The Thundering Voice of God

August 23, 2011 - The Great Earthquake of Michigan! (and I happened to get a selfie during it!)

OK, I jest ... probably inappropriately to boot, but I'm a dork, so I do random stupid things! Anyway, I actually thought of thunderstorms, earthquakes, and other alarming natural events as I was reading in 1 Samuel today ...

" ... but the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and thew them into confusion." 1 Samuel 7:10b

While we often see metaphors in Scripture, this is not one of them. Nor is it the only time we read something like this. So often I have read over these passages with half-hearted attention ...

Yet, imagine this!

This is not a thunderstorm, an earthquake, or some other random natural earth event that an entire army of trained soldiers would dismiss, or even be somewhat prepared. This wasn't a meteor that landed in a fiery explosion that would have seemed god-like to them, but explainable to us thousands of years later.

There was a sound ... so thunderous ... so loud ... so ... supernatural ... that it threw an entire army into disarray ...

The word here for confusion, hamam in Hebrew, also occurs in Exodus when the LORD threw the army into a "panic" as it is translated there ...

Panic, Confusion, Hysteria ...

I just bring this up so that those that know Him can sit in this for a bit ... marinate if you will in it ... meditate on it ...

This is the awesome power of God!

The God Who's voice can make an army crumble in panic ... is the same voice that whispers to our hearts because He is intimate and close ... the Lion and the Lamb ... the Alpha and the Omega ... Yahweh ... the Great I AM ...