🤩 Bible Stories to Marvel At
Where God’s miracles become great – for little and big children
🌩️ Job Chapter 36 – Elihu Continues Speaking About God’s Greatness
⛈️ When God’s Greatness Can Be Heard in the Storm
🌅 Introduction
In the previous chapter, Elihu had spoken about God, humanity, and prayer. He had reminded Job that God is greater than human beings. Human sin does not make God smaller, and human righteousness does not make God greater. Yet our actions affect other people: Evil harms, and good helps.
Elihu had also spoken about prayer. He said that people sometimes cry out in their distress without truly seeking God, their Creator. Genuine prayer is more than a quick cry for help. It seeks God Himself, even when the answer remains hidden.
Now Elihu continues his speech. Once again, he asks for patience because he believes that he still has more to say about God. He wants to defend God’s justice and show that God acts with greatness, power, and wisdom.
In this chapter, Elihu speaks about the fact that God overlooks no one. He sees the righteous, but also the proud and the wicked. He can use suffering to awaken people so that they repent and listen to Him. Yet when people close their hearts, their path may remain dark.
Then Elihu increasingly directs attention toward nature. He speaks about clouds, rain, light, thunder, and God’s tremendous power. It is as though a storm is forming in the sky. Elihu’s words lead us closer to the moment when God Himself will answer out of the whirlwind.
📖 The Biblical Story
✋ Elihu Asks for Patience
Elihu begins this chapter by asking his listeners to hear him a little longer. He says that he still has something to say on God’s behalf. His speech is therefore not yet finished. Within him burns the desire to explain God’s greatness and justice further.
For Elihu, the conversation with Job is very serious. It is not merely about an opinion. It concerns how people speak about God when life is difficult. Elihu does not want Job’s pain to cause God’s justice to appear small.
At the same time, we sense that Job has already heard many words. His friends have pressed him for a long time, and now Elihu is also speaking at length. For a suffering person, every additional word can be difficult, even when it contains important thoughts.
Therefore, we already learn something here: Those who speak about God need patience. But those who speak to a suffering person also need compassion. Both must come together if words are truly to help.
📚 Elihu Wants to Bring Knowledge from Afar
Elihu says that he will bring his knowledge from afar. This means that he does not want to speak superficially. He wants to take a wider view and show that God’s ways are great and profound.
He wants to ascribe righteousness to his Maker. For Elihu, one thing is certain: God is not unjust. When human beings do not understand God’s actions, it is not because God acts wrongly, but because people see only a small part.
This is an important thought. A child who sees only one small puzzle piece does not yet understand the whole picture. Only when many pieces come together does more become clear. God, however, sees the entire picture from the beginning.
Elihu wants to help Job think more greatly about God. Yet the difficult question remains: Will this greater perspective also reach Job’s wounded heart?
✅ Elihu Says: My Words Will Not Be False
Elihu emphasizes that his words will not be false. He presents himself as someone who speaks sincerely and with knowledge. He does not want to deceive or distort anything.
This is a high standard. Anyone who speaks to a suffering person should be very careful. False words can wound even more deeply. Inaccurate accusations can burden a heart.
Job had already experienced how dangerous false words can be. His friends had accused him without truly knowing his story. Therefore, it is important that Elihu not only speak confidently, but also remain humble.
True wisdom does not merely speak correctly. It also speaks at the right time, with the right heart, and with respect for another person’s pain.
👑 God Is Mighty but Despises No One
Elihu says that God is mighty and yet despises no one. This is a beautiful and important thought. Great power does not make God cold. His strength does not mean that He overlooks the weak.
People who possess power can sometimes become proud. They may think that weak people are unimportant. But God is different. He is infinitely powerful and still sees every person.
For young and grown-up hearts, this is comforting: God is not so great that He overlooks us. He is so great that He sees even the smallest thing. He knows the king and the child, the rich and the poor, the strong and the sick.
Job often felt overlooked and unheard. Elihu’s words could shine like a light: God despises no one. Job, too, has not been forgotten.
⚖️ God Does Not Uphold the Wicked but Gives Justice to the Afflicted
Elihu says that God does not preserve the wicked as though He approved of their wrongdoing. At the same time, He gives justice to the afflicted. God sees people who are oppressed, and their suffering is not unimportant to Him.
