HIS VOICE

“As the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Moshe spoke; and God answered him with a voice.”
Exodus 19:19

It was an active night not too far back. With a storm of heavy rain, hail, and possible tornados on the horizon, I already knew I would spend most of the evening either awake watching the news or half asleep and caught off-guard at every high pitched alert by the weather radio. It took some coaxing to get the kids in bed since they were already on edge, but at last it was done. Well so I thought. At every flash of lightning and every crack of thunder my son would spring up and question if tornados were here. Finally at around 1am the strongest part of the storm was done and I headed to bed myself. But there was something different within these claps of thunder and dances of lightning. Somehow I was reminded of the Father’s voice and I had peace. I questioned just what He is saying to me.
In different passages within the Word Adonai’s voice is described. Exodus 19:16-19 tells of thunder and lightning and the sound of a trumpet blast. That blast was the voice of God, and Moshe spoke in front of the people to the blast. Then, following the giving of the Commandments in Exodus 20:18, the people saw the lightning, heard the thunder and the blast, and were scared. Isaiah 33:3 records that people flee at the thunder of His voice. The LORD will roar from on high and thunder from His holy dwelling were the words of the prophecy given to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 25:30. And Psalm 29:7 tells us that the voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning. I wonder if for too long I have allowed myself to have the wrong type of fear towards thunder and lightning.
Proverbs 1:7 informs us that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Yet as I have shared before, this is not ‘fear’ fear, but rather ‘reverence’ fear. Reverence for the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. In the moments when thunder and lightning flicker and sound through the sky do I become afraid or do I turn my head toward the voice of Adonai? In other words, is Adonai maybe trying to get my attention? The Hebrew culture shows us that there is both a physical and spiritual reason for everything that happens, and I think that truth can be seen here as well. Physically, the clouds well up and find release through drops of rain. At times it is possible that an atmospheric electrostatic discharge known as lightning is also released, which paves the way for a clap of thunder. Spiritually this same principle is working. Adonai desires to communicate with me and pours Himself out. However, if I fail to listen He sends His message with more force, almost physically clapping His hands in order to get my attention.
So here is the lesson learned from taking in this storm. I want to be so attentive to Adonai’s voice that He only has to but whisper to get my attention. This is the same standard I try to get my children to understand. I hate having to raise my voice at them for them to listen to me. At times it seems like that is all that works. But is that how Adonai has to speak to me also, always raising His voice at me to get my attention? If so, then it needs to stop; I need to stop. I need to stop listening to the voices that have no bearing and tune in fully to the only one that does. His voice is the voice I want to hear.

Exodus 19:7-19