Who’s in Control of the Weather?

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Matthew 16:1–3

Jesus was disappointed in the Pharisees and Sadducees for being able to understand what was happening with the sky, but they didn’t understand the signs of the times. They were seeking a sign to test Jesus to see if he really was the Savior of the world. We know from God’s Word, the Bible, that Jesus really is the Savior of the world (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14; Philippians 3:20).

People are still trying to predict the weather today. In fact, you can get a job predicting the weather! If you have ever watched a news program, you might see a meteorologist forecasting the weather. Meteorologists are scientists who use special tools to study the weather and take measurements, such as the amount of precipitation or temperature for the day. This information is helpful because it can be used to learn more about the weather or teach us how to prepare for bad weather, such as hurricanes or tornadoes.

It is good to be prepared for the weather, and we can thank God that he allows us to use scientific tools to know more about the weather. But have you ever heard a meteorologist say it was going to rain but it ended up being a sunny day? That’s because people can only use these scientific tools to make predictions or guesses about the weather.

Science can help us learn more about the world around us, but God is the Creator of the world. God is ultimately in control of everything, even the weather! There are many instances in the Bible where God demonstrates his power over the weather. That’s because he creates.

God caused a great storm to occur at sea when Jonah tried to flee from God by sailing to the city of Tarshish, “But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up” (Jonah 1:4). God is so powerful that he can cause a storm to occur at sea!

In Psalm 147, we see that God is the one who brings ice and snow!

He [God] sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. Psalm 147:15–18

The Bible even tells us that God puts weather cycles and seasons in place! “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). This verse is also a good reminder that people can’t destroy the earth, even with all the talk about man-made climate change. Climates do change, and we know God commands us to care for the earth in a way that brings him glory (Genesis 1:28), but God controls when and how the earth will be destroyed. We can rest assured that our Creator God is in control of the weather!