It rains so infrequently in Colorado that when it does rain, I like to sit in my blue rocker on the breezeway and watch it. Usually with the rain comes thunder which echoes through the mountain valleys. Recently, as I’ve watched and listened, the thought of God and thunder captured my attention. The Bible has a lot to say about thunder and in nearly every reference in the Bible, it has to do with proving God and His power or the manifestation of His message. Job talked about the power God had to know the “path” or “way” of the thunderbolt (Job 28:26). Later when God challenged Job, He asked, who, other than God, knew the path of the thunderbolt (Job 38:2)? Cloverdale, in Barnes’ commentary, points out that the message is this: since God controls the rain and the knows the path of the thunderbolt, surely, He is capable of guiding feeble mankind.

Thunder and God

First, thunder was a way of conveying that God was near. When God brought His people to Mount Sinai the text describes His presence by saying, “when it was morning…there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain…because the LORD descended upon it in fire” (Exodus 19:16, 18). God wanted them to know that He was near. 

This same message is conveyed by John when he saw the throne of God and the Lamb. “Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder” (Revelation 4:5). As the book of Revelation begins to come to a close, again we see lightning and sounds of thunder to let us know that Christ is near and has conquered. “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns” (Revelation 19:6).

Second, thunder was a symbol of God speaking. Not only did God prove that he was near, by thundering on Mount Sinai but He was also about to speak to His people (Exodus 19:16). Then, God spoke the ten commandments to all the people (Exodus 20:1). 

Later, God spoke by thunder to show His disapproval of the people asking for a king. Samuel explained, “Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for yourselves a king” (I Samuel 12:17). 

On another occasion, God said through the psalmist, “I answered you in the hiding place of thunder” (81:7). Several times in the book of Revelation a message was conveyed through thunder (6:1; 14:2). Interestingly, once when John heard thunder, he was about to write down the message, but the text says, “I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them’” (10:4).

Third, thunder was a way of conveying God’s judgment on the wicked. In Hannah’s song she said, “Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered, against them He will thunder in the heavens, the LORD will judge the ends of the earth” (I Samuel 2:10). 

Later in the same book, one reads about God’s thunder. “Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel” (7:10). Jerusalem was warned that because of their wickedness, “from the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise” (Isaiah 29:6). When the seventh seal was opened and the seventh trumpet sounded and the seventh bowl poured out, there was God’s judgment conveyed with loud peals of thunder (Revelation 8:1-5; 11:15-19; 16:17-18).

Application

When God placed the rainbow in the sky, He explained the message we should receive (Genesis 9:12-15). God has not done that with thunder, but as one reads the Bible, it is hard to miss the message of thunder. 

So, today, when we hear those loud “claps” of thunder, maybe it will remind us that God is near (Hebrews 13:5-6), that He speaks to us through His word (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 12:49), and that one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).