Out Of The Whirlwind

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

Colossians 1:17  

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind… 

Job 38:1 

Christ holds everything together. This first portion of our text declares that, ‘in Him all things consist,’ or hang together. Hebrews 1 says that He upholds all things by the word of His power. We conclude from these phrases that Christ is indeed, holding everything together. The second portion of our text is the beginning of a lengthy speech by God in which He delineates His relationship to all that exists. What is important for our purpose of seeking Christ in the Scriptures is that He speaks to Job out of the whirlwind just as certainly as He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. As the incident at the burning bush was a Christophany, a preincarnate appearance of Christ, so also is this occasion of God speaking to Job out of the whirlwind. What follows is a veritable litany of situations in which Christ describes, with various details, His control over all that is. We have no other occasion in Scripture where Christ so clearly and at such length articulates His relationship to all creation. It outlines specifically how it is that in Him all things consist. Therefore as we consider what He said out of the whirlwind we understand that this is not what someone has said about Christ. Rather it is what He Himself has said. In Him all things consist.

Our Great and Sovereign God, 
we rejoice that You rule over all. 
We praise You that nothing exists without You.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning