Context No. 3758 of 4322 · Job

Job 36:17-33: in context

17“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you. 18Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside. 19Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength? 20Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. 21Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction. 22Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? 23Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’? 24“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung. 25All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off. 26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. 27For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, 28which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly. 29Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion? 30Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. 31For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance. 32He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. 33Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.

Elihu lifts Job's eyes from his suffering to the greatness of God, especially as seen in the natural world. Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? He describes God drawing up the drops of water that fall as rain, spreading the clouds, wrapping himself in lightning that he commands to strike its mark, feeding the peoples through it all.

And he confesses the limit of all our understanding: God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is beyond searching. There is a needed humility here. Faced with the sheer greatness of God, seen even in a thunderstorm, the right response is not to demand that God explain himself, as Job had been tempted to do, but to bow before a greatness we cannot fully comprehend. God is a teacher beyond every teacher, exalted beyond our knowing, and yet he draws near to feed and govern his world. To stand before such a God is to learn a reverent humility.

When I am tempted to demand that God explain himself, can I bow instead before a greatness I cannot fully comprehend, trusting the God whose power and wisdom are seen even in the falling rain?

Sources

Job 36:22: "Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?"
Job 36:26: "Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable."
Job 36:27-28: "For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, which the skies pour down."