Job 40:6-42:6
Dear RTB’ers,
God continues his discourse from yesterday. All but seven of today’s 59 verses have God speaking – and in most of those verses God is speaking of two creatures, Behemoth (hippopotamus, elephant?) and Leviathan (crocodile?), challenging Job to control these creatures the way that God Himself does it. For example, God asks Job, Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? (vv. 41:1-3) Obviously, Job is at a loss for words and acknowledges his human frailty: I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (vv. 42:5-6)
I was intrigued by God’s challenge to Job to save himself: Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. … Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (vv. 40:12, 14) By implication, God has done these things Himself – and Job cannot! That’s also a reminder for us: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Yes, Jesus has done it all; we simply trust in His work. However, I also like to add Eph. 2:10 to these two verses: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We do have work to do!
One item for clarity – quotation marks are important in today’s final paragraph. In your ESV you will see a distinction between single quotation marks (‘) and double quotation marks (“). The single quotation marks in verses 3a and 4 are Job quoting God. The rest of 42:2-6 is Job speaking for himself. Just that…
Blessings!
See also: