Elihu concludes his discourse in chapter thirty-six by praising the greatness of God, and he advised Job to “Remember to magnify God’s work, which men celebrate with praise!” (Job 36:24). He had just accused Job of lusting after wealth (verse-19), preferring the fruits of unrighteousness, vis-à-vis the darkness of iniquity (Job 36:20-21) instead of the light, which is given a man who embraces the Lord’s discipline. The Lord’s discipline is intended to teach mankind the error of his ways and bring him to repentance (Job 36:15). Elihu’s point is that: what the Lord created reflects what kind of God he actually is. He is good, kind and impartial in his dealings with men, and, even when he speaks or thunders loudly through pain, it is for our good.
The Lord is powerful and wise, even beyond our imagination (Job 36:26; cp. Romans 1:20), and the language spoken through his natural creation is understood by everyone, regardless of the human tongue one understands (cp. Psalms 19:3). Who hasn’t considered the great distance of the stars, and what it means to have a Creator who is able to place them wherever they are in the heavens, millions, even billions of light years away from earth (Job 36:25)? If man is unable to travel such great distances, what does this say of a God, concerning whom distance doesn’t matter (Job 36:26)? He is able to place stars afar off and, yet, hear the prayers of men on earth at the very same time!
Although Elihu in his day, wouldn’t have been able to understand or describe the great distance understood in “light-years” that separates us from even the closest star in the heavens, he was able to describe the cycle of rainfall accurately, and by it, describe how the Lord treats mankind (Job 36:27-33). Through heat water is drawn from the earth through the laws of distillation, and the vapor or clouds of water return the water to the earth in the form of rain (Job 36:27). With rain he blesses mankind (Job 36:28), and spreads out the clouds to cover the light and thunders down his judgment from his throne in heaven (Job 36:29).
So, just as the water rises unnoticed to form the clouds above, the Lord stores his works of judgment in the heavens to reward mankind according to their works. For the righteous, the Lord’s judgment comes as the gentle rainfall to cause their works to be fruitful. On the other hand, he rewards the wicked according to their works, just as the storms bring flooding and destruction (Job 36:30-32). It isn’t so difficult for men to see this and understand, even when the Lord’s judgment is far off (Job 36:24-25). Even the cattle are able to sense when a storm is brewing, and it disturbs them (Job 36:33).
Yet, Job, according to Elihu, needs to be told to consider the greatness of God (Job 36:24), because he pushes the light of the Lord’s discipline away (Job 36:15) in favor of delighting in the works of unrighteousness (Job 36:20-21) in hope of enjoying the pleasures of sin for a while (Job 36:18-19). Thus, although the readers know that the Lord isn’t judging Job for any evil he has done, vis-à-vis the Lord’s wager revealed in the first two chapters of the book, Job is continually judged as a wicked man who is in rebellion against God, because his claims deny the primary directive of the times: as a man sows, so shall he reap. Thus, as it was in Job’s day, so it has been in every succeeding age. More often than not, truth is rejected in favor of the traditions of men. We may praise the greatness of God and claim we believe what he says. Nevertheless, in every age, without exception, truth is not what God says it is, but, rather, truth is what man says it is!
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