Job 37:21

These four verses close the speeches of Elihu, which fill Job 32–37. The book is set in the land of Uz. Elihu is a younger man who steps forward after Job’s three friends have exhausted their arguments. The friends held that suffering always answers to sin, so Job’s great suffering had to be punishment for some hidden wrong. Elihu also defends God’s justice, and he adds that suffering can serve other purposes, such as discipline, testing, or the showing of God’s glory. His charge against Job is self-righteousness and the questioning of God’s justice and wisdom.

In his last two chapters Elihu turns to the weather. He describes rain and clouds, thunder and lightning, snow and wind, and says that all of it is God’s doing and all of it is past our understanding. The men of the east lived close to the weather and saw God’s hand in every part of it. Thunder was heard as his voice, lightning was his arrows, and rain came as his blessing or his judgment. Clouds spoke of his presence, near and yet veiled, as in the pillar of cloud that led Israel and the cloud on mount Sinai.

Elihu’s argument runs from the lesser to the greater. The way the wind clears the sky is already past our full understanding, and God’s justice, his providence and the reasons for suffering are far deeper. The God who orders the weather so perfectly governs human affairs with the same wisdom, even where we are unable to trace it. As soon as Elihu finishes, the LORD himself answers Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1). So these closing words lead straight from human talk about God to God’s own voice.

“And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds.” The bright light is usually understood as the sun. The word for light, ʼôwr, means illumination or a luminary, and bâhîyr means shining or bright. The light is there all the while, and on a clouded day it is hidden from our eyes. The verb for seeing, râʼâh, is the ordinary word for perceiving or beholding something, so the limit Elihu names is a limit in us. Then “the wind passeth, and cleanseth them.” The verb ṭâhêr means to cleanse or purify, and here it describes the wind sweeping the clouds away, so that the sky is clear and the light is seen again.

Elihu is speaking of the sky and of God together. God’s glory, his truth and his wise purposes are as constant as the sun. What hides them from us is the cloud: the mysteries of his providence, the limits of our sight, and the trials of life. While we are under the cloud God is still at work, and in his own time he clears it.

The rest of Scripture says the same about God’s hidden ways. Paul exclaims, “how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). God says through Isaiah that his thoughts and his ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9), and Moses says that the secret things belong to the LORD (Deuteronomy 29:29). The same sky that hides also shows. The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), the invisible things of him are clearly seen in what he has made (Romans 1:20), and he makes the clouds his chariot (Psalm 104:3).

“Fair weather cometh out of the north.” The Hebrew word behind “fair weather” is zâhâb, the ordinary word for gold, which comes from a root meaning to shimmer. The KJV takes it as the golden brightness of a clear sky after a storm. The word for north, tsâphôwn, comes from a root meaning hidden or dark, and the north was thought of as a gloomy and unknown quarter. In that part of the world, though, winds from the north were known to bring cool, dry air that swept the storm clouds away. So brightness comes out of the dark quarter, and it comes by God’s ordering. The nations round about credited the weather to their various gods, and Elihu gives all of it to the one God.

From the clearing sky Elihu rises at once to the one who clears it: “with God is terrible majesty.” The word hôwd means grandeur, splendour, glory and honour, the kind of majesty that belongs to a king. A cleared sky is glorious, and the God who orders it is far more so. This majesty is “with God”. It belongs to him by nature, and he holds it over every created thing. A psalm hears the voice of the LORD sounding through creation (Psalm 29:3–9), and in heaven the cry before him is “Holy, holy, holy” (Revelation 4:8).

“Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.” The title Shadday, “Almighty”, is often joined with El in the name El Shaddai. It speaks of God’s supreme power and rule. Its exact meaning is uncertain, and it may carry the sense “the All-Sufficient One”. The verb mâtsâʼ means to find or to attain. Elihu confesses that our search falls short of God. His being, his plans and the depths of his wisdom lie past the reach of human reason and inquiry. David says the same in praise: “his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).

