I don’t want to bore you with the obvious, nor do I want to be a sensationalist. Truly, this has been the worst winter storm I have ever experienced. We have been declared a federal disaster area – I have never lived in a federal disaster area! As you looked out the window and saw every living thing covered with a thick coat of ice, you surely wondered what was the purpose. Not a tree was left undamaged, many never to recover. You may ask, why must nature suffer such a severe blow? What is the sense of all this devastation and hardship?

But we’re not the first or the last to ask that kind of a question. Job was a good man. The sacred record states his life as being blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. But Job is not most famous for his goodness, but for his trial. On his life came the cold blast of misery and pain. Often someone will say, “You need the patience of Job!” But the book bearing the old patriarch’s name shows that Job was not as patient as he needed to be. In his defense I can say he was probably more patient than most of us would have been and probably outlasted what we would have endured.

But patience is not commendable unless it lasts the entire duration, and Job’s patience didn’t. Patience can only be rewarded if it lasts until the finish of the test; Job’s patience did not last. By the end of the book, he claims that his goodness did not deserve the suffering. As far as he was concerned, he did not deserve what he was getting. The agonies that had befallen him were quite simply unfair.

The portion of Scripture from which our text comes is from a speech given by a young man named Elihu. Elihu is in this part of Job’s saga to give us some rational, sensible, biblical thinking. Job has heard all his so-called comforters give their theological explanations, and none of it was sound. Now this man, younger than them all, begins to speak. He brings to the story an objective, not an emotional argument. Now, Elihu is not identified as a prophet, but he is certainly the mouthpiece of God when he speaks here. He defends the righteousness and integrity of God. He makes us to know that God is not like a man; you cannot summons Him to your court and make Him give you an account of His doings. He proclaims the goodness and the power of God. Not only is God righteous in all that He does, but He is so far above us, and anyone else, that He can do things that baffle human understanding.

In our text is one of the arguments of Elihu. “By the breath of God, ice is given.” I wish to divert your attention to this thought: does science contradict the Bible? Science says ice is formed quite differently than our text. The text makes us to know that God simply breathes, and ice is formed. But science tells us that ice comes a very different way.

What you have experienced this week is because there were warm pockets of air on top of colder layers of air. As the moisture fell from the skies in frozen precipitation like snow, it found a warm layer of air and melted. By the time it reached a surface, it either refroze as sleet or as liquid rain that froze immediately on contact. That is the scientific explanation, and what meteorologists have told us this week.

But the Bible says here that by the breath of God, by the blast of His nostril, ice is formed. Is there a contradiction? Do we turn off the weatherman and say, “You’re all wet! The Bible says God did it by breathing!” No, true science never contradicts the Bible. Science can merely explore the mechanics of God. God is a masterful mechanic. He is a very orderly God of precision. He doesn’t do things randomly or haphazardly. He has a method to all that He does; He is that kind of a God. Mathematicians say that math is nothing more than the language of God. And guess who invented it? God did! What precision in the higher mathematics of algebra, calculus and geometry! Why, the whole universe is a geometrical puzzle. No one is more methodical than God. No one has all means at his disposal as God. The scientists envy the laboratory of God. They look about it and dwell in it. All true science can do is explore how God does what He does.

So when science says, “We figured out how this miracle in the Bible occurred,” don’t be dissuaded or distraught because science has seemingly given us a physical, natural explanation. Don’t you believe that God can, even by miracles, displace, maneuver, bend and reshape physical law? Of course! When Einstein discovered the Theory of Relativity, he merely stumbled upon something God knew forever and has utilized all these many more years. True science does not contradict the Bible; philosophical science competes against the Bible. Philosophical science – what is that? You would normally call it evolution, among other names. But evolution is philosophical; there is no empirical data that can prove it (in fact, it requires probably more faith to believe in evolution than to believe in the Bible). Philosophical science never explores the mechanics of God; it’s about inventing its own religion that men would bow at its shrine and altars.

