How did people in the Bible deal with weather events? This session focuses on how God uses weather events to further His kingdom.
Opening:
Perhaps there is no better indication of God's continuing presence shown in a weather event, than when God provided a pillar of cloud to guide the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21). When God wanted Israel to rest in a certain place, the cloud rested on the tabernacle (Lev 16:2), at the door of the tabernacle (Exodus 33:9-10, Numbers 12:5) or it covered the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38). Have you ever looked on in awe at a weather event? Have you ever felt the presence of God in a weather event?
Group Activity:
Read Job 37 and 38, and note how many weather events are listed, their cause and/or purpose.
Readings:
God sends rain for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:11-17), then sets a rainbow as a symbol that He will never again flood the earth (9:12)
God sends a plague of hail on the Egyptians - and Moses stops it! (Exodus 9: 13-26)
Winds blow away the plague of locusts (Exodus 10:19), and a plague of darkness falls on Egypt (10: 21-29)
Gideon experiments with condensation, as he observes dew on the fleece (Judges 6: 36-40)
Samuel prays for rain - and gets it (1 Samuel 12: 16-19)
Elijah taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). Elijah and his protege, Elisha, knew all along it was going to happen; but everyone else thinks it is only a tornado and go looking for wherever it dropped Elijah (15-16) but Elisha tells them "I told you so!" (18).
Pouring rain cuts Ezra's policy speech to an unruly crowd short (Ezra 10:7-15)
Lightning kills Job's sheep and shepherds (Job 1:16) and a storm kills his family (1:18). God powers the wind, and decides when rain and storms will fall (28:23-27).
The wind breathes life into dry bones in Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 37:7-10)
Jonah on board causes a storm at sea (Jonah 1:1-16)
Jesus calms the storm (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-end, Luke 8:22-25)
Rain falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). What significance does this have for us today? Does this give us some consolation when bad things happen to good people?
Closing:
"Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:41). Jesus has already healed many people, but this is the first time he shows power over nature. Why does this make more of an impression on the disciples?
