Daily Devotional | Elihu: How Great Is God

How accurately can we predict the weather? Most researchers agree that forecasting accuracy has dramatically improved (now at around 97 percent), but it only applies to short-term calculations. “Research has repeatedly reached the same conclusions: We can predict the weather up to 14 days in advance at best,” said meteorologist Dr. Michael Riemer.

In the book of Job, Elihu continues to speak, now turning His focus to God. Elihu poses questions humans have puzzled over for centuries. Among them are: “Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?” (36:29), “Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?” (37:15).

The Bible points us to the One who created and controls the wind and the rain, the lightning and thunder. The Almighty God knows the future and has complete power over all creation. Elihu is correct when he says that God is “beyond our understanding” (Job 36:26).

In chapters 35 to 37, Elihu celebrates God’s work as Creator: “God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?” (36:22). “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’” (37:6). “The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them” (37:10).

Our natural curiosity about the created world directs us to the One who designed, created, and maintains the extremely complex systems of nature. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16–17).

Go Deeper

What does Elihu get right about God? How does creation help us better understand the Creator?

Pray with Us: Dear God, thank You for Your creation! We can look at the world around us and praise You: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 19:1).

BY Eric W. Moore

Eric Moore is Professor and Chair of the Applied Theology Field at Moody Theological Seminary. Eric is graduate of Michigan State University, Dallas Theological Seminary, the University of Michigan, and Western Seminary. He is the author of Pastoring the Small Church and a contributor to the One Volume Seminary (Moody Publishers). He has pastored Tree of Life Bible Fellowship church for over two decades. Eric and his wife, Marilyn, live in southeast Michigan and have three children.