Job 40:6-Job 42:6--The Lord Challenges Job; Job Confesses and Repents

The Lord Challenges Job
40:6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

7 “Dress for action like a man;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.
8 Will you even put me in the wrong?
    Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
9 Have you an arm like God,
    and can you thunder with a voice like his?

10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;
    clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
    and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low
    and tread down the wicked where they stand.
13 Hide them all in the dust together;
    bind their faces in the world below.
14 Then will I also acknowledge to you
    that your own right hand can save you.

15 “Behold, Behemoth,
    which I made as I made you;
    he eats grass like an ox.
16 Behold, his strength in his loins,
    and his power in the muscles of his belly.
17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
    the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
    his limbs like bars of iron.

19 “He is the first of the works of God;
    let him who made him bring near his sword!
20 For the mountains yield food for him
    where all the wild beasts play.
21 Under the lotus plants he lies,
    in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him;
    the willows of the brook surround him.
23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;
    he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
24 Can one take him by his eyes,
    or pierce his nose with a snare?

41 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
    or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope in his nose
    or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he make many pleas to you?
    Will he speak to you soft words?
4 Will he make a covenant with you
    to take him for your servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird,
    or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders bargain over him?
    Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons
    or his head with fishing spears?
8 Lay your hands on him;
    remember the battle—you will not do it again!
9 Behold, the hope of a man is false;
    he is laid low even at the sight of him.
10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.
    Who then is he who can stand before me?
11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
    Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
    or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
    Who would come near him with a bridle?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
    Around his teeth is terror.
15 His back is made of rows of shields,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
16 One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18 His sneezings flash forth light,
    and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap forth.
20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 His breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
22 In his neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before him.
23 The folds of his flesh stick together,
    firmly cast on him and immovable.
24 His heart is hard as a stone,
    hard as the lower millstone.
25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,
    nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27 He counts iron as straw,
    and bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee;
    for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble;
    he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31 He makes the deep boil like a pot;
    he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake;
    one would think the deep to be white-haired.
33 On earth there is not his like,
    a creature without fear.
34 He sees everything that is high;
    he is king over all the sons of pride.”

Job's Confession and Repentance

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said:

​2 “I know that you can do all things,
    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘Hear, and I will speak;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.’
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes.”

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Just like last time, we will look at God's soliloquy and Job's response to it as a single unit as we don't want to lose Job's response to what God is saying and doing--that's pretty much the whole idea of the book.  How is Job's response this time different than last time?

After issuing His challenge, God opens by asking Job if he can control the largest of the beasts of the earth (Behemoth)?  The animal is so large that it appears to fear nothing except God Himself for God made Behemoth so that no weapon would pierce its thick skin and it would fear no snare or trap.  Some fancy this creature to be some kind of dinosaur while others imagine it to be some kind of elephant or mammoth.  It doesn't really matter exactly what kind of creature it is, God and Job both know what creature is being talked about and that it is a force of nature beyond Job's control that every wise man would treat with respect--so why not have even more respect for a God that is bigger and more powerful than Behemoth because He made it?  Do you see the flaw in in Job's actions?  He shows more honor and respect for the creature than the Creator.

God again points to another massive creature, this time the largest creature in the sea, named Leviathan.  We know little of this creature outside of what God says here, but it too seems to have been designed so that it did not need to fear being hunted.  God created the sea and all that is in them and the land and all of its vegetation and the animals that dwell on the earth simply by speaking.  Even with all the power and glory and majesty that these creatures have, they can't hold a candle to the power, glory and majesty of the Lord.  So, again, why would man, specifically Job, show more reverence to an animal of the land or sea than to the God who spoke it all into existence?

Job seems to see finally see the error of his ways and takes his focus off of himself and puts it on God when he says, "I know you can do all things and no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."  That's a good start--so now the question is to try and inquire about what the purpose of God might be.  If we know that nothing can interfere with God's purposes then the right question probably should be "What exactly is it that God is trying to accomplish here?"

Job seems to understand, finally, that some of the things that his friends were saying were actually right and that Job was proud and needed to be humbled.  However, God will speak to them next because they were wrong in how they spoke of God as well.  "The fear of the Lord" does not mean you have to be afraid of God if you belong to Him, but you do need to respect Him and His power and authority.  This is a poor illustration because no one can "tame" God, but since God used the imagery of these massive wild beasts, what if one of them could be "tamed"?  Even if that were so, it could trample and destroy things and people and would not be "safe."  I like the line form The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe about this when one of the children ask Mr. Beaver if Aslan, the Lion that represents Jesus in the allegorical story,  is safe.

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

We should have much the same view of God.  He's not safe, but He's good.  We do not tame and control Him, but He is in control of all things and can change the very heart of man and do all the things we've been reading about and more.  As amazing as they all are, I think the power of the gospel to change the very nature of a man and make that which was dead to be alive is as powerful as anything else God has mentioned here.

With all this in mind, Job finally puts himself in a posture of listening to God and the instruction that God wants to give instead of wanting to talk and make God listen to him.  He closes his mouth and opens his ears.  He sees God for who He truly is and no longer requires any other answer.

Then we get to the main point of it all--don't miss it.  Job responds with not just words of repentance, but actions in accordance with repentance.  He returns so the ash heap, but this time not to have a pity party for himself, but because he truly realizes the sorry state that he's in and he takes a proper position and attitude before God.  Only in repentance will our mourning be turned into joy because God was, is and will continue to be all that we ever really needed and He will completely satisfy us.  It is God who is our hope and our eternal reward and nothing can take Him away from us if we belong to Him.