Poets like to speak of thunder as the voice of God, telling of his various moods during the storm. Sometimes he speaks gently in a continuous rumble. Other times he booms at us, and we cover our ears.
Thunder is actually a result of something completely different, lightning. Without the lightning, there would be no thunder. When the white-hot electricity of the storm’s fury jumps from one spot to another, it thrusts the air aside with such force that the sound rushes over us in the distinct waves we call thunder.
Why do we hear different kinds? It depends on where the lightning strikes.
- Rumbling thunder comes when lightning remains in the clouds, jumping from one to another. It can be beautiful, a background melody in the midst of the storm. This is the thunder that helps us sleep, a pleasant accompaniment to the falling rain.
- Booming thunder is what we dread. It’s from lightning that travels directly from the cloud to the ground, or from the ground to the cloud. This thunder makes us jump, getting our attention in an unpleasant way. It means the lighting is right there with us, close enough to zap us with its power.
God is like the thunder. Mostly he whispers to us, the distant rumble of his voice remaining in the background of our everyday lives, gently reminding us of his presence, as in these examples:
1 Peter 2:9 reveals God’s gentleness, reinforcing the foundation of truth in our lives.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
1 Peter 5:8 sends us a warning of continual danger lurking in the clouds.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
1 Timothy 5:21 rumbles with the reminder of how the Father wants us to live.
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.”
Colossians 3:13 wraps us in the distant sounds of a God who’s always in the background, waiting on us to hear him.
“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Then there are the times God has to rattle our windowpanes and wake us from sleep to get our attention. 2 Peter 2:1, 4-5, 21 is no gentle accompaniment of thunder in the background of our lives. Rather, we hear the thunderclap of God’s voice, revealing the lightning strike of his awesome word traveling from the clouds to the ground, sending us reeling.
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
Sometimes God needs to get our attention, to make us jump, and to keep us awake at night. When the thunder of God’s voice rattles our windowpanes and shakes our foundations, he’s right there at our side, and he’s got something important to say. If we choose to listen, we’re already on our way back to him.
The thunderclap in the storm tells us that the power of the lightning is already at our side. That lightning is Jesus, drawing us into his embrace.
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