11-17-14. Job 37:1-13. Focus more on the glory of Jesus than on “Do’s and Don’t’s”
11-17-14. Job 37:1-13. Focus more on the glory of Jesus than on “Do’s and Don’t’s”
Key verse 37:2 “Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.”
In Job 37:1-13, Elihu leads Job to behold the glory of God even while he sits in his suffering. In this, he is going in the right direction, with his counseling of Job. (But later he veers off in the wrong direction.) When Elihu thinks about God, his soul responds. “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place.” (1) Elihu is basically preparing Job to listen to God’s voice out of the storm. “Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.” (2) Elihu is awestruck when he sees God’s mighty hand in nature. God hurls lightning to the earth. He tells the rain to become a downpour which makes men stop work and run for cover. Nothing can compare to God. His power and presence are awesome and when he speaks, we must give him thanks and praise and most importantly…listen to him, even when we are sitting in the midst of a storm of life.
Why does God send great natural storms? Elihu states in verse 7,”So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor.” I am OK with this. A thunder storm or a polar vortex is a good opportunity to stop what we are doing, look to the heavens and ponder the glory of God.
I am reminded how King David responded when he beheld the glory of God in 1 Chronicles 29:10-13, “ David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.” (NIV)
Our awesome and mighty God speaks. God cares. God is not absent or unconcerned when we are hunkered down in the storms of our lives. He is in control all creation and he will speak to us. We need to be ready to hear his message to us. There are many ways that God speaks. He speaks to us the Bible; in your life events; through the whisperings of the Holy Spirit within our hearts; and through our circumstances and relationships; and also in nature.
I am excited about Job 37. I am excited because a portion of this passage is about God and his glory and how he speaks to us in our storms of life. How easy it is for us to just focus on the does and don’t of Christian living in our meditations about God and take our eyes off of the One whom we love and adore, Jesus Christ. It seems that Christians are consumed with making their own Midrish and Talmud, a set of proper interpretations and responses, instead of extolling God and his glory. If this is all we are doing, then we are forfeiting a lot of the life God has for us. In him is life. (Jn 1:4) We need to have the right proportions of both, but definitely more so beholding the glory of Jesus. We need to definitely get back to praising the Lord wherever we are at and not exclusively constructing a Christian self-help book.
I pray to have that same response as Elihu. I pray that my heart may leap and pound to hear the voice of God and behold his glory. I am once again reminded of King David in Psalm 42:1-3, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (NIV)
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