December 26th, how to contemplate calamity.

The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me.

This God, His way, is perfect. Second Samuel 22, 5, and 31.

After the loss of His 10 children owing to a natural disaster, Job 119, Job said,

the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, Job 121.

At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job's understanding of what happened.

He says, Job's brothers and sisters comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon

him, Job 42 11. This has several crucial implications for us, lessons for us here at the dawn of

a new year, as we think about calamities in the world and in our lives. Like the massive disaster

that occurred, December 26th, 2004, in the Indian Ocean, one of the deadliest natural disasters

on record, with 1.7 million people made homeless, half a million injured, and over 200,000 deaths.

Lesson number one, Satan is not ultimate God is.

Satan had a hand in Job's misery, but not the decisive hand. God gave Satan permission to

afflict Job, Job 112, 26. But Job and the writer of this book treat God as the decisive cause.

When Satan afflicts Job with sores, Job says to his wife,

Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? Job 210. And the writer calls the

Satanic sores the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Job 42 11. So Satan is real. Satan brings

misery, but Satan is not ultimate or decisive. He is on a leash. He goes no further.

Then God decisively permits. Lesson number two, even if Satan caused that tsunami in the Indian

Ocean the day after Christmas, 2004. He is not the decisive cause for over 200,000 deaths.

God is. God claims power over tsunamis in Job 38 8 and 11. When he asks Job rhetorically,

Who shut the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb and said,

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