LOOK UP TO HEAVEN AND PRAISE THE EXALTED, ALMIGHTY GOD

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed His ways for Him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’? Remember to extol His work, which people have praised in song. All humanity has seen it; mortals gaze on it from afar. How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of His years is past finding out.”

“He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. Who can understand how He spreads out the clouds, how He thunders from his pavilion? See how He scatters His lightning about Him, bathing the depths of the sea. This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.”

“At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. After that comes the sound of His roar; He thunders with His majestic voice. When His voice resounds, He holds nothing back. God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that everyone He has made may know His work, He stops all people from their labor. The animals take cover; they remain in their dens. The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters his lightning through them. At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever He commands them. He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.”

“Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes His lightning flash? Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of Him who has perfect knowledge? You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, can you join Him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?”

“Tell us what we should say to Him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. Should He be told that I want to speak? Would anyone ask to be swallowed up? Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean. Out of the north He comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty. The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in His justice and great righteousness, He does not oppress. Therefore, people revere him, for does He not have regard for all the wise in heart?”

Job 36:22-33, 37:1-24

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It’s been quite a summer.

Mega-hot temperatures followed my mega-severe thunderstorms complete with lightning, thunder, and heavy rain.

Maybe you have experienced the same where you are.

When it is so hot, we typically ourselves looking for relief. And if you think about it, so do the plants and animals that are exposed to the sun’s intense rays. That would make most of God’s creation looking for a break from the heat, longing for the relieving coolness brought by falling rain.

Yes, when it gets so hot, we find ourselves fixated on the weather reports. Is there rain on the way and, if so, when? We get preoccupied by our need for a break from the scorching temperatures. And as we know rain is coming, what do we do? Don’t we look up toward heaven to the skies for a sign the rain is arriving?

You do it and so do I.

We long to see the sky get dark and hear a few thunder rolls or lightning flashes off in the distance. They all seem to give us a sense of comfort that soon the rain will be cooling things off as it falls on a waiting creation.

Question: Through all this, do you ever stop and consider how miraculous it all is? How God is the great Orchestrator of the weather we experience?

One thing is for sure, no man or woman can make the sky produce rain or thunder or lightning. It is a miracle produced by God as a loving gift to His Creation. And this is a reason to praise Him greatly.

Elihu, as he speaks in Chapter 36 of Job, attempts to remind us of this. Look at the passage as he speaks the following words about God:

 “He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. Who can understand how He spreads out the clouds, how He thunders from his pavilion? See how He scatters His lightning about Him, bathing the depths of the sea. This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.”

Indeed, only God could produce the majesty we experience in the falling rain showers, the booming thunder claps, and the bright, blinding lightning strikes. No one else has the power to do any of it except God.

This is why He, and He alone, is to be lifted up as God over all things in heaven and earth – and praised continually for His awesome wonder. Elihu put it like this:

“God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed His ways for Him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’? Remember to extol His work, which people have praised in song. All humanity has seen it; mortals gaze on it from afar. How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of His years is past finding out.”

Elihu said it and we need to understand it. God is exalted in His power and no one is above Him. No one. In fact, no one understands how amazingly powerful He is. We can’t fathom the extent of His strength and might but we don’t need to. We just need to believe and trust that this God who is exalted in power and majesty over all things - this God who brings the rain and thunder and lightning - this God who placed the sun in the sky that scorches us with its heat- this God, the Lord God Almighty, is the God who is for us and loves us so very much. The very God who creates the storms that rain down on His Creation is the same God who also calms the storms of life when they come on us. Job will soon discover this. We need to acknowledge it through the many amazing miraculous signs and wonders that God revealed Himself through in His Holy Word, and has continued to reveal Himself through ever since.

So what is to be our response?

Back to the scriptures. For we are to extol His work – to praise Him for all He has done, all He is doing, and all He is yet to do in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We have witnessed the awesome power of the Lord first hand. It’s time we gave Him the glory and honor that He and He alone deserves.   

It’s time we all look to Heaven and praise our exalted and almighty God.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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