Job 40-42 (Day 15)

_God continues to ask questions to Job in chapter 40 that humble him further. True humility is always the pathway to greatness in God.

Behemoth & Leviathan?
Opinions on what these creatures are vary but I don’t think anyone knows for sure. Some people like to think that Behemoth is an Elephant or Hippopotamus but how could that be when “he moves his tail like a cedar.” (Job 40:17) Also people speculate that Leviathan is a crocodile or a whale. If that is the case, I would say that God’s description was a bit of a stretch. The LORD says what He means and means what He says, so both of these creatures must be extinct or unknown to us today.

What is God’s point in bring up both of these creatures? The LORD seems to point out that these creatures are way beyond us conquering them but yet He created them and therefore are nothing compared to His might.

Leviathan seems to have a double meaning for Satan. In Job 41:34 the LORD says, “he is king over all the children of pride.”

Job 42:2-6  "I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.  3  You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.  4  Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.'  5  "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.  6  Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

Job is now humbled; he knows God is worthy for him to let Him have complete control over his life. 

Next, I want to include Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary for Job 42:7-9. His commentary is the following paragraph
After the Lord had convinced and humbled Job, and brought him to repentance, he owned him, comforted him, and put honour upon him. The devil had undertaken to prove Job a hypocrite, and his three friends had condemned him as a wicked man; but if God say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, it is of little consequence who says otherwise. Job's friends had wronged God, by making prosperity a mark of the true church, and affliction a certain proof of God's wrath. Job had referred things to the future judgment and the future state, more than his friends, therefore he spake of God that which was right, better than his friends had done. And as Job prayed and offered sacrifice for those that had grieved and wounded his spirit, so Christ prayed for his persecutors, and ever lives, making intercession for the transgressors. Job's friends were good men, and belonged to God, and He would not let them be in their mistake any more than Job; but having humbled him by a discourse out of the whirlwind, he takes another way to humble them. They are not to argue the matter again, but they must agree in a sacrifice and a prayer, and that must reconcile them, Those who differ in judgment about lesser things, yet are one in Christ the great Sacrifice, and ought therefore to love and bear with one another. When God was angry with Job's friends, he put them in a way to make peace with him. Our quarrels with God always begin on our part, but the making peace begins on his. Peace with God is to be had only in his own way, and upon his own terms. These will never seem hard to those who know how to value this blessing: they will be glad of it, like Job's friends, upon any terms, though ever so humbling. Job did not insult over his friends, but God being graciously reconciled to him, he was easily reconciled to them. In all our prayers and services we should aim to be accepted of the Lord; not to have praise of men, but to please God.

Job 42:10 says, “And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” When we give it is given unto us! Job gave love, mercy and grace to his friends and received it back pressed down, shaken together and running over.