When a Sinful Man Encounters God

The mountains quake before Him, and the Hills melt; the earth trembles at His presence-the world and all who live in it.

Nahum 1:5

There was once a man who lived his life in a world of sin.  In the eyes of all who lived and worked around him, he was a very successful man.  He owned a large business and made more money than he knew what to do with.  He had a family of four with a beautiful wife and two young children.  But, as I said before, he lived his life in a world of sin.

See, this man was a violent man.  He had an awful temper and he occasionally hit his wife and children.  His business practices were very deceitful.  He often lied and cheated in order to make a larger profit.  There were many times he even cheated people who were far less financially stable so that he could splurge on something else he did not need.  Of all the awful things he was involved in, from unfair and illegal business practices to striking his family physically, the piece of coal in his crown of evil was his unfaithfulness to his wife.  And the worst part about this man’s story was that he showed no remorse for all the things he had done (Nahum 2:1-5).

It was quite obvious that this man did not think much of God and his judgment.  He did not believe there was a God.  “Even if there is a God,” he thought to himself, “he was not anything to get excited about.”  The man thought this way until one day he met God.  On that day he was sitting in his office doing business as usual when God walked into the room surrounded by smoke.  Instant fright shot through his bones.  He did not have to think twice.  He knew that He was in the presence of God.

Those moments with God were far different than he imagined they would be.  Instead of quiet and peacefulness, he heard the thunder of lightning.  Instead of pearly gates, he saw the “age-old mountains” fall into the ocean and the “ancient hills” flatten in an instant.  Instead of talking to God like he would anybody else, he found himself face down on the ground too scared to move a muscle.  This is the story of what happens when a sinful man has an encounter with God.