Lightning strikes many places every year. Sometimes people are killed,
sometimes not. A story has grown around one such event that happened years ago.
On Sunday afternoon, October 21, 1638, lightning struck the church in a small
village in England. Sunday service was going on. The church tower was hit,
causing one heavy pinnacle to fall through the roof of the church onto the
congregation below. Moreover, a fiery ball passed right through the nave. Four
people were killed on the spot and others died later from their injuries. All
this happened while people were reciting a psalm.
Lightning striking a congregation gathered in prayer! What could that mean? Who could be responsible for this? Superstition soon found an answer. The landlady of a tavern about five miles from the church remembered that a horseman had called in for a drink that same afternoon. He was a stranger. When he poured the ale down his throat it sizzled, she said. That horseman, people concluded, must have been Satan on his way to the village! Arriving at the church he flew up with his horse, tied the horse to one of the pinnacles of the tower and went into the church to fetch a soul - a man who was sleeping during the service. He dragged the man’s soul to the top of the tower. But when he untied his horse, he overthrew the pinnacle which consequently fell on top of the church roof and through the roof onto the people. Then Satan departed with lightning and thunder. The real culprit, therefore, was Satan!
What about God in all this? God, the people concluded, had been extremely merciful, for many more people could have been killed. Richard Hill, who was the village schoolmaster at the time and who was in the church when it all happened, expressed his feelings in a poem which was put on wooden boards at the back of the church. In this poem he thanks God:
In token of our thanks to God these tablets are erected
who in dreadful thunderstorm, our persons here protected...
The greatest admiration was that most men should be free
among so many dangers here which we did hear and see.
The church within so filled was with timber, stones and fire,
that scarce a vacant place was seen in church or in the choir.
The wit of man could not cast down so much from off the steeple,
from off the church’s roof, and not destroy much of the people:
but He who rules both air and fire, and other forces all,
hath us preserved, blesse’d be His name, in that most dreadful fall.
If ever people had a cause to serve the Lord and pray,
for judgement and deliverance, then surely we are they!
In other words, God saw to it that only a few people were hurt. The others he protected in a special way.
This story exemplifies what often happens when some accident or disaster befalls people. They look for supernatural causes. At times they will blame Satan; at other times, God. Or they will give God credit for having done his best to reduce the effects of the catastrophe. This attitude, they believe, shows an awareness of God's providence, for nothing takes place without his personal involvement. Some extend this way of looking at things even to their day-to-day experiences. “I’m just in time for the bus, thank you, God!” “I dropped my beautiful vase and it fell into a thousand pieces. It must be the devil obstructing me! Or could it be God giving me a warning?”
Although such thinking and such talk may look religious, it is, in fact, superstition. When lightning struck the village church there was no reason at all to ascribe it to Satan. Nor do we need to see any special intervention by God. Lightning struck that church for physical reasons - as it strikes other places all the time. The accident was a religious experience only in the sense that it gave people the opportunity to reflect on their vulnerability as human beings. Let’s see what scripture has to say about this superstition of ascribing ordinary events to supernatural causes.
In olden times the Israelites were firmly convinced that every disaster should be explained, somehow or other, as a punishment for a specific crime. We read, for instance, that a famine occurred during David's reign. A divine oracle was consulted, which stated: “Saul and his family are guilty of murder; he put the people of Gibeon to death.” David made further enquiries and found that Saul, some 10 years previously, had put some Gibeonites to death. David then approached the Gibeonites and asked them what they wanted him to do.
“Hand over seven of his male descendants, and we will hang them before the LORD at Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the LORD’S chosen king” (2 Sm 21:6).
David agreed. He arrested seven of Saul's sons and handed them over. The Gibeonites hanged them and left their corpses to rot in front of the sanctuary at Gibeah. After a few months the bodies were taken down and buried. “And after that, God answered their prayers for the country” (2 Sm 21:14).
