Job 41:17-34: a reflection

17They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart. 18His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. 19Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out. 20Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. 21His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth. 22There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him. 23The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved. 24His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone. 25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing. 26If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. 27He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him. 29Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. 30His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair. 33On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. 34He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”

God concludes his answer to Job with a long description of Leviathan, a fearsome creature no human can tame or subdue. Its scales are locked tight, impervious to sword and spear; it counts iron as straw and laughs at the rush of the javelin; it churns the deep like a boiling pot. When it rises up, even the strong are afraid. On earth, God says, there is nothing like it, a creature made without fear, king over all the proud. It is a portrait of a power utterly beyond human control.

The point of this description is not really the creature but its Creator. God is showing Job that there are things in his own creation that Job cannot begin to master or understand, and if Job cannot tame Leviathan, how could he presume to question the God who made it? The vast, untamable creature is a window onto the vastly greater God. If even a creature is beyond Job's power, then the Creator is beyond his comprehension, and worthy of humble trust rather than complaint.

There is a strange comfort in being made small before God's greatness. When you are tempted to question God, to think you could manage things better, or to demand explanations, remember Leviathan. There are creatures you cannot tame and mysteries you cannot fathom in the world God made, and the God behind it all is greater still. Rather than demanding that God answer to you, let his greatness humble you into trust. The God who made the untamable is wise and strong enough to be trusted with what you cannot understand.

Lord, you pointed Job to Leviathan, a creature he could never tame, to show him your own far greater majesty. When I am tempted to question you or think I could manage better, humble me before your greatness. If I cannot fathom a creature you made, how much less can I comprehend you. Let your majesty draw me not to complaint but to trust, resting in a God wiser and stronger than I can grasp. Amen.