Job 38: 1-11 and Mark 4: 35-end
And then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind! And God basically said to Job, who do you think you are? You can’t enter into a debate with me. I am the creator. You are part of creation. The Book of Job reminds us of the power of God.
But the Jewish people also believed that this powerful God was a loving and forgiving God. A God whom they could trust. A God who could be trusted to be there for them even when things went wrong. Even as their nation was destroyed and they were taken away into exile and slavery, this powerful God who spoke out of the whirlwind was with them.
This promise of God stayed with the Jewish people in their exile. Returned with them to their homeland; stayed with them as new conquerors came and went. I’m still with you, said the God who can shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb.
Those simple fishermen who got into the boat to cross to the other side, knew this promise. They had grown up with this promise. Their culture was steeped in this promise. God was with them. He would send a Saviour, the Messiah. And now the Messiah was with them.
But when the great gale arose, their confidence in God and the Messiah he had sent collapsed in the space of a few minutes and they were very afraid.
Jesus rose and stilled the storm. Feel the power. Remember the promise. I am always with you.
It’s one thing to hear that promise of God when things are going well. The fear of the disciples reminds us that when the storm hits us, we may well collapse in a heap, paralysed by fear and despair. And the storm in the story represents of course all those things we can’t cope with; all those things that knock us off course.
It’s OK to have things you can’t cope with. It happens. God knows that. He knows he will have to comfort us and reassure us. And so we know in turn that that comfort and reassurance is coming. We can put our trust in it. It’s going to be OK.