When we read a passage like this, we should be extremely careful in interpreting it. It looks as if it were God who wanted the sin of Saul avenged: “The LORD said, ‘Saul and his family are guilty of murder’”(2 Sm 21:1), and finally, “After that, God answered their prayers.” But we know from many other examples that it would be a mistake to think thus. What we find in episodes such as these is not straightforward revelation but a record of how the people at the time (in this case around 1000 B.C.) were thinking about God.
God’s reaction to such thinking is made clear in other passages. The early Hebrews were convinced that God would punish children for the sins of their parents. “I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation” (Ex 20:5). In the example of the famine mentioned above, they thought God wanted to punish Saul’s children for their father’s crime. But God corrected this notion very clearly and specifically. The prophet Ezekiel (580 B.C.) declares at length that people will be punished for their own sins or rewarded for their own virtue. Regarding the sins of parents he does not mince his words:
“But you ask: ‘Why shouldn’t the son suffer for his father's sins?’ The answer is that the son did what was right and good. He kept my laws and followed them carefully and so he will certainly live. It is the one who sins who will die. A son is not to suffer because of his father’s sins, nor a father because of the sins of his son. A good man will be rewarded for doing good, and an evil man will suffer for the evil he does” (Ez 18:19-20).
The same principle was also laid down as a general rule in the Law:
“Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; a person is to be put to death only for a crime he himself has committed” (Dt 24:16)
This gives us plenty to think about! When the innocent sons of Saul were put to death because of their father’s crime, this was not what God was asking for. It was what the Israelites thought he wanted. And, don’t forget, to this imagined wish of God they ascribed the famine. They thought: This famine must be due to some crime we have committed, for why would God otherwise punish us? Ah, it must be Saul’s injustice towards Gibeon. If we punish Saul’s sons, God will be satisfied and he will take the punishment away. We know now that all this thinking was wrong. The famine was not a punishment on God’s part. He was not happy about the killing of Saul’s sons. The only thing we can say is that God tolerated this kind of thinking until he found the right moment to correct it once and for all.
We find a similar kind of story in 2 Samuel where an epidemic is ascribed to David’s having taken a census of the people. “I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please, forgive me,” David prays (2 Sm 24:10). But in the narration of the same event in 1 Chronicles, it is Satan who is blamed.
Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census (1 Chr 21:1).
Again we find the same process of interpretation and ascribing causes. When an epidemic occurred, the people looked around for the culprit. It was decided it had to be David's taking the census. Later, they became convinced that Satan must have had a hand in it! But taking a census surely was not a sin. In the priestly account of Israel's journey through the desert, which was written down centuries later, the census of the people is prescribed as a duty.
[The Lord said to Moses:] “You and Aaron are to take a census of the people of Israel by clans and families. List the names of all the men twenty years old or older who are fit for military service” (Nm 1:2-3).
The LORD said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron, “Take a census by families of the whole community of Israel, of all men twenty years old and older who are fit for military service” (Nm 26:1-2).
Again we come to the same conclusion: In spite of what David’s contemporaries thought, the epidemic was not due to a punishment by God for David's taking the census. The “supernatural” interpretation was not correct.
But why didn’t God himself point out the mistake of such “supernatural” interpretations? The answer is: He did! That is why the book of Job was written. Here we find a man hit by one disaster after the other. He lost his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep and his camels. His children were killed when the family home collapsed. Sores broke out all over his body. If anyone was a person marked as a target of God's punishment, it was Job! The four friends who argue with Job all maintain that he must have sinned; otherwise, God would not have heaped these misfortunes on him. Eliphaz, for example, states:
It’s because you have sinned so much;
it’s because of all the evil you do.
To make your brother repay you the money he owed,
you took away his clothes and left him nothing to wear.
You refused water to those who were tired,
and refused to feed those who were hungry.
You used your power and your position
to take over the whole land....
Now, Job, make peace with God
and stop treating him like an enemy;
if you do, then he will bless you (Jb 22:5-8,21).
