Job 37:7 | KingComments | STEP | Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” ( ). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks ( ). With the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man. There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein. To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” ( ). No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth ( ). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there ( ). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world ( ). Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked. What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls. When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities ( ). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want. The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it. God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts ( ). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ. In Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind. Also, making ice is God’s work ( ). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through. The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” ( ). Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds ( ). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud. The shining cloud is also controlled by Him ( ). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands. What a cloud must do is described in . God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there ( ). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose. He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy. We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

‏ Job 37:7

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psa 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Heb 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psa 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psa 33:6 ; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (Jn 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psa 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.