“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,
God's questions to Job turn to the weather. Who cut the channel the rain-flood runs down? Who set the path the thunderbolt follows? Job wanted an answer about his own suffering. God asks him instead whether he understands a rainstorm.
Why God asks
The whole run of questions in this chapter covers ground no one can master. One writer notes that they sweep across every field of study and still leave us with no answer.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAnd then the rain clouds, the lightnings and their control. What questions these are. They cover every department of what man calls "natural sciences" — geology, meteorology, geography, oceanography, astronomy, and the rest. Job had not a single answer to these questions, and if he had spoken his words would have been folly. And we, more than three thousand years later, are still unable to answer these questions in a satisfactory way. All our boasted progress and our scientific discoveries of the great laws of nature have not changed that. 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 needed true knowledge of himself and to deliver him from the pride of his heart.
The word "divided"
The older wording asks who has divided a watercourse. To divide is to portion out. One writer draws from that both skill and comfort for a man under God's discipline.
Samuel RidoutBut storms and storm-clouds are only the prelude to the rain. Here, too, God is seen, bringing refreshment after the storm. So with Job, his chastening will be followed by the showers. Who knows how to "divide," to distribute, these refreshing showers? Man would distribute them unevenly, or at the wrong time. God knows when and how to send the welcome relief. In fact the lightning and the thunder are only the vehicles on which the showers come, as science now declares.
Lightning and rain together
The verse sets the path of the thunderbolt right next to the channel of the rain. That pairing is more than poetry, as one account shows.
A J PollockThough the Bible is the most ancient book in the world, it is the most up-to-date, and cannot be otherwise. Some years ago an officer in the army was lecturing to his fellow officers on electricity. He explained Lord Kelvin's great discovery: rain is always caused by an electrical discharge. That discovery has rightly made Kelvin's name famous. This officer was an earnest Christian man, and he carried a well-worn Bible under his red coat. He said, "Gentlemen, I happen to own a very ancient volume that clearly anticipates Lord Kelvin's discovery."
His announcement made his hearers curious. At the end of the lecture they crowded round him, asking in disbelief which ancient book he meant. It was the Bible under his coat.
Rain where no one lives
The channel and the path bring the rain down on land where no one lives. Who is that rain for?
William KellyGod does think of animals, He thinks even of the insect; He thinks of where no man is; there He has His thoughts and His plans and His goodness.
Beyond human need
We judge God's actions by what they do for us. Rain poured out on empty ground breaks that habit.
Leslie M. GrantBut God's work is not confined to the needs of humans, little as we may understand these things. Our purely human thoughts centre on ourselves, and that is nothing but misplaced pride. God's thoughts are infinitely higher than we naturally imagine.
Where the argument lands
Someone cut the flood-channel and the lightning-path. He cut them with such care that rain reaches the emptiest desert. So the God asking these questions is not only strong.
Samuel RidoutHow widely spread this rain is, reaching out beyond the places where people live, to the waste places of the earth. Wherever the tiniest blade of grass grows, there you see the truth that "His tender mercies are over all His works."
Summary
- Cleft — Someone cut the channel and set the path. The storm you cannot predict runs down a route He measured out before you saw it.
- Divided — To divide is to portion out. God alone knows when and how much to send. We would send it unevenly and at the wrong time.
- Joined — The verse ties the thunderbolt to the rain. Science confirmed that link long after this book had stated it.
- Beyond — The channel runs out past the last house, to land where no one lives. God's plans and His goodness reach where no one is watching.
- Humbled — That is the point of every question. God was not handing Job information. He was ending Job's pride and showing that His thoughts are higher than ours.