Dear Advice Columnist, Elihu: I have a problem. Actually, I have a lot of problems. Actually actually, I have a lot of REALLY big problems. I have lost my wealth, I have lost all my children and their families, I have lost my health, and as if all that weren’t enough, I’ve lost my reputation and standing in my community. What’s more, I have no clue as to why. And though I demand an audience with the Almighty who surely knows why, He’s not returning my calls. What do I do?

Dear Job: Keep listening . . .

This morning I’m in Job 37 and am wrapping up the two cents Elihu has thrown into the conversation between Job and his miserable comforters as to understanding what’s behind Job’s miserable condition. And while the kid has had words of rebuke for both Job and Job’s friends, his best words have been his words extolling Job’s God.

And so, he concludes his words with perhaps some unexpected counsel for Job.

“Keep listening to the thunder of His voice
and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.
Under the whole heaven He lets it go,
and His lightning to the corners of the earth.
After it His voice roars;
He thunders with His majestic voice,
and He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.
God thunders wondrously with His voice;
He does great things that we cannot comprehend. . . .

“Hear this, O Job;
stop and consider the wondrous works of God.”

(Job 37:2-5, 14 ESV)

His voice . . . His voice . . . His majestic voice . . . His voice . . . His voice. Guess what I’m picking up from what Elihu is laying down? Guess what I’m hearing? His voice.

Job, quit demanding that God speak to you about what you feel needs to be talked about. Instead, keep listening to what He’s already spoken. Relinquish your bordering on belligerent requests for your day in court. Instead hear what God is saying to you this day through creation. Stop trying to comprehend what God has not made known, but try to capture the awe associated with the great and incomprehensible things which He has made known. Keep listening to the thunder of His voice.

It’s what we need when we don’t know what we need. It’s what brings sanity when everything around us is insane. It’s what stops the ground from shaking when everything has been shaken up. To hear His voice.

And we don’t need some new voice addressing our latest concerns. We need the voice we have heard time and time again. The voice which spoke all things into being. The voice which speaks each morning as the sun rises and whispers each night after the sun has set. The voice of creation can still the heart laid siege by calamity. Keep listening . . .

But wait, there’s more! Beyond the voice of creation there’s the voice of revelation. God has spoken “at many times and in many ways by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1) and through His apostles. No need to demand an audience with the Almighty, He’s ready to “give an answer” every time we open His word. Keep listening . . .

But wait, there’s still more! Beyond creation, beyond revelation, hear the voice of incarnation. “In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:2). “The Word became flesh . . . and we have seen His glory” (John 1:14). The Word who was in the beginning with God, the Word with God, the Word who was God (John 1:1-2). Thus, the Word who knows the whys of our season and is able to be the source of our endurance. The Word who beckons us, “Come to me, all you labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). So, keep listening . . .

Hear this, stop and consider . . . the wondrous works of God . . . the wondrous word of God . . . the wondrous Son of God.

And then, trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Even as you keep listening to His voice.

Only by His grace. So that, in the end, it will be all for His glory.