What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Job 38:24
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Job 38:24–38 (NIV):
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom or gives the rooster understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?
It was a lightning storm, and my six-year-old daughter and I were on the floor watching the dazzling display through the glass door. She kept repeating, “Wow! God is so big.” I felt the same way. It was obvious to both of us how small we were, and how powerful God must be. Lines from the book of Job flashed through my mind, “What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?” (Job 38:24).
Job needed to be reminded of God’s power (vv. 34–41). His life had fallen apart. His children were dead. He was broke. He was sick. His friends offered no empathy. His wife encouraged him to abandon his faith (2:9). Eventually, Job asked God, “Why?” (ch. 24) and He responded out of a storm (ch. 38).
God reminded Job of His control over the physical attributes of the world (ch. 38). This comforted him and he responded, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you” (42:5). In other words, “Now I get it, God! I see that you don’t fit into my box.”
When life falls apart, sometimes the most comforting thing we can do is to lie on the floor and watch the lightning—to be reminded that the God who created the world is big enough and loving enough to take care of us too. We may even start singing our favorite worship songs that tell of the might and greatness of our God.
Today’s Hymns
Somebody Bigger Than You and I
How Great Thou Art
Scripture and Respond
Psalm 8:3-4
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?[a]
Psalm 33:6-9
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
Reflection :
When life falls apart, would you doubt God’s deeds? When you see the lightning, hear the thunder and experience the rain, would you gasp at God’s might in admiration down in your heart?
Even in times of extreme difficulties, God, the creator of the world, is big enough and loving enough to take care of us.
Prayer:
Dear God my heavenly Father, help me see how great you are so that I will not have any more speculation about your deeds. Let me have the faith that as you have the power to create and control lightning, you certainly have sufficient power to guide me through the various challenges in my life.
Wong Wai Tung
(Chief Executive Officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) &
Sam Chow
(Administrative Officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation)
Reflection and prayer translated by Jenny Hung
The content of this article is taken from Our Daily Bread. Copyright by Our Daily Bread Ministries. Used by permission.
