“Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?”
Job 38:22-23
This verse from the book of Job is a part of God’s answer to Job after 37 chapters of debate between Job and his friends about the solution to his terrible suffering. Job asks over and over for God to answer Him and in chapter 38, God does. God doesn’t actually tell Job the reason He has brought this trial upon him. Instead, God relates to Job in around 124 verses how He has created all things and is intimately involved in every created thing’s existence every moment of every day, whether man, animal, plant, stone, wind, rain, hail, and snow. Everything.
These verses remind us that God is active in everything at every moment. There are no impersonal forces at work in the world. God even brings the hail and the snow. We need to reject the modern secular mindset that is so saturated in our culture. When we watch the national news, when we read the weather forecast, when we go out in the garden, or when we drive to work, it is God who is causing everything to function or not function ultimately according to His sovereign will.
This means that science, in describing and measuring the way creation works whether it be gravity, the erosion of soil, the life cycle of insects, or anything, is merely describing how God normally is at work in creation. God is not the creation, but He is intimately connected to it, and the creation does not operate separate from God’s active will and attention. This is abundantly clear in the whole Bible, not just Job.
Furthermore, the New Testament reveals that it is actually Jesus who controls the world. Colossians 1:16-17 says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” The word “consist” here means put together or kept together, just as Hebrews 1:3 declares that Jesus is, “upholding all things by the word of His power.” The word “upholding” means to carry.
There is nothing secular. God is doing everything. As Paul said, “…He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:27-28) In this the servant of the Lord can truly find rest and peace. How comforting to know that the One who chose us, paid the penalty for our sins, and who is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father is the One who is controlling all creation as well.
Glory to the Lord of hosts!
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn
