A Biblical Theology of Hurricanes
Wind, Waves, Seas, and Storms
Anthony explores a biblical theology of hurricanes, examining how storms, wind, and waves are portrayed in scripture and what they symbolize. By diving into passages from both the Old and New Testaments, we discuss the connections between hurricanes, typhoons, whirlwinds, and God's power over chaos. We also explore themes of creation, judgment, and redemption, focusing on how hurricanes serve as powerful images of God's sovereignty and the brokenness of the world. Through stories like Jonah and Jesus calming the storm, we see how these natural disasters reflect deeper spiritual realities. Join us as we uncover the biblical perspective on hurricanes and their symbolism in both ancient and modern contexts.
TRANSCRIPT: A Biblical Theology of Hurricanes
What is a hurricane?
Today, we're going to talk about hurricanes, specifically thinking about the wind, waves, seas, and storms, and how they interact. This discussion is called a Biblical Theology of Hurricanes. To begin, let’s talk about what a hurricane is.
A hurricane is essentially a massive storm. We classify them into categories—Class 3, Class 4, Class 5—depending on their strength. A hurricane is a violent windstorm, operating in a cyclonic form, swirling across the ocean. Technically, hurricanes only form in the Caribbean. That’s why, as a U.S. citizen, when I think about giant, violent storms coming in off the ocean and wreaking havoc, I think about hurricanes. But technically, a hurricane is just a type of typhoon that forms in the Caribbean. Typhoons occur in other parts of the world and cause similar devastation.
So, when you hear the word "typhoon," if you're an American like me, you can think "hurricane," because they’re basically the same thing. When we look at scripture, depending on the translation, we see the terms "hurricane" or "typhoon," alongside other words for large storms. The Greek word for "tempestuous" is related to typhonicus, which gives us the English word "typhoon." So, whenever you see a reference to a great storm—a typhoon, tempest, or hurricane in the Bible—it refers to that level of destruction.
Some might think, "I've never heard of a hurricane hitting the Middle East," or question why we’d think about hurricanes in that context. However, consider that in 2023, a storm called Storm Daniel hit Libya, killing nearly 6,000 people. The tail end of the storm reached Israel, causing further destruction. Based on today’s events and the historical records in ancient texts, including the Bible, hurricanes, typhoons, and tempests were not unknown in the biblical world. When we read about these great storms in scripture, we should be thinking about the kind of destruction caused by hurricanes.
The ESV Bible (English Standard Version) often translates the Hebrew word supah as either "hurricane" or "whirlwind." This "whirlwind" translation is particularly interesting. There are many different words in the Bible for storms or great winds, but "whirlwind" doesn’t necessarily mean "tornado." When I hear the word "whirlwind," my mind often goes to images of a huge tornado tearing through the Midwest. But that’s not what the Bible is referring to here. In scripture, the term "whirlwind" likely refers to a typhoon or hurricane-like storm.
We know this for several reasons. First, from the etymology of the words and how they are translated in the Bible. Second, tornadoes are extremely rare in Israel today, and we don’t see much biblical context for them either. So, when we encounter the word "whirlwind" in scripture, it’s most likely describing a hurricane-like storm that causes mass destruction.
There’s an important text I want to read from Hosea 8:7, which says, "They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flower. If it were to yield, strangers would devour it." This passage is a condemnation of Israel for their disobedience and idolatry toward Yahweh. It uses two different words related to wind and storms, and in English, we get a poetic structure: "They sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind." This mirrors the poetic rhythm found in the original Hebrew.
In Hebrew, the text says, "They sow the ruach," a common word in scripture for both "spirit" and "wind." Then it says, "they shall reap the supah," meaning whirlwind or great storm. The words ruach and supah rhyme, creating the poetic rhythm the English translators mirrored. So, when we read Hosea 8:7, we should understand it as saying they sow a small wind, yet they reap great destruction. The passage illustrates that small actions—like disobedience or idolatry—can result in devastating consequences.
Psalm 83:13-15 provides another instance of storm imagery: "My God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your hurricane." In this passage, we see various words referring to wind and storms. The terms "whirling dust," "wind," "tempest," and "hurricane" all describe different aspects of great winds or destructive storms, depending on the context.
The Bible uses these words to evoke images of chaos and destruction. Hurricanes, whirlwinds, and tempests aren’t just physical phenomena in scripture; they symbolize God’s judgment, wrath, or trials, and at times, even His presence or spirit. When we see these storms in scripture, they carry deep meaning beyond the physical destruction they represent. They remind us of the power of God and the consequences of human disobedience.
Hurricane Symbolism
Let’s talk a little about the symbolism of hurricanes. Hurricanes, properly speaking, are storms that begin in the oceans, bringing massive amounts of water and high winds. They don't concern us as much when they're out in the ocean, though sailors certainly have to be concerned. It’s when they come onto land that we worry.
For example, just looking at some recent hurricanes that hit the U.S. on the east coast, they caused massive destruction, flooding various areas—even in hill country—cutting off access to certain parts of the land and creating problem after problem.
Hurricanes are these storms that take destructive power from the ocean and blow it onto the land—the region of man. Often in scripture, hurricanes, whirlwinds, and tempests symbolize God's power, wrath, trials, or testing.
This is where we hear ideas like, "It's God's destruction on the United States because we’ve become immoral." That kind of thinking can be reductionistic, but there’s a shred of truth to it. In scripture, hurricanes and similar storms are often used to express God's judgment and power, and they can describe times of trial or testing.
Other words for storms can represent God’s presence or spirit. So, when we think about wind, for example, it can symbolize God’s presence or spirit. For the righteous, judgment means receiving God’s presence and spirit—walking with God, Emmanuel, God with us. When we walk with God, that’s what we receive. But when we are disobedient, we experience His power, wrath, trials, and testing.
The crossover between words like ruach—which means both "wind" and "spirit"—shows this concept clearly. At times, ruach carries the sense of God's spirit or His presence with us.
Let’s talk about where hurricanes start. Hurricanes begin in the ocean, and the seas represent chaos. Hurricanes and typhoons develop out of this chaos, and there’s a reason for that. They bring chaos from the ocean to the land. The sea is often associated with Leviathan, the great sea beast that appears in several passages of scripture. Leviathan is said to live in the ocean and even “plays” there. The ocean itself is often conflated with Leviathan, meaning the ocean rages because Leviathan is in it.
The sea is beautiful, but it is also mysterious and dangerous. In Revelation, we read that "the sea will be no more" (Revelation 21:1), and people sometimes say, "But I love the ocean! I can’t imagine an eternity without it." They’re missing the point—it’s imagery. The sea will be no more because chaos will be no more when the eternal Kingdom of God is manifest on the earth.
There are countless sailor myths, and they often personify the chaos of the sea. Think of the myth of the sirens—dangerous yet beautiful femme fatales who lured sailors to their death with enchanting music and voices, causing them to crash on the rocky coasts of their islands. These myths represented the chaos of the ocean in personified form, adding a spiritual dimension to the physical dangers sailors faced.
The ancient sailors didn’t only see the oceans as physical and biological realities. They weren't ignorant of the natural order of things—they understood basic physics and biology. Many practiced early forms of these disciplines. But they also saw a deeper spiritual reality underneath the physical. When they saw the oceans rage, they believed it was because of the great chaos within them, which the seas symbolized.
This belief reflected not only the dangers of the seas but also the superstitions about something sinister in the deep waters—something supernatural. The seas were seen as a gateway to the belly of the earth. Within the ancient world’s three-tiered cosmology, the sea was a portal to the underworld, where evil beasts emerged. We see this in Daniel and Revelation, where great beasts come out of the sea because that is their abode. The three-tiered cosmology included heaven, the earth, and under the earth. These evil beasts were thought to come up from the depths of the seas.
Storms, then, represent chaos—almost like a beast rising from the ocean. These storms stem from supernatural origins being released onto the earth.
Genesis and Storm Imagery
In the creation account in Genesis, we observe a particular pattern, especially in how the text describes the six days of creation. Day one marks the beginning of creation proper, but there’s more to notice in the structure of the text. In Genesis, days one through six share a common literary pattern. In the ancient world, most people couldn’t read, and even those who could had limited access to written texts. Instead, people relied on memory and teachers to shape their worldview. As a result, the structure of key texts, like the creation narrative, was crucial for learning and retaining important truths.
