Marvelous Ways

         God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ (Job 37:2-6)

 

            This passage is amusingly appropriate given that Tropical Storm Nicole is dumping and blowing on us. God has told Nicole, “Be a mighty downpour.” I’m grateful, this will do my gardens good, and I’m even looking forward to seeing if Zephyr Lake will flood over the one sidewalk. I just wish I could get to the coast to see what’s happening there and take pictures, but I don’t want to drive to do it. Where’s a teleporter when you want one.

            The verse is interesting for another reason: the words. God’s voice thunders. We expect this. Somehow, God is supposed to speak with a basso profundo – a deep, sonorous voice, but at the volume of an orator without a microphone – like rolling thunder. There are places in Scripture where people mistake His voice for thunder.

            But… in marvelous ways? Marvelous means “causing great wonder, extraordinary; extremely good or pleasing, splendid.” It’s a word that seems to suggest something positive and beautiful. I don’t know the original language well enough to be sure that the word that is translated marvelous can’t be translated as terrible, awesome, or overwhelming. Maybe marvelous isn’t the choice I’d make if I were prayerfully translating the verse.

            It's not that I’m not impressed with the power of nature. I like a good storm – even a thunderstorm. It’s just the word marvelous. And this isn’t the only place where Scripture seems to use the wrong word – or to use both positive and negative words about the same thing. The “Day of the Lord” is described as both “great” and “dreadful.” If may depend on the perspective of the person involved. I would feel a lot different about Tropical Storm Nicole if I were in a boat, or if I ran out of gas on a throughway somewhere. I’d think differently than I do about it if I were in a cabin somewhere that allowed me to take in a larger view than I do. But there is also the reality that sometimes, things are both positive and negative.

            Tropical storms and hurricanes are impressive and terrible, but they are necessary and beneficial even while they destroy. In this case, Nicole is giving us the water that we need. More importantly, tropical storms and hurricanes are naturally formed when the atmosphere gets too warm and unsettled in the tropics. The storms spread the energy beyond the tropics. Without them, the area along the equator would be a wasteland. These storms also distribute seeds and build up some barrier islands. I don’t need to tell you how they are bad.

            I think back to another storm so bad that only 7 humans survived it. People sometimes think that life before the flood of Noah’s day was an attack on poor, simple hunter-gatherers or farmers. It certainly did a lot of damage, but I wonder whether anyone at all would have survived if people had been allowed to continue. What if God giving a major bath to the world is what made it possible for us to be here? What if the environment was that badly damaged?

               The basic task of a storm is to bring balance. They do a marvelous job of doing so, but they can be terrible in the process. That means the word “marvelous” is accurate. This is also why the question “How could a good God allow bad things to happen (to good people)?” Sometimes, the alternative is far worse.