Living by the ocean gives you the privilege of visiting the coast often and admiring its beauty. The power of the sea will captivate you; the roar of its waves pounding against the rocks is therapeutic. The sea’s endless sounds and movements make it seem to have a life of its own.
On one particular trip to the beach, I remembered the words of Scripture as I enjoyed the view of the ocean: "He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command" (Prov 8:29). One after another, the waves rushed to the shore, but always subsided when they reached the shoreline and receded quietly into the massive body of the ocean. Every now and then, waves as tall as a building made their way toward shore, certain to flood the beach. But amazingly, as they reached shore, they immediately died down, in the same way a roaring lion suddenly becomes like a gentle lamb at the command of its trainer.
Genesis tells us that God gathered the waters together in order to make dry land for humans to dwell on. While we may take for granted that the whole world is not covered in the ocean, being able to live on dry land is in fact a great miracle. It is by God’s command that we are not submerged in water! Although there is sufficient water on the planet to cover the tallest mountains, God marked out the places where we should live and provides us with dry land. He also set a boundary for the sea so that the waters may not cross over.
The Lord asked Job:
Who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;
When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;
When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther,
And here your proud waves must stop!' (Job 38:8-11) God also spoke to His people through His prophet, "'Do you not fear Me?... Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it'" (Jer 5:22).
The Scripture often turns our attention to the Creation to teach us about the God we worship. Just as God wanted His people to learn of His sovereign power through His control over the sea and dry land, He also wants us to constantly remember His greatness. If even the powerful waves submit to God’s decree, how much more should we, the children of God, submit to the Almighty Creator!
O Lord my Creator, thank you for creating dry land as our dwelling place. I will honor and submit to your sovereign commands, as the mighty ocean obeys your sovereign decree.
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