Job 37:14 Commentary and Bible Study

The works of God are continually before us, but we can be so absorbed with our own thoughts, our own interpretation of events, our theories and ideas that we do not consider properly what God is doing? Job must quieten himself before the Lord and let what God has done interrupt the flow of his own thoughts. Only through humbling ourselves enough to listen properly to God will we begin to learn from him and from his wondrous works. They are indeed wondrous and our reflections on them ought to fill us with far more wonder than anything that mankind has ever done, but overfamiliarity and unwillingness to submit to God cause us to miss what is ever before our eyes.How different is God as a workman compared to us. We attempt things, knowing the general direction in which we intend to move but being unsure of the outcome of what we set out to do. God dispatches his works in the universe and knows that nothing is in doubt, for what he commands must happen. Our own difficulty in achieving anything with certainty ought to make us wonder at the works of God. The difference between us is that he has all power and all knowledge, but we know so little by comparison. As Matthew Henry says here, ‘His knowledge is intuitive: he sees and does not know by report. It is intimate and entire: he knows things truly and not by their colours – thoroughly and not by piecemeal. To his knowledge there is nothing distant, but all near – nothing future, but all present – nothing hid, but all open.’ We struggle to achieve what we want; God never struggles, since for him all is easy. This makes us praise him not only for what he does but for the perfections which belong to him at all times.Elihu describes God’s involvement with his creation as intimate and constant. He turns the course of nature this way and is constantly intervening in our world. Since the days of Elihu knowledge has increased just as Daniel was told it would (Daniel 12:4), but there still remain many things that happen and which we need to happen for life to function, which we do not understand and certainly cannot implement ourselves. God understands everything and he understands everything perfectly. It is only pride that makes one person refuse to credit another when what they have done is obviously skilful. God has skills which amaze us and yet man in his pride finds ways of denying God any praise by attributing his works to other agents. Elihu admires the clouds which hold their position in space and add such interest to the skies, which drop water down on thirsty land beneath and satisfy the desert places.Can we join the Lord in carrying out any of these works and are we partners with him when he brings up the hot winds from the south which heat a man in his garments as if he were like newly baked bread? This wind is uncomfortable and forces people to find refuge from its heat and avoid strenuous work. Do we spread out the sky above like a great metal mirror above us when the sun beats down on us and the earth becomes like an oven. Such situations give man a visceral understanding that he is in the hands of God and unable to resist his will.