The Terrific Power of Yahweh's Thunder in the East

The Lord also thundered in the heavens.—An Oriental thunderstorm reveals the terror and majesty of Elohim's voice in ways unfamiliar to Western experience. Eastern storms possess a peculiar ferocity: vivid lightning and suffocating darkness alternate with startling rapidity, creating an appalling effect. The Psalmist captures this in the phrase "at the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed away"—the lightning's intensity is so extreme that massive dark clouds seem to vanish entirely, replaced instantaneously by solid light flooding the earth like a midday sun. Yet this illumination lasts but a moment. Then comes darkness palpable enough to touch, shutting out all vision save to Him "to whom the darkness and the light are both alike" (Psalm 139:12).

Meanwhile, the thunder—the voice of the Most High in the clouds—roars incessantly. Lightning flashes from cloud to cloud, from clouds to earth, and from earth back skyward. It appears as though He who "measureth the waters in the hollow of His hand" (Isaiah 40:12) has poured them forth, for rain descends in torrents, mingled with destructive hail. Meteoric balls of fire race along the ground, as recorded in Exodus 9:23. In such natural violence, mortals confront the raw dynamis (power) of Adonai—a power that humbles human presumption and awakens worship.