Leviathan
How important is it to be strong and powerful?
And the Lord said to Job: "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you? Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever? Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears? Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again! Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it? No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it? Who can confront it and be safe? —under the whole heaven, who? - Job 40:1,41:1-11
God challenges Job again.
This time He asks Job if Job could tame the Leviathan, a giant, mythical sea monster, thought to be like a great whale.
What is the Leviathan in our lives? What demon is so large and untamable that we have no power against it?
Maybe that is what God is getting at here.
Job has suffered a terrible loss, one too big for him to handle. He feels powerless and lost in its presence. It has become his leviathan and he continues to try to wrestle with it, without success.
Each of us has something that gnaws at us and holds us back. It may be a regret from the past or an obstacle we are now facing.
The choice we have is to decide what we do with it.
Do we make it so large and impenetrable that we are stuck, unable to move? Or do we find a way around it, recognizing its enormity and our inability to win out over it?
It all comes down to choices.
God is reminding Job that Job doesn't have what it takes to tame the monster. He cannot do this alone. And as much as he is angry at God, Job needs God's help.
This is the lesson for all of us.
We can blame God for what befalls us, or we can choose to ask God for help. It sounds so simple, and yet it is so difficult.
But the choice is ours.
More to come...