Go to Deuteronomy chapter 11.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 11.
And let me show you many other places in the Bible
where it tells us explicitly that God controls the weather
and God causes different weather systems
to happen on the earth.
Deuteronomy chapter 11, now it's not always bad.
In fact, it can also be good.
And let's look at a couple of good pictures here.
Deuteronomy chapter number 11, verse number 14,
that I will give you the rain of your land
in its due season, the first rain and the latter rain,
that thou mayest gather in thy corn
and thy wine and thine oil.
So God's talking about blessing the children of Israel
and what he wants to do for them.
And he says, I'll cause it to rain
in order to bless your harvest,
in order to bless your crops,
in order to bless your agriculture, excuse me,
to bless your economy.
Go to Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy chapter number 28.
Let's see another time where God says
he's gonna bless them with weather.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, look at verse number 12.
Now this is a very long chapter of the Bible,
and basically the first tiny section's
all about the blessings,
and then the majority latter half's
all about the cursings that God would pour out on people
based on their obedience to his commandments.
So in the first half, it's saying,
when you follow his commandments,
when you do that which is right,
when you're walking in his ways,
he says all the blessing's gonna give him.
Look at verse 12.
The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure,
the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season,
and to bless all the work of thine hand,
and thou shalt lend unto many nations,
and thou shalt not borrow.
Tell China that, all right?
No, I'm just kidding.
But notice what the Bible is saying,
that God has good treasure.
That good treasure is where?
It's in the clouds, and he's gonna open it up.
It's that rain that he pours, and in his season.
You want rain at a very specific time in a season
if you want it to bless your crops,
and God knows that, and God's gonna bless you
with rain in that season
if you're following his commandments.
Look at verse 15.
But it shall come to pass
if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes
which I command thee this day,
that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee.
So God then gives a list of all these different curses
that are gonna come upon them.
Look at verse 24.
The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust.
From heaven shall it come down upon thee
until thou be destroyed.
God's saying, when you break my commandments,
when you're wicked, there's gonna be a curse upon you,
and it's not gonna rain water.
It's not gonna be that good treasure.
Rather, it's gonna be a drought,
and so it's just gonna be dust.
It's just gonna be dirt.
That's the type of rain that's gonna be coming upon you,
and it's going to destroy you.
Now go over to Psalms 107, Psalms chapter 107.
That's in the law, but in fact, throughout the entire Bible,
we see this picture of God commanding the weather,
of God organizing and utilizing weather to his benefit
for his will and his purposes.
Look at Psalms 107, verse 25.
Psalms 107, verse 25, the Bible says,
for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind.
Now, let me ask this question.
Why is it that there was a stormy wind in verse 25?
Because God commanded.
Notice God is still giving commands.
God is still directing certain things,
and when God commands the stormy wind, what happens?
It lifts up the waves thereof.
It says in verse 26, they mount up to the heaven.
They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wits end.
Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distress.
This is verse 29.
He maketh the storm a calm,
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet,
so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
So we see the Bible saying God can control the weather.
God, just by his commandment, can cause it to storm.
By his commandment, he can cause it to be calm.
Now, you know what this story makes me think of?
Because it's a picture-perfect example of what?
Go to Matthew, chapter number eight.
The Bible says in Psalms 148,
fire and hail, snow and vapors,
stormy wind fulfilling his word.
The Bible gives a whole list
of all different types of weather.
It says the fire, the hail, the snow, the vapors,
the stormy wind, they're all fulfilling God's word.
Now, we see God manifest in the flesh on this earth,
and what kind of power, what kind of authority
does he have over his creation?
Well, look at Matthew, chapter eight, verse 24.
And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea,
and so much that the ship was covered with the waves,
but he was asleep talking of Jesus Christ.
And his disciples came to him and woke him,
saying, Lord, save us, we perish.
And he said to them, why are you fearful,
O ye of little faith?
Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was a great calm.
But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this,
that even the winds and the sea obey him?
Notice that the winds obeyed Jesus Christ
while he was on this earth.
And that picture we had in Psalms 107,
isn't that a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ,
how in the stormy winds he can just speak,
and it goes to a calm.
Go to Nahum, chapter one, Nahum, chapter number one.
Jonah, chapter one, let's think about Jonah.
Verse four, I'll read for you.
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,
and there was a mighty tempest in the sea,
so that the ship was like to be broken.
We always think about the fact that God sent a whale,
but you know what he sent first was a great wind.
He first sent a storm, and that's what caused
all the people on the boat to freak out,
and caused them to wanna throw Jonah into the sea, okay?
And this is what happens.
Whenever you're godly, whenever you're righteous,
there's gonna be the storms of life,
and those that are not saved freak out.
And they're like, just kill them, just get rid of them.
And guess who they blame?
All the storms on Jonah, right?
And obviously it is his fault,
we understand that from the story,
but the wicked are always gonna blame the righteous
for everything bad that happens to them.
They're always gonna look at Jesus,
it's Jesus' fault that all these bad things are happening.
It's Christianity.
If we got rid of all the Christian morals in this nation,
we'd be so much better off, you know?
We just got rid of that Bible,
and all the hate that comes from the Bible,
and all these different things.
But what we have to understand is it's them
that are causing the problems often cases,
and it was because of Jonah's disobedience
that actually brought that type of trouble,
that type of evil upon them.
It was not from being righteous.
It was not from doing that which is godly.
It's when people turn away from God,
it's when people aren't serving God,
that the storms of life come sent from God on purpose.
Jonah was in rebellion to God, and what did God do?
He sent a storm after him, didn't he?
Oh, but that would never happen in the New Testament.
That would never happen, oh, it does happen.
And it will happen.
Now look at Nahum chapter one, verse three,
the Bible says, the Lord is slow to anger.
And I think because of that phrase right there
is why people don't get this.
They would expect that if you say something bad about God,
immediate lightning strike, and I would love that.
I'd love our protester out here, he blasphemes God
in just an immediate lightning strike, and he dies.
Now we don't have him, I don't know where he went,
maybe he died and went to hell, hopefully, but,
he'll probably be back, that was too easy, okay.
Anyways, I would like to see something
more dramatic anyways, a pitfall into hell or something.
But, what you have to understand is God is slow to anger,
but that does not mean he will not judge.
He will bring his judge, the problem is his judgments
are like a hammer, and it says, and great in power,
and will not at all acquit the wicked.
You gotta couple that with the long suffering.
Did he say that the wicked are gonna get away?
No, he'll never acquit the wicked.
You're not gonna get away with anything.
No one ever gets away.
God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
You wanna get away with your sin, get saved, okay.
You won't go to hell, but then on top of that,
if you don't wanna get punished on this earth,
you better confess and forsake that sin,
because God is not gonna acquit wicked sin.
Now, let's keep reading this verse.
The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Notice how he describes how the weather works.
He's saying the clouds are like the dust,
I just run, and then basically I create clouds,
just with the dust of my feet.
He says he has his way in the whirlwind.
So who's in control of these things?
Who's causing these things?
Where are they coming from?
I mean, the Bible's super clear, actually.