This summer I spent a month taking a 5,000 mile road trip!

As I drove alone for 5,000 miles, a number of ideas popped into my head. Now that I’m back home in San Jose, I’m turning them into blogs.

As I drove west, I paid closer and closer attention to where wildfires were burning in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. If a wildfire blocked my route, I’d have to find a different way to San Jose.

My task of figuring out where wildfires would break out was complicated by a phenomenon called “dry lightning”.   If the atmosphere is extremely dry—if there is extremely low humidity—lightning strikes the ground. But the rain from the storm evaporates before it reaches the earth. So there is nothing to put out the flames started when the “dry lightning” strikes the ground.

This is a major cause of wildfires.

This phenomenon made me think of the need for “water” to quench fires in our lives and civilizations.

The LORD God is not “all sugar and spice and everything nice.” Moses realized this at Mount Sinai.

Moses asked the LORD to reveal his glory. The LORD replied: “I will cause all my goodness to pass before you.” (Exodus 33:18-19).

And so, the LORD passed in front of Moses, proclaiming:

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands [of generations], and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7).

We like to think about Jesus embodying “sugar and spice, and everything nice”.

We like to emphasize that Jesus embodies “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands [of generations], and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7).

And Jesus does embody these virtues! (see my blogs listed below about hesed and the ways that Jesus embodies hesed).

But Jesus also embodies the God who “does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7).

Jesus and the Spirit of the LORD can be like dry lightning—like a consuming fire without any water to quench it! (Hebrews 6:8; 10:26-27,31; 12:29).

As John the Baptist put it:

“The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But [Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. . . . gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:10-12).

Jesus and the Spirit of the LORD can be like an unquenchable fire! Like dry lightning! Not at all like sugar and spice!

Fortunately, in addition to burning up “chaff” with “dry lightning” of unquenchable fire, Jesus and the Spirit of the LORD are also compassionate and gracious, “slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands [of generations], and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Indeed, Jesus and the Spirit of the LORD are far happier helping those who are lost, than in condemning them. (Luke 15:7,10).

That’s why there is immense joy in heaven over any lost person who is gathered into the “barn” like “wheat”. (Luke 15:1-31).

That’s why “God did not send [Jesus] into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through [Jesus].” (John 3:17).

That’s why Jesus promised to give us “living water” if we worship God in Spirit and in Truth. (John 4:10-14,23-24).

Indeed, this living water that Jesus gives us will become in us “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14).

This living water will save us from “dry lightning”—from the otherwise unquenchable fire of Jesus and the Spirit of the LORD!

This living water will save us from the wildfires that “dry lightning” starts in our lives, our communities of wisdom, our families, our businesses, our nations, and our civilizations!

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For additional thoughts arising from my 5,000 mile road trip in my car nicknamed White Lightning, please read my blogs “Lightning from East to West”, “Directions Along the Way”, “Delays Along the Way”, “Dangers Along the Way—Narrow Roads”, “Dangers Along the Way—Heavy Traffic”, “Hiding in Plain Sight”, “Smoke from Distant Fires”, and “Camouflaging Hideous Death with Fake Life”.

For more of my thoughts about the hesed of the LORD God, please read my blogs “The Hesed of the LORD Endures Forever”, “Hesed Saves and Nurtures Baby Moses”, “Hesed Saves Israel—Passover”, “Hesed Nurtures Israel—From the Red Sea to Mount Sinai”, “Hesed Nurtures Israel—Mount Sinai”, “Hesed Establishes the Work of Moses’s Hands—Mount Nebo”, “Hesed Blesses Forever—David”, “Walking Humbly With Hesed—Micah”, “Hoping in Hesed—Jeremiah”, “Hesed Returns Israel to Jerusalem”, “Jesus Embodies Hesed—The Vision of Isaiah”, “Jesus Embodies Hesed—Fulfilling the Law of Moses and the Prophets”, “Jesus Embodies Hesed—Sowing the Ideals of the Law of Moses and the Prophets”, and “Jesus Embodies Hesed—Saving Lost Sheep, Lost Coins, and Lost Sons”.

As almost anyone reading this blog knows, there is a famous hit song: “Do you know the way to San Jose?”. Also, I refer to “the way to San Jose” as a reminder of the many references in my blogs to “the Way of Jesus”.