Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Our Limits, His Love | The Writings | Job 38-41

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

"Limits". It's a word that would offend most people in our modern culture. