Digital Cowboy

I promised cZja a while ago that I would address Matthew 8/Luke 8 where Jesus speaks to the wind and calms it.

Groundwork first:

God made man in His image. He intends for man to operate the way He operates. God speaks and what He says becomes.

Digest that because you have to understand it. Done? Good. Because we need to understand the book of Job.

Job 1:5 says:

And it was so, when the days of [their] feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings [according] to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Job lived in fear that his children were in sin. And he said. When God speaks, what He says happens immediately. We’re made in His image and His intention is for us to operate like Him. What you say matters. Job said and “thus did Job continually.”

Later in the book, Job says. “The thing I feared the most has come upon me.” That’s because that’s where his mind was focused and where the mind is focused, the words of the mouth follow. What a man speaks, he will have. For better or worse.

You’ve likely been mislead about the book of Job. I was. But if you read it carefully… and study, you’ll find that there is nothing there that contradicts the rest of the Bible..

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath [is] in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

There are a number of things that we need to notice here. First, satan is ignorant. He was whining about the hedge and didn’t even know that it was down. Second, he’s a manipulative little prick that tried to con God into doing his dirty work. “…put forth thy hand..” Hallelujah, God’s smarter than that and refused to do it.

But God is also honest. Always. So He said, “Behold all that he hath [is] in thy power..” That was true and satan didn’t even know it until God pointed it out. The hedge was down because Job was living in fear and speaking from that fear. The hedge of protection was broken by Job’s words. God didn’t take down the hedge of protection, Job did.

The chapter finishes thusly:

While he [was] yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters [were] eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Job was wrong, by the way. God doesn’t take.

Perhaps you noticed there in Job 1:19 that there was a “great wind” and it was a force of destruction.

Let’s look at Matthew 8 with that in mind.

Matthew 8:24-29:

And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
And his disciples came to [him], and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

The wind is under the purview of the “Prince of the air.” But since he’s subject to mankind’s dominion again because of the redemptive action of Jesus Christ, you can command the wind and the seas also. Jesus himself said that the works he did and greater works would we do.

In Matthew 8 the wind is most clearly a satanic force trying to keep the Anointed One from getting to the other side of the lake. They feared him then and they fear him now. Notice that had the disciples not woken him, he would’ve slept right through it. They were afraid because they didn’t know what he knew. It’s all available to us now. I think that Jesus was shocked and appalled that they had learned so little from him. He was making it clear that they could’ve done what he did. They could’ve rebuked that wind just as he did.

Fear will connect you to the thing you fear just like faith connects you to the thing you hope for.