why then has this weather ruined your plans? Or why has this event/illness/etc which has the dampening affect of a rainy day, or the scorching heat of an over hot sun, or the freezing cold of a blizzard come into your life?
Well let us think of it in the context of Psalm 23:4:
'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me'.
Maybe we are in the middle of a thunderstorm right now, either literally or figuratively; we feel as if we are going through a dark valley with the shadow of death on it - but David, the Psalmist here, says the rod is a comfort to him! How are we to understand this?
I have turned to J. Douglas MacMillan, a Scottish preacher, who spent 12 years of his life as a shepherd and spoke beautifully of how a shepherd and sheep speaks of Jesus, the Chief Shepherd, and Christian people.
He conceded that he could not comment on the Eastern shepherd ways of working with sheep, but in his experience every shepherd would ALWAYS carry a shepherd's crook, which could be used as a staff to pick up the little lambs, or hook a sheep out of trouble, or hook up the wool to look underneath for scabs and ticks. The crook was used to help the sheep.
But then it could also be used as a rod to either protect and defend the sheep, or sometimes to correct them - a correction which we sheep will need. But, the comfort is that the correcting rod is in that same hand of that same Shepherd who also gives help and protection. That hand using the correcting rod is using it in love. Love for the welfare of his sheep. Love as a Father corrects his son (Hebrews 12:6), that he might grow in grace and become more like him.
So, dear reader, is there a cloud over your sun today? Is something marring your joy?
Perhaps it has been sent by your loving Heavenly Father to correct you in some way. To draw your attention to yourself and to him. To cause you to examine yourself and see if you have in some way grieved him.
But be comforted, that it is in your Father's hand.
To be continued in Part 3.
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