Sunday, April 09, 2023

About the Weather

“Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.”

The line above is from the book of Job. The speaker is Elihu, the young man who attempts to correct his elders on the subject of suffering, since all four men who have held forth previously have, in one way or another, erred in their understanding of how God works. Like most young men, Elihu is full of earnestness and conviction, but also shows admirable restraint in allowing the discussion he is witnessing to reach an impasse before stepping in to offer his own opinion. Age and experience receive their appropriate deference.

Elihu’s mission is not to attack Job as all the other speakers have done, however unintentionally, but rather to justify God. So he begins to talk about … the weather.

“God thunders wondrously”, says Elihu. He tells the snow and the rain when to fall. He sends his lightning across the whole heaven. In Elihu’s worldview, a tornado is God acting, as is the freezing cold and the movement of the clouds in the sky. All these things, Elihu says — all the variations of weather we experience — God accomplishes with one of three purposes in view: “for correction or for his land or for love”, whether he does so directly or indirectly through the agency of the ecosystem he set in place.

That ought to make us think about the weather a little differently, if we don’t already.

So what are these three?

1/ The Land

The Rain Pours in my Ears

An important caveat that may not be obvious to modern readers: in Elihu’s way of looking at things, doing something for the “land” or for the “world” (the Hebrew word he uses can mean either) is not some discrete operation for which there is any intrinsic reason … apart from the blessing of those who live there. The world Elihu knows was not the product of some random and unforeseeable “Big Bang”, but the directed word of God himself, created in six days for the purpose of becoming a home for mankind, the crown of God’s earthly creation; a place where God himself could interact with his creatures. When God does something “for the land” or “for the earth”, its ultimate purpose is the benefit of those who walk on it.

Elihu could never have envisioned the modern, ecology-obsessed mindset that would seek to greatly reduce the human population — through attrition at best and mass murder at worst — for the sake of preserving the environment. Of what value is earth’s ecosystem apart from man? A planet deliberately denuded of mankind by mankind would be a nihilistic exercise in delusional self-hatred. It would be like painting scenery for a theater to which the public will never be admitted, or scrubbing the floor of a house scheduled for demolition. Without the people for whom it was created, all the beauty and the splendor of the ecosystem serve no purpose at all. In fact, one day soon, “the earth and the works that are done on it will be burned up”, as Peter puts it, and a new heaven and earth more suited to man in his resurrected and glorified state will appear to usher in the day of God. That’s how little this world matters to God when it isn’t operating in a way that suits the needs and character of its occupants. It’s a handful of soggy Kleenex waiting for a bin to toss it in.

The Weather’s Variable

Keeping that in mind, everything God does directly or allows to occur in the sphere of this earth, both catastrophic and benevolent, is ultimately for the good of its human population, though with different purposes in view. The weather factors into that in a big way. The most obvious types of benevolent weather events are convenient rains and dry seasons that come and go year by year to aid the growth of specific crops, and therefore to the obvious benefit of man.

However, even weather-related disasters also serve a useful, if more subtle purpose. They too are often for the ultimate benefit of mankind. Avalanches and mudslides are gravity moving large quantities of dangerous material to places it will be more stable — just don’t get in the way when they are happening! Dry seasons cause forest fires, but forest fires are God’s way of getting rid of rotten trees and dead flora that would otherwise accumulate ad infinitum. Likewise, tornados, hurricanes and whirlwinds rip away heavy vegetation, making room for other plants to get sunlight and water and giving them room to grow where they otherwise could not. They also move seed around to places it may grow better. Hurricanes act like a circuit breaker to maintain global heat balance, replenish barrier islands and inland plant life, and break up bacteria and red tide in the ocean. Thunderstorms help the earth maintain its electrical balance, and lightning fertilizes the soil, helping plants to make proteins and producing the ozone vital to the earth’s atmosphere.

A Chain of Events, a Change of Heart

Even cold weather, which most of us dislike, has surprising health benefits. It boosts intellectual performance, lowers the risk of certain kinds of disease and improves sleep. Snow is also necessary for certain fall crops. Ice formation eliminates many damaging insects and pathogens. Absent sufficient chilling time, fruit trees generate fewer, weaker buds, jeopardizing food production.

In short, everything Elihu says about climate being “for the land”, and therefore for us, is demonstrably scientifically accurate. Even the biggest, most damaging weather events are ultimately for the greater good of mankind. The problem comes when people fail to anticipate the natural cycles God put in place and inadvertently put themselves in harm’s way, but that’s primarily a result of the effects of sin on the free exchange of information between man and God.

Everything has a purpose in God’s economy, even if he is not necessarily directly and personally orchestrating the fall of each raindrop.

2/ Love

The writers of the Bible use multiple words for love, both in Greek and Hebrew, each with a slightly different shade of meaning. The one Elihu uses is ḥeseḏ, meaning goodness, kindness or faithfulness, epitomized in the way David treated Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was a cripple and rather a pathetic figure, but David showed his enemy’s relative a grace he didn’t deserve and would never have received in any other nation in the ancient East, and probably not from the vast majority of Israel’s later kings. He gave him a place at his own table. He did not do this because of Mephibosheth’s personal worth, or out of excessive pity for the man’s condition, but as an act of faithfulness to Jonathan, Mephibosheth’s late father and David’s best friend. That’s the sort of “love” Elihu is describing: a love that keeps its promises.

