Heaven And Earth Series

Weather! It’s everywhere, amen? Duh … pretty obvious. We’re surrounded by it. No matter where you go, you’ll encounter … weather … and it has a pretty big impact on our lives. We wake up in the morning and look out the window or turn on the radio or TV or go on our computers and look up the day’s forecast. Is it going to be sunny … cloudy … hot … warm … cold … is it going to rain or snow … and then we plan our day accordingly … what should I wear, am I going to get to work in the yard today, walk around the lake, ride my motorcycle.

Weather is all around us and it is changing all the time … whether we’re awake or asleep … and it has a major impact on our lives. Sunny days are beautiful … unless you have too many days in a row without rain. Every living thing needs water to survive but too much rain can be devastating as we were recently reminded, amen? A cool gentle breeze is nice but a hurricane or a tornado can be deadly.

And so, like our ancient ancestors, we keep an eye on the sky … whether it is with our naked eye or with a ring of weather satellites. And because the weather involves the atmosphere above us, our ancient ancestors assumed that the weather was under the prevue or control of the gods. They saw the weather as an expression of the gods’ moods. When the gods were pleased, then all was pleasant but if the gods were unhappy, they would express their anger or displeasure with violent flashes of lightening and terrifying crashing of thunder. Like the moods of the gods, the weather could change in a split second. And like the gods, the weather could be frightening in its is power and its violence.

We find plenty of examples of this in the Bible. When YAHWEH looked down on the earth and saw “that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually [and] the LORD was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth” (Genesis 6:5-6), how did God expresses His disappointment and displeasure? Rain! Lots and lots and lots of rain, amen? And when God’s anger had subsided and the rain stopped and the flood waters receded and dried up, God made a covenant with us promising never to flood the earth again and He placed the symbol of His promise where? In the clouds. “When I bring clouds over the earth and the [rainbow] is seen in the clouds,” says God, “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 8:14-15).

Listen to what the Israelites saw and heard when they gathered at Mt. Sinai in the wilderness after their dramatic escape from bondage in Egypt:

“Have [the people] wash their clothes, and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. … On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. … They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire … As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder” (Exodus 19:11, 16-17, 18-19).

It is important to see the connection here between Heaven and earth. God descends to the top of Mount Sinai and Moses climbs to the top of the mountain to convene with God. Mountains were seen as a connection between Heaven and earth and weather was seen as Heaven’s way of communicating and interacting with the earth. God would express Himself in terms of thunder and lightning, wind and rain. He would punish the earth with floods and droughts and then display His promise of mercy with a rainbow.

Ever the skillful poet, David uses the force and power of nature to paint a vivid picture of the relationship between Heaven and earth, between all of His creatures, Heavenly and mortal, in Psalm 29. David describes God as a conquering king returning home from a victorious battle. The language, the image of God, that David creates was one of the “Storm God” … a common poetic and literary image in David’s time, given, as we have talked about, the connection between Heaven and earth and the gods’ uses of weather as a way of expressing themselves. “The speaker in the psalm is an official in the heavenly court who sees the victorious Lord returning from battle and commands the assembly to bow down and recognize the supremacy of the returning victor” (Clifford, R.J. Psalms 1-72. In Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Nashville: Abington Press, 2002, p. 154). The poem is a celebration and an acknowledgement of God’s power and authority over Heaven and earth and over all of His creation.