Luke 8:24

‘And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, “Master, master, we perish.”

Desperately aware that they could sink at any moment they fought their way though the wind and rain to where Jesus was and awoke Him, crying, “Master, master, we perish.” They felt that hope had almost gone.

‘Master, master.' The words are chosen carefully. They are speaking to the Master of the world.

‘And he awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.'

In response Jesus awoke, and then He rebuked the wind and the raging water, with the result that their raging ceased. And ‘there was a calm'.

The rebuking of the seas by God was a picture common in the Old Testament. It was a picture of total control. It was saying that here was One Who could control Himself and could control the elements. He had no fear of the wind or the sea, batter as they would, for He knew they would obey His will. This is not just a miracle, it is a portrayal of the One Who is Lord of all, of One Who rules the power of the sea (Psalms 89:9; Psalms 93:4). For He was the One Who had first spoken to the waters and had caused them to divide and to produce the dry land (Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:9).

‘He rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.' The rebuking of the waters is a common description of God's activity. For such rebuking of the waters compare Psalms 106:9, ‘He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up'; Isaiah 50:2, ‘Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea'; Nahum 1:4, ‘The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry ---.' In each case it is the voice of the Creator speaking to His creation as He did in Genesis 1, ‘rebuking' the waters and bringing about His will. In none of these cases is there the suggestion of any demonic element, or of battle. Even inanimate nature immediately responds to His voice because of Who He is. For the idea of God bringing about a great calm see Psalms 107:29, ‘He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still'. Compare also Jonah 1:12.

Now here we have the Son of God, and the same thing occurs. The raging waters obey His word. We can hardly fail to see in this a demonstration of deity. He is Master of the elements, Master of wind and waves. And He wants His disciples to know it. He wants them to come to recognise Who He really is. They will need to know it in the future.

And yet in view of its juxtaposition with the account of the raging demoniac which follows, who also comes to a position of calm, sitting at Jesus' feet and in his right mind we may probably be intended to see in this storm a deliberate attempt by the Devil to be rid of Jesus (compare Job 1:19). He still thought he could do it. The Devil had still not quite caught on as to Who Jesus was (and never did to the end).