Weather can also be an act of love. As we have seen, in the larger sense it always is: God is maintaining the environment of this world to meet the daily needs of the many, even though in a fallen world this process may create suffering for the (comparative) few. But God has also done some pretty radical things with the weather more personally and directly to demonstrate his love for his people over the course of history. Consider the calming of the storm on the sea of Galilee, or the parting of the Red Sea, or the great rainfall produced at the request of Elijah. Consider the darkness that covered Egypt in order to ratchet up Pharaoh’s fear of Israel’s God and allow them to go free; in that pitch darkness, Israel alone had light. Consider the mysterious cloud that led Israel in the wilderness, the earthquake that swallowed the rebels to preserve the leadership of Moses for the good of Israel, the hailstorm that destroyed the Amorite army and saved Israel’s, or the supernatural thunderstorm that confused the Philistines and gave Saul a great victory. A worldwide famine sent Israel to Egypt, but God meant that for good, that “many people should be kept alive”. That’s love.

Weather too can be an act of love. Naturally, all these examples would not have been apparent to Elihu, who lived early in Bible history, but they serve as illustrations of his point.

3/ Correction

We will have to lay aside any dogmatism about Elihu’s intended meaning for this one. Some Hebrew words are more open to interpretation than others, and the word translated “correction” in my ESV is one of the most expansive of these. Only context can help us pick which meaning the writer intends, and in this case the context provides little that would help us choose. (This assumes the writer of Job was not making a play on words and evoking more than one possible meaning simultaneously, something that happens fairly often in Hebrew. The writers of the Old Testament enjoyed the occasional pun.)

The word is šēḇeṭ, literally the branch of a tree, but also a word with its interpretation open to a plethora of metaphorical possibilities. Here are six plausible options:

  • Tribe: A tribe is the branch of a family tree. Perhaps Elihu is saying God sends various types of weather “for the tribes”, or for the benefit of the various families of the world.
  • Correction: Literally “the rod”, the traditional symbol of correction. You can see how that usage would develop over time. So Elihu may be saying God sends various types of weather for correction or discipline of nations. Some of the above examples of God’s love to Israel displayed through weather miracles also served as correctives for the nations, both for those who experienced them and those who looked on. The phrase “They will know that I am the Lord” is a common one when this sort of disastrous weather event takes place. That’s correction.
  • Staff, dart: The word šēḇeṭ is used to describe various weapons of battle. Benaiah struck down an Egyptian warrior with a staff. Joab killed Absalom with three darts [šēḇeṭ] through the heart. So Elihu could be saying God uses the weather as his weapon against his enemies. This too is consistent with scripture.
  • Feeding: A shepherd’s staff is also a šēḇeṭ. Micah writes, “Shepherd your people with your staff [šēḇeṭ], the flock of your inheritance … let them graze in Bashan and Gilead.” Here the šēḇeṭ is not just an instrument for whacking wolves, but one for directing the sheep to the best pastures. Perhaps Elihu is saying God uses the weather to provide for and nourish his people. This too is demonstrable from scripture.
  • Scepter: Ahasuerus had a golden scepter, which he extended to Esther as a sign of favor. Probably this was very hard wood overlaid with gold; that was what was traditionally used. So Elihu could be saying that God sends weather events in order to accomplish his sovereign purposes in the governance of the world. This was true of the drought that sent Israel to Egypt. Psalm 2 also speaks of a šēḇeṭ of iron with which the returned Christ will break the nations. It’s hard to argue God has not occasionally used weather in a similar way.
  • Christ: It’s even remotely possible Balaam used the word šēḇeṭ as an obscure name for Christ. He calls him a “scepter” out of Israel. Early Christian writers and rabbinic interpreters understood the reference to be messianic. In this case, Elihu could be saying God sometimes uses the weather to point to his Messiah, or to glorify him. This is certainly true in the gospels (the darkness at the cross, the wind and waves Jesus rebuked). Admittedly, this one is the biggest stretch. It’s doubtful Elihu had anything like this consciously in mind, though if he spoke by the Spirit of God, he may have said a whole lot more than he intended or understood.

I Hope You Learn to Live with What You Choose

Anyway, you can see why I say it’s tough to be dogmatic about what Elihu intended to say here. There are just too many possibilities. If we go with the probabilities, šēḇeṭ is translated “tribe” in the OT more than four times more often that the second-most frequent translation. If we go with how the word is used in Job alone, it is consistently “rod” or “correction”, though there are only three examples in the whole book to point to, one of which is ambiguous. Still, all but two major translations of the Bible elect to go with “rod” or “correction”. I tend to think they are probably correct, as that gives us a nice balance: one positive purpose — love; one “negative” purpose — correction; one neutral purpose — the maintenance of the earth’s environment.

That said, I can’t help but notice there is often more than one layer in OT prophetic language to peel away if you are willing to take a good look, and not one of the above possible meanings disqualifies itself by being theologically untenable.

Sometimes weather is just weather, a necessary part of maintaining the world around us for our good. Other times it means something more important. We wouldn’t want to misread those.

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