This connects with many of the questions Job had asked. Job had seen the poor, widows, orphans, and exploited people and had wondered why God did not intervene immediately. Elihu now reminds him: God sees the afflicted and will not forget justice.
Yet God’s help does not always come at the moment people expect. Sometimes the waiting remains difficult. Sometimes God’s intervention is not immediately visible.
Nevertheless, Elihu holds firmly to this truth: God is not on the side of injustice. He does not forget those who suffer. His justice remains, even when people cannot yet see it fully.
👁️ God’s Eyes Are upon the Righteous
Elihu says that God does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous. He sees them. He knows their path. He can exalt them and give them a place of honor.
For Job, this is both a difficult and hopeful thought. Job had once experienced honor, but now he sat in the dust. He did not feel exalted, but humiliated. Yet Elihu says: God’s eyes remain upon the righteous.
Sometimes God’s watchful gaze does not mean that everything immediately becomes easy. But it does mean that the righteous person is not invisible. Their path is known before God.
This recalls Job’s own words from chapter 23: God knows my way. Elihu now says something similar: God sees the righteous. He does not lose sight of them.
⛓️ When People Are Bound in Chains
Elihu describes people who are bound in chains and cords of affliction. He means people who are held by suffering, pressure, or difficult circumstances. They cannot simply move forward freely.
Elihu then says that God shows them what they have done and points out their transgressions. According to Elihu, suffering can therefore become a place where God awakens people.
This is a serious thought. Sometimes suffering can cause a person to reflect. It may lead them to ask: Where is my path going? What is in my heart? Am I truly seeking God?
Yet we must remain careful here. Not every experience of suffering means that someone has committed a particular sin. Job’s story warns us against such conclusions. Nevertheless, suffering can become a place where God speaks and calls.
👂 God Opens the Ear to Instruction
Elihu says that God opens people’s ears so that they may hear instruction. This means that God does not want people to run blindly toward destruction. He calls them back.
An open ear is more than an ear that hears sounds. It is a heart that is willing to learn. A person can hear words and still remain inwardly closed. Elihu speaks of a kind of hearing that changes the person.
For children, we could say: When someone kindly warns you because you are running toward a dangerous road, it is good to listen. The warning is not against you, but for you.
This is how Elihu understands God’s instruction. God does not call people in order to destroy them, but to bring them back from wrong paths.
🌤️ When People Listen and Serve
Elihu says that people who listen to God and serve Him may complete their days in prosperity and their years in joy. In this way, he describes the blessing of a heart that allows God to lead it.
A person who listens to God does not live without difficulties. But they do not live against God’s voice. They allow themselves to be corrected, guided, and protected.
For young and grown-up hearts, this is an important distinction: God’s path is not always the easiest path, but it is the right path. Those who listen to Him stand upon a firm foundation.
Elihu wants to remind Job that listening to God brings life. Yet Job’s difficult story also shows that God’s blessing is not always immediately visible as a comfortable life.
⚠️ When People Refuse to Listen
Elihu also speaks about people who refuse to listen. When they close their hearts, their path can lead to destruction. They die without understanding because they do not accept God’s call.
This is a serious warning. God calls, but people can refuse. They can remain proud, cling to their mistakes, and refuse to learn.
For children, we could say: When someone is warned again and again but still continues down a dangerous road, the danger becomes greater. Not because the warning was bad, but because it was ignored.
Elihu shows that God’s speaking demands a response. Listening does not merely mean hearing words. It means turning toward God.
💔 The Hypocritical in Heart Store Up Wrath
Elihu speaks about people with hypocritical hearts. They store up wrath because they do not cry for help when God binds them. Instead of becoming humble, they become hard.
A hypocritical heart may appear religious on the outside but does not truly desire God within. It may know words about God and still remain proud.
This is dangerous because God does not look only at faces, clothing, or beautiful sentences. He sees the heart. He knows whether someone is truly seeking Him or merely pretending.
Elihu warns that when suffering comes, a person may become softer and seek God, or they may become harder and close themselves off. This decision is important.