On the first day of creation, the text says, "And God said, let there be..." marking the start of each day. At the end of the day, we read the phrase, "And there was evening and there was morning, the [blank] day." This pattern repeats for each of the six days, creating an easy-to-follow structure.
However, this pattern doesn’t begin until verse three of Genesis 1. Verses one and two serve as a prologue, which I sometimes call "day zero." Some interpret this as an additional 24-hour period, but that’s not my point. A literal 24-hour reading of Genesis 1 isn’t necessary and can detract from the larger message. What matters is the significance of this prologue.
In "day zero," the earth exists as a rock covered in water, and the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. During days one through three, God brings order to the darkness and chaos by creating light, separating the waters to reveal the land, and bringing forth life. These days represent the ordering of what was already present in the prologue. God had already created the world, but Genesis 1 describes the process of bringing order from chaos.
On day two, the waters are separated—those below from those above—creating what the ancient world understood as a three-tiered cosmology. The firmament, or expanse, separates the seas from the skies. Imagine the earth as a rock covered in water. On day one, light illuminates everything. On day two, the waters separate, forming the sky, with the seas below and the heavens above.
This concept of a three-tiered world may have developed from ancient observations of the sky. When people looked up and saw the blue sky, they may have concluded there was water above, just like there was water in the seas below. While we can’t know this for certain, it seems likely this is how they understood the world’s structure.
The separation of the waters responds to the state of the earth described in Genesis 1:2: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." These waters represented chaos, but the Spirit of God hovered over them, bringing order.
The word "hovering" is significant. What exactly was the Spirit of God doing? Most assume the Spirit was controlling the waters, which is a reasonable conclusion, but there’s more to it. The Hebrew word translated as "hovering" is rachaph, a rare word used only three times in the Bible. Twice, it refers to trembling or shaking in fear, and only once is it translated as "hovering."
Thanks to modern scholarship, we now have access to materials, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that help us better understand this word. In some contexts, rachaph can mean "to grow soft" or "to soften." So, when the word is used to describe trembling or shaking, it may also imply softening in fear.
Picture a great warrior who becomes soft with fear, where they were once hardened. This softening is what we see in Genesis 1:2, where the Spirit of God hovers over the chaotic waters, bringing them under control. These waters symbolize disorder and chaos, and God tempers them by His Spirit. He holds the chaos at bay, allowing order to emerge. The waters tremble before Him, as God maintains control over creation.
This imagery reminds me of the story of Jonah. Jonah runs from God because he doesn’t want to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, to call them to repentance. He knows God is merciful and might forgive them. Jonah’s resistance likely comes from his understanding of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, both of which struggled with obedience to God. Jonah feared that even Judah, at times disobedient, might face God’s wrath and judgment.
While Jonah sleeps in the belly of a ship, a great storm—a tempest, or hurricane—begins to rage at sea, tearing the ship apart. The sailors throw cargo overboard to lighten the load, but it doesn’t help. They each call upon their gods, but the storm continues. Finally, they remember Jonah and wake him, asking, "What’s going on? Who is your God, and why are you here?"
Jonah admits, "I’m a prophet of Yahweh, and I’m running from Him." The sailors panic because they know their gods aren’t like Yahweh. Their gods, like the gods of Greek mythology, were created beings. Even powerful deities like Zeus and Poseidon were not primordial gods. They were created by forces that existed before them. But Jonah serves Yahweh, the God who existed before anything else and who created all things. As Psalm 86:8 says, "There is none like you among the gods, O Yahweh, nor are there any works like yours."
This acknowledgment shows that the gods worshipped by the sailors, though considered divine, are nothing compared to Yahweh. Their gods cannot save them from the storm. Only Yahweh, the Creator, controls the storm. Jonah tells them that the only way to calm the storm is to throw him into the sea, into the mouth of the Leviathan. The sailors, desperate to save their lives, throw Jonah overboard, and the storm immediately ceases.
Once the storm subsides, the sailors offer sacrifices to Yahweh, recognizing His power. Meanwhile, Jonah descends into the depths of the sea, into the figurative belly of the Leviathan. He reaches the bottom of the ocean, about to be swallowed by the chaos of the sea and the underworld.
