“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind.” (Job 38:1)

What form would the Lord take if He were to speak with us? The Lord spoke to Abraham and others in the appearance of a man. “And [Abraham] lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him” (Genesis 18:2). At the end of their conversation, “the LORD went his way” (Genesis 18:33).

God appeared as an angel to Hagar, Sarah’s servant and Abraham’s concubine. “The angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly” (Genesis 16:10). Hagar did not react with the fear that others did when accosted by angels appearing in bright glory, such as the shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). And the Lord looked quite different to Moses when He “appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2).

But God spoke to Job from within a whirlwind. Perhaps storm clouds had approached as Job’s cadre conversed. Job stated, “He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them” (Job 26:8). Moments later, Elihu said, “Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou” (Job 35:5). Whether natural or supernatural, the whirlwind arrived, and God granted Job the direct discourse he had longed for (Job 23:3-5).

Whichever mode God chooses to reveal Himself, it is always the right one. Nowadays, any literate person to whom the gospels are available shouldn’t lament over God’s silence like Job did. God ultimately chose to reveal Himself through His Son and “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Ephesians 2:5).

Praise our Maker, who reaches out to us. BDT