you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?
Elihu ends his speech with a run of questions about the weather. This one asks why Job's clothes feel hot when the south wind stills the land — and if he cannot explain that, how can he judge God's dealings with him?
The warmth Job never questioned
Elihu picks a feeling nobody stops to question: being too warm.
Leslie M. GrantThere are times of quietness and warming instead of bitter cold. Why? In fact, Job had already known summer warmth, and now he was going through winter cold in his personal life. He had taken the warmth for granted, and when the bitter cold came, he asked why. Elihu tells him, in effect, that he should ask why he had the pleasantness of summer warmth in the first place. Indeed, when these extremes come is a question no one but God can answer.
Feeling is not explaining
This question stands in a list of others Job cannot answer: how the clouds keep their balance, how the sky was stretched out.
William KellyDid Job know anything about how the clouds keep their balance? These are the wonderful works of Him who is perfect in knowledge. He gives the earth rest from the south wind — and so the sultry air — until everything turns to scorching heat. Man can feel, but can he explain? Did Job spread out the skies with God, strong as a mirror of cast metal? If so, he could tell us what we should say to Him. If not, we cannot set anything in order, because we are in the dark.
What people can and cannot control
Elihu chose subjects outside human reach, and centuries of progress have not changed that. (The verse wording this writer quotes, here and later, comes from an older translation.)
F. B. HoleIn our day men have made many discoveries. They have gained a kind of control over a few of the subtle powers in God's wonderful creation. But the things Elihu mentioned they cannot master. In verse 9 he put it this way: "Out of the south comes the whirlwind; and cold out of the north." When that happens, the cleverest of men can only accept it and look for shelter or warmth.
The conclusion of the matter
All the questions land on one answer, and Elihu puts himself under it too.
Samuel RidoutAnd so we come to the conclusion of the whole matter. Who or what is Job, but a frail man whose clothes weigh him down while the desert wind blows? As he goes on, Elihu becomes the spokesman for all lowly people. We have dared to speak, and we are only dust and ashes. "We cannot draw up our case because of darkness." Let us quiet our voices and listen to Him!
Weather with a purpose
Heat, cold and storm are not random. Elihu had already said what they are for.
F. B. HoleElihu recognized that God ordered the weather with wise purpose. What He sends may be "for correction," that is, discipline for wrongdoing. It may be "for His land," to keep the earth producing as usual. Or it may be "for mercy," to bring about some merciful deliverance. This too had a bearing on Job's case.
Clouds in balance
Elihu's answer to a man absorbed in his own trouble is to look away from it.
Samuel RidoutLet Job forget himself, his troubles, his "friends." Let him "stop and consider the wondrous works of God." Can he explain these purposes? Does he see the light that shines behind the clouds? Does he understand how these clouds keep their balance? Such a statement is amazingly simple. All nature holds this balance, one force against another. And the clouds of a life hold the same divine balance.
Summary
- Warmth — Job asked why the cold came, but never asked why the warmth came first.
- Weakness — a man who cannot manage the heat in his own clothes cannot manage God's ways with him.
- Wisdom — feeling the south wind is not the same as explaining it, and Job could only feel it.
- Will — God sends weather for correction, for His land, or for mercy. Job's trouble came under the same wise purpose.
- Wonder — stop and consider God's works, where one force balances another, even in the clouds over a life.