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Job 36:32-33 "He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares concerning him, who is jealous with anger against iniquity."

 

This is part of a Elihu's speech to Job. Elihu is not one of the three friends who were so insistent that Job must have done something to deserve his suffering, he is younger, and holds his tongue until they have had their say. (Job 32:1-6). Even though he is younger, Elihu makes more sense than Job's friends. He rightly extols God's justice and mercy (Job 34:12, 36:5), while also recognizing that it is through suffering that God appeals to man to change. (Job 36:8-10).

 

In this verse, Elihu acknowledges that God speaks to us through natural phenomenon. Thunder and lightning are seen as signs of God's displeasure, with God commanding the lightning to strike its intended mark. Elihu is right, of course, God does use His Creation to guide mankind, and lightning always strikes its mark. But Elihu does not take the simplistic approach that the mark that is struck is necessarily God's enemy, he just recognizes that there is a sign there.

 

Job's friends would have been more likely to assume that being struck by lightning is a sign of God's justice, but God is much more subtle than that, as we see when He speaks to Job directly. We also can't assume, as we tend to today, that thunder and lightning are merely natural phenomenon. When God does speak to Job, He points to all the workings of His Creation and reminds Elihu that it is He who directs all these things. (Job 38-39)

 

Everything is orchestrated by God, all is part of His plan, and nothing happens without His permission. The reason that God does not answer Job directly, though, is because we simply are too limited to be able to see and understand that plan in all its incredible complexity. The way the smallest to the greatest things all fit and work together throughout time to bring humanity to our ultimate goal is beyond our capacity to understand. But we should not stop thinking about it nonetheless.

 

Thunder and lightning, like everything in nature, are signs from God. We might not fully understand what He is trying to tell us, and we shouldn't take a simplistic view thinking we've got it figured out, but we should recognize, like Elihu, that they reveal something about God, and spend some time thinking about what that might be.