All who credit themselves with more wisdom or more power than they really have will be cut down to size by the Lord. We are dependant creatures and will only ever be in the position where we rely on him to do a vast number of tasks in the running of our world which are beyond our ability to understand or imitate. In what follows, God does not even tax Job with the affairs of heaven, but limits his questioning entirely to what takes place on the earth. If Job cannot even explain these things, how could he possibly deal with spiritual matters. And if he cannot do this, then how can he assess the factors which influence God’s government of the world? We give thanks to God that he undertakes so many things that we could never advise him about, including the management of our discipline and sanctification.
Job, as Calvin says, has been spoken to by Elihu, also a man ‘formed out of the clay’ (Job 33:6), who can say, ‘my terror shall not make thee afraid’ (Job 33:7). In condescension to our weakness, God uses other mortal men to speak to us so that we are not overwhelmed with fear. But, Calvin teaches, it is also necessary that we should ‘bear toward Him the reverence which He deserves’. ‘God, seeing that Job was not sufficiently subdued by the propositions and reasons which Elihu had brought forward, causes him to experience his grandeur from a whirlwind.’ This awesome setting for God’s final communication to Job was necessary in order to humble to the point where he repented in dust and ashes.