The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 142 -
Cause and result of the thunderstorm.
However, when they came out, they kept their eyes and ears closed for a while, because there was continuously one lightning after another with heavy crackles and thunder from the heavy clouds to the ground.
2
Then Raphael advised them, and said: "But do not keep your eyes and ears closed, for then you hardly will see anything of this terrible stormy spectacle and will hear nothing of the howling that is now and then reaching even from Jerusalem to these hills."
3
Finally those who were present took courage again, opened their eyes and ears and could not be surprised enough about the violence of the wind. However Raphael commanded it to go around the hill, and for this reason it became suddenly completely windless. Also no lightning could come near the hill at a distance of a few mornings of arable land, and there it looked like a true stream of fire that was falling down from the clouds to the ground with a rumbling roar and crackles.
4
Now Agricola asked: "But do tell us now why actually this true sea of fire, which is continuously coming down to the ground, does not put anywhere - as far as one can see - a flame to the houses and trees and also not to complete forests to put it on fire. I already have experienced a similar very dry thunderstorm with lightning and wind in Hispania, also around this time. But there it has caused big and truly terrible destructions. Here however, little or actually nothing at all can be seen of a special fire. How can that be explained?"
5
Raphael said: "You will very easily understand that when soon the whole storm will cease. The constant, very bright light of the lightning makes the weak shining of several fires not visible now, but when the lightning will cease more and more, you will also notice a few considerable fires, and more specifically above the region around Jerusalem. But this is not important, and when you notice a fire, you should not be afraid of that, because where it is allowed that a lightning will strike a house or a hut to put it on fire, or also a village or a dry forest of one or the other miser who preferred to let his wood rot than to allow a poor person to take even a few dry branches to make use of it, there good mankind will truly not suffer any damage, as well as for the huts, houses and villages. In short: everything that you can see now and will see later, happens not to damage it, but only for the great benefit of the people, which you will understand more clearly later.
6
But now is the moment when the thunderstorm must cease, and therefore I will, from the will of God the Lord in me, that the thunderstorm will lie down. And look, the lightning has ceased and the wind has lain down. But now look around you, then you will see that which will catch your attention."
7
Now those who were present looked on all sides and counted all together well over 20 fires among which a forest fire that looked extremely destructive, raging in a big forest on a mountain behind Emmaus and which belonged to a miser from Jerusalem who had never given a dry branch to a poor person. Those who were present knew that and they praised the Lord because now He had let the rod of chastisement come down on the evil miser. But also southeast of Jerusalem there was a big fire that could be seen, and Lazarus asked Raphael who had been hit the most by that fire and who suffered the most damage.
8
Raphael said: "That is a village which belongs for the greatest part to a miser, of whom the burning forest belongs to. He has leased everything to poor renters for an almost unaffordable price. To please their landlord these are then also forced to cheat their neighbors and they let their daughters commit all kinds of harlotry for money and all kinds of other gifts by which the village has degenerated to a true Sodom. And this happened in the shortest time of hardly 20 years, and all this as a result of the acting of a rich miser. That such village will be chastised will surely not be considered unfair by neither one of you?"
9
Lazarus said: "Whatever the Lord does, is done well. I myself have already many times wished that miser, who I know all too well, to have a serious punishment for his to Heaven crying injustices, which he mostly committed against poor people, and now because of his scandalous activities there came an end to the patience of the Lord, and therefore, all praise to Him. In that village there are of course also a few who still did not kneel down for Gog and Magog, but these will surely also be protected by the Lord."
10
Raphael said: "You can be sure of that, and they will after the fire soon be better off than ever before."
11
Further to the south there was also a strong blaze that could be seen, and the innkeeper from Bethlehem said, with a question to Raphael: "O, all-knowing friend, what is destroyed there by the fire? Surely not Bethlehem?"
12
Raphael said: "Oh no, it is a village of Greeks and Sadducees who are trading dishonestly with pigs and are moreover making the people unfaithful to God. And because they have now gone too far because they hinder the spreading of the teaching of the Lord and make it as much as possible suspicious to the worldly people, the Lord has on such an occasion now also given them a limit. They will now be busy for years to overcome their misfortune and will have no time to think how they can hinder the spreading of the teaching of the Lord. Look, my friend, this is how things are now over there, and I believe then also that no injustice has been done to these atheistic usurers."
13
The innkeeper said: "Oh, surely not, and all praise be again to the Lord, because He has brought such a misfortune to those atheists who I know well, for these have deserved it already for a long time, and so also the other small fires, which we can see from here, will not have happened without permission of the Lord."
14
Raphael said: "Indeed. So do not be afraid. But look now at the branches of the trees and the grass on the ground."
15
Now all looked at the branches of the trees and the grass, and everything was shining like the rotting wood in a forest. Also the hairs on their heads gave off a weak shining. Now those who were present were anxious and they asked what it was.
16
But Raphael said: "Now we will go inside again, and in the hall I will explain the reason of this phenomenon."
17
All of them went back into the house.
18
When those who had gone out with Raphael and came back into the hall, occupied their places again, the captain asked Raphael immediately what could now actually be the real reason and meaning of the lightning up of the trees, the grass and even the hairs of men.
19
And Raphael who also had occupied his former place, said: "Dear friends, this matter could actually also be explained tomorrow, but because you are very curious, I also can explain it to you now. But I tell you that it is absolutely not so important as you probably are imagining now, and from this and similar phenomena does not depend the salvation of the soul. But because all kinds of dark superstition can easily arise out of ignorance regarding such phenomena, I am in a certain way obliged to make you understand also this phenomenon from the right perspective.
20
But before you can in the first place understand this phenomenon from the natural point of view, it is necessary to make you first understand the lightning, so that more in particular you Romans would not also think, besides the teaching of the Lord, about the famous lightning producer Vulcan and about his great distributor Jupiter. So be very attentive to what I will show and explain to you now."