Job 38:23

The snow and hail are laid up in storehouses — where? Not in some hidden place, in vast masses. Not just in the invisible vapour that fills the sky, as science would say today. Behind all that, those storehouses of mercy and of judgment are in the hand of God. His word produces them — the snow, to protect the grass in winter, and to cool and refresh in summer; the hail, in striking plagues and sweeping judgments.

What questions these are. They cover every department of what man calls "natural sciences" — geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy. Job had not a single answer to these questions, and if he had spoken, his words would have been folly... But what is the Lord's aim in putting these questions? To show that God is greater than man, and to humble man. To bring Job to the true knowledge of himself that he needed, and to free him from the pride of his heart.

Snow provides a cover for the earth in winter to protect the ground from freezing deeply. The snow holds treasures Job knew nothing about, and so does the hail. While the snow may be for protection, the hail is reserved for times of trouble, battle and war. Both snow and hail are frozen water, but how different they are when falling on earth!

And He shows that God has a store that man knows nothing about, and He sets it to work whenever it pleases Him... Look at the case of the Amorites, who, on the way to Beth-horon, fell by the hailstones that God rained on them.

The Lord of creation commands and nature obeys, and the hailstones strike not Israel, but the fleeing enemy. Each stone with its own special message distinguishes between Israelite and Canaanite. The sword of Israel and the great stones of the Lord are both guided by the same mighty and unerring Hand.

So the wrath of God rests upon the world, held back indeed by His patient love, which at the same time has provided a place of refuge. But there are still "the treasures of the hail," which He has "reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war." He will pour them out yet, while the heavens declare His righteousness in it. This is what makes it so terrible: it is the action of righteousness. Faith looks ahead to this and takes it home now, as something that governs one's thoughts and conduct.

What is the effect, then, on a godly man who really believes in Him and His guidance? What is the effect of knowing our ignorance to be so immense? Reliance upon God. There was the great thing in which Job failed, murmured and found fault. He could not understand it. He might have believed, and he ought to have believed. That is where we fail too. We are just as ready to reason and murmur as Job.