The Truth will Set you Free: Reflections on a Thunderstorm

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Reflections on a Thunderstorm

By Darrin R. Brooker

The forecast here in southern Ontario for the long weekend is rain, rain, and more rain. The front moving in is supposedly part of tropical storm Ernesto. It was about a year ago when hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the southern US, and despite what certain popular theologians thought of that storm being outside of the control of God, we know that God Himself directs every raindrop to the place it is to fall. A storm does not rage outside of God’s governance, nor is there any such thing as a natural disaster as most define the term, for nature operates within the will and dominion of the Almighty. If the wind blows, and the rain falls, and if you see and hear thunder and lightning in the sky, think of it as Augustus Toplady did: as the voice of God speaking to the inhabitants of earth. When we see nature at its fiercest, do we see it as a glimpse of the power and glory of God? Do we see in it a picture of the awfulness of the judgment of God to come upon sinners outside of Christ? When the rain falls and the storms come, recognize it as the hand of God active in His creation, displaying His power for all to see.

Reflections on a Thunderstorm

When the lightning flashes, and when the thunder rolls, do we as it were, hear the Almighty speak in the one and see a glimpse of His tremendous glory in the other! If when the clouds pour out water, when the air thunders and the arrows of His lightning are sent abroad, it is natural for the guilty to tremble, for the just to pray, and for all to look up to Him whose voice is thus mighty in operation; where will the ungodly, where will the unbeliever, where will the habitual sinner appear, when the Lord Himself descends from Heaven with a shout, a shout that shall unbar the gates of death, recall the scattered dust of all mankind, and wake that dust to life?

May we ever listen to the Almighty when He speaks in thunder, or looks in lightning, and call to mind that awful period when the final trump shall summon us to the bar! May every such season be improved to this beneficial purpose! And though thunder and other effects are under God, owing to natural causes and may be accounted for on natural principles; yet let us remember that natural causes are caused by the God of nature, and that the effects of His all-active, all-governing providence. And this is the glorious God that maketh the thunder. Such a view of things will render the most obvious events, lessons of the highest instruction, and means of spiritual improvement.

Thus considered, thunder teaches and lightning holds the lamp to knowledge: nature becomes subservient to grace, and the laws of the material system direct to Heaven. And should we not aspire to the friendship of that Being whose voice shakes the earth, and whose eyes are as a flame of fire? Should we not approach His footstool, humbled in the dust of repentance, and trusting in the propitiation of Him who hushed the infinitely more dreadful thunder of divine resentment, and, in His own blood, quenched the lightning of vindictive wrath? Possessed of interest in His availing merit, and conformed, as far as human infirmity will permit, to His blessed example, we need fear nothing. Though the earth was removed, and the hills carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof should rage and swell, and the mountains shake at the tempest of the same; yet safely anchored on the rock of redeeming merit, and lodged in the arms of God’s everlasting love, we should be equally free both from danger and from dread.

Let the inferior thunders grate upon the ear; let sublunary lightnings flash terror on the eye, so we are enabled to take shelter beneath the hiding place of a Redeemer’s righteousness, and His Spirit, in gentlest accents, whispers comfort to the heart. Happy they who thus dwell beneath the defence of the Most High, who abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and to whom His faithfulness and truth are a shield and buckler!