John Piper "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" Chapter Five

There’s not a plant or flower below,

But makes Thy glories known;

And clouds arise, and tempests blow,

By order from Thy throne.

I S A A C WA T T S

“I Sing the Mighty Power of God”

“Who then is this,

that even wind

and sea obey him?”

MARK 4 : 4 1

THE WAVES AND WIND STILL KNOW HIS VOICE

The Power of Jesus Christ

Excerpts from the Chapter:

“It was wind that killed Job’s ten children. “A great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead” (Job 1:19). When boils were added to that, Job’s wife said, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But Job’s response to the death of his children was different: “Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said . . . ‘The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD’” (Job 1:20-21). And when the boils were added to his grief, he said to his wife: “Shall we indeed receive good from God and not receive adversity?” (Job 2:10, author’s translation).”

“It is the glory of God to bare his mighty arm in wind and thunder. “The LORD is great. ... Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth. . . . [He] makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses” (Psalm 135:5-7)… Isaac Watts had his feet on the earth and his head in heaven when he wrote, “Clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne.””

“Therefore it is not surprising that when Christ came into the world, all nature bowed to his authority. He commanded the wind and it obeyed. And when the disciples saw it they wondered. And then worshiped. “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat. . . . And [Jesus] awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. . . . [The disciples] were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?’” (Mark 4:37-41). Water obeyed Jesus in more ways than one. When he commanded, it became “solid” under his feet, and he walked on it. When the disciples saw this they “worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Matthew 14:33). Another time, he commanded water, and it became wine at the wedding of Cana. In response, John says, he “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11). Wind and water do whatever the Lord Jesus tells them to do. Be still. Bear weight.

Become wine. Natural laws were made by Christ and alter at his bidding.”

“Fatalities, fevers, fish, food, fig trees. Anywhere you turn, Christ is the absolute master over all material substance. With a word he commands the dead to live again. “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43). “Young man, I say to you, arise” (Luke 7:14). “‘Talitha cumi,’ which means, ‘Little girl . . . arise’” (Mark 5:41). He rebuked a fever and it left Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:39). He planned for a fish to swallow a coin and then get caught with Peter’s hook (Matthew 17:27). He took five loaves and fed five thousand men (Matthew 14:19-21). And he made a fig tree wither with his curse (Mark 11:21).”

“Will we worship or will we curse the One who rules the world? Shall sinners dictate who should live and who should die? Or shall we say with Hannah, “The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol [the grave] and raises up” (1 Samuel 2:6)? And shall we, with ashes on our heads, worship with Job, “Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21)? Will we learn from James that there is good purpose in it all: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11)? Should we not then face the wind and stand on the waves of affliction… ”

 

A P R A Y E R

O Lord, the suffering in the world is so widespread and the pain is so great!

Have mercy, and waken the souls of suffering millions to the hope of some relief now and unsurpassed joy in the age to come.

Send your church, O God, with relief and with the word of the Gospel that there is forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and that no suffering here is worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God.

Protect your church, Father, from callous thoughts about calamities that leave millions destitute, and protect her also from cowing to critics, like Job’s wife, who cannot trust the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ in the midst of inexplicable misery.

Oh, help our unbelief.

Incline our hearts to your Word and to its assurances that you “work all things according to the counsel of your will” and that “no purpose of yours can be thwarted” and that you are doing good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot now even dream.

Keep us in peace, O Lord, and forbid that we murmur and complain.

Grant us humble and submissive hearts under your mighty hand.

Teach us to wait and watch for your final and holy purposes in all things.

Grant that we would “rejoice in hope” even when present circumstances bring us to tears.

Open the eyes of our hearts to see the greatness of our inheritance in Christ, and send us with tender hands to touch with mercy the miseries of the world.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

amen.