Context & Key Themes
Job 37 is the conclusion of Elihu’s fourth speech and the last human voice heard before God speaks from the whirlwind. The chapter is almost entirely devoted to the wonders of God in the natural world — thunder, lightning, snow, ice, wind, cloud, the constellations, the changing seasons. Elihu is no longer arguing theology. He is standing in awe of the Creator, and he is telling Job to do the same. In doing so, whether he knows it or not, he is preparing the ground for what is about to happen.
Key Verse
“Stop and consider the wondrous works of God.” — Job 37:14
Summary
Elihu’s heart trembles and leaps at the thunder of God’s voice. He describes the lightning sent to the corners of the earth, the snow commanded to fall, the rain that brings every man’s labor to a halt, the animals driven to their dens, the whirlwind from its chambers, the ice formed by the breath of God. God scatters the clouds by his light, his brightness covering the sky. He turns them wherever his governance directs to accomplish all that he commands. He calls Job to stand still and consider — to stop demanding and start looking. Elihu closes with a declaration: the Almighty is beyond finding out. He is excellent in power and justice. He does not answer to the proud. It is fitting for men to fear him.
Reflection
Job 37 is not the answer to Job’s questions. But it is the door through which the answer will walk. When Elihu says stop and consider the wondrous works of God and points to the storm gathering on the horizon, he is directing every person present toward the place from which God is about to speak. In this, his final speech functions as an inadvertent introduction — a human prologue to a divine response that will make everything said in the previous thirty-seven chapters look like scratching at the surface of a vast and living mystery.
Elihu ends with a truth no one can improve on: the Almighty is beyond finding out. He is excellent in power, in judgment, in abundant justice. He does not oppress. And therefore men should fear him. This is not the fear of a slave trembling before an unpredictable master. It is the fear of a creature who has glimpsed, just briefly, how large the Creator is — and knows that largeness is entirely good. The whirlwind is coming. And when it arrives, everything Elihu has pointed toward will begin to speak for itself.
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