God Upholds the World (And Our Condition) - Job 37

 Job 37:15-16 (ESV)

Do you know how God lays his command upon them

and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

Do you know the balancings of the clouds,

the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

The next time you come across an atheist, you might want to ask him these two questions Elihu asked Job.  This friend of Job is trying to get him to reflect and consider the power and greatness of God as opposed to Job’s condition and situation.  Job is simply asked to explain how the lighting shines and the clouds float.   Of course, our modern day scientist would burst into the argument, at this point, and explain that in the day that the Bible was written, they did not understand such things.  But, today, we have great truth and great knowledge and we know these things.    The struggle with those types of arguments (for the elite and scientific mind) is that they can explain what they see from a science point of view, the what and the how, but they can’t explain the way.   The question Elihu is not only asking Job the “how” but he is also wants Job to explain the “why” of God’s work.  Mankind has successfully figured out “how” God’s creation works and in many of their minds even the “why” it works the way it does. But, the atheist and the scientist that refuses to acknowledge the power of God forgets one man point (which is Elihu’s point to Job).  The writer of Hebrews, in speaking about Jesus Christ, states:

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power ... 

Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.”   That is the “why” behind the “what and how.”    Job is in a bad situation, do doubt.  His first three friends attempted to get him to look inside his being to identify this faults and failures.  This would prove to Job, they thought, that it was his sin that caused the problem.  Young Elihu comes along and asks God to look up, rather than within.   Elihu is not concerned about the “why” of Job’s conditions.  He already knows the “why.”  God is high and lofty and controls all things by the word of His power through His redemptive plan.  That is the “why” the scientist and the atheist can’t wrap their brains around.