Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Yahweh appears unexpectedly in a whirlwind (already gathering, Job 37:1-2), the symbol of "judgment" (Psalms 50:3-4, etc.), to which Job had challenged Him. He asks him now to get himself ready for the contest. Can he explain the phenomena of God's natural government? How can he, then, hope to understand the principles of His moral government? God thus confirms Elihu's sentiment, that submission to, not reasonings on, God's ways is man's part. This and the disciplinary design of trial to the godly is the great lesson of this book. He does not solve the difficulty by reference to future retribution; because this was not the immediate question: glimpses of that truth were already given in Job 14:1-22 and Job 19:1-29, the full revelation of it being reserved for Gospel times: yet even now we need to learn the lesson taught by Elihu and God in Job.