NOTES for Job 40:6-41:10

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⁶Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

⁷Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

⁸Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

⁹Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

¹⁰Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.

¹¹Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.

¹²Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.

¹³Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

¹⁴Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

¹⁵Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

¹⁶Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

¹⁷He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

¹⁸His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

¹⁹He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

²⁰Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

²¹He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

²²The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.

²³Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.

²⁴He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

¹Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

²Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

³Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

⁴Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

⁵Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

⁶Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

⁷Canst thou fill his skin with barbed iron? or his head with fish spears?

⁸Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

At first glance it may seem that God is merely demonstrating His power to Job. And in demonstrating it, He says: can you do that? No? Then do not meddle in what is not your business. In fact, however, everything is not so simple. Job is already, in essence, ready to humble himself for real, to acknowledge God's complete authority over him and His absolute sovereignty in the world. This is no longer religiosity; it is real acceptance of the authority over oneself of the real God who enters a person's life.

The true path of righteousness begins with such complete and unconditional surrender of oneself to God. And Job is finally ready to take the first step on this path. He refuses to answer not because he has become afraid of God in the way a person may be afraid of someone infinitely stronger than himself. He has simply understood that a person has nothing to say to God. Of course, communion between a person and God is entirely possible. But not the kind Job was seeking and wanted.

He wanted to meet God in order to inform Him of his righteousness. To tell Him that he, Job, had not received from Him, from the God on whom he had so hoped, the expected reward. He wanted to remind God of the rules of the game. But it turned out that God does not need to be reminded of anything. Not because God knows the rules by which people play. And not even because God Himself establishes those rules. It is because God does not play human games at all. He solves His own tasks, and they are far larger than anything people can tell Him about.

God is ready to commune with a person, but about what is real, not about games invented by people. Even if they are religious games and God is the chief figure in them. Righteousness won in such a game remains toy righteousness. And Job seems already to be beginning to understand this. But the question of evil in the world is by no means a toy question. It is completely real. And very real. So what then? What is to be done with it? Is there an answer? God appears not to give an answer. But only appears so. Yes, the picture of a grazing Behemoth seems, at first glance, to have nothing to do with the matter.

But Behemoth is only the occasion. A starting point for awareness. And this awareness is connected with the understanding that there is no force in the world that is not subject to God. He truly is King. Sovereign. The absolute Monarch of the universe. And its supreme Judge. He knows what to do with the wicked and with all the evil of the world in general. And if a person can know anything about this, it is no more than he knows about the strength of Behemoth. A person has no more chance of solving the problem of evil in the world than of moving that very Behemoth from the place where it lies. The image is impressive and entirely clear.

Other notes

For Job 41:3-26

³Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

⁴Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

⁵Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

⁶Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

⁷Canst thou fill his skin with barbed iron? or his head with fish spears?

⁸Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

¹¹Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹²I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

¹³Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

¹⁵His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

¹⁸By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

²¹His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

²²In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

²³The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

²⁴His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

²⁵When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

²⁶The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

As He brings His word to Job to a close, God points him to Leviathan... Read more

As He brings His word to Job to a close, God points him to Leviathan (vv. 1-34). This indication is not accidental, because the image of Leviathan, whatever its origin, by the time the Book of Job was written had already become a symbol of the power opposed to God, although, of course, Leviathan was just as much God's creature as the rest of the world. And God, of course, does not accidentally set Job before Leviathan just as He had previously set him before Behemoth (Job 40:15-24). If Behemoth was a symbol of nature, completely indifferent to man, then Leviathan was a symbol of the dark powers that oppose man. God is, as it were, saying to Job: you wanted to lean on your own righteousness and demand something from Me; but I am not the one opposing you, I am on your side. Here is your real enemy; see whether you can withstand him. Will your righteousness help you (vv. 1-9)? This turn in the theme was not accidental: Job had in fact demanded the immediate triumph of justice, accusing God of permitting the forces of evil to act, of looking indifferently at the suffering of the righteous and the triumph of the wicked. Job, as it were, set his own righteousness against this indifference.

And now God showed him visibly what human righteousness is worth in the face of the world's evil if it remains without the help and support of the One who Himself is the source of all righteousness. But there was also a second, deeper meaning in this vision. God tells Job directly that only He Himself can deal with Leviathan, who embodies the forces of evil (v. 11). And the one who cannot deal with Leviathan has no right to challenge Him (v. 10). A person stands before the choice between God and Leviathan, and if he is not on God's side, then willingly or unwillingly he supports those who oppose God. A righteous person cannot become an opponent of God; the very nature and origin of righteousness do not allow it. Of course, God's triumph over Leviathan does not come immediately. God's struggle with those who oppose Him will end only at the end of time; Leviathan's recompense, as is clear, still lies ahead (v. 10). And then each one will receive his reward. Such a prospect would appear no better than the one Job's friends spoke of, pointing out to him that the time for rewarding the righteous and punishing the sinner would still come.

But there they spoke of a human perspective, while here the perspective is that of God's providence. And the issue is not only scale. The issue is also that time passes away, while God's eternity does not. And therefore in God's eternity every life finds its place, even one that by the standards of this world appeared to have failed completely. The reward of the righteous person in God's eternity is not that he receives from God some kind of compensation for the sufferings he has endured, but that his entire life is renewed, including the part of it that had seemed irretrievably lost. God does not evade Job's questions; He simply lets him understand that the answer to the questions he has asked can be found only in the Kingdom. And Job believes God, who speaks with him face to face.