HERE COMES THE SUN

“No one can look at the sun,
bright as it is in the skies
after the wind has swept them clean.
Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;
God comes in awesome majesty.” (37:21-22)

While it is easy to see that a storm has been unfolding throughout Chapter 37, it is difficult to follow the exact progression of events. A moment ago, in 37:19, Elihu was talking about how dark it was. Now, apparently, the clouds have suddenly been swept away and the sun has come out. Is the storm over, then? But if it is, how is it that in 38:1 the Lord addresses Job “out of the storm”? Taylor Lewis sees an explanation for this puzzle in the idea of a “thunderstorm finally terminating in the whirlwind or tornado from which breaks forth the unmistakable voice of God.”

Whatever the actual progression of events, it is clear that the Lord pulls out all of the stops for His interview with Job: thunder and lightning, pelting rain, driving winds and black clouds, freezing temperatures, dust storm and tornado, and finally the breakthrough of the sun and no doubt a spectacular rainbow too—and all of this in one cataclysmic display! There is so much going on here that one wonders whether all of it is to be directly ascribed to the Lord’s doing. More likely, such violence in the natural order is to be explained as a kind of fallout of spiritual warfare—that is, a result of God’s clash with the Devil. The Lord is invading what until now has been Satan’s territory, and Satan is resisting. The Kingdom of Heaven is advancing, and the forces of darkness are fleeing in disarray. We see a similar scenario in the New Testament story of Jesus calming “a furious squall” on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:37). Once the Lord’s boat reached the region of the Gerasenes on the other side, a key spiritual battle took place in which Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a savagely insane man. In retrospect, the storm on the lake can be interpreted as Satan’s opposition to the Lord’s invasion, and it is no doubt significant that Satan chose to mount his attack at a time when Jesus was sleeping.

In the story of Job, too, the Lord has apparently been sound asleep until now, peacefully curled up in the stern of the boat while Job has been struggling all alone with the wind and the waves. Yet consider the contrast between the Lord’s response to Job’s situation, and the way He dealt with His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. In the latter case He immediately calmed the storm (leaving the men even more terrified, it seems, than they had been before), while in the case of Job He let the storm rage for 37 chapters, until finally He calmed not the storm itself, but Job’s heart. It is important to understand that Job’s peace with God is reestablished right here, in the midst of the theophany, rather than later on in the Epilogue. It is not Job’s return to normal life that finally reconciles him to the ways of God, but rather his elemental encounter with his Lord—the very thing for which he has prayed all along. Job’s answer comes not out of sunny skies, but out of the heart of the storm.

Who then is the disciple of greater faith? Is it the one who in fear of the rising wind calls upon the Lord to remove the fear and its source? Or is it the one who, like Job, in the midst of fear simply cries out to the Lord?

In Matthew 14 we read about another voyage of Jesus’ disciples across the Sea of Galilee, during which “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.” At this sight Peter called out, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” After he had tried out his sea legs and found them wanting, Jesus saved him from drowning and then gently rebuked him with the question, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” This story is so well-known that we assume we know why Jesus rebuked Peter. Was He not saying, in effect, “If only you had more faith, Peter, you would not have sunk”? Yet what if the Lord’s question actually had a very different intent? What if Jesus were really saying, “Peter, why did you doubt Me in the first place? Why did you doubt that it really was I, walking out to you on the water? Why did you have to test Me?” Perhaps the true moral of the story is that it would have shown greater faith if Peter had just stayed in the boat.


Mason, M. (2002). The Gospel According to Job: An Honest Look at Pain and Doubt from the Life of One Who Lost Everything. Crossway.