We’re in the midst of the discourse of this young fellow Elihu, who has been offering his concept, which does differ from those of Eliphaz, and Bildad, and Zophar. Basically their premise was that Job was experiencing the judgement of God. A punishment for his sin. Elihu suggests, that rather than punishment for sin, the suffering that Job has been experiencing, is corrective not punitive, more as a chastisement from the Lord, to deal with issues in Job’s life.
But even as a chastisement, he is accusing Job of looking at it the wrong way. Drawing false conclusions about God, making false accusations of God, so he is taking Job to task, for Job’s reactions to the tremendous suffering, that he has been experiencing. Elihu comes closer to the truth, but does not follow completely, nor understand completely just what is going on in Job’s life.
It is true that for the child of God, God really doesn’t deal with us in a punitive way, but always in a corrective way? If God is dealing in our lives, and we are going through trials, going through heavy difficulties, God is working out His purposes, and it is corrective. The bible tells us not to despise the chastening of the Lord, for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. There is a purpose in the chastening processes of God, to keep us from the wrong path, and to put us in the right way. So this is the general thought that is being expressed by Elihu, as he is seeking to understand the calamity that Job has experienced.
He, as the others, exaggerates the statements of Job. What he accuses Job of saying, are not actual statements of Job, for the most part. They are inferences that could be drawn from Job’s statements. They are taking the statements of Job, and carrying them out to sort of a logical end. Thus, he is actually putting words into Job’s mouth, and then judging Job, for the words that he’s putting in his mouth. Words that weren’t really expressed by Job, but perhaps inferred by what Job said. So, he continues his discourse, beginning with chapter thirty five.
And he spake moreover, and said, You think that this is right, in that you said, My righteousness is more than God’s (35:1-2)?
Now, Job really didn’t say that. What Job said is, he couldn’t understand why God was allowing these things. He didn’t understand why God would do this to him, for he saw no reason in his life that would cause this kind of calamity. Now, Elihu turned that around as to Job saying, “Hey, I am more righteous than God!”. Though Job did not say that, and it is something that is extrapolated from what Job had said.
It is amazing to me that there are many people who do infer that their righteousness is greater than God’s. So many times the justice of God has been challenged by man. It is usually challenged with a statement that begins, “Why does God…”, then as the person carries that out, they are actually challenging the fairness of God. The question itself brings the justice of God, or the righteousness of God into question. “Why would God send a man to hell to suffer eternal, eternally, who never had the opportunity of knowing salvation through Jesus Christ?” Now the Bible doesn’t say that this is actually the case, but people infer this from scriptures, and thus they are judging God, as this man was judging Job, from inferences, conclusions that they have drawn with their incomplete knowledge of the total situation. But the fairness of God and the justice of God is often challenged by man, and Elihu imagined that Job was actually challenging the righteousness of God, saying that he was more righteous. There are people that have that inference in their very question. They say, in a sense, “If I were God, I would surely not do that. I would be more just than to do that”.
There are many things that we do not know concerning the final outcome of individuals. Things that God knows. I am certain when we have all the facts, as God has, that when we see the determination that God makes, we will, with the angels in heaven, even in the midst of the judgement say, “Holy and righteous, and just are thy judgements O Lord!”.
Abraham challenged the fairness of God. When the angels of the Lord stopped by Abraham, on their way to Sodom. They said, “Shall we tell Abraham what our mission is?”, they said, “The sin of Sodom has ascended up to God, and He has sent us down to destroy the place”. Abraham said, “Should not the Lord of the earth be just? Shouldn’t God be fair? What if there are fifty righteous people in Sodom? Would God destroy the fifty righteous with the unrighteous? Would it be fair to destroy those righteous people along with the ungodly people? Would that be fair?” Abraham was actually challenging, in a sense, the justice of God. The angels responded, “If there are fifty righteous men, we will spare the city”. “Well there’s not much difference between fifty and forty! What if there’s only forty righteous men that are there?” “We’ll spare the city for forty.” “Well, what if there’s only thirty?” “We’ll spare the city for thirty.” “How bout’ twenty?” “We’ll spare it for twenty.” Once more, “What if there’s only ten?” “We’ll spare it for ten.” When the angels arrived, there was only one righteous man, so the Lord delivered that righteous man, Lot, from out of Sodom, before He brought His judgement. “For the Lord knows how to deliver the righteous, but to reserve the ungodly for the day of judgement.”
