Rudyard Kipling is one of my favorite poets. He’s well known for this little ditty:

I KEEP six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.

In Bible Study Methods at Dallas Theological Seminary (40 Years ago), Howard Hendricks taught us to apply these six serving men of Kipling to every Bible text we read. It’s how we search for understanding. It’s the basis for all learning and good teachers always challenge their students to study with these six questions in mind. Elihu is a great teacher. He employs all six of the “serving men” in the questions he asks Job. But he does so, not to help Job learn, but rather to help him realize the limits of his understanding. He asks,

Do you know when God dispatches His wondrous works? (37:15).
Do you know what causes the light in His clouds to shine? (v. 15).
Do you know how the clouds are balanced? (v. 16).
Do you know why your garments are hot? (v. 17).
Do you know when He quiets the earth with a south wind? (v. 17).
Do you know who spreads out the skies? (v. 18).

We might be able to advance some scientific answers for these questions today, but the truth remains that man’s knowledge is extremely limited about the world he lives in, but God’s understanding is not limited. Elihu’s point about God’s omniscience in light of our ignorance is made in order to comfort Job through his sufferings. We should find refuge when suffering strikes in the reality of God’s omniscience. Another favorite poet is Annie Flint. She wrote this one:

I know not, but God knows; Oh, blessed rest from fear!
All my unfolding days To Him are plain and clear.
Each anxious puzzled “Why?” From doubt or dread that grows,
Finds answer in this thought: I know not, but He knows.