Wind

Cool breezes, chilly blasts, gentle gusts, strong squalls, whispering winds, wild zephyrs, and fierce gales are all ways that wind can be described. But where does wind come from? In the book of Job, God asks Job where the east wind is stored and scattered. We feel breezes all the time, and we know that wind causes many good things here on earth, but how does the wind form?

Let’s start with a local wind, the one you feel at the beach. In the summer, the winds you feel are called on-shore breezes. The reason you feel the breezes on the beach is the same reason there are winds all over the earth. As an area gets hot, the air above it gets hot as well. When the air gets hot, it rises. When that air rises, air rushes in to take its place. This is what causes wind. Air moving in to take the place of air that is rising. This phenomenon can be small events such as at a beach, beside a hot parking lot, or beside a lake. But it can also happen all over the earth and cause global winds.

Because of the angle of the earth, the sun hits the earth most intensely near the equator. The sun hits the earth and heats it up. The air above these areas rises up. This rising air cools and forms thunderstorms. These thunderstorms cause the rains that form the tropical rainforest all along the equator.

The cool, dry air then descends around 23.5 degrees north and south of the equator. These are called the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This cool air does not carry moisture with it. This is what causes the deserts, such as the Sahara, Kalahari, and Arabian deserts.

So God asks Job if he knows where the east winds are stored and scattered. In Israel these winds are caused by air rising from the Sahara and Arabian deserts. When the air rises, the wind blows across Israel to fill in those spaces. So when God asks Job where the “east wind” is, God is referring to a very real, tangible, and often devastating wind.

Winds can be gentle, devastating or chilly, but God made them all.