That is why it is not logical, or scriptural to believe that the Lord would allow His church to be upon the earth, when His judgement is poured out on the earth. Even as God spared that righteous man Lot, so God will spare His righteous people who are trusting in Him. As long as there are fifty righteous, God will spare. But when God is ready to judge, He, as He did with Lot, will remove the righteous, and then His judgement will come.
So he is challenging this premise of Job, in Job’s questioning of why God would allow these things to happen to him. He is putting words in Job’s mouth, that Job is saying, though it’s only by inference, that his righteousness is more than God’s.
For you have said, [This is what Job said.] What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin (35:3)?
“It really doesn’t advantage God anything that I choose to serve Him, and to follow Him. God did very well before I ever came along. God doesn’t need me. God could do very well, He, He has no really, need of me at all. It’s a blessing that He has chosen me. I thank Him that He loves me. But really what can I add to God?” So he said…
I’m gonna answer you Job, and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and see; behold the clouds which are higher than you. If you sin, what do you do against him? [You know, it is interesting how that some people have sort of set themselves against God. For some reason or other, they’re trying to get even with God for imagined injustices or wrongs that they’ve received from God. They figure that if they go out and just live a totally sinful life, that really they’re hurting God. There are some people that are in that kind of a rebellion against God, just living as rotten a life as they can, imagining that somehow, it’s, they’re getting even with God for whatever. But as he said, “Hey look at the clouds, how high they are! God is higher than those clouds. He’s way out there, and if you sin, what do you do? You know doesn’t hurt Him! Sin hurts you, but it really doesn’t affect God. It doesn’t take away from God.”] if your transgressions are multiplied, what does that do to him (35:4-6)?
God is sovereign, God is eternal, God is supreme, and our sins really don’t effect God in any way, except, except, God loves you. Now if He didn’t love you, if He was totally impersonal, and dispassionate from His creation, then, you know you could sin all you wanted, and destroy yourself all you wanted to. (He’d say), “Stupid fool”, you know. But, God does love you, and that makes the difference. So your sin does hurt Him, your self-destructive path does hurt Him.
The Jews were on a self-destructive path, and as Jesus looked at the city of Jerusalem, and saw these people in their rebellion, and in this self-destructive path, we read that, “He wept over Jerusalem, saying, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest all of the prophets that God has sent unto you, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen that gather her chicks under her wings! But you would not”, and He wept as He spoke then prophetically of the destruction and the desolation that was going to come. Because God does love you, your sins do effect God.
Parents that have children that go astray. Children that rebel against the parental authority. You would give your life to spare your child the hurt and the pain that you know they’re going to experience, because of their chosen direction. Though it may not effect you personally, as far as it doesn’t take away from you. They’ve grown up, they’re out of the house, you don’t have the responsibility for them. They’re responsible for themselves. You can’t just look upon them just passionately. It hurts to see them hurting themselves, and destroying themselves.
So, because of God’s love, which Elihu does not take, God, he sort of looks at God as impersonal, impassionate, up there somewhere as a mighty force and power. So, “Hey if you sin, what are you doing to Him? No skin off of Him”, you know. But it’s not taking in the fact that God does love, loves you so much, that your sin, your rebellion does hurt.
If you are righteous, what are you giving to him? [“I mean, what’s it do for God that I seek to live a righteous life? What does that add to God?] or what receives he from your hand (35:7)?
