“Well
Bob, it’s quite fascinating actually, and there’s a spectacular weather system
that’s fast approaching out of the north…I’ve never seen anything quite like
it! I apologize for the shaking
microphone but my heart is pounding so hard right now I’m having a hard time
concentrating on the forecast. The
thunder and lightning are absolutely awe-inspiring; there is probably more than
a little terror and panic going on right now in our viewing area…”
Just
prior to the startling appearance of God at Job’s desolate ash heap, Elihu
seems to give us a lesson in meteorology.
Francis
Andersen writes, “Elihu…is startled into mixed terror and admiration at the
awesome spectacle of God’s power in the thunderstorm.”
(Speaking of
thunderstorms, it is said that that the Roman Emperor Caligula (AD 37-41), upon
hearing thunder, would get out of his bed and hide under it. I wonder if his generals knew that.)
37:1-4 “At this also my heart trembles,
and leaps from its place. 2 Listen
closely to the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that goes out from His
mouth. 3 Under the whole heaven He lets
it loose, and His lightning to the ends of the earth. 4 after it, a voice roars; He thunders with
His majestic voice, and He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is
heard.”
Note
how the NIV and the NLT translations of verse 1 describe Elihu’s reaction to
this supernatural storm: "At this my heart pounds and leaps from
its place.” (NIV) “My heart pounds as I think of this. It trembles within me.”
(NLT)
Also
note the prominence of the words “thunder,” “lightning,” and “voice.” And note
in particular the number of times “voice” is used: verse 2 refers to the “thunder of His voice,”
three times in verse 4 the word “voice” is used, and verse 4 speaks of the “roaring voice” (roar here
refers to the deep rumbling cry of the lion), .
Our
word “thunder” perhaps comes from the Swedish “tordon” or “Thor’s Din” (the
noise of Thor); and lightning was sometimes called “thunderflame.”
God
thunders with His majestic voice! No
contestant on NBC’s “The Voice” can ever match the majestic thundering and
roaring Voice that calls the Universe to attention. If we tremble during a thunderstorm imagine
how we would quake at the presence and the voice of the Almighty!
37:5 “God thunders with His voice
wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend.”
The Voice that spoke in Genesis One is the same Voice that
is about to break through the hopeless despair enveloping Job. The version called “The Message” puts verse 5 this way, “His word thundering so wondrously, His
mighty acts staggering our understanding.”
I like that
phrase, “staggering our understanding!” Our minds naturally view
problems through the prism of our finite understanding. We behold a situation
and characterize it as “hopeless,” so at
times we need something supernatural to explode our “There-is-no-way-out-of-this-problem”
type of thinking. And that something (or
rather “Someone”) is the God Who can do great things which we cannot
comprehend! We need an encounter with
the God “who staggers our understanding.”
37:6 “For to the snow He says, 'Fall
on the earth,' and to the downpour and the rain, 'Be strong.'"
The
language of this verse is more forceful than the simple statement of “Let the
snow fall…” It is written in the fashion
of the command of Genesis 1:3; but instead of “Let there be light!” we have,
“Let there be snow!”
In the span of two verses we have gone from “things which
we cannot comprehend” to a discussion of snowflakes and raindrops. But what
is the point of giving Job, while still covered in the misery of open, running
sores and an endless itching, a lesson in the different forms that
precipitation can take?
That is a
question that will be answered beginning with chapter 38.
Matthew Henry
writes in his commentary, “The changes and extremities of the weather, wet or
dry, hot or cold, are the subject of a great deal of our common talk and
observation; but how seldom do we think and speak of these things, as Elihu
does here, with an awful regard to God the director of them, who shows his power
and serves the purposes of his providence by them!”
37:7 “He seals the hand of every man, that
all men may know His work. 8 Then the
beast goes into its lair and remains in its den.”