What we are told about him is sure, and Elihu names three things. God is “excellent in power”. His might is perfect and supreme, and he accomplishes all his purposes unhindered, from the creation of the world in Genesis 1 to the final victory of Christ in Revelation 19. He is excellent “in judgment”, which means his discernment, his decrees and his governing of the world. Every decision he makes rests on perfect wisdom, including those whose reasons are hidden from us. And he is excellent “in plenty of justice”. The word tsᵉdâqâh means rightness, rectitude and moral integrity, and rôb means abundance, multitude or greatness. God’s righteousness is abundant, and acting unjustly is impossible for him. Moses sang of him, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

The title “Almighty” matters in a book about suffering. The justice of God is backed by unlimited power, so he is always able to act, to do right, and to sustain what he has made.

“Men do therefore fear him.” The “therefore” gathers up everything Elihu has said. God is mighty, sovereign and past our understanding, and reverent fear is the fitting answer. The verb is yârêʼ again, the word behind “terrible” in verse 22: his majesty is fearful, and so men fear. This fear is awe, reverence and worshipful submission before God’s power and holiness. It shows itself in respect for his authority, in a humble willingness to obey him, in trusting his wisdom where we lack understanding, and in coming to him reverently in worship and prayer. It is also where wisdom starts. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10, Psalm 111:10).

“He respecteth not any that are wise of heart.” The word translated “respecteth” is râʼâh, the same verb for seeing that opened the passage. Men are unable to see the light behind the clouds, and God for his part does not look with special favour on human cleverness. The word châkâm means intelligent, skilful or artful. Wisdom was highly valued in Israel, where it took in practical skill, moral insight and the understanding of God, and it was always understood to come from God.

Elihu’s last sentence prepares for what follows. Job and his friends have argued at length about God’s justice with their own limited wisdom. When the LORD speaks in Job 38 and Job 39, he also takes Job through the works of creation, and his questions lay bare the limits of human knowledge and power.

The New Testament shows that each line of this passage reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ. He is the bright light: the light of the world (John 8:12), the true light (John 1:9), and the brightness of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3). The clouds of sin and ignorance hid God’s glory from us. By his life, his atoning death and his resurrection Christ cleared them away, and his sacrifice cleansed us so that we may behold God’s glory and be reconciled to him. The Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, carries on this work by guiding us into all truth (John 16:13). Paul writes that God has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

The God of terrible majesty came near to us. The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), and the Lord of the weather calmed a storm with a word (Mark 4:39) and walked on the sea (Matthew 14:25). His majesty and his love meet most fully at the cross, where the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The one who came in humility will come again with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

The Almighty who is past our finding out has made himself known in his Son. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Christ is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). God’s excellence in power is seen in raising him from the dead (Ephesians 1:19–20). His judgment and his plenty of justice are seen at the cross, where he justly condemned sin and provided atonement for sinners (Romans 3:25–26). The deepest meaning of “he will not afflict” is found there too. God laid on his own innocent Son the just punishment for our sins (Isaiah 53:4–5), so that his abundant justice was satisfied and his mercy reached us.

Christ is also the wisdom of God. In him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). God saves through the preaching of a crucified Messiah, which the wise of this world count as foolishness, and in this he shows that he gives no regard to the wise of heart (1 Corinthians 1:18–25). Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). The fear Elihu calls for is now given in reverent faith and worship to Jesus.

These verses give us a way to think about the seasons when God’s purposes are hidden. The sun is as bright behind the cloud as in a clear sky, and God’s goodness, wisdom and rule are as constant in a dark season as in a bright one. His wind is at work while we wait, often where we are unable to trace it, and the clearing comes in his time.

They also tell us what we may be sure of while so much stays hidden. The one who governs all things is excellent in power, in judgment and in plenty of justice. Whatever he brings into a life is consistent with his righteousness, so we can trust his character at the point where our understanding stops, and there is peace in that.

And they show us where to stand before him. Our learning and our cleverness earn nothing with God, and reverence is where wisdom begins. A sky clearing after a storm is an everyday sight of the majesty Elihu was speaking of, and a reason to worship the God who is glorious and who, in Christ, has come near.