But instead of destruction, Yahweh sends a great fish—the Leviathan—not to kill Jonah, but to save him. This demonstrates that God’s power extends over chaotic forces like hurricanes and over evil itself. Just as God rescued Jonah from the Leviathan and from death, He shows His sovereignty over the most chaotic and threatening forces in creation.
Jesus and Hurricanes
When we look at Jesus in the Gospels, we often see him interacting with water, and one of the key stories is when Jesus walks on water. He had been praying on the mountain, and as he comes down, he sees a storm—a violent typhoon on the sea—where the disciples are in a boat, fearing for their lives.
Just like in Genesis 1:2, where the Spirit is described as softening the seas, Jesus walks out across the water, hovering over it. When Jesus reaches the disciples, the sea calms. Peter, seeing this, asks to come out on the water, and Jesus calls him. Peter steps out and walks on the water, not by his own power but by the power Jesus extends to him.
However, Peter loses focus, looks at the storm, and begins to sink into the chaos—into what we might call the mouth of the Leviathan. The sea is winning against Peter, but not against Jesus. As Peter sinks, Jesus reaches out and saves him from the chaos, pulling him back up.
This imagery is powerful because it shows that Jesus is God, very God. In the New Testament, both the apostle Paul and the apostle John emphasize that Jesus, as the Son, is the agent of creation. In the Godhead, it is the Son who speaks all things into being. This doesn’t mean that God the Father didn’t create—understanding the Trinity, we know it means that Jesus, as the agent, acted in creation. Jesus has control over the chaos, the Leviathan, not just in the story of Peter but in every storm, including the storms in our lives. When hurricanes, both literal and figurative, rage, Jesus is the one who can pull us out of the chaos and save us.
This is essential to the entire biblical theology of hurricanes—if we lose this imagery, the whole concept starts to unravel.
Another important story is when Jesus calms the storm. This reminds me of Jonah, and the parallel is clear. Matthew 8:23-27 tells us, "When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep." Jesus was asleep on the boat, much like Jonah slept during the storm in the Old Testament.
The disciples wake Jesus, crying out, "Save us, Lord, we are perishing." Jesus responds, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" He then rebukes the winds and the sea, and the storm ceases. In Jonah’s story, it is God who calms the storm, but here, Jesus speaks to the storm, and the sea obeys him.
The disciples marvel, asking, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?" The point here is clear: man does not calm the storm—God does. No spirits or gods can command the winds and seas in this way. Only God, the Creator, has that power. This is what confuses the disciples. They see Jesus day after day as a man—eating, walking, talking, and teaching, just like any man. But when power flows out of Jesus, like when he casts out demons, heals the sick, and in this case, calms the seas, they are confronted with something greater.
What is this kind of man? He’s not just another godly man or prophet who performs miracles. He must be God, very God. The disciples had never seen anything like this, even in their own scriptures. When Jesus says, "O you of little faith," he’s pointing out that they still see him as just a man, albeit one empowered by the Spirit of God. But Jesus is telling them he’s more than that—he is the God-man.
This points to the doctrine of the hypostatic union, the full union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus has the power to command the seas because, as God, he is the one who created them. The essence and deity of God rest fully in Jesus, and this is who Jesus was in life—and who he continues to be.
Hurricanes in Revelation
Even in Revelation, there is much more hurricane imagery that we’ve barely scratched the surface of. I hope this gives you a sense of how to think about storms, typhoons, hurricanes, and whirlwinds in biblical theology. Revelation 7:1-3 gives us a glimpse of this, pointing toward the return of Christ and the judgment of all things:
"After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on the earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.'"
This passage reminds us that God is in control of the winds that stir the seas. This concept challenges us because, often, people want to explain hurricanes and typhoons as purely physical realities—natural occurrences of our world. Some even claim that specific nations are being punished by these storms, as if God is enacting vengeance on them to provoke repentance, as if these nations were Israel. But that thinking doesn’t align with scripture.
The United States is not God’s chosen people—Israel is. We become part of God’s people only through faith in Christ, as clearly taught in Galatians and Romans. The idea that God is punishing nations with hurricanes as he did in biblical Israel is unfounded. Instead, scripture shows us that God, through his agents like the angels, holds back the winds until the appointed time.
