God Answers from the Whirlwind - Job 37:1 - 38:30 (Session 38)

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 37 and Job 38:1–30, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches one of the most dramatic turning points in the entire book: God answers Job from the whirlwind. After chapters of suffering, accusation, confusion, and debate, the Lord finally speaks — not to explain everything Job wanted to know, but to reveal His greatness through creation, weather, wisdom, and power. 

This session explores Elihu’s final words about thunder, lightning, snow, rain, ice, and storm as a preparation for the Lord’s arrival. Then the chapter turns as God Himself begins asking Job questions about the foundations of the earth, the boundaries of the sea, the dawn, the depths, the light, the hail, the rain, and the design of nature. The message is unmistakable: Job does not understand the world well enough to sit in judgment over the God who made and sustains it. 

The episode also shows why human beings are not separated from God because He is too majestic, but because of sin. It points to the mercy of God in Christ, who provides the only way for sinners to be reconciled to the Creator whose wisdom, justice, and power are beyond human grasp. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 37 explained 
•  Job 38 explained 
•  God answers from the whirlwind 
•  thunder as God’s voice 
•  God controls weather and creation 
•  why Job could not answer God 
•  creation and divine wisdom 
•  sin separates from God 
•  Christ reconciles sinners to God 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Storm Setup And Job 37

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Today we're going to go through a storm, actually a couple of storms. So I hope you have your rain gear, all the doors and windows sealed and shut well because there's going to be a lot of thunder and lightning. We're going to see some great storms here. But as we go through the storm, I trust that you'll be with us and we'll make it through. And there's going to be some great sunsets and some wonderful teaching on the other side of it. So it's going to be an interesting day. I trust that you have your copy of the Word of God. Open it to the book of Job, chapter 37. And if you've been with us, you'll know that this is the last part of the speech from the fourth of Job's friends. His name was Elihu, and he is quite different from the first three. The first three friends were blaming Job for his own suffering, and Elihu really takes the focus off of Job and turns the focus onto the Lord God. Elihu is communicating to Job that he needs to just think differently about suffering because God is very different than what Job was expecting. Today we're going to see the last part of Elihu's talk. It's really the same theme as what we're going to see when God shows up in the next chapter. So we have here some of the same type of language as we're going to see when the Lord shows up, but I think you'll find it quite interesting. So, Steve, can you read the first 13 verses of Job chapter 37?

Thunder As God’s Voice

SPEAKER_00 1:46

At this also my heart trembles and leaps from its place. Listen closely to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that goes out from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning travels to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars, he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightning when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend. For to the snow he says, fall on the earth, and to the downpour and the rain be strong. He seals the hand of every person, so that all people may know his work. Then the animal goes into its lair and remains in its den. From the south comes the storm, and from the north wind the cold, from the breath of God ice is made, and the expanse of the waters is frozen. He also loads the clouds with moisture, he disperses the cloud of his lightning, it changes direction, turning around by his guidance, that it may do whatever he commands it on the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for correction or for his earth or for goodness, he causes it to happen.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

The first few verses of this are God speaking, and his voice is described as being like thunder. This isn't the only place where God's voice is described as being thunderous. Exodus chapters 19 and 20 is where Moses goes up on the top of Mount Sinai and receives the law of Moses. It says there that the people in the valley were frightened because of the thunder and the lightning and the earthquakes that were happening on the mountain. Psalm 18, 13 says the Lord thunders from heaven. John 12, 29, the father spoke to Jesus, and those next to him said they heard thunder. So that is the idea here is that when God speaks, it is thunderous, great, it is overpowering. We have the Lord described here as being in control of the thunder. Verse 2, the thunder of his voice, the rumbling from his mouth. In the passage, it goes on, the whole heaven lets loose lightning. And again in verse 4, he thunders with his voice and lightning again. Verse 5, thunder and great things. Steve, is he trying to communicate here that God is in control of nature? How much is God in control of nature?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

He's got everything in control there in verse 13. It says it says whether for correction or for his earth or for goodness, he causes it to happen. So this is very clear that Elihu is relaying to Job and to his friends who are still there standing by that God is in control of everything. Here he's talking about the weather itself, but we're going to see through some of these other verses later on that it also includes all of creation.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

