You want rain? Elijah-like, talk to the God who made the clouds, because the clouds aren’t listening.
The Lord makes two final appeals concerning Job’s interaction with the inanimate world. He asks, “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, ‘Here we are!’?” (Job 38:34- 35). In Zimbabwe, they call their rain dance Mhande. In the Balkans, it’s known as Paparuda. Thailand’s farmers call the ceremony Hae Nang Maew (Cat Parading Ceremony), and it’s the Kilumi Rain Dance in modern Kenya. Since ancient times, men have tried to command the rain, and for some unknown reason keep trying. But when the US Agricultural Secretary, Tom Vilsack, suggested a rain dance to end a California drought in 2012, Johnny P. Flynn responded, “As an American Indian, all my life I have been cursed with the myth of the ‘Indian rain dance.’ I am here to say there is no such thing. Not in my Potawatomi tribe nor in any other tribe across the Americas.” Thanks for this, Johnny. I think Job would have agreed with that 5,000 years ago! I recall the story of the professor who told his students, “When people prayed for rain, we got the Dust Bowl. Now we just seed the clouds and get rain. There’s no question about that, is there?” “Yes, there’s a question,” said a farm boy. “Who provides the cloud?” But if the Lord’s first question was easy to answer, the next one certainly is not: “Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?” (v 36). Thoughts tumble into our minds. Where are they from? And how do electrical impulses in the brain receive this wisdom from the Lord? Then how does that wisdom become understanding? As Job said earlier, “He does great things past finding out” (9:10).