After all the conversations between Job and his three friends, Elihu helped Job in making sense of why terrible things were happening to him from God’s vantage point. All these dialogues occurred up till chapter 37. These next four chapters in Job (chapters 38-41) contain the discourse which God rebuked Job for questioning Him pertaining to all the sufferings that he was experiencing.

Our meditation today is taken from chapter 38, verses 22-38. This passage is filled with rhetorical questions. A person employs rhetorical questions with the aim to evoke the other person in answering with agreement to the first person. From verses 22-23, God begins by using the imagery of storehouses for the snow and hail. Storehouses symbolize reserves that are being used in times of trouble such as battle and war. From verses 24-30, God used the elements of the weather such as light, wind, rain, thunder, dew, ice, frost, waters and the deep to question Job. Then verses 31-33 borrow terms from the terrestrial stars to further rebuke Job that it is He and not Job that establishes the movement of these elements in the universe. Finally from verses 34-38, the imagery of weather elements is being used again. It is used now to also rebuke Job that it is God and not Job who could have the wisdom and the knowledge to control them.

There is a song entitled “He” that uses these same imageries such as weather elements and terrestrial stars to illustrate that God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. This is a good reminder to believers in times when we have done certain wrong thing against God. The chorus of the song includes the encouragement that though we may make God sad to see the way we live, He will always say, “I forgive.”

He (song lyrics)

He can turn the tides, and calm the angry sea; He alone decides who writes a symphony. He lights every star that makes our darkness bright, He keeps watch all through each long and lonely night. He still finds the time to hear a child’s first prayer Saint or sinner call, and always find Him there

Chorus:* Though it makes Him sad To see the way we live, He’ll always say, “I forgive”

He can grant a wish or make a dream come true, He can paint the clouds and turn the gray to blue. He alone knows where to find a rainbow’s end, He alone can see what lies beyond the bend. He can touch a tree and turn the leaves to gold, He knows every lie that you and I have told.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Have you committed a sin recently or in the past that you feel that you do not deserve to be forgiven? Ponder on these imageries that God used in this passage and through the song. If God is the one who makes all these things to happen and ensures that they keep going, He is definitely merciful and gracious to forgive whatever sin that we have committed against Him.

Prayer

Dear God, as what the lyrics in the song say, we thank you that though you are saddened by the way we live at times, you will always say, “I forgive.” We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.