The Unriddler Cometh (Job 36:17-33)

With the storm quickly intensifying, the 26 foot sailboat raced to the shore of Minnesota Point in the western end of Lake Superior. As all 8 on board the vessel scrambled to get to dry land tragedy suddenly struck. With an explosive force a lightning bolt either hit one of the passengers (a nine year old boy) directly or in the water immediately around him. Most everyone was blown off their feet. Before the day was over the little boy was dead; what began as a tranquil day of sailing ended in calamity.

(Daniel Thralow, a resident of Duluth, recorded a time-lapse video of the storm [MN Point Storm]. Candace Renalls and Andrew Krueger of the News Tribune staff quoted Mr. Thralow as saying, “It was amazing how far diagonally it stretched…you expect it to go straight down, and not meander so far.” Duluth News Tribune, August 20, 2012)

Can blessings come from a devastated tranquility? At times the answer seems to be a resounding “no!”

Are there flaws in the benevolence of God? At times the answer seems to be a resounding “yes!”

It is difficult to understand why things happen as they do.

Against the backdrop of the awful sickness of a grief stricken husband and father, we are not presented with the reasons as to why these tragic events have befallen Job and his family, but with a simple (yet unexpected) response – the majesty of God! Although for a couple of chapters Elihu veered from his sermon notes and seemed to wander aimlessly in a verbose wilderness, he has now transported us to the very edge of a Grand-Canyon-like view of the Proprietor of the Universe. We are on the cusp of the Incomprehensible.

36:17 “But you were full of judgment on the wicked; Judgment and justice take hold of you. 18 Beware that wrath does not entice you to scoffing; and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. 19 Will your riches keep you from distress, or all the forces of your strength?”

God’s love at times takes the form of a ferocious wrestling. He is determined to bring us to the goal He has designed for us. And on occasion we seem determined to “think lightly of” or “despise” His dealings with us. Keil and Delitzsch write in their commentary, “Elihu admonishes Job not to allow himself to be drawn by the heat of passion into derision.” And Barnes writes, “It is a sentiment which is undoubtedly true—that if a man holds the sentiments, and manifests the spirit of the wicked, he must expect to be treated as they are.” Job was teetering on the edge of just such an attitude (and perhaps had gone over the edge). Trapp adds this blunt admonition, “Oh beware lest He double his strokes, and beat thee to pieces for thy disobedience and stubbornness.”

36:20 “Do not long for the night, when people vanish in their place. 21 Be careful, do not turn to evil, for you have preferred this to affliction.”

In the “fight or flight” options open to Job during this epic struggle, Job from time to time leaned toward the “flight” response. The battle, the struggle and the loneliness were wearing him down. Job longed for a respite from the conflict. But Elihu’s admonition not to “desperately long for night’s deep darkness” is perhaps a warning to Job not to plunge into the despair of chapter 3. The Message puts verse 20 this way, “And don’t think that night, when people sleep off their troubles, will bring you any relief.”

And the Living Bible puts verse 21 this way, “Be on guard! Turn back from evil, for God sent this suffering to keep you from a life of evil.” Note the words “to keep you.” Elihu is pleading with Job, “This wasn’t sent to punish you for past deeds -- but perhaps to keep you from a wrong course in the future.”

36:22 “Behold, God is exalted in His power; who is a teacher like Him?”

“Behold” can include the sense of “wondering admiration.” Adam Clarke writes, “He who says he can examine the earth with a philosophic eye, and the heavens with the eye of an astronomer, and yet says he cannot see in them a system of infinite skill and contrivance, must be ignorant of science, or lie against his conscience, and be utterly unworthy of confidence or respect.”

“Who is a teacher like Him?” None is as powerful as God – therefore none is a teacher like Him! One commentator writes, “He (God) is a teacher of perplexed things, an unriddler of riddles. He knows all things exactly, and does all things with singular skill and understanding.” In just a short while God will manifest Himself at Job’s desolate ash heap and will raise him up far beyond his imagination. Thus the theology of Elihu seems to lead us into the majestic approach of Yahweh.

