The Meteorology of Majesty Text: Job 37:6-13
Introduction: The Weather and Our Conceit
Modern man is a technological peacock. We strut about with our Doppler radar, our climate models, and our cloud-seeding airplanes, believing we have tamed the sky. We speak of atmospheric rivers and polar vortexes as though naming them gives us dominion over them. We have reduced the weather to a set of predictable, impersonal, and manageable equations. In our hubris, we think the storm is something we can manage, mitigate, or, if we are feeling particularly ambitious, manipulate for our own ends. We have explained away the majesty and are left with mere meteorology.
But the Scriptures will not have it. The Bible presents the weather not as an impersonal system, but as the personal, purposeful, and powerful work of the living God. It is God's outdoor preaching. And in our text today, Elihu, in his final speech to Job, directs our gaze upward, away from our own suffering and our own understanding, to the untamable sovereignty of God displayed in the clouds.
Elihu is not a perfect theologian, but in this, he speaks the truth. He is calling Job, and us, to a different way of knowing. He is telling us that you cannot understand the world by putting it under a microscope alone. You must understand the God who made the world, who commands the snow, who breathes out the ice, and who gives the thunderstorm its flight coordinates. This passage is a direct assault on the deist, who thinks God wound up the world and walked away, and on the materialist, who thinks there is no mind behind the rain. And it is a profound comfort to the believer, who learns to see in the storm the very hand of his Father.
The Text
For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,' And to the downpour of rain and the downpour of rains, 'Be strong.' He seals the hand of every man, That all men may know His work. Then the beast goes into its lair And dwells in its den. Out of the south comes the storm, And out of the north the cold. From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen. Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He scatters 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 world, Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.
(Job 37:6-13 LSB)
Fiat Weather (v. 6)
Elihu begins with the foundational principle of divine providence. The weather is not an accident; it is an assignment.
"For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,' And to the downpour of rain and the downpour of rains, 'Be strong.'" (Job 37:6)
Notice the language. God speaks to the snow. This is not a poetic flourish; it is a theological declaration. The same creative fiat that we see in Genesis 1, "Let there be light," is the same governing fiat we see here. God's Word does not just describe reality; it creates and directs it. The snow does not fall because of a complex interaction of temperature and atmospheric pressure, though those are the secondary means. The snow falls because God tells it to. He gives the command, and the snowflake, in its intricate and unique design, obeys.
And He speaks to the rain, commanding it to be "strong." This is a display of might. God is not a timid observer of His creation; He is an active and powerful ruler. When the heavens open and the deluge comes, it is a demonstration of the strength of His Word. Every raindrop has its commission from the throne room of the universe. This is the doctrine of meticulous providence. Not a sparrow falls, and not a drop of rain falls, apart from the will of the Father.
The Great Shutdown (v. 7-8)
This divine command over the weather has a direct purpose for mankind.
"He seals the hand of every man, That all men may know His work. Then the beast goes into its lair And dwells in its den." (Job 37:7-8 LSB)
What does it mean that God "seals the hand of every man"? When a blizzard buries the landscape, or a flood washes out the roads, all human activity ceases. The farmer cannot plow his field. The construction worker cannot build his house. The delivery truck cannot make its rounds. God, through the weather, imposes a mandatory work stoppage. He shuts down our bustling, self-important economies and forces us into a Sabbath of contemplation.
The purpose is explicitly stated: "That all men may know His work." God halts our work so that we might consider His. He wants to remind us that our frantic activity is not the center of the universe. He wants us to look up from our small projects and behold His grand ones. It is an act of humbling grace, designed to break our illusion of autonomy. We are creatures, utterly dependent on the God who gives sunshine and rain. Even the beasts of the field understand this, retreating to their dens. Often, the animals are wiser than we are.
The Armory of God (v. 9-11)
Elihu continues to describe the sources and instruments of God's meteorological power.
"Out of the south comes the storm, And out of the north the cold. From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen. Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He scatters the cloud of His lightning." (Job 37:9-11 LSB)
Elihu is a keen observer of his world. He notes that storms come from one direction and cold from another. But he does not see these as mindless weather patterns. He sees them as deployments from God's celestial armory. The south is the "chamber" from which God dispatches the whirlwind. The north contains the "scattering winds" that bring the cold.
The language becomes even more intimate and powerful. "From the breath of God ice is made." The word for breath here is ruach, the very same word for the Spirit of God who hovered over the waters in creation. The freezing of a lake is a direct act of the Spirit of God. It is a continual creation, a demonstration that the same power that brought the world into being is the same power that sustains and governs it moment by moment.
The clouds are not just masses of water vapor. God "loads" them with moisture, like a divine artilleryman loading a cannon. And the lightning is not a random electrical discharge; it is the "cloud of His lightning," a weapon He "scatters" according to His will. This is the portrait of a warrior God, a king who wields the elements of nature as the instruments of His rule.
The Guided Storm (v. 12-13)
These instruments are not unleashed randomly. They are precisely guided to accomplish a specific, threefold mission.
"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 world, Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen." (Job 37:12-13 LSB)
The storm cloud is a guided missile. It turns "by His guidance," which means by His skillful and wise counsel. It has a flight plan, a target, and a divine commission. It will accomplish "whatever He commands it." This is particular providence. The hurricane does not randomly veer left or right; it follows the precise track laid out for it by the finger of God.
And what is the purpose of this meticulously guided weather? Elihu gives us three possibilities. First, it is for "correction," or as a "rod." God uses weather as an instrument of judgment. He chastises individuals and nations with drought, flood, and hail. The plagues in Egypt were an exercise of this corrective power. When we see a destructive storm, we should not ask "why did God let this happen?" but rather "what is God saying through this?"
Second, it is for "His world," or "His land." This is God's general providence, His faithful upkeep of the created order. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, sustaining the ecosystems He has made. He cares for the planet not because of some modern environmentalist sentiment, but because it is His property, and He is a good steward of His own possessions.
Third, it is for "lovingkindness." The Hebrew is hesed, which means covenant love, steadfast faithfulness. God sends the gentle, soaking rain to a farmer's field as a tangible expression of His covenant promise. He sends the cool breeze on a sweltering day as a small kiss of His fatherly affection. The same power that brings the tornado for judgment also brings the spring shower for blessing.
The Cross in the Clouds
This vision of God's absolute sovereignty over nature can be terrifying. If God directs the destructive hailstorm and the raging flood as a rod of correction, then what hope do we have? We are all sinners. We all deserve the rod. We all live in the path of the hurricane of His justice.
But the gospel shows us the ultimate storm. At the cross of Jesus Christ, the greatest storm in the history of the cosmos was unleashed. For three hours, a supernatural darkness covered the land. This was not a normal eclipse; this was the darkness of God's judgment. The earth shook as the full force of the Father's wrath against sin was poured out. This was the ultimate "correction," the final rod of judgment.
And it fell not on us, but on our substitute, Jesus Christ. He stood in the heart of the storm and absorbed every last drop of its fury. He drank the cup of God's wrath down to the dregs. Because He took the storm of judgment, we who are in Him now live under the weather of His grace.
The rain that falls on us now is not a sign of condemnation, but a token of His lovingkindness. The thunder that rolls is not a threat of wrath, but a reminder of the awesome power of the God who has saved us. The snow that covers the ground is a picture of how His blood has washed our sins as white as snow. Therefore, we do not look at the weather with the superstitious fear of the pagan or the bland indifference of the materialist. We look with the eyes of faith, and we see the hand of our Father, who commands the clouds for our good and for His glory.