Investigating the Bible: What about the weather?
By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR
Weather is often autumn news. In a “Reader’s Digest” story, ferry passengers returned from Juneau, Alaska in the fall. A frustrated tourist asked a boy who was a local, “Doesn’t it ever stop raining around here?” The little guy responded: “I don’t know. I’m only seven years old.” The Bible has many stories when God intervenes and uses weather for his purposes.
Joseph was sold into Egyptian slavery by 10 of his jealous brothers. Then he denied the advances of an adulterous wife and was thrown into prison. Joseph continued trusting God for two years, who gifted him with the ability to interpret dreams. His success with the dreams of two cell mates, resulted in a summons to the king of Egypt who had two dreams no one could interpret. In his dreams the pharaoh “…was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin came up out of the Nile after them…(and) ate up the seven attractive, plump cows.” (Genesis 41:1-4, English Standard Version used throughout.)
He had a similar dream about plump ears of corn swallowed up by withered ears of corn. Joseph said: “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; …There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 41:25, 29-30). Pharaoh put Joseph as second in command over all of Egypt. Later during the famine, his brothers came to buy grain and Joseph was reunited with his family.
After a day of miracles and ministry, Jesus and the disciples boarded a small fishing boat, perhaps similar to one found on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which is about 26 feet long and could carry 15 men. As they sailed, “…a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.” (Mark 4:37). Jesus was sound asleep in the stern of the boat. The disciples ran to him, saying “…Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (Mark 4:38-40).
God can still use weather for good. Harris Faulkner wrote in her book, “Faith Still Moves Mountains”, of a phone call by General George Patton to his chaplain on Dec.8, 1944. “Do you have a prayer for weather? We must do something about these rains if we are to win the war.” Steady downpours for weeks had stalled Patton’s tanks and prevented critical air support. The Germans had surrounded 12,000 American troops in Bastogne. The chaplain said, “I will check, sir, and let you know within the hour.” He found nothing in his prayer books, so he wrote out a simple prayer, which read in part: “Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains…Grant us fair weather for Battle…that armed with Thy power we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and the nations.”
When Patton read it he ordered, “Have 250,000 copies printed and see to it that every man in the Third Army gets one.” On Christmas morning, 1944, contrary to forecasts of continued bad weather, the rains stopped; the sun shined. It continued clear and dry for more than a week. Patton’s troops, now with air support, engaged in fierce fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, pushing the Germans back. Five months later, the Nazis surrendered on May 7.
David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)
Comments
fiddler
Teaching Christian history and the Bible need to be taught alongside Roman history. They are inseparable. Titus’ war in 70 CE is a good example (see the archive). Another example is the fire in Rome in 64 CE.
The mythology that has grown around Christianity says Nero blamed the Christians and he took pleasure in burning them at the stake while he ‘fiddled’ while they sizzled. This myth is comparable to what we just went through with the election: misinformation. The myth was most likely started by Nero’s enemies, those who detested him. It was political, nonetheless.
Nero was not in Rome when the fire started. He returned to Rome because the flames were reaching his estate. Considering that the Christianized Jewish sect we now call Christians comprised Jewish slaves and non-citizens, we would reasonably assume the fire would gut the slums. Not so for the Roman fire. The slums were untouched by the fire.
Who were these people in the Jewish sect and what were they like?
They were Christianized Jews, proselytizers. Because Christ never wrote anything down, these Jews were going around town interpreting what they thought Jesus’ message was. And the messages were all different. Lacking one accepted version of his message, these early proselytizers were creating different but related forms of Christianity. Many of the various forms would be considered heresies by the so-called Orthodox Church (Cod. Theod. 16.5) beginning in the fourth century. Paul’s version won out in the end (becoming Pauline Christianity).
fiddler
All forms of Christianity were regarded by mainstream or orthodox Jews as blasphemy and heresy. Even the notion of converting a Jew to another religion or a heretical form of Judaism was punishable by death under Jewish religious law (Deut. 13:8-10).
With Christianity rejected as a heresy by traditional Jews, aggressive Christian proselytizers like Paul targeted non-Jews, including Roman citizens, who were polythestic, and they tolerated everyone’s beliefs. Jews, Christian Jews (and later Islam) were monothestic, and tolerated no one’s beliefs but theirs (our country’s divisiveness may have started here). Thus, Christians considered the gods of others as false or demonic and their worship idolatrous (e.g., 1 Cor. 10:20). Blasphemous insults and flagrant disrespect of others’ beliefs posed a threat to Roman peace.
The population of Rome around 60 CE was about 500,000, and of those, there were 2,500 Christianized Jews. These were the ones who were aggressive and caused chaos in the city. (They’re the ones in Judah causing the uprising shortly after this period that led to the war in 70 CE; Titus was after a rebel leader named Jesus).
Mainstream Jews kept to themselves, but Christianized Jews preached in Jewish communities and caused civil discord and disruption of the peace, and later on, the same thing happened when they proselytized among non-Jews.
Comes the fire.
In Trajan’s correspondence with Pliny the Younger (Ep. 10.97), Christians were NOT sought out and arrested. But, “If they are brought to trial and proven guilty, they must be punished” (si deferantur, arguantur, puniendi sunt). The most likely arrested were the ringleaders and troublemakers.
fiddler
So, who started the fire? No hard evidence points to Nero.
The likely culprits were the Christianized Jews. Not all Christians who confessed to being Christian were executed during Nero’s reign, except under the charge of arson during a narrow window of time. Thus, Nero did not crucify or burn Christians for a long period of time. Besides ringleaders and troublemakers, recalcitrant clergy and/or those with fanatical tendencies were also punished.
Tacitus indicated (Ann. 15.44) that Christians were blamed and cruelly punished not so much for arson as for their hatred of the human race (haud perinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti). (true today; Gandhi said he never met a Christian) He also wrote of Christians as loathed for their vices (flagitia) and of Judah as the home of this evil (originem eius mali). (Thus the war in 70 CE.)
After the fire some Christians were burned alive, but it was the result of them being found guilty of the crime of arson, not because they were Christians.
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PS: It is believed by Christians today that Peter perished in Rome under Nero, but there is no hard evidence. Had he been burned alive his charred ashes would have been thrown into a common burial pit or dumped in the Tiber like other criminals. Also, Paul was probably executed and buried in Spain after being acquitted in Rome.