Job 41 Commentary
The LORD is sovereign. Mortals cannot contend with God any more than they can compete with Leviathan, a creature of immense strength. Any hope of subduing it is false. Everything under heaven belongs to the LORD.
Is suffering for the saint part of ‘everything’ under heaven that is said to belong to God? Where does this thought leave Job’s appeal for justice? We get the impression here that it is actually the Judge, the LORD God, who is responsible for Job’s suffering. Let not Job ask any more questions. This is one battle Job cannot win. The argument has many turns and twists.
In this book, Job is the victim and the complainant. God is the defendant. But importantly, the same God is Job’s lawyer and presides over the court process as the Judge. How can Job win his case?
Your suffering is deliberate. It appears this is the message the LORD communicates to Job. There is no court case. There is also no injustice done requiring a court session. The saint can learn something from this thought.
The founders of our faith, the apostles, didn’t think of their suffering as an injustice but as a portion of worship specially ordained for them by Job’s God.
The LORD is not definitely Leviathan of this chapter, or Behemoth of the previous chapter, but the point is that the LORD created both. There is invincibility and authority on display in God’s creation. God cannot be tamed any more than you can tame Leviathan. God cannot be enslaved and fall under human definitions. Let God be God; that is real worship.
But isn’t there suffering caused by human stupidity? The term “cause” may not be the right term here. Humans may encourage or create an environment in which suffering thrives, but they don’t cause it on themselves. They are often victims!
See how the LORD never “explains” to Job the happenings leading to Job’s suffering. But if we look deep into the responses of the LORD, it is all there!
The LORD never mentions satan by name as the architect of Job’s suffering, but we know who manipulated both human and natural events to cause Job maximum suffering.
Instead, and rightly so, the LORD puts it on Himself, but highlights Job’s ignorance of everything…everything apart from his own suffering. It’s a lesson to us all that we should look beyond suffering and see the Ultimate authority, the loving and caring sovereignty. Nothing escapes His attention, and authority, and permission!
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