“What can you give to God?” Of course that is a real interesting question, and something to really consider. What can I possibly give to God? What do I have that God would need, that God would want? I mean I have hard enough time finding a gift for my wife, she’s got everything. Got me! Ha, ha, ha! That’s what I tell her. You’ve got me, what more do you want? Somehow, she’s not quite satisfied. Ha, ha! But really, what can you give to God? What does God want? He wants my love, He wants my trust, my obedience. That’s all He desires from me. My love, my trust, my obedience. Now, he said…
Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are a man; [“You may hurt yourself with your wickedness, and you may hurt others with your wickedness.” Your wickedness often does hurt others. People assaulting one another.] and your righteousness may profit other men. [Your doing the right thing might help the community in which you live.] And by reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry by reason of the arm of the mighty (35:8-9).
Men effect men. When people are oppressed, when people use their power and their might to oppress others, their wickedness does hurt and effect those who are being oppressed.
But [he said] none saith, Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night (35:10);
When people are oppressed, they’re feeling discouraged, their in despair, so often they don’t turn to God. They don’t turn to God who is able to cheer a person in the darkest circumstances. In the Psalms, it refers to God giving us songs in the night. That’s in the night of difficulty, the night of despair!
A few years ago, I went back to Pennsylvania to speak at a Bible conference, and I got food poisoning. I was really sick, miserably sick with this food poisoning. I was running a temperature, and just feeling miserable, I couldn’t sleep, it was just, it was just a night of misery! But the Lord gave me the most beautiful chorus! All night long I was singing that chorus, just worshiping the Lord, and it was just beautiful! I thought, “I ought to go down to the piano, and write this chorus out, so that I can share it with others”. Such a beautiful chorus. Then I thought, “No, I would never forget this. It’s embedded in my mind”. For over an hour, I just sang and worshiped the Lord and all. It was just a song in the night. I thought, “The first thing in the morning when I get up, I’ll go down, and I’ll write out the chorus, and write out the music, and work it out on the piano”. You know, in the morning I couldn’t remember the chorus at all! It was just something special that the Lord gave me for that hour of need, in the night. A song in the night. Just to get me through, just a, a rather bleak, miserable night, suffering from food poisoning.
Paul and Silas were placed in prison. They had been beaten, and at midnight they were singing praises unto the Lord. I imagine the other prisoners were saying, “You guys shut up will you?”, you know. But God gave them the song in the night hour. So often in those times of discouragement, or distress, or pain, the nights seem to be so long, but the Lord is faithful and He gives us a song in the night. Elihu is saying that people really in their misery should look to God. But often, they don’t. They don’t look to God for that comfort, and the God who is the God of all comfort, to give songs in the night.
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven? [God, who has placed man above His creation.] There they cry, but none give answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it. [“God will not listen”, he is saying, “to empty prayers. He will not regard empty prayers”.] And although you say you shall not see him, yet judgement is before him; therefore trust in him (35:11-14).
Job really didn’t say that he would not see God, he said that he knew that he would see God. But there were times when Job was saying, “I wish I were dead, I wish I were in the grave, where there is no more thought, there is no more consciousness, where everything is over!” He’s probably making reference to those statements, yet, he is saying, “Job there is a day of judgement”. The Bible says, “It is appointed to man once to die, and after that, the judgement”. There is life after death. After death, judgement.
But now, because it is not so, he has visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity: Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; and he multiplies words without knowledge (35:15-16).
“Job”, he’s saying, “you don’t know what you’re talking about. You open your mouth in emptiness”.
Now in the next chapter, uh, chapter thirty eight, when the Lord comes on the scene, the Lord makes somewhat a similar accusation against Job. Verse two, chapter thirty eight. The Lord said, “Who is this, that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Pretty much what Elihu is saying of Job. “He is speaking a lot, but he really doesn’t know what he is talking about, because he doesn’t know all the facts.”
