Job 38:34

He had spoken of the rain in verses 25-28. Now He asks whether Job could order the clouds to drop their water whenever he wanted. We may see the clouds dark and heavy, and think at such a time that we could tell them to pour out their rain. Yet it may be that no rain falls at all. Lightning may trigger a rainfall, but who can send the lightning?

"Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?" It comes down to man now. "Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?" Well, all that is perfectly simple to God, and God has command in every bit of it.

And then the rain clouds, the lightnings and their control. What questions these are. They cover every field 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, 3000 years or more later, are still unable to answer these questions in a satisfactory way. That is true for all our boasted progress and all our scientific discoveries of the great laws of nature. All the boasting of science about getting at the secrets of creation is nothing but foam. One breath of the Almighty scatters man's speculations to the winds, when they leave Him and His Word out. But what is the aim of the Lord 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.

He is not satisfied with showing man's smallness by what is vast. He also takes up things we might think small. He has travelled through the immense heavens and the uncontrollable sea, then the treasures of the snow and the hail, of the lightning and the waters. He looks at the heavenly bodies one by one. Then, towards the end of the chapter, He comes down to the little things of nature, where man is just as much at a loss. So it matters little whether we look at the greatest of God's works or the least. Everywhere we meet what man cannot know at all. Job had even claimed to judge the depths of God morally. But he could not face, and had not the slightest real idea of, what God is in the least part of His universe.

The LORD ends this part of His speech with fresh questions about the clouds, storms, and rain. Can Job bring down rain, or speak to the lightning flash? Does he have the understanding heart that knows the reason for the clouds — whether clouds of rain or clouds of grief? Can that heart bring the refreshing showers upon the dusty earth? What food for reverent meditation we have in all this.

To Him all power in heaven and earth has been given. He has not given us power to change the order of nature, or to go up into those heavens. But He teaches us to give the true answer to His questions, and that answer is, "We see Jesus."