READING: Job 36-37, Acts 15:22-41
“See how He spreads His lightning around Him.”
Job 36:30
Twice this week where I live, the weather has erupted in the night. One night, the lightning was so brilliant that at times it lit up our home long after the sun went down. It streaked across the sky, but its power was evident. Later the next day, the sun was so hot that it quickly dried up most of the evidence that a storm had passed by the night before. I was struck by how quickly a hot sun could erase the remaining leftovers of a storm.
I thought of that storm this morning when reading Elihu’s words to Job. Though his friend wasn’t always helpful to Job, Elihu did capture the power of God in his words: “See how He spreads His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea. . . . He covers His hands with lightning and commands it to hit its mark. . . . He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; His lightning to the ends of the earth. . . . He does not restrain the lightning when His rumbling voice is heard. . . . He saturates clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them” (Job 36:30, 32; 37:3-4, 11).
We may know much about thunder and lightning, but we still must answer “no” to Elihu’s question of Job: “Do you know how God directs His clouds or makes their lightning flash?” (Job 37:15). It’s as if He holds the lightning bolts in His hands and directs them to the earth according to His plan; it’s His choice as to when the lightning strikes.
Our God is a powerful God whose voice rumbles in the thunder as He “declares His presence” (Job 36:33). His ways truly are far beyond us. That’s part of what makes it so amazing that He sends His Son to be born in a stable, to live with no place to lay His head, and to die for us like a common criminal. He came to us when we could not get to Him – and we must stand amazed.
ACTION STEPS:
- See God as He makes His power known in nature today.
- Consider His majesty, and be amazed that He came to us.
PRAYER: “You move the clouds, send the rain, and tell the snow when to fall. You are amazing.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Job 38-40, Acts 16:1-21
