THE STORMS OF MATTHEW 8
When I was a teen living in Okinawa, I remember some of my friends and I taking a boat from the main island of Okinawa to visit one of the smaller islands. It was during the typhoon season and though we were not in a typhoon, it was a really, really scary storm.
We were in a ship much more modern and technologically superior to anything the disciples would have been in. Yet, with each wave, our boat was like a plastic toy bobbing in that raging Pacific Ocean, which at that point in time was anything BUT "pacific"--which means "calm, peaceful." We were engulfed by waves sometimes at least five times higher than our boat! I got right with God real quick--because I just knew that my number was up!
That's a lot like the storm the disciples were experiencing in our text here in Matthew 8:23-27. And, remember now, with the exception of a few landlubbers like the former tax collector, Matthew, among the disciples were several seasoned seaman who were used to the sea. And yet, even these experienced fishermen were terrified, as depicted in our video. They were caught in a storm that they could not handle with their own experience and knowledge and ability. Perhaps no other passage in the Bible pictures so well our helplessness handling our own problems in our own strength--and the power of God to overcome anything.