🕊️ God Delivers the Afflicted Through Their Affliction
Then Elihu makes a profound statement: God can deliver the afflicted through their affliction and open their ears through adversity. This means that even difficult paths can become a call to salvation in God’s hands.
This does not mean that suffering itself is good or pleasant. Suffering hurts. Job knows this better than anyone else in the story. Yet God can use even painful things to awaken a person, guide them, or draw them closer to Himself.
We might compare it to a loud alarm. No one enjoys the sound of an alarm. But if it warns of a fire, it can save lives. In the same way, adversity may sometimes become a wake-up call.
Yet once again, we must not judge the suffering of others carelessly. We may say that God can work through suffering. But we must not always claim that we know exactly why someone is suffering.
🚪 Elihu Sees a Broad Place for Job
Elihu says that God wanted to lead Job out of a narrow place into a broad place where there is no distress and where a richly prepared table awaits. This is a beautiful image filled with hope.
A narrow place represents pressure, fear, and barely enough room to breathe. A broad place represents freedom, light, and new possibilities. Elihu says that God does not want Job to remain in confinement forever.
The prepared table reminds us of provision and peace. After hunger, pain, and darkness comes the image of abundance and rest.
For Job, this must have sounded both beautiful and difficult. Beautiful because it offered hope. Difficult because he could not yet see that broad place. He was still sitting in his pain.
⚠️ Elihu Warns Job Against a Wrong Response
Elihu warns Job not to be swept away by anger or deceived by the greatness of a possible ransom. In essence, he says: Do not allow yourself to judge God’s way wrongly.
Job is in danger of saying things out of his pain that obscure God’s justice. Elihu wants to call him back. He does not want Job to remain trapped in bitterness.
This is a serious thought. Pain can wound the heart. Without care, pain can become bitterness. Then a person sees only darkness and loses sight of God’s greatness.
Yet here, too, we must speak gently. A suffering person needs more than a warning against bitterness. They also need closeness, patience, and hope.
💰 Wealth Cannot Rescue from Distress
Elihu says that neither wealth nor all human strength can rescue a person from distress. No amount of money, personal strength, or outward possessions can replace God’s help.
People sometimes think that enough money can solve every problem. But some forms of pain are deeper. Money can buy many things, but not peace with God, a clean conscience, or true salvation.
Job had once possessed great wealth. Yet when suffering came, his riches could not protect him. His animals, honor, and prosperity disappeared. Only his struggle with God remained.
Elihu reminds him that human beings should not rely upon possessions. When the soul is in distress, it needs more than outward resources. It needs God.
🌙 Job Must Not Long for the Night
Elihu warns Job not to long for the night in which people are taken away from their place. These words sound like a warning against despair and the desire simply to disappear.
Job had often spoken about death. He felt close to the end and sometimes longed for rest. Elihu now warns him not to seek this dark desire as a solution.
For young and grown-up hearts, this is very serious: When someone is so sad that they only want to disappear, they need help, closeness, and hope. They must not remain alone.
Elihu wants to lead Job away from the darkness. He tells him: Do not turn toward the night. Do not seek the path of destruction. Hold on to God even when you do not yet understand Him.
🚫 Job Must Not Choose Evil
Elihu tells Job to take care and not turn toward evil. Through suffering, it becomes visible where a person will turn. Will they seek God or move away from Him?
This warning is serious. Suffering can test the heart. Sometimes difficult times reveal what truly matters to a person.
Job has already shown many times that he does not want to let go of God. He has lamented, but he has spoken to God. He has questioned, but he has sought God. Nevertheless, Elihu warns him not to move in the wrong direction.
This reminds us that even when we are sorrowful, we should not deliberately choose the path of bitterness, lies, or godlessness. We may lament, but we should not abandon God.
🌟 God Is Exalted in His Power
Now Elihu turns his full attention toward God again. He says that God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him? No one can instruct God or tell Him how He should act.
God is not only powerful, but also the highest Teacher. He can instruct human beings through His Word, creation, experiences, and His work in their lives.
For children, we could say: The best teacher does not merely know the answer to one task. God knows the whole path of life. He knows what we need to learn and how He can guide us.
Elihu calls people not to make God’s works appear small, but to marvel. God’s ways are higher than human ways.
🎶 People Should Sing of God’s Works
Elihu says that people should sing about God’s works. Many have seen them. God’s actions in creation are not hidden like a small object inside a box. They are great and visible.
When the sun rises, rain falls, clouds move, fields grow, and thunder rolls, these things speak of God’s power. Creation becomes like a great picture book.
For young and grown-up hearts, a walk, a glance at the sky, or the sound of rain can become an occasion for wonder: God is greater than I can understand.
Elihu wants Job not to look only at his dark suffering, but also at God’s mighty works. Yet Job’s pain remains real. Wondering at God should not deny pain, but broaden our perspective.
🕰️ God Is Great and Unsearchable
Elihu says that God is great and beyond our understanding, and that the number of His years cannot be searched out. God is not like a human being who is born, grows old, and dies. He stands above time.
People count days, months, and years. They celebrate birthdays and remember the past. But God is greater than our way of measuring time. He is the eternal God.
This makes us small, but not worthless. It shows us that we do not have to understand everything in order to trust God. A small child does not understand everything a good father does, but can learn to hold his hand.
Elihu leads Job toward wonder: God’s greatness extends beyond human thought. His years, His ways, and His wisdom cannot be fully measured.
💧 God Draws Up the Drops of Water
Elihu then speaks about nature. God draws up drops of water, and they gather into rain. The clouds pour down water, and rain falls upon many people.
This image is wonderful. Small drops rise, gather, become clouds, and return to the earth as rain. The rain waters fields, fills streams, and gives life.
For children, we could say: Every raindrop is small. But many drops together can make a garden green. God knows the path of the water.
Elihu sees more than weather in the rain. He sees God’s wisdom. For him, nature is a sign that God orders, provides, and rules.
☁️ The Clouds Speak of God’s Wisdom
Elihu asks who can understand the spreading of the clouds. Clouds are both light and mighty. They float across the sky, change their form, bring shade, rain, and sometimes storms.
People see clouds every day, yet they remain full of wonder. How do they move? How do they carry water? Why does it rain in one place and not another? For Elihu, this shows that God’s creation is filled with mysteries.
He also speaks about the crashing of God’s pavilion, which reminds us of thunder and the mighty events taking place in the sky. The heavens are described like a great tent in which God’s power can be heard.
When thunder rolls, people become quiet. Elihu uses this sense of wonder to point toward God. The approaching storm seems to draw ever closer.
⚡ God Spreads His Light
Elihu describes how God spreads His light around Himself and covers the depths of the sea. Light and sea are powerful images. Light represents clarity and power. The sea represents depth and mystery.
God rules over both. His light reaches far, and even the depths are not hidden from Him. What human beings cannot reach lies open before God.
For Job, this thought can be both difficult and comforting. Difficult because God’s power is overwhelming. Comforting because even Job’s dark depths are not outside God’s sight.
Elihu wants to show that God’s light and power reach farther than human beings can see. No place is too hidden for Him.
🌾 God Judges and Provides at the Same Time
Elihu says that through these things God judges the nations and also provides food in abundance. This is a profound thought: God’s work in nature can both warn and provide.
Rain can be a blessing. It makes grain grow, fills wells, and brings fruit. Yet storms and floods can also frighten people and remind them that they do not control everything.
God is not only the God of quiet flowers, but also the God of thunder. He is not only loving, but also holy. He judges and sustains.
For young and grown-up hearts, this is important: God’s power is not a game. It is mighty, yet full of purpose. Through the same creation, He can provide and warn.
⚡ The Lightning in God’s Hands
Elihu describes God as covering His hands with light and commanding the lightning where it should strike. The image shows God’s rule over tremendous forces.
Lightning is fast, bright, and frightening. Human beings cannot hold it. It comes suddenly and reveals the power of the sky for a brief moment.
Yet for Elihu, lightning is not beyond God’s power. God knows where it goes. Even what appears wild and uncontrollable to people remains under God’s rule.
This prepares the story for something great. Soon God Himself will speak out of the storm. Elihu’s words about lightning, clouds, and thunder lead us ever closer to this moment.