36:23 “Who has appointed Him His way, And who has said, ’You have done wrong’?”

Again Adam Clarke writes, “Who can prove, in the whole compass of the creation, that there is one thing imperfect, superabundant, or out of its place? Who can show that there is, in the course of the divine providence, one unrighteous, cruel, or unwise act? All the cunning and wickedness of man have never been able to find out the smallest flaw in the work of God.”

36:24 “Remember that you should exalt His work, of which men have sung. 25 All men have seen it; Man beholds from afar.”

Note the first word of this verse, “Remember…” We are such great forgetters. How often is it that we follow the admonition of that word “Remember!” During this long ordeal Job has been seeking a legal challenge against God and the way He has treated him. But Hartley reminds us that “God is worthy of praise rather than seeking a legal challenge with him.” We so easily forget to genuinely and enthusiastically worship God!

36:26 “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable.”

I like how The Message translates this verse, "Take a long, hard look. See how great He is—infinite, greater than anything you could ever imagine or figure out!”

FI Anderson makes this very thought-provoking statement, “God's eternity is conceivable, but not comprehensible. We know that God is great. That is an enormous amount of positive knowledge. But we can never know just how great He is. Yet this perceived limitation does not invalidate what we do know, especially when that knowledge is grounded, not in transcendental speculation, but in contemplation of God in His manifold works of creation.”

God’s eternity is conceivable but not comprehensible. Job 9:10 reminds us that God does the “past-finding out things.” When trying to “comprehend the incomprehensible” one gets the feeling he is trying to feebly grasp at the concept of Ezekiel’s “wheel in the middle of a wheel…that had rims full of eyes!” (Ezekiel 1:16) How are we to comprehend and try to envision that which has not even entered our imagination? But then again the Apostle Paul does ask us to, in a paradoxical way, “Know the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:19).

36:27 “For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, 28 which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly. 29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of His pavilion? 30 Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him, and He covers the depths of the sea. 31 For by these He judges peoples; He gives food in abundance. 32 He covers His hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. 33 Its noise declares His presence; the cattle also, concerning what is coming up.”

Immediately following a call to behold the greatness of God, we are met, not with a deep theological treatise on His majesty, but with a lesson in meteorology. The dialogue turns from the splendor of the Creator to drops of water – cloud vapor – that are so small (approximately 0.002 inches in diameter) that it would take about 500 droplets to equal 1 inch!

In verses 27 through 33 Elihu mentions raindrops and clouds and thunder and lightning. Thunder and lightning were seen as the “artillery of the skies” and (as per Hartley) the ancients thought that lightning was hurled from the deity’s hands. Elihu seems to have taken a sudden turn to the everyday lunch counter conversation of “How’s the weather?”

So how does this fit into finding an answer to Job’s pitiful plight? It seems to me that the thrust of Elihu’s argument is found in one word in verse 29, “Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds….” Even with the aid of today’s supercomputers and satellite imagery, it is hard for meteorologists to “understand” (or predict) the weather. This word “understand” appears more than 20 times in Job. One Bible dictionary defines it as “so much more than IQ – it refers to insight that is uniquely God’s.”

Can anyone understand what the weather will be like in a week? As I am writing this an early winter storm has blasted northern Minnesota – this wasn’t predicted a week ago. So if we have a hard time “understanding” what the weather will be like in a few days, how are we to understand the ways of God? How can the finite understand the infinite?

Our problems may be on a par with Job's – a son has died, a wife is suffering from the Monster called Alzheimer’s, an alcoholic husband has ruined your dreams of golden-retirement-years.

Or our problems may be much less dramatic or less life altering.

We may not understand – but the One Who created galaxies and raindrops knows and understands and cares with an incredible intensity! Whatever our lot in life, the call to each of is to spend time contemplating the greatness of God. In so doing our heart can be enlarged, our vision can be expanded, and life can be renewed -- even though circumstances may still be the same!