What about this text, though? What method is there here? The blast of His nostrils, the breath of God? You and I need to understand the book of Job is nothing but one long – though true – poem, like Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is a piece of poetry. In poetic language we use metaphors, and this is a metaphorical picture, just an idea that God would breathe and ice would be formed. The point, and Elihu’s message, really is that it is God who orders the weather, including the ice. It is not that a cloud, on its own, decides to let forth its rain, and at the same time by chance there happens to be a cold front in the area that would freeze that precipitation. No, Elihu tells us that the origin of all these things is God, and He orders them as He pleases, as we shall see.

Before I make my next point, think for a few moments for your own protection and well-being: do not let science and discoveries that you might hear on television or read in newspapers shake your faith whatsoever. I get amused, if not irritated, by Christians who are all excited when the latest archeological discovery proves something that is already in the Bible. And I shake my head in wonder. Why are you all excited; that is in the Bible! Didn’t you already know that? I knew that before the scientists knew that! Do I need science to prove my Bible to me? Absolutely not! And if you do, we have some serious issues, because when science comes up with a theory that would seemingly disprove the validity of the Bible, then what will happen to your faith?

That is why I never get shook up when some National Geographic program tells me they have found the tomb of Jesus Christ. Why? Because I’ve read the book, and His name who authored it is Jehovah. And if Jehovah says there’s an empty tomb somewhere in Palestine, in modern-day Israel, then believe you me, it is empty! Despite the scientists and archeologists! Don’t hang your faith on science. Remember, true science is always the servant of God.

Let me now direct your attention to this point: that the same breath of life has brought destruction. Isn’t this interesting? Elihu says that by the breath of God, ice is given, but have you ever thought about the word “breath”? It is used several times in reference to God, as a blessing, a great and wonderful thing to see, and by His breath many good things have occurred.

For example, the worlds and this earth that we occupy are by the breath of God. Often in the Bible the word “breath” and the word “word” are interchangeable. Why, God could not speak, “Let there be light!” were it not for the breath He exhales as He speaks. The Bible tells us in Genesis 2:7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” We are here today as a result of God’s breath! And believe me, the One who gave you breath can take your breath.

The word “breath” referring to God is also noticed in the parting of the Red Sea. What a miraculous deliverance and blessing that was for the children of Israel! After it was over, Moses arose and sang an impromptu song, which included these lyrics: “And with the blast of Your nostrils The waters were gathered together; The floods stood upright like a heap; The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.” To what is he referring? When you go back to the previous chapter, you see that when it all unfolded an east wind came and blew all night long, and somehow formed the walls through which the children of Israel passed, hemmed in on each side by walls of water. The blast of His nostrils did it all.

Then on the day of Pentecost, we are told that God breathed, and men and women did things they could not before – they spoke, in languages they had not learned, the wonderful works of God. On the night of the resurrection He foreshadowed it all, what would happen 50 days later. He said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and He breathed on them all. When that finally arrived and cloven tongues of fire rested upon each of them, and their tongues were loosed to sing the praises of God in languages they had never learned – I can see it in my mind’s eye; the image is clear – God stepped onto the scene and blew on them. The sweet fragrance of His breath filled the room, and they were lifted up to worlds they had never experienced before.

What about the book you hold in your hand? The Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word “inspiration” literally means breathed out. God breathed upon holy prophets and apostles, and as they were writing, the inspiration, the breath of God came. No, I don’t think a wind they could feel came flying through the window, but that the breath of God, the expression of God, the life of God was given, and we now have the result – our Bibles.

So while the breath of God is a wonderful thing, a blessing, here we see it can also be a curse. To some it is something to rejoice in; to others, the very same breath of God is a curse to them. Paul makes an unusual statement in reference to all of this: “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” Isn’t that an incredible statement? How is it possible? The same aroma, the same fragrance, to one gives off a pleasant odor that brings to their soul complete deliverance from their sins! One smell of the fragrance of the gospel sets one at liberty, but to another is a stench, for it smells of death.

How can the same thing be so different to different people? I’ve seen that this very week. Some have looked upon this past week and have cursed the God of heaven and earth. Some have no doubt lifted up their fists and said, “God, why would you do this to me? I am a church member; I have been saved all of these years! Look what I have done; look what I give! And now I sit without power and am cold with nothing to eat. How can you treat me like this?”

Yet others who name the name of Jesus have looked about us and been humbled by His might and have blessed His holy name. How can the same thing be seen so differently? How can the breath of God that brings life also bring ice and destruction? To answer that question, we shall study the word “breath” for a few more moments.

It must indicate this if anything else: Elihu is signaling something to Job and his would-be comforters – that God has personal choice. God gets to do what God wants to do! Autonomy, independence – no such thing for you. Only One has true autonomy and independence, and that is God. You are not as free as you might think you are; you should have learned that this week. You’re not as autonomous as you had hoped you were. What happened when you got cold enough, and you found out that a neighbor or person in our church had electricity or heat? You gravitated: you packed your bags, what little you could, and you went to where there was heat and light. You are not self-sufficient. But He is. The word “breathe” here indicates that God can dispense His breath where He so chooses, and He does.

On Monday evening, it was not Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel who brought this to us. Nor was it a convergence of the right elements. Why, this storm was as ordained as the crucifixion was. All things have been established from beforehand, and they will occur! For God does as He pleases in heaven and in the earth. Every single drop that fell from the sky, as you and I were praying it would make a U-turn and go back from whence it came, was ordained to fall by a sovereign and good God. While we were praying that snow might be the result and not ice, God had ordained before the foundation of the earth, before He made the earth, that we would have ice. For it is God’s choice to do as He pleases.

Let’s talk about that. Why would God choose to dispense the ice? What would be the reasons of God for such a massive and destructive storm of ice? Let me answer by borrowing from Elihu: God need not give us an answer! You want an answer today? Who do you think you are? I mean that respectfully, but who are you that you need an answer? This is what Elihu tells us. God is beholden to none of us, nor can we make Him give an account of Himself. “Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” Of course not.

We don’t ask this question to justify God or to try to make God look good, nor do we ask it to pass judgment on His ways. I ask it so that I may fear Him more; love Him further and complain far less. So let us see three reasons why I think the Lord would have dispensed what He gave us this past week.

First, He did it to teach us that He can do as He pleases. “I am the Lord God, and there is none like Me. I know the end from the beginning, and My counsel shall stand.” God has demonstrated to us in very vivid fashion that He can do as He pleases and no man can stop His hand. Isn’t it amazing – here is man: we have sent men to the moon and rockets to Mars. We have accomplished great things and thought ourselves wonderful. We have congratulated ourselves on our intelligence and our power. Yet all God has to do is bring a light, moist rain in the latter part of January, and life comes to a standstill in dozens of places.

Do you not understand that you are lost in your sin if you are not a Christian today? You are lost, yet to be saved, for a reason. Here I give you the reason that I pray would grip your heart and your mind and not let you loose until you see the wisdom of it. Here it is: that God would show you that you cannot save yourself! It saddens me when I hear young people say, “I have plenty of time.” According to whom? Do you know the number of your days? Has God whispered in your ear that He will let you live to 80 or 90? No, you don’t even know that you will reach 18. You are not a Christian today because God wants you to know that you can’t save your own soul; you can’t turn the proverbial leaf over and start anew. It is not within your ability. Only by the sovereign power of God can you be born again!

You must not say, “If that is so, I might as well keep enjoying myself and do the best I can, until He saves me, if He should ever.” No! Think, man, what did you do when you found a family member had heat and you didn’t? You packed your family and went where there was heat! If God is sovereign and can do as He pleases, and He possesses all power to save, then there is no sin stronger than God. His power is enough to obliterate your sins and cause you to be as white as the snow that fell Wednesday.

