God thunders wondrously with his voice;
Job 37:5-6
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
Likely one of the oldest books in the Old Testament, Job is an amazing story of how God stays faithful in all circumstances. Our verse today brings us in toward the end of Elihu (his name means “my God is he”), who is not a “friend” of Job but has been watching and listening to those there to console Job (Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz) until he can’t stand to listen to them anymore. He jumps in, speaking of God’s divine care (providence), mercy, and wisdom. Today’s scripture points to the incomprehensible God.
Saint Augustine wanted us to know that when we approach an infinite God in prayer and thought, we must understand that we are finite beings. Therefore, “…if we have understood, what we have understood is not God.” (Sermon 52)
Karl Barth would later write to clarify,
“The possibility of the knowledge of God springs from God, in that He is Himself the truth and He gives Himself to man in His Word by the Holy Spirit to be known as the truth. It springs from man, in that, in the Son of God by the Holy Spirit, he becomes an object of the divine good-pleasure and therefore participates in the truth of God.” Church Dogmatics, 2:1
Finally, the HitchHiker adds, “Remember that you should be humble in approaching your knowledge of the Triune God of Grace, and also be thankful that ‘divine good-pleasure’ allows you to understand anything!”
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
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