“And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, ‘“If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
~ 1 Samuel 7:3
Hi James and Ellen,
What do you think that the sound of God’s voice is like? Do you think that the sound of God’s voice is like the sound of a deep, rumbling roll of a thunderclap after a lightening arrow has lit up the sky or do you think that the sound of God’s voice is like the sound of a sudden, deafening crack of thunder after a very close lightening flash? What do you want to do when you begin to see lighting and start to hear thunder? Do you want to crawl under your bed? Do you want to hide in your closet? Do you want to stay as close as possible to your dad and/or ma? Your grandmaa and grandpaa like to watch lightening shows. Your grandmaa and grandpaa like to lay in bed during a thunderstorm listening to the rumbling sounds of God’s percussion blasts as they act as backdrops to the constant pattering sound of rain falling on the roof of a house where they are living. What was the worst thunderstorm like that you can remember? Did the storm have a heavy, opaque bank of roiling, greenish tinted storm clouds that bore relentlessly in your direction? Did the storm have a living, intense wall of angry, agitated storm clouds that headed purposively your way? Your grandpaa remembers churning thunderstorms that arrived with intense wind gusts that snapped tree limbs and uprooted trees. Your grandpaa remembers raucous thunderstorms suddenly stopping air from moving just before its first slashing, wind driven rain deluge came powering through. Your grandpaa remembers armed thunderstorms that dropped barrages of pea to golf ball size hail that decapitated oat stem heads and shredded corn stalk leaves. Your grandpaa remembers a lone neurotic thunderstorm that had enough oomph in it to send out a snaking white, tornadic tentacle to send a field’s dirt and dust flying into the air before it filled its dervish, twisting mouth with water from a slough as it passed over it – making it look even more ominous as its probing, attacking feeler turned to a dark, throbbing color. Your dad was with your grandmaa and grandpaa and your grandpaa’s dad and ma one afternoon trying to fish out the south side of Lake Poinsett when your grandpaa saw the tornado touch down to the ground northwest of Lake Poinsett. When your grandpaa spotted the tornado, your grandmaa and grandpaa and your grandpaa’s dad and ma were catching crappies. When some guys who were fishing out of boats saw that your grandmaa and grandpaa and your grandpaa’s dad and ma were catching crappies, they anchored off the shore where your grandmaa and grandpaa and your grandpaa’s dad and ma were fishing. When your grandpaa saw the tornado touch down in a field northwest of Lake Poinsett, your grandpaa yelled to the guys who were in the boats to check out the tornado. The guys who were fishing in the three boats off the shore area where your grandmaa and grandpaa and your grandpaa’s dad and ma were catching crappies immediately pulled up their anchors and fishing lines and took off as fast as they could in their boats as . . . a thunderstorm that develops a tornado that scours and destroys is super scary. Even though it was funny watching the panicked fishermen get off Lake Poinsett just as fast as they could, your grandpaa’s dad decided that he, your grandpaa’s ma, your grandmaa and grandpaa and your dad should leave just in case the tornado decided to head due south instead of continuing to go east.
God over 3150 years ago used thunder one day to spook and rout Philistine people group guys. As God’s specially chosen guys and gals were trying to live peacefully in the land of Canaan – which is the land where God led them into about 300 year earlier to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . Philistine people group guys had become an exasperating irritant to them. God’s specially chosen guys and gals by this time were no longer obeying the laws and mandates that God had Moses pass on to them after He gave them to Moses when He met with Moses on top of Mount Sinai. A mandate that God passed on to His specially chosen guys and gals through Moses was that they were not to ever have anything to do with Baals and Ashtoreths. Baals were inanimate manmade male deity idols that were handmade by guys from wood, stone, clay and metal. Ashtoreths were inanimate manmade female deity idols that were also handmade by guys from wood, stone, clay and metal. God did not want to have deaf and dumb manmade idol gods competing with Him for the attention of His specially chosen guys and gals. Samuel had taken on the role of being a priest/judge among God’s specially chosen people. 1 Samuel 7 reports a mindset change among God’s specially chosen guys and gals when they began missing being able to worship in God’s presence. The ark of the covenant or the ark of the Lord – which was where God’s literal presence was on planet Earth, had been stuck in Kiriath Jearim for twenty years. When God’s specially chosen guys and gals began mourning or crying out desperately for God’s presence to be with them again, Samuel told them in verse 3 what they would have to do if they really wanted God’s presence to be present where they were living “And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, ‘“If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”’ God used the malice of the Philistine people group’s guys to get His specially chosen guys and gals to refocus on His mandates that would have them again only serving and worshipping Him. God used the thunder of His voice to cause Philistine people group guys to stay out of the land Canaan – which was the land area that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . .
The next time that you hear thunderbolts, think of them as being God’s voice asserting His matchless power.
1 Samuel 7 (596)