He has all of the types of major weather here. He's got thunder and lightning, he's got ice storms, he's got snow and rain. He's very much describing the tremendous nature of God when he shows up. And again, we're going to see that again in the next chapter when God does show up. So this is like a precursor, a foreshadowing, if you will, of what God is like. Again, Elihu is very different than the friends in the rest of the book, in that the other friends were focused on Job. And here, Elihu is focused on God. So that's how we really should view our suffering what is God like and what might God be trying to do with me and for me here. But again, the first half of this chapter, this great storm blows and it comes in with a cold wind. By the time we get to the last part of the chapter, God's storm is over. Elihu describes the calm after the storm, and we get to learn some things about God. Not only in the first half, when the storm comes, we have the power and majesty and control of God. Now in the second half, Elihu describes how God calms the storm and creates this grand sunset at the end. I'm starting to read in verse 14. Listen to this, Job. Stand and consider the wonders of God. Do

God Controls Weather For His Purposes

SPEAKER_01 6:16

you know how God establishes them and makes the lightning of his clouds to shine? Do you know about the hovering of the clouds, the wonders of the one who is perfect in knowledge, you whose garments are hot when the land is still because of the south wind? Can you with him spread out the skies strong as a cast metal mirror? Teach us what we are to say to him. We cannot present our case because of darkness. Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up? Now people do not see the light which is bright in the skies, but the wind has passed and cleared them. From the north comes golden splendor. Around God is awesome majesty, the Almighty. We cannot find him. He is exalted in power, he will not violate justice and abundant righteousness. Therefore, people fear him. So, Steve, this is a very poetic passage, very descriptive. It says in here some great things about God. What can we learn from this section?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Well, we just see that God is aware of everything that is going on and that he is the one who has created it. Therefore, he knows how things work. He talks about the hovering of the clouds and the wonders of the one who is in perfect knowledge, there in verse 16. So we just get this picture that God is there. Again, later verses and chapters, we're going to see that God is involved with creation itself. So God is not someone who created and then walked away, and we're just down here passing the time away, living our lives. No, we see a God depicted who is involved and aware of things that are going on.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

It tells us things in this last section we just read, some great things about God, what he is like. Verse 15: the Lord is so powerful that he can create and direct the lightning. The next verse, God set up a system where tremendous amounts of water hang in the sky and then rain down to water the earth. Imagine many tons of water, countless tons, are hanging in the sky and floating around waiting to rain. God is awesome and unapproachable. Verse 22, he comes from the north with golden splendor and awesome majesty. The idea here is that there's this grand sunset after the storm. You know, human beings, we can paint a sunset, but we can't make a sunset. That's the idea here. God can do all these things. All we have is a cheap imitation of what he can do. The wisest human can't even really explain all these things in nature, let alone create or control them. Elihu is reminding Job that he does not know God's ways. If we can't explain how all of nature works, how are we going to question whether God is running it correctly? That's his point. He's telling Job, you can't even really understand how this works, let alone question God on how he created it and how he's running things. We have to remember that God's infinity is not the reason we are distant from him. All of these things that it says here tell us about God's power, his infinity, his majesty. None of those are why we are separated from God. Steve, why are we separated from God?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

We're separated from God because we disobeyed him. Our representative, Adam, was not supposed to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He could eat of any other tree that was in the garden, but he was instructed by God not to eat of that one. And he did anyway. At that time, we have been separated from God. But the great news is that God has provided a way for us to be redeemed back to him. That is through his son Jesus Christ, through his death, burial, and resurrection. So once again, we see that God is merciful and a loving God, in that even though we're separated from him through our sin, that we can still be reconciled back to him through his love.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

