Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.
Elihu's last speech leaves Job's case behind and moves outdoors. He points to clouds, rain and thunder as evidence about God. But first he says what God is: great beyond our knowing, with years no one can count.
Where the verse sits
Elihu's closing speech falls into two halves. This verse belongs to the second:
Samuel RidoutGod's dealings among men (Job 36:1-21). His ways in Nature (Job 36:22-37:24).
Great — and therefore past our understanding
Both halves of the verse say the same thing: God is past our measuring. Yet beyond us is not the same as hidden. What we can see still points back to Him:
William KellyAgain, he says that God is great, or exalted, and beyond our understanding, since no one can search out the number of His years. If the things we see are so wonderful, what must be the wisdom, power, and goodness that planned and made it all! And the aim is plain: the earth and man on it, for His own glory.
Years no one can count
The years no one can count point to eternity. Eternity does not stretch the imagination; it defeats it. One writer makes the point with a story:
The Christian's FriendWe cannot imagine eternity. He never had a beginning, and He dwells in light no one can reach, so He is far beyond us. He has gladly revealed Himself to us as Father, yet His divine being itself is still far beyond us... We remember the answer a poor preacher at Cambridge gave to some young mathematicians who asked him for a definition of eternity. He said he could not give one. Instead he asked them a question: how long would a pendulum be if, instead of marking seconds, it swung only once in a century? That could of course be calculated, but we would be as far from grasping eternity as ever.
The evidence: rain
Elihu's next piece of evidence is not spectacular. It is water going up and coming down. Because it happens every day, it stops amazing us:
Leslie M. GrantGod is infinitely greater than the human mind can ever take in, and "the number of His years is unsearchable" (v.26). What an understatement! Elihu shows this by pointing to God drawing up drops of water from seas, lakes and rivers and distilling them into rain (v.27). We know this happens all the time. So the wonder of it does not grip us as it should, and we easily forget that it takes the power of God to keep the waters moving in their wonderful cycle.
The argument then runs upward from the small thing to the great one:
William KellyHe is infinitely above our thoughts... Elihu illustrates it by God's power in outward things. And if that is true of something as small as the rain, how much more of something as great as the soul of man — the soul of man, which came from the breath of God Himself?
Knowing Him, without containing Him
"We know him not" does not shut the door on knowing God at all. A God we could fully understand would be no bigger than we are:
Frederick W GrantA God we could always understand would be only someone like ourselves, and you cannot enlarge man into God. There will still be the light no one can approach. Yet this is light, not darkness. It makes nothing dark, whatever men claim. In this light we see light — the knowledge of God lights up everything else.
Both stay true at the same time:
J. N. DarbyI cannot take in the thought of infinite space. So I can never get out of it; I am lost in it. Still, I know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge... "We know it" and "it surpasses knowledge" go together.
What it asks of a sufferer
Job wanted his questions answered. Elihu points somewhere else — to where a troubled soul settles:
Samuel RidoutSo long as a soul raises a question against the character of God, he is in no state to have his difficulties met... The soul must find its rest in God, not in our reasonings. "How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!" (Rom. 11:33).
Summary
- Great — Elihu answers Job with a Person, not an explanation: God is exalted, and past our understanding.
- Unsearchable — no one can count His years. Stretch your mind as far as you like; eternity stays out of reach.
- Yet shown — the God no one can measure makes every drop of rain. Ordinary weather displays His greatness.
- How much more — if His power reaches a raindrop, it reaches further to the soul of man, which came from His own breath.
- So rest — we can truly know what we cannot fully know. The soul rests in God, not in its own reasoning.