Elihu, to affect Job with God's sublimity and
sovereignty, had directed him
(Job 35:5)
to look unto the clouds. In
Job 36:24-33
he shows us what we may observe in the clouds we see which
will lead us to consider the glorious perfections of their Creator.
Consider the clouds,
1. As springs to this lower world, the source and treasure of its
moisture, and the great bank through which it circulates--a very
necessary provision, for its stagnation would be as hurtful to this
lower world as that of the blood to the body of man. It is worth while
to observe in this common occurrence,
(1.) That the clouds above distil upon the earth below. If the heavens
become brass, the earth becomes iron; therefore thus the promise of
plenty runs, I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the
earth. This intimates to us that every good gift is from above,
from him who is both Father of lights and Father of the rain, and it
instructs us to direct our prayers to him and to look up.
(2.) That they are here said to distil upon man
(Job 36:28);
for, though indeed God causes it to rain in the wilderness where no
man is
(Job 38:26,Ps+104:11),
yet special respect is had to man herein, to whom the inferior
creatures are all made serviceable and from whom the actual return of
the tribute of praise is required. Among men, he causes his rain to
fall upon the just and upon the unjust,
Matthew 5:45.
(3.) They are said to distil the water in small drops, not in
spouts, as when the windows of heaven were opened,
Genesis 7:11.
God waters the earth with that with which he once drowned it, only
dispensing it in another manner, to let us know how much we lie at his
mercy, and how kind he is, in giving rain by drops, that the benefit of
it may be the further and the more equally diffused, as by an
artificial water-pot.
(4.) Though sometimes the rain comes in very small drops, yet, at other
times, it pours down in great rain, and this difference between one
shower and another must be resolved into the divine Providence which
orders it so.
(5.) Though it comes down in drops, yet it distils upon man
abundantly
(Job 36:28),
and therefore is called the river of God which is full of water,
Psalms 65:9.
(6.) The clouds pour down according to the vapour that they draw
up,
Job 36:27.
So just the heavens are to the earth, but the earth is not so in the
return it makes.
(7.) The produce of the clouds is sometimes a great terror, and at
other times a great favour, to the earth,
Job 36:31.
When he pleases by them he judges the people he is angry with.
Storms, and tempests, and excessive rains, destroying the fruits of the
earth and causing inundations, come from the clouds; but, on the other
hand, from them, usually, he gives meat in abundance; they drop fatness
upon the pastures that are clothed with flocks, and the valleys that
are covered with corn,
Psalms 65:11-13.
(8.) Notice is sometimes given of the approach of rain,
Job 36:33.
The noise thereof, among other things, shows concerning
it. Hence we read
(1 Kings 18:41)
of the sound of abundance of rain, or (as it is in the margin)
a sound of a noise of rain, before it came; and a welcome
harbinger it was then. As the noise, so the face of the sky, shows
concerning it,
Luke 12:56.
The cattle also, by a strange instinct, are apprehensive of a change in
the weather nigh at hand, and seek for shelter, shaming man, who will
not foresee the evil and hide himself.
2. As shadows to the upper world
(Job 36:29):
Can any understand the spreading of the clouds? They are spread
over the earth as a curtain or canopy; how they come to be so, how
stretched out, and how poised, as they are, we cannot understand,
though we daily see they are so. Shall we then pretend to understand
the reasons and methods of God's judicial proceedings with the children
of men, whose characters and cases are so various, when we cannot
account for the spreadings of the clouds, which cover the light?
Job 36:32.
It is a cloud coming betwixt,
Job 36:32,Job+26:9.
And this we are sensible of, that, by the interposition of the clouds
between us and the sun, we are,
(1.) Sometimes favoured; for they serve as an umbrella to shelter us
from the violent heat of the sun, which otherwise would beat upon us. A
cloud of dew in the heat of harvest is spoken of as a very great
refreshment.
Isaiah 18:4.
(2.) Sometimes we are by them frowned upon; for they darken the earth
at noon-day and eclipse the light of the sun. Sin is compared to a
cloud
(Isaiah 44:22),
because it comes between us and the light of God's countenance and
obstructs the shining of it. But though the clouds darken the sun for a
time, and pour down rain, yet (post nubila Phoebus--the sun
shines forth after the rain), after he has wearied the cloud, he
spreads his light upon it,
Job 36:30.
There is a clear shining after rain,
2 Samuel 23:4.
The sunbeams are darted forth, and reach to cover even the
bottom of the sea, thence to exhale a fresh supply of vapours, and
so raise recruits for the clouds,
Job 36:30.
In all this, we must remember to magnify the work of God
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Job' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
.