This brings us to the end of Elihu's speech, and it brings us to the last major section in the book. Job and all of his friends have finished their talk, and God will now speak. If you remember the first two chapters were in heaven where God approached Satan, have you considered my servant Job? God allows Satan to attack him. And then from chapters three through 31, Job has these three friends that spend all these many chapters incorrectly telling Job that he must have some secret sin. And Job repeatedly denies this. Job repeatedly desires to confront God. If I could only get in front of God, I would ask him some very difficult questions. He was demanding an audience with God. He was questioning whether God was just or whether God had forgotten him. Then we have chapters 32 to 37, where this last friend, Elihu, that gave a much more godly approach. He was a much more biblical answer. Elihu focused on God's wisdom, God's goodness, his majesty, and his power. Elihu doesn't blame Job for causing his own suffering, but he does rather point out that Job didn't respond correctly in the midst of the suffering. So here in chapter 38, God shows up and confronts Job. So I'll read the first three verses here. Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens the divine plan by words without knowledge? Now

Calm Skies And Golden Splendor

SPEAKER_01 12:08

tighten the belt on your waist like a man, and I shall ask you, and you inform me. Steve, at the beginning of this, God speaks that says, from a whirlwind. So what is it like to be in a whirlwind or a tornado or a typhoon hurricane? What is it like to be experiencing a great storm like that?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

I have seen some very small dust storms that have kicked up in areas where I've been. I've been through several hurricanes on the coast where we live. And I can tell you that there's great power in those hurricanes, those wind speeds that come up. And of course, if you happen to be in the path of the eye of a hurricane, when it first comes in, it's blowing one direction. You go through the eye, and as it exits, the wind is blowing back the opposite direction. That's what causes trees to snap and other things to be destroyed among the great power of the wind itself. So we see that in the showing up in a whirlwind, I think that he he's saying is that we see the power of God appearing to Job.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I remember being in one hurricane, sitting watching things blow by sideways, watching bits of trees and bits of houses blow by perfectly sideways. It's a tremendous amount of force. So that's what happens. God shows up and he speaks from the whirlwind. So what does it tell us about God that he speaks from a whirlwind, from a tornado?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Well, there in verse two, he explicitly says, Who is this who darkens the divine plan by words without knowledge? He's essentially saying, Is who is it, Job, that you're talking about all these different things that are going on? And even I think he's inferring to his friends, they're all talking about God and his attributes and what God does and doesn't do. But in essence, they don't have the knowledge of how God really is able to create things, how he works, what he does. It's speculation many times on what they've given. Who does know it? Well, God himself knows it. So here he's very explicit there in verse two that who is it that is questioning what's going on in the divine plan, the ones that you really don't have a clue about how things operate.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

So again, God shows up from a tornado, a whirlwind, and says, Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge? Tighten your belt like a man, and I'm going to ask you some questions. Steve, just from that, what kind of mood is God in?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

It seems he's kind of an irritated mood as far as these Job and his friends. And it also depicts to us that he has been listening to all of these conversations. He knows what's going on. He's not just showing up and saying, Oh, what are you guys doing down here? And they have to catch him up as to what's going on. We don't see any of that. He shows up and starts talking to them directly and picks up the conversation right where it left off.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

What does he say he's about to do there in verse three? He says he's going to ask Job some questions. He says, Job, you've been making comments about me this whole time. Well, I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to inform me of the answers. Now, I always think when I get to this passage is like this, in our day, atheists and skeptics routinely question God and deny that God's real or very important. And people will ask them, What if you're wrong? What would you say to God if he shows up? And they seem to be very sure of themselves. They often say, Well, if I ever get face to face with God, I'm going to ask him some hard questions like, why is he running the world the way he is? Why does he allow these things to happen? They seem to think that they have drawn a conclusion that God could have done much better at running his universe. And they think they're going to be able to ask some very hard questions. Well, my atheist friend, if you ever get a chance with God, I suspect you're going to have the same struggles that Job did, if not worse. God's going to be the one asking questions similar to what he asked Job. And I think your response is going to be somewhat similar to Job's. So let's see what happens when God starts asking questions. Steve, can you start at verse four and read down to verse 18? We're going to see some of God's hard questions.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who set its measurements since you know? Or who stretched the measuring line over it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors when it went out from the womb, bursting forth? When I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling bands, and I placed boundaries on it, and set a bolt and doors. And I said, As far as this point you shall come, but no farther. And here your proud waves shall stop. Have you ever in your life commanded the morning and made the dawn know its place, so that it would take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked should be shaken off from it? It has changed like clay under the seal, and they stand out like a garment. Their light is withheld from the wicked, and the uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered the springs of the sea and walked in the depths of the ocean? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? And have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell me if you know all this.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Well, God's in a mood here, and I'm glad I'm not Job sitting here trying to answer these things. He focuses here a lot on creation and what is done in creation. And if we think of God and what his attributes are, there's many attributes of God. He is holy, he has power, he has majesty, he has wisdom, many others. He has also done a number of great things. He is redeemer, he is our advocate, he sustains the world. Here, out of all of that, he focuses on creation. So why do you think, Steve, that God would focus on creation, how he is the creator? What is it about creation that makes God special?

