SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - Weather & Climate in the Bible
God as Creator or the weather and all its phenomenon
Ps 135:7
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and bring out the wind from his storehouses.
Ps 147:8
He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.
Ps 147:16-18
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes 17 He hurls down hail like crumbs – who can stand before his cold? 18 … He makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
Ps 148:3-8
Praise him, sun and moon … 4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of he LORD, for he commanded and they were created. 6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds which cannot the passed. 7 Praise the LORD from the earth, … all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!
Jb 37:10
By the breath of God frost is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast
- Strong, very repeated and unanimous declaration of God to be the creator, of all, and also of all things pertaining to weather: wind, clouds, lightnings, snow, frost, hail, rain
- Acknowledgment of the connectedness of all weather phenomenon
- Acknowledgment of the importance of weather for vegetation, fertility, provision
- Sun and moon are mentioned in the same breath as water and weather phenomenon. This link is now understood in science.
Am 4:13
For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind
- Here mountains and wind are linked. Mountains as one factor in wind creation:
- Radiation of sun on different terrain producing heat-cold differences, which in turn produces local wind systems.
- Mountains as natural barrier, ascending humid air producing rains
Respect for God and his power over weather
Pr 30:4
Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of the hand? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Jb 38:22
Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail? … 24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? 25 Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, 26 to bring rain … to satisfy the waste and desolate land; and to make the ground put forth grass. 28 Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
Jb 36:27
For he draws up the drops of water; he distills his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? See, he scatters his lighting around him and covers the roots of the sea.
Jb 37:6-7
For to snow he says: ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain, serves as a sign on everyone’s hand so that all whom he has made may know it.
Je 14:22
Can any idols of the Gentiles cause rain? Or can the heavens give shower? Is it not you, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this.
- God is extolled as the powerful Creator, who needs to be feared.
- But also: the weather doesn’t function on its own, it is dependent on a sustaining Creator.
- God is contrasted to powerless idols or gods.
God maintains the weather as general grace on all
Ge 8:22
While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Jb 5:10
He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields
Mt 5:45
God makes sun rise on evil and good, rain on just and unjust
- Though God can and does make special interventions (miracles), he usually runs the earth by the put in place natural law, also pertaining to weather.
- The grace of God sustaining creation, weather, land fertility and therefore provision is give to all, whether they acknowledge him or not.
God's power over weather in general, his power to intervene
Je 10:13, 51:16
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings out the wind from his storehouse.
Ps 74:17
You have fixed all he bounds of the earth: you made summer and winter.
Na 1:3
His way is in the whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry and he dries up all the rivers … the bloom fades. The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt
- Weather and weather systems and the natural laws they run are set in place by God the Creator and sustained by him.
- But God can also make interventions into the normal weather run by natural laws – the supernatural God capable to intervene in his ordained nature.
Ps 107:23-31 Navigators crying out to God:
Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters; 24 they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. 25 For he commanded and raised up the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea … 26 their courage melted away in the calamity; … 27 they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble … 29 he made the storm be still; and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought the to their desired haven. 31 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
Mt 14:24-32, Mk 4:37-41, 6:48-51, Lu 8:23-24, Jn 6:18
- The Power over creation that is ascribed to God in the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed as equally held by Jesus: power over storms, the wind obeying his command.
God has linked weather to obedience & disobedience
Le 26:3-5 if you obey > favorable weather
If you … keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, 4 I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the filed shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall overtake the vintage .. and you will live securely in your land.
De 28:2-12 if you obey > favorable weather
if you obey the LORD your God: 3 Blessed shall you be … 11 The LORD will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground in the land … 12 The LORD will open for you his rich store house the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings.
De 11:13-17 if you obey > favorable / if you disobey > unfavorable
if you will only heed his every commandment … loving the LORD your God, and serving him with all your heart … 14 then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, and you will father in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 15 and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. 16 Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods … 17 for then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.
De 28:15-24 if you disobey > unfavorable weather
But if you will not obey the LORD your God … 16 Cursed shall you be … 22 The LORD will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you. 24 The LORD will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.
