Tim Outlaw
Storms are Coming
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Genesis 6:9
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Job 1:1
Both of these men were blameless. Noah was righteous. Job was upright and shunned evil. These men most have had really simple, easy lives, nope not at all. That’s often what the world tells us; karma, you do good you get good. You do bad you get bad. It’s just not that simple. Let’s quickly look at these blameless guys lives.
Job
In Job chapter 1 he lost his wealth, his sheep and camels and his children died.In chapter 2, Satan afflicted Job with painful sores. Job’s own wife said to him, curse God and die!
Towards the end of Job, he cries out to God (chapters 23-31) basically telling God he doesn’t understand and telling the Almighty to answer him. So God answered (chapter 38-41)
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm Job 38:1
“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” Job 38:3
I don’t know how you see those passages but if I saw God coming out of a whirlwind telling me to brace myself like a man, I’d think that’s maybe scarier than anything Job faced thus far.
In Chapter 42 we see God made Job prosperous again and blessed the latter part of his life to the point where he had twice what he once had. We know Job died old and full of years.
Noah
In Genesis 6 we see Noah tasked with building the ark. Which he proceeds to do over the next 120 years. Not only that, in chapter 7 he’s tasked to take 7 pairs of every kind of clean animal and one pair of every unclean animal. In the midst of Noah’s radical obedience the biggest storm ever came and the earth flooded. Side note on Noah, have you ever been to a zoo? What about a cruise ship? Now combine those two things. If you aren’t sure what I’m getting at, it had to smell horrid on that boat.
I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:11-13
Sometimes in life you have to go through a smelly boat to get to the rainbow!
Noah was obedient but in the midst of his obedience the biggest storm ever came. Job was upright but endured more than most men ever will. Then God spoke to him out of the storm.
In the midst of an obedient walk with Christ storms will come. If we conclude that, we must also conclude God will bring you through the storms!
