Job 37:2 Commentary and Bible Study

As well as the gentle workings of nature seen in the first shoots of the germinating seed, the delicate fragrance of the flower, and the tenderness of animals towards their offspring, it is instructive that our world should also contain instances of the grandeur of God: his awe-inspiring and even his terrifying displays of power. Lest man should think that he can afford to disregard his Creator, or to insult and demean him, man is reminded from time to time that God’s strength is so great and so irresistible that for him to confront the Lord is sheer folly. God has therefore put certain features in place in our world, which give us immediate experience of his majesty. Our own nature teaches us to fear such naked power. This display is intended to humble man in his pride.Elihu describes the bolts of lightning which shoot out to the horizon in their zigzag pathways travelling far faster than man has ever been able to move. What mortal man could direct them? What human mind could predict their path? It is a sure demonstration to man of his limitations. By this he ought to be humbled and the child watching a thunderstorm invariable is. The child’s instinct is right. What child does not sense the majesty of God when it witnesses such a demonstration of power for the first time? Why? Because the child does not pretend to itself that it has more power than it really has, and does not rationalise away its own fear. Lightning is not without danger also and many have been struck and killed by it. The sound of a thunderclap overhead is so startling, so deafening, has such earth-shaking sounds, that we can sense immediately the vast amount of energy involved. To hear it as the voice of God is to recognise that God’s power is behind it, and that he is communicating aspects of his being which ought to make us tremble. Of course God’s power is infinite and anything that he does in creation is limited for our sakes, but by comparison with other acts of his in nature, it is unrestrained. This voice in nature is representative of the power of his word in Scripture. Judgement follows the pronouncement of God’s word, whether accepted, rejected.