🐄 Even the Animals Sense the Coming Storm
At the end, Elihu says that God’s thunder announces His coming and that even the cattle sense what is approaching. Animals often notice changes in the weather. They become restless before people fully recognize the storm.
This is a vivid image. We can imagine dark clouds, strengthening wind, animals moving about, and a tense stillness before the thunder.
All creation seems to become attentive. The sky, clouds, light, water, thunder, and animals point toward God’s mighty nearness.
Job and his listeners now stand at a special moment. Elihu is still speaking, but nature itself appears to be stirring. It is as though the sky is saying: Prepare yourselves. The Lord will soon answer.
🌟 The Speech Leads to Wonder
Job chapter 36 leads us from human questions to God’s great power. Elihu speaks about God’s justice, suffering as a possible call to repentance, the broad place into which God can lead, and God’s mighty works in nature.
His words are serious. Not everything sounds easy for Job. Elihu warns, corrects, and challenges Job to look toward God. Yet his speech also opens the heavens. Rain, clouds, light, and thunder become signs of God’s greatness.
This chapter is like the beginning of a storm. The air grows heavy, the clouds gather, and the first flashes of light and sounds of thunder remind us that God is not far away. His answer is drawing nearer.
For young and grown-up hearts, an important message remains: When we do not understand God’s ways, we may look toward His greatness—not in order to hide our questions, but to recognize that God is greater than our darkness, greater than our understanding, and greater than every storm.
🌅 What This Chapter Shows
This chapter shows that Elihu continues to defend God’s justice and greatness. He says that God is mighty and yet despises no one. God sees the righteous, helps the afflicted, and can use suffering to awaken people.
This chapter also shows God’s power in nature. Rain, clouds, light, thunder, and lightning speak of His wisdom and strength. Elihu’s speech prepares us for the moment when God Himself will answer out of the storm.
🟣 Summary
In Job chapter 36, Elihu continues speaking and asks to be heard a little longer. He wants to ascribe righteousness to God and explains that God is mighty but despises no one. God sees the righteous, helps the afflicted, and opens people’s ears through adversity so that they may learn and repent. Elihu warns Job not to be swept away by anger or darkness. Wealth and human strength cannot save; human beings need God. Elihu then directs attention toward God’s works in nature: God draws up water droplets, sends rain, spreads out the clouds, rules over light, thunder, and lightning, and provides for the nations. The chapter increasingly leads us to marvel at God’s greatness and prepares us for God’s answer out of the storm.
💚 Message for Young and Grown-Up Hearts Today
We learn that God is mighty and yet not indifferent. He sees the afflicted, helps the weak, and can use even difficult times to call people and open their hearts.
We also learn that nature can lead us to marvel at God. Rain, clouds, thunder, and light remind us that God is greater than our questions. Even when we do not understand everything, we may trust Him.
💭 Questions for Reflection
🔸 Why does Elihu say that God is mighty and yet despises no one?
🔸 How can God use difficult times to help people listen?
🔸 What do rain, clouds, thunder, and lightning reveal about God’s greatness?
🧒 👧 👦
💌 Invitation to Job Chapter 37
⚡ Elihu Marvels at God’s Voice in the Thunder
Elihu has spoken about God’s justice, His instruction, and His power in nature. His attention has turned increasingly toward the sky—to clouds, rain, light, and thunder.
Now Elihu will continue speaking about God’s mighty voice. The thunder rolls, the lightning flashes, the snow falls, and all creation reveals that God is greater than human beings.
What happens when a person becomes still before God’s mighty creation?
Come along and discover the next chapter!
🔔 Teaser for Job Chapter 37
🌨️ When Thunder, Snow, and Wind Speak of God
Elihu sees God’s power in the weather. Thunder, lightning, snow, rain, and wind become signs of His greatness. Human beings can observe many things, but they cannot control everything.
👉 Why does Elihu’s heart tremble at God’s thunder?
👉 What do snow, rain, and wind reveal about God’s rule?
👉 And why does this chapter prepare the way for the moment when God Himself speaks?
✨ In the next chapter, we will hear Elihu’s final words—and then God Himself will answer out of the storm.
