The Voice of God Thunders

I had trouble staying asleep last night because of the storm. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and rain pelted the house for several hours. After a warm day, the cool air that resulted felt refreshing as it drifted through the windows.

When I was a kid, my mother used to tell us that thunder was the sound of the angels bowling. Parents say things like that because thunder is frightening to a small child. Even adults can be surprised by it.

On a few occasions in the Bible, thunder or a thunderstorm was attributed to the hand of God. This is not because the ancients believed that thunder was God's voice or some such thing. They were a bit more sophisticated than we give them credit for. Rather, they believed that, at least some of the time, God controlled the weather and could direct it as he wished.

Even so, thunder was used metaphorically in Scripture to describe either the voice or power of God. Isaiah 33:3--At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter. Job 26:14--Who then can understand the thunder of his power?

And thunder is a fitting metaphor. It is a sound that booms from the sky. It is typically accompanied by powerful weather conditions. Though it is not the only way to describe God's act of speaking (such as the still, small voice), it communicates one aspect of his speaking: When God says something, it has power and authority behind it.

As I listened to the thunder, I thought this: Just as the rainbow in the sky is supposed to remind us that God will never again destroy the entire earth with water, perhaps we should think of his authoritative voice every time we hear the thunder roar across the sky.