TODAY’S READING: JOB 39-42
OVERVIEW:
The continuation of God’s questions to Job; God’s great power reviewed; Job’s submission to God; Job’s prayer for his friends; God’s double blessing upon Job.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
As we completed chapter 38 yesterday, God was in the midst of answering Job’s questions with a series of questions that brought Job’s questions to a screeching halt. God’s questions had to do with creationism, and appear to be totally unrelated and disconnected from Job’s situation, until you realize that Job had gotten to the place that his focus had become directed solely onto his personal problems.
God redirected his focus to see the big picture, to show Job, 1) his problems aren’t as big as he thought, and 2) his problems aren’t the center of the universe, God is!
Having laid down a series of cosmological and natural questions in chapter 38, God now asks questions about animals. In fact, from Job 38 to 41, God mentions 14 animals. Jeff Adams reminds us, “Seven is God’s number of completion, the number associated with his perfect works, just as in the seven days of creation. Two is the number of witness, or confirmation. We are considering a list of 14 animals for whatever reason. Could it be that God wants to confirm the perfection of His work to Job? Is there valuable truth to be learned from God’s zoo?”
Of particular interest are the two animals mentioned in chapters 40 and 41, “Behemoth” and “Leviathan,” respectively. A few things to consider, first of all, concerning “Behemoth”. The word “behemoth” is not a translation, but actually a transliteration. In other words, because the word has no English equivalent, it cannot be translated. The Hebrew word was simply given an English spelling and pronunciation. While some speculate that behemoth is an elephant, hippopotamus, or a water ox, the word simply means “beast” or “animal.” What is interesting, however, is that it is a plural form of the word, and yet all of the pronouns in the passage concerning this animal are singular. Either God uses real bad grammar, or there’s something else going on here! Can you think of any other place in the Bible where a single “animal,” is really a composite of different “animals”? How about the “beast” (i.e. animal) in Rev. 13:1-2 (the Antichrist), who is a composite of several beasts: the leopard, the bear, and the lion. When we see who “behemoth” actually is, we find that God is, in a sense, answering the question of Job’s suffering by pointing him to the source. The same spiritual power that was behind Job’s “tribulation,” will be the mastermind behind the worldwide “Tribulation” in the very near future.
Leviathan (chapter 41), is likewise intriguing. He, too, is speculated by “scholars” to be a whale, crocodile, sea monster, or perhaps even a mythological beast. Comparing Scripture with Scripture, however, reveals a very interesting description.
Psalm 74:14 lets us know that whatever “leviathan” is, it has more than one head! Isaiah 27:1 calls “leviathan” a serpent and a dragon. Can you think of anything in the Bible that has more than one head, and is identified as a serpent and a dragon? Revelation 12:3 talks about a great DRAGON, “having seven heads,” and verse 9 of that same chapter says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old SERPENT, called the Devil, and Satan”!!! Once again, God is pointing Job to the one who was responsible for his “tribulation.” Wow! What a Book! And, what a God!
To summarize our study of Job, allow me to “borrow” from Jeff Adams’ summary in his commentary on this Book, which I have already mentioned, I highly recommend:
- Some questions will never be answered in this life, if ever, God owes us no explanations.
- Some believers suffer for no reason of their own making.
- We are but a small part of an immense spiritual war that has been raging since the fall of Lucifer, a war of which we have little understanding.
- Unless we exercise great caution and discernment, even our best intentions to minister to those who suffer can be easily seized by the enemy to use to his advantage in this spiritual war.
- An abundance of facts about God does not necessarily qualify anyone to understand God’s purposes, especially to diagnose His workings in the life of another.
- Our need is not just for more information about God; our need is to know God.
- When baffled and overwhelmed by trials that are not of our own creation, we should lift up our eyes to see the big picture of God’s plan for the universe. We should simply stand in awe of God’s great power, and simply let Him be God.
- All trials for righteousness’ sake ultimately lead to new beginnings.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
Through Job’s praying for his friends – Job 42:10 (Christ instructed us to pray for those who falsely accuse us – Luke6:28).