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<p>Thunder and lightning, which usually go together, are sensible indications of the glory and majesty, the power and terror, of Almighty God, one to the ear and the other to the eye; in these God leaves not himself without witness of his greatness, as, in the rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, he leaves not himself without witness of his goodness (<a class="bibleref" title="Acts.14.17" href="/passage/?search=Acts.14.17">Acts 14:17</a>), even to the most stupid and unthinking. Though there are natural causes and useful effects of them, which the philosophers undertake to account for, yet they seem chiefly designed by the Creator to startle and awaken the slumbering world of mankind to the consideration of a God above them. The eye and the ear are the two learning senses; and therefore, though such a circumstance is possible, they say it was never known in fact that any one was born both blind and deaf. By the word of God divine instructions are conveyed to the mind through the ear, by his works through the eye; but, because those ordinary sights and sounds do not duly affect men, God is pleased sometimes to astonish men by the eye with his lightnings and by the ear with his thunder. It is very probable that at this time, when Elihu was speaking, it thundered and lightened, for he speaks of the phenomena as present; and, God being about to speak (<a class="bibleref" title="Job.38.1" href="/passage/?search=Job.38.1">Job 38:1</a>), these were, as afterwards on Mount Sinai, the proper prefaces to command attention and awe. Observe here, 1. How Elihu was himself affected, and desired to affect Job, with the appearance of God’s glory in the thunder and lightning (<a class="bibleref" title="Job.37.1,Job.37.2" href="/passage/?search=Job.37.1,Job.37.2"><span class="bibleref" title="Job.37.1">Job 37:1</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Job.37.2">2</span></a>): “For my part,” says Elihu, “<i>my heart trembles</i> at it; though I have often heard it, often seen it, yet it is still terrible to me, and makes every joint of me tremble, and my heart beat as if it would move <i>out of its place</i>.” Thunder and lightning have been dreadful to the wicked: the emperor Caligula would run into a corner, or under a bed, for fear of them. Those who are very much astonished, we say, are <i>thunder-struck</i>. Even good people think thunder and lightning very awful; and that which makes them the more terrible is the hurt often done by lightning, many having been killed by it. Sodom and Gomorrah were laid in ruins by it. It is a sensible indication of what God could do to this sinful world, and what he <i>will do</i>, at last, by the fire to which it is reserved. Our hearts, like Elihu’s should tremble at it for fear of God’s judgments, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.119.120" href="/passage/?search=Ps.119.120">Ps. 119:120</a>. He also calls upon Job to attend to it (<a class="bibleref" title="Job.37.2" href="/passage/?search=Job.37.2">Job 37:2</a>): <i>Hear attentively the noise of his voice</i>. Perhaps as yet it thundered at a distance, and could not be heard without listening: or rather, Though the thunder will be heard, and whatever we are doing we cannot help attending to it, yet, to apprehend and understand the instructions God thereby gives us, we have need to hear with great attention and application of mind. Thunder is called <i>the voice of the Lord</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.29.3-Ps.29.9" href="/passage/?search=Ps.29.3-Ps.29.9">Ps. 29:3-9</a>), because by it God speaks to the children of men to fear before him, and it should put us in mind of that mighty word by which the world was at first made, which is called thunder. <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.104.7" href="/passage/?search=Ps.104.7">Ps. 104:7</a>; <i>At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away</i>, namely, the waters, when God said, <i>Let them be gathered into one place</i>. Those that are themselves affected with God’s greatness should labour to affect others. 2. How he describes them. (1.) Their original, not their second causes, but the first
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