In generations
gone by, winter seemed to be sort of a divine “time-out,” a time when God would
stop man's out-of-doors work so that humanity would take thought of their
complete dependence on God. Writes Matthew
Henry, “The plough is laid by, the shipping laid up, nothing is to be done,
nothing to be got, that men, being taken off from their own work, may know his
work…when we are confined to our houses we should be driven to our Bibles and
to our knees.”
Another commentary
puts it, “…the busy affairs of life come to a pause, and while nature is silent
around us, and the earth wrapped in her fleecy mantle forbids the labor of the
husbandman, everything invites to the contemplation of the Creator, and of the
works of his hands. The winter, therefore, might be improved by every farmer to
enlarge his knowledge of God, and should be regarded as a season wisely
appointed for him to cultivate his understanding and improve his heart.”
37:9 “Out of the south comes the storm, and
out of the north the cold. 10 From the breath of God ice is made, and the
expanse of the waters is frozen.”
“South”
in this verse literally means “an inner chamber or apartment”, and refers to
the remote or hidden regions; and “North” literally means “scatterers.”
For
the most part our weather systems arrive out of the West. Having lived in the Dakota’s for a few years,
I can still recall seeing the storm clouds gather (sometimes spectacularly) in
the West and move across the plains.
It’s a beauty that’s not seen that well in the woodlands of northeastern
Minnesota
37:11 “Also with moisture He loads the
thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning. 12 It changes direction, turning around by His
guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited
earth.”
To
paraphrase Poole : The clouds, seemingly
pregnant with water, are made to go on long journeys. Finally, worn out from their protracted
voyage, upon reaching their destinations they empty themselves wherever God
commands them. And though seeming to wander with a casual aimlessness across
the sky, neither the clouds nor the
lightning is haphazard in its movement. Nothing in God’s universe is beyond His
guidance.
Francis
I Andersen writes, “God is in complete control of all those events even though
their whirling around might suggest aimless, chaotic forces.”
37:13 “Whether for correction, or for His
world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.”
There
is a lot packed into this verse but let’s just focus on just the word
“lovingkindness.”
The
Hebrew word “hesed” is perhaps the greatest word of the Old Testament (and may
be the equivalent of the New Testament word “agape” or love). It appears in the King James version of the
Bible as “mercy” or “kindness” “or goodness.”
A
derivation of this word is translated “stork” because it was thought to be kind
to its young. Dom Sorg observed, “This word is really the OT reflex of ‘God is
love’” Hesed refers to the eternal
divine kindness. Sakenfeld tells us that “forgiveness must always have been
latent in the theological usage of hesed.” It expresses an attitude of a
merciful reaching out to God’s creation when that creation is in the most pitiful
of states.
It
is a love that can reach down and take people from the guttermost to the
uttermost!
Hesed
love is unending and ever faithful. It
is a stubborn and unfailing love!
It
is a type of love that pursues its object no matter how apathetic or pathetic
that person may be!
It
is a love that always creates hope in the most desperate of situations and can
always moves past the most impossible of
obstacles!
As I
have often stated in these “Conversations From the Ash Heap” devotionals, the
word “hopeless” hardly begins to convey Job’s awful plight. And yet on the other side of a thick veil of
darkness and gloom, God’s Hesed Love (in the form of an extraordinary and
terrifying storm) was just about to envelop his bleak circumstances.
The
God of eternity, the Creator of time and space Himself is about to make a very
personal visit to a lonely man at a deserted town dump.
Conclusion:
I stopped by to visit one of my friends at work a week or so ago. I asked about her grandchildren – two of them
are suffering from a disease so rare that one of the nation’s most prestigious
medical centers has not been able to diagnose it yet.
As
she described what they are going through I just wanted to hug her and cry with
her. I guess I could have quoted some
Bible verse or something, but I felt like I should simply listen – words just
seemed so empty at the time.
That
night during prayer I cried for her grandchildren. I prayed that the God who manifested
Himself so many centuries ago in the little known city called “Uz” would bring
hope to the parents and healing to those little grandkids.
If
you are someone who is struggling to find even just a bread crumb of hope,
remember that against all odds, God visited Job. And God can visit you.