1 Ki 8:35-39, 2 Ch 6:26-31 Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication
When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin, … 36 then hear in heave and forgive them the sin … and grant rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. 37 If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar … 38 whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual of from all your people Israel … 39 forgive, act and render to all whose hearts you know
2 Ch 7:12-3 God reconfirming to Solomon: repentance option
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer; and have chosen this place …. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- The central theme of the OT: God labors to explain to his humans what happens and why it happens. He teaches us cause and effect.
- He also teaches the importance of human choice: even something like weather, climate and land fertility has to do with what the humans living on a piece of land are doing: they way they act will make all the difference.
- If they acknowledge God, trust in his goodness, look at this land as a gift and opportunity from God, work hard and are godly, God’s blessing is sure to flow.
Ps 84:6
As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of spring; the early rain also covers it with pools.
- Notice the combination: they make it a place of spring, God gives the rain!
He 6:7-8
Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God 9 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.
- The author of Hebrews uses ‘ground’ as a metaphor here: We are blessed by God, we need to be a blessing. Fruitfulness as a promise – and a demand.
God uses the weather as a blessing
Ge 2:5 God had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth.
Ge 8:2 Flood: God closes fountains of the deep, windows of heavens
Ge 8:1 God remembers Noah, makes a wind blow, the waters subside
Ex 9:33 -34 God stops thunder & hail of the 7th plague by the word of Moses
Ex 10:9 God gives a wind to remove locusts of the 8th plague from Egypt
Ex 14:21, 15:10 God sends a wind to part the Red sea and dry up the ground
Nu 11:31 God sends a wind to bring the quails to Israel demanding meat
1 Ki 18:45 Elijah & Ahab’s time: God brings a rain after the 3 year famine
Jo 1:4 God sends a storm to bring Jonah’s boat into trouble
Jon 4:8 God sends a hot wind to kills Jonah’s plant, to speak to him.
2 Ki 3:17 Elisha predicts a miracle of water which helps Israel in a war
Ps 68:9 God restoring his heritage when it languished by abundant rain
Is 30:23 Promise of redemption: God will give rain, bread, increase
Ho 6:3 God will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain to the earth
Ho 13:15 God fed Israel in the wilderness, in the land of drought
Jl 2:23 Rejoice, God has given you the former and latter rain
Zc 10:1 Ask rain from the LORD, who gives showers of rain to you
Ac 14:17 God didn’t leave himself without witness: he did good, gave rain
Jm 5:18 Elijah prayed again and the heaven gave rain, the earth fruit
God will give the appropriate weather in due season
Le 26:4 I will give you rain in due season, land shall yield increase
De 11:14 He will give the rain for your land in its season, early, latter rain
Ec 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter
Je 33:20 If you can break my covenant with the day, night, that there
should not be day and night at their appointed time
Ez 34:26 I will send down the showers of blessing in their season
But weather does naturally vary
Ge 12:10, 26:1, 42:5, 42:19, 42:33, 43:1, 47:4, 47:13 famine in Canaan
Ge 41:27, 41:30-31, 41:36, 41:50, 45:6, 45:11, 47:20 famine in Egypt
Ge 41:56-57 famine in many countries around 1880 BC
Lu 15:14 Parable of prodigal son: famine breaks out in land > hunger
Mt 24:20, Mk 13:18 pray that flight from Jerusalem will not be in winter
God uses weather as a judgment
Ge 7:4 God’s judgment on earth: 40 day rain, flood. Noah’s time.
