Let's Talk About The Weather

Let’s Talk about the Weather

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

SCRIPTURE: - Genesis 8:2 says, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease”.

Job 37:9–14 says, “Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: And cold out of the north. By the breath of God frost is given: And the breadth of the waters is straitened. Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: He scattereth his bright cloud: And it is turned round about by his counsels: That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them Upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, Or for his land, or for mercy. Hearken unto this, O Job: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God”.

PRAYER: -

OPENING: Weather can be devastating in a moment, it can totally interrupt and even change the lives of multitudes of people, whether it is by loss of power, loss of possessions, or loss of loved ones.

When this happens the Question becomes: How could a good God allow such terrible weather that takes the life of the innocent to happen.

In our text from Job 37:9-14, the oldest book in the Bible we see three reasons why God “commandeth” the weather to do what it does. (1) for correction; (2) for the land; and (3) for mercy. We may try to offer a comforting answer like He takes the innocent home to avoid problems on earth. Although that is not always the case it does bring some comfort. Other times He uses the weather to bring correction and judgment to the wicked. And sometimes the weather is sent to take care of the land, like rain to water the crops and snow to cover the ground and protect it from a deep freeze.

According to the Weather Channel and numerous articles from Meteorologist from around the country, there have truly been a lot of strange weather events in the first 8 months of 2023. This included major smoke episodes, drought-to-flood whiplash and early Atlantic tropical activity. There have also been some weird tornadoes and global tropical cyclones.

Some of these weather events were strange for where or when they occurred. Others were just plain weird. January 2023 reported the third most confirmed tornadoes since 1950. During a month more notorious for major East Coast snowstorms, an EF2 tornado tore through parts of central New Jersey on February 21, only the fifth February tornado in the Garden State since 1950. On April Fools' Day, Delaware's widest tornado, only the state's second F/EF3 on record, tore through parts of Sussex County. Its ghostly white appearance was also accompanied by a rainbow. The Northeast which is known for its snowfall in the winter had hardly any measurable amounts of snow, New York measured around 2.3 inches in February according to Weather Sources.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy formed south of Indonesia on February 6, embarking on a month-plus pilgrimage that would prove catastrophic in one country and would rewrite the global tropical cyclone history books.

Freddy made landfall in Madagascar just over two weeks later, then in Mozambique on February 24, however, that still wasn't all. Its remnant double-backed over its previous path and became a tropical storm again over the Mozambique Channel on March 4. It spent a week over that body of water before making its second Mozambique landfall, then moving into Malawi. Freddy dumped six months' worth of rain in the east African country of Malawi, where over 500,000 residents were displaced and over 500 were killed, according to the U.N. World Food Program. This Tropical Cyclone may have set a record for the globe's longest lasting tropical cyclone.

Maui was devastated by wildfires that was the cause of weather, it was reported that the wildfires were fueled by Hurricane Dora offshore. California was hit by a Tropical storm for the first time in 84 years, then during the storm a 5.2 earthquake hits as well.

Canada has had wildfires burning for some time now fueled by the weather, then I saw on CNN the other day Greece is struggling with wildfires that are even approaching the Historic City of Athens. Then just this past Thursday August 24th, my birthday, 7 tornadoes touched down in Michigan during the storm.

Wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, snow, tornadoes, what’s going on?

While working on this message earlier this week and watching the news it was stated that 22 states from the Midwest to the Northeast are experiencing extremely high temperatures many of them well into the triple digits with numbers like 115, 113, 117 degrees.

I truly believe God is trying to tell us something and He is using the weather as a means to get people’s attention warning us that time is running out. It is a warning signal for people to repent and turn from their wicked ways.