This is so often true of us. We are judging the situation with imperfect knowledge. We don’t have all the facts. All the facts are not yet in. Yet, we’re prone to jump to conclusions, and make our judgement without having all of the facts of the case. As the result, we often jump to wrong conclusions. Surely, as Job gets to know the whole story, he will realize that he had jumped to a lot of wrong conclusions. Conclusions about God, the purposes of God, and the ways of God in his life.

Chapter 36
Now Elihu proceeded also, and he said, Just allow me a little more, and I’m gonna show you that I’m gonna speak to you on God’s behalf (36:1-2).
Pretty powerful words. I’ve had people tell me that! They believed that they had a word of God for me, and some have, and it’s glorious. Some haven’t. Be careful when a person says, “Now I have a word of the Lord for you”, and they start laying on a heavy condemnation. Whenever anybody comes to me with a, “word from the Lord”, that deals with heavy condemnation, I will just tell them flatly, “I do not believe that, that is God’s word. I think that’s something out of your own mind. That doesn’t come from God”.
Because the word of God says, “There is therefore now, no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus”, and if you’re coming to me with a heavy message of judgement and condemnation, supposedly from God, I can’t receive it, because it’s opposing what God has told me in His word. He’s not gonna tell me something contrary through you, than what He’s already told me in His word. Jesus said, “He did not come to condemn, but to save”.
I get letters of condemnation, and more often I get letters, than people coming to me personally. They’re too chicken to come personally, so they write a letter and they don’t sign it. That’s alright, I get even with them, I don’t read em’. I don’t read unsigned letters. So, if you feel the burning of the Spirit in your heart to write me a scathing letter, if you want me to read it, you better sign it. Because, as soon as I get to that part that, you know, it always starts out, “Dear Chuck, I have enjoyed so much your ministry”, and all, “But”, as soon as I get to that, “But”, I turn over to see if they’ve signed the letter. If they haven’t, my secretary always will tell you I’m a great shot. “So, I’m going to speak to you”, he said, “on God’s behalf.”
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, [“I’m gathering together the knowledge of the world!”] and I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. For truly my words will not be false: [That’s an interesting statement, “Truly my words shall not be false”! And, a little bit of bragging…] he that is perfect in knowledge is with me (36:3-4).
So he is assuming at this point, to actually be speaking for God.
Behold, God is mighty, and disputes not any: [Yes, I can buy that. God loves us all, and God is all mighty.] he is mighty not only in strength but in wisdom. [He is omnipotent, and He is omniscient. These are the attributes of God. So, he’s correct, thus far.] He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor (36:5-6).
In other words, the wicked die like everybody else, and God is interested in the poor. The scripture does teach these truths.
He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous: [That also is scriptural truth. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ear is open unto their cry.”] but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. [God sets upon the throne of man, those whom He will. Nebuchadnezzar learned that the hard way.] If they be bound in fetters, and be held with cords of affliction; Then he shows them their works, and their transgression that they have exceeded (36:7-9).
In other words, God uses afflictions for corrective purposes. Not always in judgement, but these are to open your eyes unto your, your faults. So, as correction, He shows their works and their transgressions where they have overstepped the bounds.
He openeth also the ear to discipline them, and commands that they return from iniquity (36:10).
So, the purposes of God, so often, and this is true, in chastisement, is to turn you from the wrong path. You start going, listen let me tell you something, as a child of God, He’s not gonna let you get by with doing something wrong. I don’t care if everybody else on the job is cheating, taking tools home in their lunch box, the minute you try it, the Lord’s gonna let you get nailed! Ha, ha! He’s not gonna let you get by with iniquity. When you start to stray, God is going to allow things to take place, where you will be corrected. That’s because you’re His child! “Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” A man doesn’t chasten a child, unless he is his son. So, the chastening of the Lord only is the proof of the son-ship. So, if you get caught, rejoice, you’re His child! Proof that you’re His child! He didn’t let you get by with it.
If they obey and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (36:11).
