The Lord Was Not in the Earthquake

This is a title taken from the account of the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:11). After he slaughtered the prophets of Baal, Elijah was hiding in a cave to escape from Jezebel, king Ahab’s wife. The Lord spoke to him to go out and stand on the mountain. Then a wind passed by, and the Lord was not in the wind; then an earthquake and a fire, and the Lord was not in the earthquake and the fire; then a gentle low sound. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out. The account is explicitly educational. The prophet had to learn that the Lord is not manifested in violence, but in kindness. I wanted to bethink the account on this day in which many people are attributing every wrath to God. "Does God punish us with earthquakes?". My friend Assaad Kattan answered the question with a great article in which he gave greater weight to, that is, he affirmed, the fact that God, the Lord of compassion, is looking today with His tenderness at those who are broken “and those who are searching for life in the belly of death… and is holding those who have perished… lest they feel, in their demise, the loss of an enwrapping warmth” (Al-Modon 12/2/2023).