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).
In this chapter Elihu rises to his highest point and we must stretch our minds and our faith to see what he saw and be stirred to worship as he was stirred. Like all believers Elihu longed for a closer view of God’s majesty, but he also knew that as a mortal man he was not able to bear the sight of God’s glory, and that it must be shown us through those works that fall within our sphere of experience. Nevertheless the scale of a storm, the contrast between the brightness of the sun and the darkness of the cloud, the strength of the wind to break down and destroy, the speed with which the lightning shoots forth, the energy of the bolt which can illuminate the night sky, the volume of the thunder which sounds across so many miles, greater than the sound of human weapons of war; all this is calculated to make us tremble before our Creator God.
‘Our knowing God must not be a matter of gazing into the sky as we please and conceiving only some dead thoughts, but it must be a lively touching of our hearts and all our powers to the quick. This should true of all men, but unbelievers – as far as they can – try to kill this fear with which they ought to be touched. The faithful on the other hand profit from it, and willingly consider the awesome nature of these things, so that they do homage with all reverence to the majesty of God … It is true that the wicked feel an instinctive fear of thunder and lightning, and in spite of their resistance the majesty of God touches them to cause some secret alarm within them, but for all that they dismiss such thoughts and tread them under foot. But those who desire to know God use such occasions to apply their whole effort to gain advantage from that fear and dread which God sends into their hearts’ (Calvin – in modern English).