I made these photos with my cellphone looking out the window of a Piedmont Airlines (flying under contract to American Airlines) propeller aircraft. This particular morning I was going from Roanoke, Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina, to get a connecting flight home, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was the second most turbulent flight I’ve ever experienced. Why? We were flying directly toward a hurricane, Matthew to be exact! Clouds above us, clouds below us, plenty of accompany wind also! While people on the shaking, lurching plane were screaming in fright (some of them) … I could not help but think of the “theophanies” of Scripture!
Today’s Bible Thought …
I want to use a big word this morning, “theophany.”
It means something like “a visible appearance of God!”
Particularly built into Old Testament theology, this phenomenon occurs with some regularity.
Job 38:1 is a classic example: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said ….” And God then said a lot! Yes, God appeared to Job … using a storm as His Cloak!
Clouds, lightning, thunder, wind … these often accompany our great God!
They did at Sinai, when God came down to give His Law! Here’s Exodus 19:16-19. See if this counts as a storm in your estimation. “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were THUNDERS and LIGHTNINGS, and a thick CLOUD upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount QUAKED greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” I guess here we add smoke, fire and an earthquake, too!
Another storm when God came … the Psalmist becoming quite graphic … Psalm 18:8-16. “There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. HE BOWED THE HEAVENS ALSO AND CAME DOWN: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the WIND. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick CLOUDS passed, HAIL STONES and coals of fire. The LORD also THUNDERED in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; HAIL STONES and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out LIGHTNINGS, and discomfited them. Then the channels of WATERS were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.” Now, a flood (torrents of rain) is added! But clearly it’s still a storm of epic proportions!
God and storms!
Now let’s allow the Prophet Habakkuk to teach us about one of God’s “visitations” Here He comes again, our great God. “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the LIGHT; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the PESTILENCE, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered (the earth quaking), the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.” Habakkuk 3:3-7, where again (though not as clearly meteorological) bright lightning, earth shaking (maybe from the roar of thunder?), and pestilent (like a plague) storm damage dramatically exhibit God’s Arrival.
No wonder God chose to speak to Job … out of a storm, out of a whirlwind!
And by the way, this Same God is coming yet again, to planet earth, in a time of unprecedented natural convulsion, storms galore!
Even in heaven John (banished to the isle of Patmos) sees the lightning and hears of thunder surrounding our Lord! One quick episode of such. “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and THUNDERS, and LIGHTNINGS; and there was a great EARTHQUAKE, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” Revelation 16:17-18, yes a storm!
Wow!
Think of HIM next time you’re in a “storm,” either literally or spiritually!
He is the Author of those things!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell