Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: God continues speaking to Job and corrects him for rebuking Him, describes the most powerful creature on Earth to reveal His own power, Job admits he spoke without knowledge, and God chides Job's friends and restores all his losses - twice as much as he had before- after he prays for them.
Today, we will be ending our time in Job, and we are definitely going to need a breather!
God asks Job: "Should the one who contends with the Almighty rebuke Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it." He tells Job again to prepare himself like a man: "I will question you, and you will answer Me." He asks Job if he would condemn God so that he may be justified, or if he has an arm like God or a voice that thunders like His.
God tells Job that if Job can humble the proud and "hide wicked in the dust," that He will confess that Job's own hand can save him. Here is where it gets interesting. Scripture introduces an animal known as the behemoth. God asks Job to consider it. It is powerful like an ox and has a tail that "moves like a cedar." It has "bones like bronze" and "ribs like iron" and is "the first of the works of God." Some scholars believe this to be the hippo, while others point to a more prehistoric creature.
Then, another even fiercer creature is introduced known as leviathan. To hear him described, one might think him to be a fire-breathing dragon. He is some sort of sea monster with sharp scales and rows of teeth. "Smoke goes out of his nostrils" and "out of his mouth go burning lights." This is quite unusual. Some think the reference is to the crocodile and that the language is merely hyperbolic in nature. God says that no creature has been made as fearless as this one, that he is the "king of pride," and that weapons cannot prevail against him. God uses this creature to show that if no one on Earth can stand against leviathan, how much more so the Almighty?
Job is humbled. He consents. "I know that You can do everything and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.".... "I uttered things which I did not understand." .... "I have heard of You with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent with dust and ashes."
God then addresses Job's three friends. He is angry at them because "[they] did not speak of Him what was right, as [His] servant Job has" He refers to Job as His servant several times, and although He chastises Job for his critical speech, this language seems to convey that He is proud of how Job still showed faith in Him.
God tells Job's friends to bring an offering to Job and that Job will pray for them, and God will hear Job because He has accepted him.
God restores all Job's losses "when he prayed for his friends." "The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before," including sevens sons and three daughters, who were the most beautiful in the land. After this, all of Job's family and acquaintances met together in Job's house and "comforted him for the adversity God brought upon him." "And God blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning." Job lived 140 years after this and died "old and full of days."
Thoughts/Questions:
This book is quite the mystery. There are many lessons we can take away here. But a big one is not to contend with God. He is God: all-powerful, good, and just. Therefore, we should trust that whatever He allows is for our ultimate good and an eternal purpose. Another one is simply that life is not always fair (to say the least), and that we should not demand of God that it be so.
What do you take away?