Now, if you’re talking about spiritual prosperity, yes. But not always material prosperity. Paul said he knew how to be abased, he knew how to abound. There were times that he was in want, he was in need. He learned in whatever state he was in to be content. Physical prosperity is not a sign of righteousness, or of purity on your part. “If you obey and serve Him, you’ll be prosperous, your years will be filled with pleasures.”
But if you do not obey, you’ll perish with the sword, and you will die without the knowledge of God. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he binds them. [Now, again here, as with the others of those that had come to Job, there is that insinuation that Job is a hypocrite. “Hypocrites heap up wrath, and they don’t cry out to God when the problems arise.”] They die in their youth, and their life is among the unclean. But he delivers the poor out of their affliction, and he opens their ears in oppression. Even so would he have removed thee out of your strait into a broad place, [and there is no straitness] where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness (36:13-16).
“Job, you know if you would get right, God would deliver you out of this tight, tight place that you’re in, and He would bring you into a place of broadness. Your table would be full of dainties, fatness again.”
But you have fulfilled the judgement of the wicked: and so the judgement and the justice are taking hold of you. Because there is wrath, beware lest he wipes you out, takes you away with his stroke: and then a great ransom cannot deliver you. [“All of your money can’t deliver you out of the hand of God, when God begins then to strike.”] For will he esteem your riches? [You know, nobody can buy their way out with God. It’s gonna be a real shock to a lot of people who’ve sought to buy their way. As I say, what can you give to God? Of gold or whatever? He doesn’t need that. So…] gold nor all of the forces of strength. [“Really do anything to God.”] Desire not the night, [And he was desiring death. “Oh that I might die, and be at peace”. He’s saying, “Don’t desire the night”,] when people are cut off in their place. Take heed, and regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction (36:17-21).
“If you would’ve chosen to be dead and all, rather than to go through this affliction Job, wrong choice!”
Behold, God exalts by his power: and who can teach like him? [“God is using these things to instruct you, and to teach you, and no one can teach you like God.”] Who has enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? [That is, against God. Who can say, “God you’ve done it wrong. God you made a mistake”. You ever accuse God of that?] Remember that you magnify his work, which men behold. [“O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name!”] Every man may see it; and man may behold it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we really don’t know him, neither can the number of his years be searched out (36:22-26).
Our minds cannot fathom eternity, in either direction. I cannot fathom eternity past, back, back, back, back. You know how far can your mind go back? How far back can, can your mind take you? I cannot fathom eternity future. My mind can only go out so many billions of years, and then it sort of, you know, I can’t think beyond that. So, he is saying really, “You can’t really fathom the length of God, or the number of His years. They’re beyond our searching out”.
For he makes the small drops of water: and they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof (36:27):
Now, this probably should have been the place where the chapter distinction was made. For he is now beginning what he’s gonna speak about in chapter thirty seven. So the break, the natural break comes here. I don’t know why the people who were making the chapter verse distinctions, you know, didn’t make it here. I think they should’ve, but who am I? But what has no doubt begun to happen at this point, as Elihu is talking, evidently there is a storm that is beginning to brew. The clouds are beginning to blow in. They’re at a conjunction of, of the north cold, and the south warm, which creates tornadoes. The cold air out of the north, coming down, and the warm air from the south. Wherever they meet, you get a tremendous instability in the air that creates thunder heads, that creates lightning, and the whole thing.
So there’s evidently this storm moving in, these huge thunder head clouds, beginning to hear the claps of thunder, the lightening off in the distance as this thing is moving in. So he sort of picks up on this storm that’s moving in, and in the remainder of his discourse, he is sort of describing this storm as it is coming in, and is likening it to the awesomeness of God’s power. “How helpless we are in a lightening storm. The forces of nature, how powerful they are, and how they cause us to feel so small, and so helpless, when really, you begin to face the dynamic forces of nature.” So he begins to describe this storm that is now moving in, as he is talking. He said, “For God makes the small drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof:” He causes really the water to be evaporated, taken up into the air, and then carried by the clouds.
Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly (36:28).
So, God is the one drawing up the water into the air, by of course, the evaporation, and the changing of the water into its component gasses of hydrogen, and oxygen, lifting them into the air, the formation of the clouds, the moisture, the gases in the clouds, as they begin to cool off. Then the water begins to condense and drop as rain.
Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds, [“How the clouds are formed, how the clouds are brought together, how the clouds are (transferred, according)”] or the noise of his tabernacle? [He’s talking there about the thunder, as the skies are sort of the tabernacle, or the tent of God, and the heavy claps of thunder.] Behold, he spreads his light upon it, and he covers the bottom of the sea. [The light of course, being the lightening, and the uh, what they call sheet lightening, where the whole sky just sort of lights, and is charged with all of these electrical particles, these ions.] For by them judges he the people; he gives meat in abundance. [“Through the rain, He provides the grasses, and the verdant fields.”] With clouds he covers the light; and he commands it not to shine by the cloud that comes between. [So even the sun is hid by the clouds, as the clouds come between man and the sun.] The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, and the cattle also concerning the vapor (36:29-33).
It’s interesting when you get one of these thunderstorms all of the electrical charges in the atmosphere, how the cattle seem to you know, recognize it, and they sort of group together.

Chapter 37
At this also my heart trembles, and is moved out of his place. Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goes out of his mouth. [Referring here, in a figurative way, to the thunder, as though God was speaking through the thunder.] He directs it under the whole heaven, and the lightnings unto the ends of the earth (37:1-3).
Have you ever been in some of those storms, where it seemed like the thunder began way down, and rumbles, and gets louder, and louder, and louder, goes over the top, and keeps going on out the other way, until it sort of fades out on the other end? And you see the lightening, as it just sort of lights up the whole sky, you know it seems the whole sky is just with the lightening flashes. I love it! I love it! Lived for awhile in Tucson, Arizona, and man how I loved those summer thunder storms! Just as the lightening, and the crashing thunder! Almost got in trouble one time. I was watching it, and it struck right next to me. Put me on the ground, felt like a hot lead pipe over the top of my head, and blew cinders all over the place. We were up in Williams, Arizona. But it didn’t take away my love for it, I still enjoy watching that lightening, just, there’s something about it, I love it! He said, “God thunders marvelously”, well…
His voice roareth: [verse four] and he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvelously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend (37:4-5).
It’s impossible for us to really comprehend the things of God. Even the things of nature, we, we think that we understand and know, but we’re constantly having to change our theory.
For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength. [The light sort of misty drizzle, which are great to walk in. But then those heavy, heavy downpours of rain.] He seals up the hand of every man; [and all men may know] that all men may know his work (37:6-7).
During the wintertime, He stops the work, He seals up the work of man. (You rain), and here we are, you know, “The fellas took off work this last week, when it started to rain, they couldn’t do the construction anymore. The Lord knew that, that concrete needed a cure, and there’s nothing better to cure concrete, than these rains. The Lord is giving us the greatest concrete job you could ever imagine with these rains. It’s gonna be a perfect cure, perfect pour!” But, when God sent these great rains, and the snows, “He stops the work of every man”. That they might have time then, to meditate on God’s work. It’s in the wintertime when you’re forced to be in the house. You know, it’s too cold to go outside, so you just have time on your hands. Before the days of TV, it was a time to read and to learn more about God, so that you could think more about Him. During this time of the year, the wintertime…
The beasts go into their dens, [The bears into hibernation and all.] and they remain in their places. [Until the wintertime is past.] Out of the south comes the whirlwind: [the warm] and the cold out of the north. [These two air masses meeting and creating these dramatic weather phenomena.] By the breath of God frost is given: [I love that. It’s very picturesque. God breathes, and the whole land is covered with frost. Sort of, it’s a poetic, figurative, beautiful method of speech.] and the breadth of waters are straitened. [By His breath, actually, the waters are straitened.] Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: and he scatters his bright cloud: It is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commands them upon the face of the world in the earth (37:8-12).