But Job staunchly defends his innocence. Whatever his friends say, he keeps repeating that he has not done anything that would deserve punishment.
I swear by the living Almighty God,
who refuses me justice and makes my life bitter -
as long as God gives me breath,
my lips will never say anything evil,
my tongue will never tell a lie.
I will never say that you men are right;
I will insist on my innocence to my dying day (Jb 27:1-5).
In defending his own position Job slightly overstates his case, but the overall outcome of the discussion puts him in the right. God says to Eliphaz:
“I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did....You did not speak the truth about me, as he did” (Jb 42:7-8).
God was angry with them, because their interpretation of the event was wrong. They did not speak the truth about God! Note that the phrase is repeated twice. What God wants is the truth, not the pious platitudes contained in the long speeches of the three friends. These friends imagined they were very spiritual. They looked upon themselves as people voicing God's point of view. But they were wrong. What God wants is the truth.
Let us reflect on the implications regarding our topic. Accidents do happen. Disasters are part of the world we live in. The truth about these happenings is that they will do damage and kill life - simply because nature will run its course. An earthquake may destroy a village. Was God angry with the inhabitants? A drought brings starvation. Is it a sign of God's punishment? A bus driver loses control over his vehicle and some people die in the crash that follows. Did God decide who was to be saved or who not' In all such cases, we are not speaking the truth about God if we look for some special intervention by him. Like any other part of the created world, we too are subject to the forces of nature. As human beings we have to accept our mortality. Our bodies are fragile and will eventually break down, whether by the slow process of wearing out or by some physical accident. Except in some extraordinary case, God will not deliberately change the course of nature to hurt us or save us.
When Jesus and his disciples walked outside the Temple of Jerusalem, they saw a man known to have been blind from birth-an interesting topic of discussion for the Jews. For, thinking that a defect of this kind must be a punishment for sin, they did not know to whom to ascribe it. The apostles refer the matter to Jesus:
“Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents' sin?” Jesus answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents' sins. He is blind so that God's power might be seen at work in him” (Jn 9:2-3).
The blindness was not due to anyone's sins. Thousands of people are born with defective eyesight or with some other handicap. This is not due to sin. We would be wrong to look for some supernatural explanation. It is due to a mishap of nature. Yet the blindness of the man sitting outside the Temple served a purpose: “So that God's power might be seen at work in him.”
And here we have to go back to the book of Job. Job was right in maintaining that God was not punishing him for his sins. But he did make another mistake. Forgetting that he was just a mortal being, he challenged God to explain why all these misfortunes had befallen him. Job had no right to question God's actions as he did:
“I am not afraid.
I am going to talk
because I know my own heart.
I am tired of living.
Listen to my bitter complaint....
Tell me! What is the charge against me?
Is is right for you to be so cruel?...
Why, God, did you let me be born?
I should have died before anyone saw me....
Isn't my life almost over? Leave me alone!
Let me enjoy the time I have left” (Jb 9:35 - 10:3, 10:18-20).
That is not the way a creature should speak to his Creator! We have to accept life from his hand with all the limitations that are part of our nature. He need not justify himself before us. In his overall wisdom and goodness he knows what he is doing. Rightly, therefore, God reprimands Job.
Who are you to question my wisdom
with your ignorant, empty words? (Jb 38:2).
God will answer us the same way if we ask Why did God make us so vulnerable to accidents and suffering? We should realize that we are speaking about the whole of creation, about the mystery of our existing at all, and of our sharing life to a limited degree. With Job we should humbly confess:
I talked about things I did not understand,
about marvels too great for me to know (Jb 42:3).
Humbly acknowledging the mystery of our wonderful but fragile existence is a longshot from attributing specific happenings to interventions by God. The true mystery behind the lightning striking that particular village in 1638 is not why it happened in that spot and at that time; it lies in our world having lightning at all.
Can you shout orders to the clouds
and make them drench you with rain?
And if you command the lightning to flash, will it come to you and say “At your service”? (Jb 38:34-35).