Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? … If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! — Job 41:1, 8
I love the book of Job because it is raw and honest. I especially love chapters 38-41 where God speaks, because He speaks here with a candor that you find nowhere else in scripture.
The Lord has an opportunity to address the cries and the whys of a suffering man, and He does so in a way I would never predict – never in a thousand years.
God is the God of all comfort, but He doesn’t seem to make any attempt here to comfort Job.
God is the God of all wisdom, but He doesn’t answer any of Job’s questions.
Instead, God talks about the wild things. He talks about mountain goats and wild oxen, about eagles drinking blood and horses frenzied in battle. He speaks in admiring terms about the leviathan and the behemoth, creatures of immense strength and fierceness. These creatures were untamed and the Lord delights in them.
What masculine chapters these are! You will find no little lambs with pink ribbons here. And the Lord speaks to Job, not in a gentle whisper (as He spoke to Elijah), but out of a howling tornado.
Why is God so in love with the wild things? Why did He create an entire gender that resists domestication?
I get a picture of freedom. I get a picture of celebration. I get a picture of victory. I get a picture of Divine unpredictability. I get a picture of overwhelming confidence and strength.
God is no wimp. He and His army of mighty men risk much, sacrifice much, achieve greatness and go from victory to victory. Towering above them all is God, filled with joy, freedom and adventure.
No, God didn’t answer Job’s questions. But He lifted Job up, took his eyes off his painful sores and put them on the stars, on hope, on freedom, on victory.
I will have to speak as a man here, because I don’t know how all my female readers will take this – but to me what God gave Job was priceless. It’s what
I’ve always longed for and, in some small measure, have received.
And for that, I am thankful.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
To find out more about Dwight Clough, his books, his ministry, or to receive this devotional via email visit DwightClough.com. Dwight and his wife Kim are active members of Lake City Church in Madison.