Tossing Peanuts to Behemoths

God makes most plain how he feels about the animal kingdom in a magnificent address found at the end of Job. Look closely and you will notice a common thread in the specimens held up for Job's edification: a lioness, a mountain goat, a rogue donkey, an ostrich, a stallion, a hawk, an eagle, a raven, and a behemoth. Wildness is God's underlying message to Job, the one trait this menagerie all share...Most wildlife writing focuses on these vanishing [Yancey previously mentioned some endangered species] animals themselves, but I find myself wondering about the ultimate impact on us. What else, besides that innate appreciation for wildness, have we lost? Could distaste for authority, or even a loss of God-awareness, derive in part from this atrophied sense? God's mere mention of the animals struck a chord of awe in Job; what about us, who grow up tossing peanuts across the moat to the behemoths and leviathans?

~ Philip Yancey

Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you...

Can anyone capture him by the eyes,

or trap him and pierce his nose?

Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook

or tie down his tongue with a rope?

~ Job 40:15,24 and 41:1

I could have--and wanted to--include many more verses from the last few chapters of Job. Actually, just read the last 5 chapters of the book. They're all good.

Chapter 38 begins with God answering Job out of the storm. He rips into Job and puts him in his place most convincingly, finally saying in 40:2, "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!"

The text continues: "Then Job answered the Lord: 'I am unworthy--how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more'."

But then--I love this--God doesn't say, "Oh, OK, Job. Thanks for repenting and seeing it my way. Here, let me give you a hug." Oh, no. God continues to cut him down to size by saying, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his?" and on and on and on. He doesn't let Job off easy, but He continues the conversation with him until Job is completely and permanently humbled and blown away by the glory and majesty and power of God.

Finally in chapter 42, Job reaches the point of saying, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." He was a changed man.

God's treatment of Job reminds me of Proverbs 3:11-12 (which is quoted in Hebrews 12):

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline

and do not resent his rebuke,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

as a father the son he delights in.

The end of the book of Job shows us God's delight in Job. God accepts his prayer on behalf of his friends, God makes him prosperous again and gives him twice as much as he had before, God blesses him with 10 children, and most of all, God says to Eliphaz, "You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." High praise coming from the mouth of the Almighty!