After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
Elihu is describing a thunderstorm as it breaks overhead. He hears the roar that follows the flash as the voice of God Himself. The question for Job is simple: what should a man do when God makes Himself heard like that?
The storm before the answer
Elihu's closing speech changes character. It stops arguing and starts describing a storm.
Samuel RidoutThis closing part begins with a summing up along the lines already followed. But it ends with a description of the workings of God in nature, and for grandeur that description is unmatched. At the start he speaks in a simple, teaching way, addressing the judgment and the conscience. The close is so vivid that it has rightly been thought to describe an actual storm whose approach announced the presence of God. It is a most fitting prelude to the Lord's word out of the whirlwind.
A voice that demands attention
For Elihu the thunder is a summons. The lightning God does not hold back covers everything in sight. And it all falls on a man who has been through a storm of another kind.
Leslie M. GrantAs the storm breaks upon them, Elihu himself trembles (v.1). The thunder of God's voice calls for man's close attention. His lightning spreads over the whole visible area (vv.2-3). Here before Job's eyes was an object lesson about the spiritual storm he had been through. He certainly could not stop the storm, yet God would allow it only for a time. He knows how to make the storm a calm (Ps. 107:29), as the Lord Jesus did when His disciples were torn with fear (Mark 4:38-39).
Heard, but not traced
His voice is majestic and unmistakable, yet the One speaking stays out of sight.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinOne cannot trace Him, though His voice is heard.
The only sane response
There is no arguing with a sky like this. The sensible response comes from an unexpected teacher.
William KellyAnd what could be finer than the description that follows of the thunder and lightning? It is so vivid that quite a few think Elihu is watching a storm in progress, with its roar and rumble, followed by the fall of snow or rain in varying amounts. What can man do, in the presence of God's awful voice, but seek to learn? Even the wild beast retires to cover and keeps to his den.
But a trembling heart is not the same as animal instinct. Kelly marks the difference.
William Kelly"At this also my heart" — that is a very different thing from the mere instinct of the cattle — "my heart trembles" (Job 37:1-8). Even the beasts have more sense than some men.
Why God speaks through weather
Why does the argument turn to sky and storm rather than to grace? The answer has to do with timing, and it comes with an honest word about the limits of such teaching.
William KellyJob 37, after turning our ears in the chapter before to the ways of God in providence... finally turns our eyes to the wonderful works of God in the outward world... These, I admit, fall very far short of the depth of truth that the doctrine of Christ or His grace gives. It is not the unseen, but the visible. Here we can understand that we are in the infant days even of God's saints. They spelled out the vast letters of heaven and earth, seen before the Scriptures were read... For that very reason, because Christ was not here, God takes up the outward world to show His majesty, faithfulness and gracious power in all that surrounded man.
From the sky to your circumstances
The argument runs from the weather to something closer to home. If God's work in the sky is past our understanding, what about His work in a life?
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAnd if He is so wonderful in nature, His ways there past finding out, how much more in His providential dealings. Yet whether in nature or in providence, His ways are perfect.
Summary
- Voice heard. Elihu hears the thunder that follows the flash as God's own voice, calling for man's close attention.
- Voice untraced. We hear Him without seeing Him. The sound announces a Person nobody can trace.
- Voice obeyed. In the presence of that voice a man can only learn. The animal taking cover shows more sense than the man who argues.
- Voice in your own storm. The weather over Job's head pictured the storm inside his life. He could not stop it, and God would allow it only for a time.
- Voice before Christ came. The visible world was God's teaching in an early day. The same God whose ways in nature are past finding out is perfect in His dealings with you.