Job was a righteous, God-fearing man. He was also a wealthy man, who enjoyed all the blessings life had to offer.
The book of Job starts with Satan questioning his sincerity. Did Job serve God because there was something in it for him? Was his goodness simply a way to earn material blessings?
This question unleashes an onslaught of trials. First, marauders ravage his flocks and possessions, and kill his servants. Next, a natural disaster takes his children’s lives. To lose one child at any age is utterly devastating; Job loses ten. On top of all this, he comes down with a disease that makes him unrecognizable and brings with it horrible pain.
Job’s worst fears have come true:
“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” (Job 3:25).
Then along come Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. To Job’s agony, they add another trial, a psychological one, by insisting that Job deserves his troubles as punishment for his sins.
After Elihu puts forward his perspective on the discussion, God Himself intervenes. His words to Job culminate with descriptions of two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan.
A God of retribution
Who were these people? Genesis offers a few clues. The name Jobab appears in Genesis 36:33 in the line of Esau. Eliphaz, Teman, and Zepho (Zophar in the Septuagint) are in the same genealogy (v 11). Bildad the Shuhite would be related to Shuah, Abraham’s son by Keturah (Gen 25:2). So, the three comforters were descendants of Abraham. Elihu was a Buzite, from the family of Abraham’s brother Nahor (Gen 22:20,21).
Although not of the chosen line, Job and his friends would have believed in Abraham’s God.
Their arguments revolve around the theory that God works on the basis of retribution. Sinners are punished with trouble in this life. The upright are rewarded with prosperity and health.
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar believe God is, above all, just in His dealings with humanity:
- All suffering is punishment for sin.
- Job is suffering terribly.
- Therefore, Job is a terrible sinner.
Theirs is a tit-for-tat world where God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. They allude to Job’s misfortunes and urge him to confess the sins for which God must be punishing him. Job points out that their simplistic explanation does not always hold true, and certainly not in his case.
As their words against Job become more and more offensive, Job becomes more and more defensive, laying bare his real attitudes and motivations.
Job’s attitude problem
Job questions God’s fairness in inflicting such terrible hardship on him despite his efforts to do all the right things. He seems unable to see the kind, merciful side of God’s character. To him, God is a strict, powerful, unfeeling master. He talks about storms and earthquakes, how the poor suffer and the wicked enjoy their riches.
Thus, Job’s true attitudes are revealed through his suffering. As Satan suspected, Job does expect to be rewarded for his service to God. After much suffering (and many words) he admits as much. Job’s fear of punishment from God has been the motivation for his righteous acts: “For destruction from God was a terror to me” (31:23). In his effort to do all the right things, he has not appreciated the love and majesty of God.
When God reveals Himself in the whirlwind in chapters 38 to 41, He addresses Job’s wrong perceptions.
Job has accused God of using His power in arbitrary, destructive ways (9:12). God explains how He uses His power constructively to control the sea, the weather, and the forces of destruction.
Job has said God wasn’t right to bring calamity on him, a righteousness man (27:2-6). God describes how all creatures are subject to trials, how some must even die so others can live.
In chapters 38 and 39, God makes Job realize that he really knows very little about how the world works. He speaks in the imagery of creation, and tells Job to look beyond his own self-centered world.
Behemoth and Leviathan
God completes His revelation by describing two great beasts. Through these creatures, God portrays what has happened to Job. Behemoth is probably a hippopotamus, Leviathan a crocodile.
In chapter 40, God tells Job to consider Behemoth. He is a mighty beast, big and strong. He thinks his little tail is as great as a cedar tree, his body as strong as iron. The trees and reeds hide him from danger. He has everything he wants, and believes he is safe from all harm. A herbivore, he does not live off other animals.
God links Job with Behemoth: “I made him with you” (v 15). This beast is like you, Job. You thought your good deeds and piety had earned you a pleasant, secure life.
Job was comfortable and self-confident. Like Behemoth, in Satan’s words, he had a hedge around him (1:10). Only his Creator could tame him (v 19). Only God could show Job his true place.
Lurking in the water is a ruthless, untamable monster. In chapter 41, Leviathan is not lounging, as crocodiles often do, by the bank of a lazy river. This vicious beast is in attack mode (v 31).
God confronts Job (vv 10,11). Who would dare challenge Leviathan? More than that, how could you presume to challenge Me, his Creator? How can you say I owe you anything? Everything under heaven is Mine! Job, you thought I had an obligation to repay you for serving Me by making you comfortable. You thought you deserved My protection.
Leviathan is the most feared beast in God’s creation. His teeth inspire fear (v 14). His breath burns whatever it touches (v 19); think of the burning accusations Job suffered from the mouths of his so-called comforters. Even the mighty are afraid of Leviathan (v 25). Nothing on earth is his equal, and he has no fear. He destroys whatever crosses his path. He shows the high and mighty how weak and helpless they are (vv 33,34).
Symbolically, Job has faced Leviathan, because what he most feared has come to pass (3:25). He lost his children, his wealth, and his health. Like Behemoth, he was strong enough to survive the struggle. After being made perfect, in a sense, through his suffering, he becomes a mediator before God on behalf of those who treated him so insensitively in his time of need.
Leviathan is “king over all the children of pride” (41:34). Job’s suffering broke his pride and led him to a fuller appreciation of his Creator. His confrontation with what he most feared taught him that being chosen by God does not mean an easy life, and left him a wiser and humbler person.
Leviathan today
Surely, as Leviathan stalked his prey, Behemoth should have realized something was wrong. In his self-confidence, Job, like many people, had the attitude that if he did all the right things, then “bad things can never happen to me.”
No one wants to be compared to a big, ugly hippo. No one voluntarily chooses to tackle a raging crocodile. Yet if it attacks, there is no choice.
Leviathan is the worst trial you ever face — a tragedy or hardship you feared, or one you never imagined could happen to you. When this monster strikes, it tears your heart out. It inflicts deep wounds and terrible pain. There’s little you can do to stop it. Although the struggle is exhausting, you never give up. You pray, knowing the outcome is in God’s hands.
One key message of the book of Job is that suffering is not to be regarded as punishment from God. It is a natural part of the world God created. No one is immune. It forces the faithful to mature spiritually and to grow closer to God in ways that could never be imagined if life were always easy and comfortable.
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Co 4:17,18).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One