As we approach the end of the words of Job’s friends, we come to the inevitable conclusion: God is hard to figure out! Elihu, for example, gets it wrong about Job with his Santa Claus Theology:

Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress, Into a broad place where there is no restraint; And what is set on your table would be full of richness. But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked; Judgment and justice take hold of you. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; For a large ransom would not help you avoid it. (Job 36.16 – 18, NKJV)

Then Elihu turns right around and speaks truth about God’s power:

Remember to magnify His work, Of which men have sung. Everyone has seen it; Man looks on it from afar. “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered. For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist, Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, The thunder from His canopy? (Job 36.24 – 29, NKJV)

We can be thankful for “revelation knowledge.” God reveals himself not only through creation but also through his word:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork…The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple… (Psalm 19.1, 7, ESV)

And, finally, God has revealed himself through Jesus:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1.1 – 3, NKJV)

And the depth of human misunderstanding of God is demonstrated by Holy Week: they killed Jesus.

Even his disciples couldn’t understand Jesus:

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. (Mark 9.30 – 32, ESV)

I say again, God is hard to figure out!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55.8, 9, ESV)