Why don’t you pack up yourself and bring Him your sins and say, “Wash me, Lord, and make me white as snow!” Don’t use the sovereign power of God as your excuse; see it as your life, your hope, your only rescue! As a result of these last few days, you have before you an illustration far more powerful than this sermon. God says, “I do as I please; you cannot.”

The second reason I think God dispensed the ice as He has is to show us how ungrateful we are. A loving parent will do this. If a child has become ungrateful and believes that all that mom and dad does for him is owed to him, a good mom and dad will teach that child a lesson. And the only way to teach that lesson is to shut off the spigot from whence all these good things come, to let the child know he is not by right given these things, but by the privilege and love of a parent. How spoiled children can be today! They have everything – carrying $200 telephones in their pockets with $200 iPods hanging from their ears, driving multiple-thousand-dollar vehicles, wearing the latest fashions with the latest names. Spoiled brats! But I have never met a child as spoiled as us Christians. I have never met a brat more brattish than most of us. Every good thing we have has come from our Heavenly Father, and we have gotten to the place where we think it is owed to us.

With the power shut of on Tuesday evening, within two hours you were all wondering, “Lord, why are you doing this to me? I love You; have I done something?” Why would you ask those kinds of questions? They betray your heart; they really tell you where you are coming from and where you are going, what you think about the blessings of God. They have become something you are used to and are no longer grateful for. So the Lord says, I want to teach you, because I love you. Do not be thankful for the blessings, but for the benefactor, the One who gives them to you. I do this for you because I love you.

I have never understood why God has been so good to this country. Judgment is coming, and we got a foretaste of it. You know, we think we have been really pummeled, but I need only say one word and you are brought back to reality: Katrina. Friends, our God has been so good to us, and we have given Him so little of our lives and gratitude. How spoiled we are.

Third, He did it to teach us how futile it is to strive against Him. Futile means silly, wasteful, vain. It is impossible to strive against him. How can you really resist God after this week? This storm was nothing more than light rain. It never rained very hard at any time. A rain that in the summertime would not have been given a second thought, and possible not even interrupted most outdoor activities. Yet the Lord can take such a small thing as a light rain and cripple an entire region of the United States. Sir, how do you think you can stop God? Isn’t it amazing?

Light rains and cold temperatures – all God need do is breathe on Cape Canaveral and they will never lift one rocket. Who can resist this God? Dear sinner friend, it is a foolish venture you are on, a losing proposition that cannot win; you might as well gargle with gasoline and spit in the fire. You will not win! You cannot overcome God. Haven’t you seen this week? Look around you when you walk outside. Look to the west, look upon the refuge and see those trees with their appendages gone, standing there like lone toothpicks with all the tops taken out of them. Yet the wind never blew; a tornado never came and a hurricane never swept our shores. A light rain, and the blast of His nostrils. How will you stand against God?

Dear Christian, why is it that we will not submit to Him in all areas of our life? Why are we resisting Him? Do you think you can finally whine and change His mind, like a child? How shall you resist your Father? You, too, should have seen from this week you cannot resist Him. He cannot be resisted.

I will conclude by giving you one more thought: how shall we respond to such a storm? There are two ways: first, in humility. Humility is more than thinking yourself small. It is to recognize that the afflictions of God are full of mercy. They are merciful when compared with what we deserve. As an example, David sinned when he numbered the people of Israel. God sent the prophet Gad to him with three choices: he could have a famine for seven years, or be turned over to his enemies for three months, or endure a plague lasting three days. Here is what David said: “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” Do you understand what David is saying? Even God in his judgment is merciful. Even in plague and devastation and storms and hardship, there is more mercy than judgment. You have witnessed more mercy and love these last few days than you have judgment, for it is far better than we deserve. We have gotten far more mercy than we have earned or could ever earn. So we should humble ourselves before God this morning, and bow before the Maker of heaven and earth and thank Him for the mercies we have.

