Job 37:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Consider the message of Elihu unfolded through the great weather systems described in chapter 37. God’s power leaps across space like lightning; instant; irresistible (verse 3). Sometimes snow and flood stops all activity as God calls us to wait on him (verses 5-8). Sometimes, all of a sudden God’s power will reorder everything (the whirlwind of verse 9). His smiles and frowns are ordered for our good, like the clouds (verses 11-12). All is by predestinating love, for our correction and good (verse 13). ‘O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.’ He has never been against a single saint. Everything he does is for their training, guidance, blessing and eternal good. These are lessons available to all, from the simplest to the most well educated, from the richest to the poorest, to peoples of all nations, and even to some extent to city dwellers. Even these at times have a sense of the power of God brought to them through storms, though for the most part they are shielded from this by being surrounded by man-made objects. Many have suggested that the tempest which Elihu describes was not simply in his imagination but was already forming as he spoke and they could all see it, and that this was the storm out of which God was soon to speak. The effect on Elihu of witnessing the power of God in this thunderstorm was immense. He saw in it the majesty of the Lord. By faith he understood that nature does not operate autonomously but only as it is directed by God. We are not nature worshippers who rise no higher than being impressed at physical phenomena. The Lord intends that his awesome power is seen in the phenomenon of the nature, but those who see no more than nature at work – as if it possessed a power of its own – totally misread it. If God were to show himself directly we would be overwhelmed, but when in recognition of our weakness he mediates his glory through the sea and the wind and the storm, we should be no less attentive to the lessons he gives us. Scripture does not of course mean us to interpret such words in a foolish way as if the language of Scripture merely personifies nature and treats it as if it were alive. It intends rather that we understand that there is a living intelligent Creator behind these impersonal events, who directs them, not blindly, but with purpose, orchestrating all things in conformity with his eternal purpose. Are we entitled to draw these conclusions when admittedly we only see a small part of his workmanship? Yes, because his word tells us that Christ upholds all things by the word of his power, that God ‘maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust’ (Matthew 5:45), that by his direction, ‘while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease’ (Genesis 8:22).