The awesome experience of God cannot be reduced to scientific or even to conceptual language; it can only be suggested by word pictures. In Scripture the imagery of light, fire, earthquake, and storm are often associated with the manifestation of the holy. These are characteristic biblical features of divine “theophanies,” or appearances of God.
Imagery of Light and the Holy
Light is a favorite biblical image of the presence of the Lord. The Psalms, for example, are filled with expressions such as “the Lord is my light” (Ps. 27:1), “in your light we see light” (Ps. 36:9), and “God … make his face shine upon us” (Ps. 67:1). Celebrating the covenant judgment of the Lord, the psalmist Asaph declares, “From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.… a fire devours before him” (Ps. 50:2–3). Such symbolism pervades the Old Testament. Expelling Adam from the garden, Yahweh stations a twisting, flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). Making a covenant with Abraham, God appears to him in a flaming torch (Gen. 15:17). In the desert, Yahweh speaks to Moses from the midst of a bush glowing like fire (Exod. 3:2). At the dedication of Solomon’s temple, the priests “could not stand to minister” but fell prostrate before the cloud of glory that manifested the Lord’s presence (1 Kings 8:11 nasb). The prophet Amos warns the covenant people to seek the Lord, “lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph” (Amos 5:6 rsv). Ezekiel beholds the court of the temple “full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord,” the brilliant envelope of his presence (Ezek. 10:4). He sees the glory going up toward the east, deserting the temple and the city (Ezek. 11:23) because of their unfaithfulness and idolatry. Later, he envisions the return of the glory, as the Lord reestablishes his dwelling among the covenant people (Ezek. 43:1–9).
Similar imagery is found in the New Testament. At the Transfiguration, Jesus appears to the disciples in brilliant light (Matt. 17:2). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostolic church, accompanied by “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3). Saul, persecutor of the church, is struck down by a blinding light on the road to Damascus and hears a voice he recognizes as the Lord’s (Acts 9:3–4). Writing later to the Corinthians, he reminds them that the Creator of light “made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The author of Hebrews, urging an approach of reverence and awe, quotes Deuteronomy 4:24, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The apostle John, exiled to Patmos, upon being addressed by a loud voice, turns to see “one like a son of man,” standing amid seven golden lampstands, a figure whose head glows whiter than wool or snow, whose eyes “were like a blazing fire,” whose feet were like brass glowing in a furnace, whose face was “like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:12–16).
Although “light” is a metaphor for intellectual understanding, light itself does not contain information. “God is light,” wrote the apostle John, “in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). But what is revealed by this light? The light does not reveal much about God, but it reveals much about the worshiper. “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:20–21). The radiance of the numinous exposes our sin, but it hides the Holy One. We do not stare at light bulbs, or at the sun, expecting to learn anything; but we receive information from what these sources illuminate. In the same way, the light of the holy reveals what it shines on, but it conceals its own source. The radiant and glorious God remains an impenetrable mystery, “the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:15–16).
“Show me your glory” Moses prayed on the holy mountain (Exod. 33:18). And the Lord answered, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”—ideograms for his love and faithfulness in upholding the covenant—“but you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exod. 33:19–20). Then the Lord offered to place Moses in a crevice in the rock, shielding him from his glory as he passed by. “Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen” (Exod. 33:23). The God who is worshiped in Scripture gives the revelation of his truth at his own initiative but hides the workings of his own being behind the envelope of his radiance. The holy is the revealed yet the unrevealed.
Imagery of Theophany
Scholars use the term theophany to denote an appearance or manifestation of God. When the Holy One appears to his worshipers, symbolic language must be used to describe the experience. The Bible employs a conventional vocabulary to describe such events, incorporating symbolism drawn not only from light or fire (as discussed in the previous section), but also from other natural phenomena such as the earthquake or the electrical storm. The theophanic imagery of the Sinai covenant and of Elijah’s confrontation with the Lord have already been mentioned. The same symbolism occurs often in the context of worship to convey the awesome and overpowering sense of the presence of the numinous. We encounter it, for example, in Isaiah’s vision in the temple (Isa. 6:1–13)—the altar fires, the flaming seraphs (in Hebrew, literally “burning ones”), the sanctuary filled with smoke, the thunder of the Lord’s voice, which shakes the foundations. Ezekiel beholds the Lord’s throne coming in wind, cloud, fire, and glowing metal (Ezek. 1:4), and the prophet Joel’s description of the “day of the Lord” incorporates the trumpet, clouds, darkness, and fire (Joel 2:1–3). The Psalms, especially, place theophany in the context of Israel’s worship. An example is Psalm 97:2–5:
Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
Other psalms containing the same phenomena include Psalm 18:7–14 and Psalm 104:3–4, 32.
Theophanic imagery is also found in the New Testament, especially in the context of judgment. In Matthew 24:27–31, Jesus portrays the coming of the Son of Man with lightning, darkness, the shaking of the powers of heaven, clouds, and the sound of a great trumpet. John’s vision of the throne of the Creator (Rev. 4:1–5) incorporates the trumpet, lightning, thunder, and fire. The revelation of the ark of the covenant in the temple of God is accompanied by lightning, thunder, earthquake, and hailstorm (Rev. 11:19), and John depicts the Lord’s judgment on Babylon with lightning, thunder, and earthquake (Rev. 16:18). As in the Old Testament, aspects of the composite pictorialization (in addition to light and fire) sometimes appear by themselves. In John 12:29 a voice from heaven comes as thunder. Acts 4:23–31 records an assembly of the apostles, stating that when they prayed together “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 31). Such biblical imagery is a conventional way of indicating that God has made his presence known to his gathered community in the accomplishment of some purpose such as instruction, deliverance, or especially judgment. The language of theophany is employed to point to that numinous experience of the presence of God which cannot be adequately conveyed in human speech. We should probably understand speaking in tongues, or unintelligible speech, as an attempt to accomplish the same end.