Slices
Prepare
‘For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name’ (Luke 1:48,49).
Bible passage
41 ‘Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 ‘I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armour?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with its fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck;
dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee;
slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing-sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal –
a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty;
it is king over all that are proud.’
Explore
God continues to test Job spiritually. It could appear that he wants to see Job crack under the strain and utter that curse that would see God lose his wager (Job 1:8–12). The Lord tries a new twist. He compares Job to himself and asks him: ‘Could you control the Leviathan, the mightiest of sea creatures? Are you the Almighty?’
If Job says he can go where God goes, do the mighty works God does, is able to control all things in heaven and earth as God is able, then Job puts himself in the place of God and curses God as inferior! Even if Job was to think he could do these things, God knows he can’t! But will Job, out of his suffering and wretchedness, lose patience and say, ‘Yes, I can!’?
That would be enough for Satan. No doubt he can hardly believe his luck! This trick would normally be his own last throw of the dice, and there is God doing it for him. Surely Job’s misery will make him crack and win the prize for Satan.
Respond
Sometimes, like Job, we find ourselves under great stress: everything seems to be working against us. Do we react prayerfully, or with frustration, even rage? In times of testing, who do we turn to and how?
Deeper Bible study
‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas’.1 Thank you, Creator God.
The carnival procession of creatures before Job just turned scary. Enter Leviathan, a large marine animal – possibly a crocodile. A salt-water crocodile can be up to 6 m long and weigh around 1,000 kg, a terrifying prospect: ‘Any hope of subduing it is false’ (v 9). In setting out this frightening scene, God is asking Job to consider that if humans cannot even conquer this beast, how are they going to prevail over him (v 10)? Leviathan may be mighty, but God is mightier still.
‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?’ asks Paul.2 The Almighty owes nobody anything. He asks Job to name anyone who has a claim against him for loans that need to be repaid (v 11). If anyone has given anything to the Lord, it is only what he has first given to them. If you ever thought that God created people because he was lonely or lacked anything in any way, then think again. Within the Trinity there was no lack of fellowship, love or company prior to creation. Job is learning that God is sovereign and independent, needing nothing from humankind.3
We should guard against the idea, however, that we are not important to him. The opposite is the case. This amazing, powerful God has created us to come into fellowship with himself. God speaks of his sons and daughters from the ends of the earth as ‘everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made’.4
We can bring glory to God and he rejoices over us with singing.5 He has also taken on himself the form of humankind in the person of Jesus, dying and rising again to bring us into this wonderful fellowship.
Read aloud Paul’s doxology in Romans 11:33–36 and praise God for his infinite power, wisdom and glory. Thank him for his mercy in sending Jesus to save us.
1 Ps 24:1,2 2 Rom 11:35 3 Acts 17:24,25 4 Isa 43:7 5 Zeph 3:17
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Deuteronomy 21,22; Psalm 35
Pray for Scripture Union
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