Jb 1:19 A great wind destroying Job’s house and killing his children
Ex 9:18 God’s judgment on Egypt: threatens hail (7th plague) 1446 BC
Ex 9:18-19,22-26,28-29,33-34, 10:5,12,15, Ps 78:47-48,105:32 Hail (7th plague)
Ex 10:13 God’s judgment on Egypt: Locusts (8th plague) 1446 BC
Ps 105:16 God’s judgment on Egypt: famine (due to plagues) 1446 BC
De 32:24 God’s judgment: hunger, burning heat, destruction, beasts
Ru 1:1 God’s judgment: famine in Israel during the Judges 1300 BC
1 Sa 12:17-18 Samuel calls for thunder & rain to show Israel their sin 1100 BC
2Sa 21:1,1Ch 21:12 famine of 3 years during David’s reign (Gibeonites) 1000 BC
2 Sa 24:13 7 year famine as punishment offered for census 1000 BC
1 Ki 17:1,7, 18:2, Lu 4:25, Jm 5:17 God’s judgment on Israel: 3½y famine. Elijah & Ahab 860 BC
2 Ki 6:25, 7:4 God’s judgment on Israel: famine (siege by Arameans) 850 BC
2 Ki 8:1 Elisha tells woman to leave Israel: God called for famine 850 BC
Ps 48:7 God’s judgment: east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish
Ps 78:26 God giving up crops to caterpillar, locust, hail, frost, thunderbolts
Is 11:15 God’s judgment on Egypt: scorching wind will dry up delta, Nile
Ho 4:19 God’s judgment: wind wraps Israel in its wings
Am 4:7-8 God’s judgment on Israel: withheld rain, no repentance 760 BC
Is 5:6 God: I will lay it waste, no pruning, I will command: no rain
Je 4:11-12 God’s judgment on Judah: hot wind, causing destruction
Je 36:30 God’s judgment on Jehoiakim: his corpse exposed to heat, frost
Ez 13:11,13 God’s judgment on false prophets: rain, hail, wind breaks wall
Ez 17:10, 19:12 God’s judgment on Judah: East wind (metaphorical)
Ez 27:26 God’s judgment on Tyre: Ships wrecked by East wind
Ez 38:22 God’s judgment on Gog: God will send rain, hailstones, fire
2 Ch 32:11 Babylonians threaten siege & famine, Hezekiah’s time 710 BC
Je 5:12 Judah thinking itself safe: neither shall we see sword nor famine
Je 3:3 Showers, rain has been withheld, but you refuse to be ashamed
Je 5:24 They don’t fear God, who gives former and latter rain
Je 14:4 Because no rain in the earth, the plowmen cover their heads
Je 27:8 God’s judgment on nations not surrendering to Babylon 600 BC
Je 14:13, 14:15 false prophets predicting no sword, no famine, peace 600 BC
2 Ki 25:3, Is 51:19, Je 11:22, 14:12, 14:16, 14:18, 15:2, 16:4, 18:21, 21:7, 21:9, 24:10, 27:13, 29:17, 29:18, 32:24, 32:36, 34:17, 38:2, 42:16-17, 42:22, 44:12-13, 44:18, 44:27, 52:6. Ez 5:12, 5:16-17, 6:11-12, 7:15-16, 14:21, La 5:10
God’s judgment on Judah by Babylon: sword, famine 586 BC
Is 14:30, Je 50:38 God’s judgment on Babylon: drought upon her waters 539 BC
Hg 1:11, 2:17 God’s judgment (partial): drought, blight, mildew, hail
Re 8:7 God’s judgment (partial): hail, fire mingled with blood
Re 11:6 God’s witnesses have power to shut heaven, so it might not rain
Re 16:9,21,18:8 God’s judgment (final) on evil men: heat, hail, plagues, famine
2 Pe 3:10,12, God’s final judgment: elements shall melt with heat, burned up
God's protection & sustenance for his own in adverse circumstances
De 8:15, Hos 13:5 God fed you in the land of drought, made water from rock
Is 4:6 Promise of blessing for survivors: shelter from storm and rain
Is 58:11 God will satisfy your soul in drought … you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Ps 1:1, Je 17:8 The god-fearing shall be as tree planted by waters, will have green
leaves even in year of drought, no cease to bear fruit
Jb 5:20,22, Ps 33:19,37:19, Ez 36:29-30 God redeems from famine, death, war
Ro 8:35 Nothing can separate us from love of God: persecution, famine
Re 7:1 4 angels hold back the 4 winds of the earth until church sealed
God teaches Israel about the land's specific climate
De 11:8-12
Keep, then, this entire commandment … 9 and so that you may live long in the land … a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt … where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. 11 But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, 12 a land that the LORD your God looks after. The eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
- God instructs Israel in a detailed way about the nature of the land they are moving into, including its climate.
- Egypt was and is a river-dependent, rich soil, irrigation agriculture, producing wheat (Ge 41:46-49) and here called a vegetable garden. Egypt’s climate is one of virtually no rain, but all-year-round river water (the head of the Nile is in the rain-rich tropical area)
- Israel on the other hand was mostly a hilly land (with some mountains and some plains), with thinner top soil, a bit a more difficult agriculture (often terracing was required), but including forests. Israel got all of its rain from the West wind bringing humid air, being forced to ascend, cooling down and raining out as a result. Both the hilly land on the West and the East of the Jordan got rains. The Jordan, being fed by the higher mountains of Lebanon and Sirion, has water all year (Je 18:14), but is much smaller than the Nile and reaches a much smaller area.
- Israel, therefore, has to continually depend on God for the needed rains. Which God will gladly and generously give (De 11:12), unless major disobedience and callousness on the part of Israel forces his hand otherwise (De 11:16-17).
De 8:7-9
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills. 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing
- God points out that besides direct rain, there are streams, springs and underground waters. The rain feeds many aquifers in the mountains, that then release their water slowly in filtered-clean springs.
- The reference to underground waters is important also, already in Abraham’s time digging for wells reaching into (sometimes far away rain fed) aquifers sustained life in more arid areas (Ge 26:12-22).
- The importance of water was brought home to Israel painfully during their years in the wilderness, where their demand for more water became an issue of sin both for Israel and Moses (Ex 15:22-26, 17:1-7, Nu 20:1-13) and an issue of contention with surrounding nations (Nu 20:18-21).
- God also indicates the crops idea for the land they are to inherit: wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees, honey
De 26:9
And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Canaan is repeatedly described as a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex 3:8, 3:17, 13:5, 33:3, Le 20:24, Nu 13:27, Nu 14:8, 16:14, De 6:3, 11:9, 26:9, 26:15, 27:3, 31:20, Jo 5:6, Je 11:5, 32:22, 20:15).
- The term ‘flowing’ probably indicates ‘plenty, abundance, richness’.
- The term ‘milk and honey’ probably indicates goodness (tasty, rich food).
- That all in all this is a very positive term is supported by Nu 16:13, where a rebellious, angry Israel calls Egypt a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ (!), the land they want to return to at that point.
- But the term ‘milk and honey’ probably also is meant to tell Israel something about the nature of the land they will inherit:
- ‘Milk’ points to grasslands over against farm-able lands, and with that a suitability for herds and flocks over against grain and vegetables. Of course grain & vegetables were needed and did grow, but animal husbandry would be important.
- ‘Honey’ points to bush and forest lands, where bees thrive.
Call to observe and understand weather & seasons
Ge 41:6 , 41:23, 41:27 South wind brings drought
Ec 1:6 Circular movements of the wind described
Ec 11:3 When clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth
Ec 11:4 Farmers observing the weather, here: overcareful
Pr 6:8, 30:25 Pay attention to seasons: ant provides food in summer, harvest
Pr 10:5 Pay attention to seasons: A child who gathers in summer is prudent, but a child who sleeps in harvest brings shame.
Pr 26:1 snow in summer, rain in harvest, not fitting
Pr 31:21 Godly woman not afraid of snow: all her household are clothed
SS 2:11 See, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone
Je 8:20 The harvest is past, summer ended and we are not saved
Je 18:14 Ironic question: Does the snow of Lebanon leave? Do the
mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?
Lu 12:55 When you see the south wind blow, you day, there will be heat
Mt 16:2-3 When it is evening you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning will be foul weather for the sky is red … you can discern the appearance of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times?
Mt 24:32, Mk 13:28, Lu 21:30 When branch puts forth leaves > summer is near
Ho 8:7 wind > whirlwind, south wind > heat,
Ac 27:7,13-15,20, 28:13, 1 Co 16:6, 2 Ti 4:21, Ti 3:12 Paul’s storm troubles & wintering plans
When God appears and reveals himself, creation responds
2 Sa 22:11, Ps 18:10-13
He bowed the heavens, and came down; thick darkness was under his feet … 11 he was seen upon the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness around him a canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water … 14 The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most high uttered his voice. 15 He sent out arrows, and scattered the, – lightning, and routed them. 16 Then the channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were laid bare.
- There are many similar verses (1 Ki 19:11, Jb 37:21,Ps 104:3, Is 29:6, Re 11:19)
- When God himself appears, descends or shows up, creation responds; again showing his power and his control over all creation.
God will bring a total restoration
Is 49:10, Re 7:16
• God has promised a final restoration: no hunger, no thirst, no heat or sun (yet light).
Weather as a metaphor for the Word of God
Is 55:10-11
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and spout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
