Zech. 9:14-15a.

One of the more pleasant traditions that we have infrequently observed over the years, is to go and picnic at Trident Point on the USNaval Academy grounds, enjoy the usually cool breeze off the Severn River and let whatever kids might have been still with us run somewhat free. They couldn't go far and it was a safe environment. There was a band playing usually and invariably people we know would show up. Dark comes late in July and the fireworks would last about 30-45 minutes and so it was usually quite late when we got home, especially with the hassle of getting to the car and enduring the slow departing traffic. When you're young you don't care too much. As you get older it becomes much more tempting to just sit on the back patio and listen to the fireworks in the distance.

The fireworks on the 4th of July are always impressive and everyone claps for the "Grand Finale."

Working late one night in July 2010 however I became aware of some fireworks going on outside that were distinctly not man made. There was no rain nor much of a breeze, but to the East, completely obscuring the horizon, was "floor to ceiling" clouds that were pulsing with lightning. I scrambled to get my camera and tripod to see if I could capture some of it. Timing is everything and when you are set up for 1-2 second exposures, you can't just wheel the camera around and snap away. This photo is the only one in which the lightning cooperated at all in the 30-45 minutes I stayed out there trying to get shot. There were lots of zig-zag streaks of light and booming thunder, God put on quite a show, but the most impressive ones were always somewhere other than my camera angle.

No man can, I think, watch a thunderstorm and not feel a bit uneasy. We can describe them mathematically; we can predict them with some degree of accuracy; we can rest in the general (but not absolute) security of our shelters... but still, when we look at them, we tremble. THERE is power! There is glory.

Man cannot harness that wind nor bottle up that energy. Our nuclear and atomic weapons are scary but they pale in comparison to a hurricane or the combined energy contained in a rapidly advancing cold front heralded by flashing lights, hail and driving rain. Communities can be leveled in an instant by tornadoes. Hurricanes can leave entire states in rubble. Thunderstorms remind us of these things.

I suppose that is why, throughout the ages, when men looked at the heavenly fireworks displayed in passing storms, they inevitably saw something supernatural in them.... and even today, as one stands in the path of such power, a prayer for safety is the most common response.

Zechariah prophesies of God's salvic power going forth into the earth in these terms. The destructive forces He unleashes will be toward those forces that have enslaved His people and persecuted them. He will not leave them bound by the paltry chains of sin and despair and deceit. He will break the power of sin and death and will deny the forces of darkness their safe haven. He will draw a distinction between those who belong to Him and those who sneer at His teaching. At the sound of the trumpet many will cry out in fear but others will hear the sound of triumph.