Theophanies: Whirlwinds and Raging Storms
Theophanies: Whirlwinds and Raging Storms.
Theophany: From the Greek words “Theo” (God) and “phaino” (to appear). So a theophany is when God makes a temporary appearance on earth for reasons of His own. A theophany is God’s temporary visible manifestation to remind us of His permanent presence in the world. A theophany is when God stoops to us in gracious self-revelation in a form that we can experience through our senses. Theophanies, though, are preliminary, because they anticipate the ultimate theophany in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Theophanies in the Hebrew Bible were God’s temporary appearances, but in Jesus we see the fulfillment of theophany, a permanent appearance of God on earth.
“And now, finally, Lord Yahweh answered Job from the very heart of a raging whirlwind. He said, ‘Why do you confuse the issue by questioning my wisdom, by darkening my counsel with words without knowledge? Why do you talk, Job, without knowing what you are saying? Pull yourself together and brace yourself like a man, Job! I have some questions for you, and want some straight answers from you! (Job 38:1-3).
Whirlwind: (Hebrew, “hassearah,” the only time in the Hebrew Bible this term is used); often translated as tempest, raging storm, powerful windstorm, tornado, funnel cloud; usually accompanied by the loud roar of the gusting winds; occurs when two powerful air currents meet to create strong circular motions and rapidly rotating columns of forceful winds; examples would include waterspouts, sandstorms, and tornadoes. This particular whirlwind confronting Job was a theophany, God making an appearance reveal the truth of His creative power. This whirlwind was a self-revelation out of love for Job and wanting to be a visceral presence in Job’s life after all his unexplained suffering.
“The Lord displays His power in the raging whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust kicked up by His feet.” (Nahum 1:3); “The Lord walks upon the wings of the wind.” (Ps. 104:3).
Windstorms. Violent storms, and whirlwinds in particular, have a history in the Hebrew Bible, and have been accepted as either a sign of God’s presence or at the least under the control of the almighty God. There are plenty of times in biblical history that God has caused a mighty wind or violent storm to accomplish His will, including: The Flood Story (Gen. 8:1), when God caused a mighty wind to blow over the floodwaters to cause them to subside; The Red Sea Miracle (Ex. 14:21), when God caused a mighty wind to blow over the sea all night to part the waters; Jonah in the Boat (Jonah 1:4), when the Lord sent a violent tempest on the sea; Elijah’s Voyage to Heaven (2 Kings 2:1, 11), when the Lord sent a whirlwind to carry Elijah up to heaven without experiencing death; Ezekiel’s Vision (Ezekiel 1:4), when the prophet witnessed a theophany that included a ferocious windstorm as God approached, complete with a monstrous, fiery cloud formation, lightning, and blazing amber in the middle of it all; Pentecost (Acts 2:2), when the theophany of the Holy Spirit arrived with the roaring sound of a rushing, violent wind. As the psalmist exults in Ps. 148:8, “Praise Him, you strong and mighty winds who obey His commands and fulfill His word!”
Buddy Greene – Jonah and the Whale [Live]
Judgment. God’s whirlwind was also used as an effective, dramatic metaphor for His overpowering, overwhelming fury when He deems it judgment time in the Hebrew Bible. Sometimes it’s not easy to discern if these judgments by a whirlwind are taken literally or figuratively, but they nonetheless are to be taken seriously: “When your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you, then they will call on Me, but I will not answer.” (Proverbs 1:27); “For behold, the Lord will come with fire and His chariots like the whirlwind…” (Isaiah 66:15); “Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.” (Jer. 23:19); “Behold, the tempest of the Yahweh! Wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked.” (Jer. 30:23); “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, I will make a violent wind break out in my wrath. There will also be in my anger a flooding rain and hailstones…” (Ezekiel 13:13). There are many more passages in Scripture about God’s judgment being compared to a whirlwind and a mighty storm.
Not a Theophany. There was a dramatic incident in the life of Elijah, though, when God was not in the strong wind. “And Yahweh said to Elijah, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ And behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great windstorm, much like a hurricane, rent the mountain, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of gentle stillness and a still, small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-12, AMP).
