Job 36:27-29 | KingComments | STEP | How great God is cannot be understood by us ( ). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them. The word “for” ( ) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun ( ; ). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain. Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds ( ). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness ( ; ). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this. How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man ( ). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky ( ). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course. The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” ( ). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.

‏ Job 36:27-29

God Is Exalted, and We Do Not Know Him

How great God is cannot be understood by us (Job 36:26). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them.

The word “for” (Job 36:27) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun (Psa 135:7; Amos 5:8). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain.

Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds (Job 36:28). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness (Mt 5:45b; Acts 14:17). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this.

How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man (Job 36:29). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky (1Kgs 18:44-45). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course.

The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” (Psa 18:11 ; Psa 97:2). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.