An Act of God
Plead with the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. Exodus 9:28a
Twelve minutes of hail. This was no ordinary hail, golf balls and rocks coming from the heavens with a force I had never seen before. My car was totaled but it was in good shape compared to many near it in the parking lot.
As I stood, safely in the front of a big store, watching the hail fall from the sky I was not worried about my car, I was not thinking about how I would get home. I was wondering what on earth God was saying. It was awful. He seemed angry to me.
In Exodus 9 God is still afflicting Egypt with plagues so that Pharaoh will relent and let the Israelites leave the land to go to the Promised land. We have the benefit of the Bible for commentary so we know that God is deliberately sending a message in each of the plagues on Egypt. In Exodus 9:14 He says, “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.”
As I stood at that window I was sure there was none like God, who could send such a terrible storm, in all the earth.
Someone recently said to me, and then it was said again in a letter to the editor today, this hail came the day after same sex marriage was permitted in Pennsylvania. I know that God is not happy about that but I also know that it is really hard to know exactly what God is saying to us. On the same day there were abortion clinics in full operation, killing babies. In fact, I am sure any one of us could think of a whole plethora of sin that was being committed everywhere in the world at the moment that hail hit little ol’ West Reading, PA.
I fear that we want to point at one or two sins that don’t involve us directly and blame God’s anger on someone else. I have to wonder what God is saying to His church. Are we teaching and preaching the whole counsel of His Word? Do we look to Him, remember Him, or cry out for mercy from Him, when tragedy strikes?
In Exodus 9:16 God says to Pharaoh, “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” In His wrath we see the power of God and the glory of God all wrapped together. That hail storm was truly an awesome thing to watch as we went from warm and sunny to cold, threatening, and dangerous in a matter of minutes.
In all of the sin in the world, even right here in Reading, PA., I have to say that I do not know exactly what God was trying to say, or if He was pointing to a particular sin. I do know what I saw and heard as I watched His hail fall from the sky. He is powerful and there is none like Him in all the earth.
That hail storm has proclaimed the Name of God all over this county as “an act of God”. It has caused me to pray that more and more people would have eyes to see and ears to hear when God is proclaiming His own glory.
Violence, like this hail storm or thunderstorms or blizzards, make me think “awesome,” just like God who sends them.