Elijah is on the run, fleeing from evil Queen Jezebel, and he finds himself on the holy mountain, Mt. Sinai, also known as Horeb. After his 40-day fast and journey to the mountain, he is convinced he is alone in his battles against the pagan rulers of Israel. So he decided to retreat to the historic Mountain of God, and he obeys God’s instructions and goes to Sinai. He came to a cave there, and he begins to engage in a conversation with Yahweh. The Lord tells him to go out of the cave and stand at its entrance. The Lord passed by the cave with a devastating windstorm, then an earthquake, then a consuming fire. Those were all natural manifestations of Yahweh’s presence with Moses on the very same mountain a long time ago, but this time was different and unexpected. The Lord did not speak through any of those manifestations. After the fire, in a sweet theophany of love, Yahweh spoke to Elijah intimately, quietly, with a hush. There are many descriptions of the Lord’s presence and voice in that delicate moment, depending on the translation… a still, small voice; a gentle whisper; a light murmuring sound; the sound of a gentle breeze; a gentle blowing; the sound of gentle stillness. Rabbi Jonathon Sacks translates the Hebrew as meaning, “The sound of slender silence,” in which one can only hear it if one is truly listening for it. It seems that God is breathing on Elijah, exhaling His breath of life and encouragement into Elijah’s desperate condition. This is God’s exhale that gave Adam life, that brought life to Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. This is the breath of the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed onto His disciples after His resurrection (John 20:22). This was the nonverbal breath of love, a breeze from heaven blowing into Elijah’s life at a critical time. God’s whisper coming out of that exhale did indeed encourage this mighty prophet and give him new life and purpose. The Lord told him to return to Israel and anoint three people: an enemy king who will punish Israel, a new king of Israel, and his replacement prophet Elisha. And you are not alone, Elijah, Yahweh tells him. There are 7,000 faithful believers who will never bow down to Baal. So Elijah did as the Lord instructed. And it all started with a divine exhale, a wordless message on the Mountain of God.
“It was as if God wanted to place heaven itself next to Job, as if God had brought His throne near to him.”(John Chrysostom referring to the whirlwind in Job).
Back to Job. The thin place where the veil between heaven and earth are practically non-existent, happens to be a raging windstorm, a violent tempest out of which Lord Yahweh spoke so clearly with his faithful friend Job. This man has been bearing with the criticism of his wife and the half-truth counsel of his friends. He has endured unthinkable suffering in the midst of dramatic spiritual warfare. All this time in his memoir, Job has been patiently yearning for a private audience with the King of the Universe. Job’s spirit has been pleading for a private word with the King that would help to solve this mysterious and painful turn of events in his life. And sure enough, this King Yahweh, like most other kings, makes an unforgettable production out of His appearance, a theophany that included a lot of drama, a lot of fanfare, in this case God orchestrating nature to announce His presence.
When God finally emerged from His silence and spoke to Job from the eye of the windstorm, it actually was not a shocking surprise. As noted in chapter 37, there was a buildup to this whirlwind of chapter 38… a major storm front moving in, complete with menacing clouds, pounding thunder, electrifying lightning bolts, a darkened sky with torrential rain, and of course heavy winds. Apparently, the whirlwind out of which God and Job conversed was just the tail end of this dramatic tempest. This monstrous storm did its job, it prepared Job to humbly recognize Yahweh and be ready to pursue a conversation. All this weather-drama was only the prelude, the natural fanfare ahead of the personal contact that would set the tone and the context. Job, so perplexed with all his questions, needed to prepare his spirit before God before things could clear up and start making sense. In the midst of this howling wind, Job and God have their long-awaited conversation. Right there, in the presence of a raging tempest, those two have found their thin place, and they can finally talk heart-to-heart and friend-to-friend.
We shouldn’t overlook the actual physical setting of this theophany in Job. Read Mike Mason’s description of how it probably looked during their conversation. “The wind is howling like a banshee; trees are bent to the ground; dervishes of dust swirl across the landscape. Probably the wind has grown so strong by this point that Job is knocked over by it, or even swept right off his feet and carried along for a while before being sent sprawling. Job must have thought, “This is it! This is the end!” (The Gospel According to Job). It’s no wonder that God told Job to brace himself and stand tall!
After Yahweh’s barrage of rhetorical, unanswerable questions, Job was suitably humbled, to say the least. “Job replied to the Lord God, ‘I am speechless, Lord, in awe. Words fail me. I should never have opened my mouth in the first place. How could I ever even begin to find the answers to Your questions! I have nothing more to say, I have said too much already. I am ready to listen.’ Then the Lord challenges Job once again from this divine whirlwind, saying to him, ‘I have more questions for you, so stand tall and tell me the answers.’” (Job 40:3-7). The Lord God was not letting up. He wanted to make sure He got his point across to Job.
We are not told when God’s whirlwind stopped whirling. But Job learned his lesson in the end… The answers to our questions in life tend to be found in a Person, not a solution. The Person of God is Himself the answer as we trust in Him. Job’s final responses reflect that he received from God what he needed in the midst of all his tragedy. “I know that you can do anything, Lord, and I am convinced that no one can stop you from doing anything you want. I had only heard about you second-hand, as if you were a rumor, but now I have seen you with my own eyes and heard your voice with my own ears. I take back everything I have said. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. I repent now before you, Lord God, and I mourn my own ignorance. Please forgive me.” (Job 42:1-6). Job discovered in this theophany of God that there is a wildness to God’s nature, God is himself a whirlwind of power and love and creativity. God is not under our control in any way. God is essentially wild, like a whirlwind.