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Because he created out of nothing. He's the one that has created everything, including the matter that the creation is made of. Everything that we have, the carbons and hydrocarbons and atoms, all of that matter, God created even it. So to think of that is

Sin Separates Us And Christ Redeems

SPEAKER_00 18:57

that it's not just the things that we look around us that we see, the human beings, the animals, the trees and the woods and the atmosphere that we're in. It's that he even created what those are made up of. So to me, it's a majestic thing of creation itself. It's not just the physical things, it's it matter itself.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

What I always think of is in creation, God has to have all the other attributes. To create the world the way it is, he has to have wisdom. He has to have power, he has to have majesty, and he has to have justice to make the morality that we have. So all of the other factors kind of culminate in creation. That's arguably one of his greatest accomplishments. So that is what he's really talking about here is creation. So if I ask myself, or I'll ask you, Steve, you ever make anything complicated and hard to make? And how much work was it and how did it turn out? And then if we compare that to God making the world, it seems to run pretty well. How do you and me do when we try to make something very complicated?

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Well, if you're like me, you end up having some screws or nuts and bolts left over, wondering where they go in the thing that you've just made. You take plans and you look at them. It has a bill of materials that you're supposed to have. You go out and get them, you come back and you put them together. And it depends upon the skill set that you have as to what the creation is going to look like. But it's something that you have to think about. And it's also something that maybe you have to have an idea of what it's going to look like when it's finished, because while you're putting it together, it doesn't look like it. You have a skeleton of it or whatever the situation might be. But I think of something that is complex yet very simple. One of the things that come to my mind is just eyesight. If you take anything in regards to our bodies, and of course that's extrapolated out to all of the animals as well, but a simple thing, Glenn, of just looking. Whenever we see something, it comes into our eyes and hits the retina. The image is upside down. And it's our brain that takes that image and flips it right side up. Well, this is something that tells me that there is a designer behind just a simple thing of eyesight. And of course, the whole complication of the rods and all of those things that are on the retina, that's just the eye itself. Then you go to the ear, the wonderful things that we have going in in our body that we create ourselves every day by making new cells and getting rid of old dead cells. That whole process, to me, it's just a wonder that the smaller and smaller we get to see within our bodies, the more and more complexity is revealed. That just speaks of somebody that has designed it. It's not something that just fell together by natural means.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

So in this passage, he again.

God Arrives In The Whirlwind

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Goes over and over explaining how he makes things. He uh set the measurements of the earth, he laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together. They make clouds, all these things. He created the water system. Water system, you imagine that it runs pretty well on this earth. And I doubt we could come up with something any better. So not only did he create all these things, but he also holds it together and sustains it. It tells us that in Colossians chapter one, verses 15, 16, 17, says that God is the sustainer. The Lord Jesus Christ even is the sustainer of the world. He makes the world, he put wisdom into it, and he sustains it. Does it give us comfort knowing that God is in control of all these things?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

It does to me, because we know that He's like you've been talking about is holding it together. And I don't have to worry about it. In fact, it's something that none of us worry about, the world falling apart. So yeah, it brings great comfort.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

