Test Your Bible Power

Test Yor Bible Power

As winter storms blow, we are reminded that it is God who "spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes" (Ps. 147:16). The Bible makes clear that God uses weather and other forces of nature to accomplish his purposes, in blessing and in judgment. "He brings the clouds to punish men, or to water his earth and show his love" (Job 37:13). Test your knowledge of these forces of nature that are found in Scripture. The questions get increasingly more difficult as you go along.

Jesus' disciples worshiped him, saying "truly you are the son of God" after he:

A. called down fire from heaven
B. stilled a storm at sea
C. ended a drought
The ten plagues that God used to demonstrate his powers to Pharaoh did not include:

A. thunder and hail
B. wind and locusts
C. lightning and flood
Paul testified that while serving Christ he'd "been exposed to death again and again" (2 Cor. 11:23). One of these near-death experiences included:

A. a lightning storm
B. a flash flood
C. a hurricane
When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram challenged Moses and Aaron, God used this as a means to punish the three men:

A. an earthquake
B. a plague
C. fire from heaven
In the account of Job's sufferings, God permitted Satan to unleash this force of nature to destroy Job's children:

A. lightning
B. wind
C. a sand storm
Samuel called down this judgment upon Israel to show them what an evil thing they had done in asking for a king:

A. torrential rain
B. a drought
C. locusts

Answers:

B. stilled a storm at sea (Matt. 14: 32-33).
The disciples were familiar with the Scriptures claiming God's control over wind and sea noted in Psalms 89:9 and 107:29. When Jesus calmed the sea in two separate events (in Matthew and also in Mark 4:35-41), he clearly demonstrated his deity.
C. lightning and flood (Ex. 9:23, 10:13).
Hail destroyed the Egyptians' flax and barley, then an east wind brought locusts, which devoured everything else. God was judging the Egyptians' false gods, on whom they relied for their crops.
C. a hurricane (Acts 27:14).
Paul was sailing the Mediterranean Sea when "a wind of hurricane force" wrecked his ship. He and all 276 people on board survived. Paul later used this experience in his writings. He urged the Ephesians to grow in faith so they would no longer be "tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching" (4:14).
A. an earthquake (Num. 16:31-33).
Fire from heaven killed the men's followers, but these three died when the earth split open and swallowed them. Earthquakes often symbolize God's judgment in Scripture and are associated with Christ's coming. When Jesus died, the earth quaked as death was swallowed up in victory (Matt. 27:50-51). Before his return, Revelation foresees a tremendous earthquake, unlike any in history (16:18).
B. wind (Job 1:18-19).
Job's ten children died when "a mighty wind … struck the four corners of the house" and it collapsed. Job's friends knew that God sometimes "brings out the wind from his storehouses" (Ps. 135:7) to punish men, and they insisted that Job's sin had caused this disaster. God replied that the wind and other forces of nature are indeed under his control (38:22-30), and so was Satan, whom God had permitted to strike Job's children (1:12).
A. rain (1 Sam. 12:16-18).
God promised rain as a covenant blessing (Deut. 11:14), but in this case it was a curse, coming down during the wheat harvest. It was a reminder that God, their true King, would meet their needs, not King Saul.