So, speaking of God sort of directing the clouds, in their movements in the sky.
He causes it to come, whether it is for correction, or for his land, of for mercy (37:13).
Sometimes rain is unseasonable, and rain can damage the crops at the time of harvest. So he is saying, that if God sends the rain during the harvest time, it’s correction. It’s destroying the crops, but it causes men to examine themselves. Sometimes it’s merciful, in the springtime and all, when the seeds are planted, the crop is growing, the rains are a blessing. So, God uses rain for correction, and also for mercy.
Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God (37:14).
“Let God speak to you Job, in nature.” Now this Thursday night, as we are dealing with the subject of, “How God Speaks”, we’re going to show how God so often speaks to us in nature. He’s really telling Job, “Learn to hear the voice of God in nature”. We’ll get more into that Thursday night.
Do you know when God disposed them, or caused the light of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancing of the clouds, [That is, how the clouds are, are levitated, or how they are there in the air. How they are held up.] the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge (37:15- 16)?
Challenging Job. “Job you really don’t know, even these works of God. Do you understand the weather patterns, how that when the south wind blows, you’re warm, by that south wind?”
Have you with him spread out the sky, [You know, you look at this vast expanse of our universe, and you realize how God has spread out the sky. “When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man, that you are mindful of him?” So, he’s saying to Job, “You know, just consider this vast expanse, the skies that God has spread out”,] which are strong, which are like a molten looking glass? Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speaks, surely he will be swallowed up. And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them (37:18-21).
So the Lord then sweeps the skies clean, and you have the blue sky. Tomorrow morning, you’ll find that God has swept the skies clean. You know, we had this storm, an interesting storm at that! It actually sort of came from the east, moved out over the ocean, and moved back through today. It sort of was in a circular pattern, and when it first hit us, it was sort of coming from the east, and moved out, and in that circular now, we’re getting the passing back through. He’s sweeping the skies.
Fair weather cometh out of the north: and with God is awesome majesty. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: [It’s impossible for us humans, to understand the infinite God. We cannot find Him out.] he is excellent in power, and in judgement, and is full of justice: and he will not afflict. Men do therefore fear him: but he respects not any that are wise of heart (37:22-24).
You think you’re smart? No, He won’t respect that. But, God is fair, and God is of excellent power.
Now, while Elihu is talking, evidently there is this whirlwind, maybe close to a tornado, that passes by. The Lord speaks out of the whirlwind. When God comes on the scene, and begins to speak, then they begin to understand the full picture, the full story. Not completely, but they realize that they’ve only been like children, playing on the beach, picking up a pebble here and there to examine it, and thinking that they understand all of the vastness of that ocean.
There’s so much to be known of God. We stand on the shores, and we see some of His power, and some of the evidences of His hands, and then we suppose that we know all about Him. But yet there is that vast ocean to be explored! Far beyond our capacity to understand, or know. It brings you actually to that place of confession of humility. “Lord, I am nothing. I stand before you as nothing, overawed with your greatness, with your power.” But the amazing thing, He loves me. That’s the thing that keeps me going! As vast and awesome as His majesty and power may be, He loves me. Why? I don’t even worry about that. I just accept it. I think it’s kind of foolish to meddle with some things. Just accept it.
Father, we thank You for your love, for your word, and we pray tonight Lord that You will bring us a little closer to the understanding of Your purpose and Your will, for our lives. That we might surrender ourselves to You, to be guided, to be directed by Your hand. That we might become Father, all that you want us to be. So Lord, we pray that Your Spirit will work in our lives, bringing forth Your good pleasure. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Edited & Highlighted from “The Word For Today” Transcription, Pastor Chuck Smith, Tape #7166
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