So in this section, it speaks of the laying the foundation and the pillars of the earth. This entire book is really poetic. And keep in mind all this poetry uses descriptive language and poetic language. He's not teaching a flat earth here that the earth is flat and built on stones. God indeed did create all the things that are the building blocks of the world. We mentioned that a bit ago. Doesn't mean that there's some sort of a flat earth. Verses 10 and 11, God determined where the edges of the land and the sea go. He said it'll come here and no further. So again, God is in control of everything. In this section that we just read, note that verse 4, God made the world. Verse 5, he planned and designed the world. And then in verses 8 and following, he controls the world. The immensity of God is beyond our grasp. In the next section, God talks about several things in addition in creation. Again, he's pointing out the grand design in creation. I'm reading, starting in verse 19, where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place? That you would take it to its territory and discern the paths to its home. You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow? And have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for a time of distress, for a day of war and battle? Where is the way that the light is divided, and the east winds scattered on the earth? Who has split open a channel for the flood and a way for the thunderbolt to bring rain on land without people, or on a desert without a person in it, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the seeds of grass to sprout? Does the rain have a father? Or who has fathered the drops of dew? From whose womb has come the ice and the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? Water becomes hard like a stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned. Now, in this section, he has all these grand things about how light is divided from the dark, how light travels, where the snow and hail are, how the wind is scattered. I think here, Steve, he talks a lot about weather and using weather as a weapon. And I think of all of the human wars and battles that have happened over the thousands of years. Weather often plays a part. Snow defeated Napoleon in Russia. Snow defeated Hitler at Stalingrad. And in World War II, George Patton's army was stranded by snow at the Battle of the Bulge. George Patton ordered the printing of 250,000 prayers for good weather and ordered them distributed. The prayer work, the weather cleared off, and that's why he won the battle was because the weather cleared. The modern weapons that we have of war cannot compete with a God that controls the weather. And so, Steve, I just find the design here in nature of dividing light from dark, you realize that the physicists don't really understand how light works and many of these other things. We've just barely come to understand them.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

I

Creation Questions And Weather Wisdom

SPEAKER_00 26:32

also get a little bit tickled when I'm reading this as to God dealing with Job, and that he's a little bit snarky there. There in verse 18, he says, Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell me if you know all this. And then he goes on and repeats a couple of items of creation, how things work. Then in verse 21, he says, You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great. So here he is. He's really dressing down Job. You think back if Job was accusing God of not being disciplining the evil that was going on on the earth, and that wondering to God, why was God being unfair to him, all the things that we look back that were going on in the previous chapters. And here God is, as he is there in the whirlwind, explaining to Job and asking him these questions that obviously Job can't answer. He's being snarky with him and saying, You know, Job, of course you do, because your days have been long. You have all the wisdom in the world. So I just get a little bit tickled when I see some of these things that God is saying back to Job.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

There are grand things in nature, in creation, that we are just at the beginning of understanding. And that's what God is trying to communicate here in this section is that the grandness and complexity of the universe is exquisite. I'll just pick out one thing here, verse 30. Water becomes hard like a stone, and the surface of the deep is imprisoned. Most substances in nature get smaller when they get cool and solidify. Water is an exception. When water freezes into ice, the ice gets larger than the volume of water was. Because it gets larger, the ice floats, causing the top of the water to freeze and the bottom under it staying liquid, which allows all the sea creatures to stay alive during the winter. If it was the other way around, and if water were to get smaller, like all the other substances when it solidifies, then the lakes and the oceans and the rivers would freeze from the bottom up and no life would last the winter. God is wise beyond our ability to understand. He has set up this world with an exquisite balance to support life, to support us. And who are we to question him? He is the one that made it, and all we can do is make a cheap imitation and pretend that we understand it. And Steve, that is a tremendous thing that we find back here in the Word of God is that the design of nature is beyond our ability to say that it just happened by chance.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

And you just brought out a great point, Glenn, is that everything that we have is an imitation. The planes that we have is an imitation of the birds, the ships and the submarines we have or imitation of the creatures that the great ocean, the whales and the other items. We are copiers. We are not really creators. We take what God has made and we make copies of them so that we might be able to live and travel on this earth.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

And God's going to be reasoning with us again next time. We're at the end of our time for today, but tune back because God's going to continue to reason through nature as we go through the book of Job.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.