Friday, May 30, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Job 37-39
Key Verse
Job 38:24 — “By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?”
Devotional Thought
Elihu has been speaking, and his words build like a storm front moving across the plain. He watches the sky and sees the Almighty in it — the thunder that rolls after the lightning, the snow that falls at God’s command, the whirlwind that comes out of the south, the frost breathed out of the north. Elihu draws a straight line from the weather to the wisdom of God: “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work” (37:7). When the storm shuts down the harvest and drives the beasts into their dens, even the most determined laborer must stop and look up. Then Elihu turns to Job with the gentlest possible rebuke: “Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God” (37:14).
And then the LORD Himself answers — not out of a still small voice, but out of the whirlwind. For thirty-seven chapters Job has wanted a hearing, a chance to argue his case. He gets one, but the questions run the other direction. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (38:4). God walks Job through the storehouses of snow and hail, the springs of the sea, the gates of death, the ordinances of heaven, the binding of the Pleiades. He asks who feeds the raven’s young when they cry out to Him, who sends the wild ass free into the wilderness, who gave the horse his thunderous neck and the eagle her nest on the crag. None of it is cruelty. It is a father lifting a child onto his shoulders so the child can see how large the world really is.
We live at the hinge of May and June, when the gardens are in and the days are long, and a sudden thunderstorm can still send us running for the porch. Elihu’s counsel suits this season exactly: stand still, and consider. The God who directs the lightning to the ends of the earth also numbers the months of the wild goats and remembers the raven’s hungry chicks. If His care reaches the ostrich that forgets her own eggs, it certainly reaches you. Job never receives an explanation for his suffering. He receives something better — the God who permits the suffering, speaking to him personally, out of the whirlwind, by name.
Reflection
- When was the last time a storm — literal or figurative — forced you to “stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God,” and what did you see when you finally looked up?
- God never told Job why he suffered; He only showed Job who He is. Are you willing to be answered that way, or are you still demanding an explanation?
Prayer
Almighty God, who laid the foundations of the earth and shut up the sea with doors, we confess how small our wisdom is beside Yours. You send the snow and the rain, the whirlwind and the frost; You feed the raven’s young and loose the wild ass into the wilderness. Teach us to stand still in the storm and consider Your wondrous works, rather than demanding answers we could not carry. When we cannot trace Your hand, help us to trust Your heart, for with You is terrible majesty and plenty of justice. Speak to us out of the whirlwind, and let it be enough that You are God and we are Yours. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.