In Revelation 20:13, we read: "The sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done." This passage reflects the ancient association of the sea with the underworld—whether as a portal in the seas or a space at the bottom of the oceans. The sea is often equated with Hades and Sheol, the place of the dead, and on the day of judgment, even the dead in the sea must be given up to face judgment and be cast into the lake of fire.
In Revelation 21:1, we see the culmination of this imagery: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." The disappearance of the sea signals the end of chaos. Throughout the Bible, the sea represents the abode of evil and chaos. But in the eternal kingdom of God, ushered in by Christ’s return, there is no longer any sea—no more chaos, no more evil.
This isn’t about the literal loss of the ocean, as some might protest, saying they love the beach. The point is that the sea, symbolizing chaos and evil, will be no more. In the eternal kingdom, the forces of chaos and destruction are vanquished. This is the imagery we trace in biblical theology as we follow these themes of storms, seas, and the forces of chaos. By thinking like the ancient person and understanding what they understood, we can better appreciate how these themes run through scripture and how God ultimately brings order and peace.
When hurricanes destroy our lands
When hurricanes destroy our lands, like the one we’ve just experienced, and we hear about the death toll and the missing, we need to pray for the rescue of those lost. But how should we think about hurricanes destroying our lands? I believe we should think about them in the same way we think about all types of evil in the world. God has allowed evil to exist on the earth and in the cosmos. He didn’t stop Adam and Eve from eating the forbidden fruit. He didn’t rush down to prevent Eve from sinning. In the same way, God allows us to walk in sin if we choose, and to experience the consequences of those choices.
However, just because a hurricane hits the United States, it doesn’t mean the nation is specifically being punished for sin. Hurricanes and other natural disasters are part of the world we live in—a world that has been affected by sin on a global scale. As the Apostle Paul said, "The creation is groaning, waiting for Christ's return." Hurricanes are part of this groaning, a manifestation of the evil and brokenness in the world caused by humanity's rebellion against God.
We live in a world where hurricanes destroy our lands because of the universal presence of sin. Hurricanes and the destructive seas are symbols of chaos and evil when they come onto the land, demonstrating the destruction sin causes, both spiritually and physically.
In John 9:1-5, when Jesus encounters a man blind from birth, his disciples ask, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answers, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." Jesus teaches us that we shouldn’t ask who sinned to cause disasters like hurricanes. These events occur so that the glory of God can be revealed. God allows these things to happen, and through them, we see what sin causes in the world.
When faced with destruction, we must turn to God. We pray, pursue Him, and repent of our sins, striving for godliness because we’ve seen the devastation sin can cause. Unlike the Israelites, who repeatedly faced trials like whirlwinds and typhoons yet refused to repent of their sin and idolatry, we are called to turn to Yahweh and walk in obedience, giving glory to God for His deliverance.
So who sinned that this hurricane happened? No one, but that the works of God might be displayed. It’s not about us being particularly sinful when a hurricane strikes, although we are sinful by nature. Rather, these events serve to display God's power and work in the world.
Throughout scripture, we see a pattern where God takes destruction, like a hurricane wiping out towns and cities, and brings beauty from the ashes. In these moments, people come to know Christ. Many don’t realize their need for Him until they see the destruction that sin causes. The good news of the Gospel becomes more real in the wake of disaster because it shows the contrast between the consequences of sin and the hope found in Christ.
I recently read an article from the Southern Baptist Convention’s news outlet, Baptist Press, about the rescue efforts after a recent hurricane. It shared how responders were praying with survivors and sharing the message of Christ, and many people were coming to repentance. They were realizing they needed to take their sins seriously and commit their lives to Christ. This is the beauty that comes from the ashes—the works of God being displayed in the aftermath of destruction.
When Christ returns, as described in Revelation, the angels will step away from holding back the winds and the seas. Sin will ravage the earth, but those who have sought refuge in the Lord will be spared from destruction. The works of God will be fully revealed, and those who seek Him will find salvation.
This is a biblical theology of hurricanes: God allows destruction, but through it, His glory is revealed. In the chaos, we find our refuge in Him, and we are reminded of our need for His grace and deliverance.
