1 Kings 8 - 10

This morning I awoke to news of devastating tornadoes in Tennessee. In general conference there were reference to hurricanes such as Katrina, the terrible Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, earthquakes in Pakistan and other areas, flooding and other weather related devastation last year. We all recognize the havoc Mother Nature can create. I couldn't help but recognize in the dedicatory prayer of the temple, Solomon suggests there is a direct relationship between the temporing of weather and the righteousness of the people. Solomon prayed -

"When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:
36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance." (Old Testament 1 Kings 8:35 - 36)

"If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers." (Old Testament 1 Kings 8:37 - 40)

President Kimball said -

"The Lord uses the weather sometimes to discipline his people for the violation of his laws." (Conference Report, Apr. 1977, pp. 4–5; or Ensign, May 1977, p. 4.)

He specifically quotes -

"If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely." (Old Testament Leviticus 26:3 - 5)

In regards to obedience to the Law of Tithing, the Savior taught -

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the fields, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 24:10 - 11)

Of keeping the Sabbath Day holy, the Savior said -

"Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;
17 Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart..." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 59:16 - 18)

In Solomon's closing words of his dedicatory prayer, he admonishes -

"Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments..." (Old Testament 1 Kings 8:61)