Secondly, we should respond in grateful submission. I put these two words together this way for a reason. The way we should respond to this storm is to submit ourselves to God and His will, whatever His will might be. This is what our Master has done, as sweat turned to blood and covered His face as His heart is about to burst on the inside with the knowledge of what is about to descend upon Him. Yet He prays nevertheless, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” He submits to His Father’s will. This is what we are called upon to do, not kick against the goads (Acts 9), not to resist, but to submit.

And not just to submit, but to submit gratefully. I include this word, “grateful,” because God doesn’t want just your submission but your joyful submission. Paul the Apostle says in Romans 5:3, and this is harder than living how we have lived the last few days, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations.” The word glory is really our word for bragging, boasting or rejoicing. We rejoice in tribulation. Why do we have to submit rejoicing, gratefully? Two reasons: by gratefully submitting to the will of God, you are able to display the patient suffering of Jesus. I cannot raise the dead and I cannot lift the lame and cause him to walk, nor can you. But those of us who know Jesus can submit to our sufferings and the will of God. When we undergo hardship, whether ice storms, plagues, famines, or arthritis or financial difficulties – we can joyfully, gratefully submit to the Father’s will, and display to the world, “This is exactly like my Jesus!” And when they ask you how, you can respond, “Because Jesus lives in me.”

Friends, your sufferings, agonies and hardships are designed by God to give you an opportunity you would not have otherwise. How many of you can live as Jesus lived? How many of you can follow the Father’s will perfectly? Can any of you be righteous all the time and in your heart feel the right way all the time? Who of us can be like our Lord all the time? The answer, sadly, is that we can’t. Therefore God brings suffering, hardships, and blasts of His nostrils upon our lives to give us an opportunity to imitate Jesus for a little while, that we can show the world we love God so much that we trust Him with our lives no matter what He does. That is exactly what Jesus did. That is worth the breath of God giving us ice this week.

The second reason we should be grateful is because God is working His character in us. A few Sunday nights ago I said the most well-used tool in Satan’s arsenal is probably discouragement. The best used and sharpest tool of God is suffering, to shape us into the image of Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for those who have heard a false gospel with the conclusion that if they simply “accept Jesus” they can have a really good life. Easy, healthy, financially sound and prosperous. All they are being told is what they are pursuing already; they just found another method to try and get it. Jesus did not tell us this; He taught us the prize is not to be well in our bodies or our checkbooks. He did not say the goal of life is to have the most toys at the end of life. He taught us the greatest prize is Himself. If He is the greatest prize, shouldn’t I want to be like Him? Shouldn’t I want to consider that being like Christ is something worthy of my life’s devotion? Absolutely, and what better way than suffering! Because that was the way the Father used to shape Jesus’ life – being a Son, He learned obedience through the way He suffered.

I am grateful to the Lord for this week. I have rejoiced. I have been frustrated. I have gotten cold – though not as long as some of you have (I don’t understand why we had electricity much sooner than you all). But I can trust Him. He has a reason.

I wish to conclude with a quote from Charles Spurgeon.

“God knows what will best minister to his gracious designs ... Our Father's will shall certainly be done, for the Lord ‘doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.’ Let us adoringly consent”

I must stop to make sure you get the full impact: we are not just to consent to what God brings into our lives, we are to adoringlyconsent – “that it shall be so, desiring no alteration therein.” Lord, if You be pleased that I should have no power for 30 more days, I should desire no alteration in that plan. If you are saying, “That is not me!” then “me” ought to repent and get right with God, because You are not following the Master, who is always right.

Spurgeon continues,

“That ‘will’ may cost us dear; yet let it never cross our wills: let our minds be wholly subjugated to the mind of God. That ‘will’ may bring us bereavement, sickness, and loss; but let us learn to say, ‘It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.’ We should not only yield to the divine will, but acquiesce in it so as to rejoice in the tribulation which it ordains. This is a high attainment, but we set ourselves to reach it.”

Let us this day, with all the grace that He will supply, let us design to attain this for ourselves and for His glory. Amen.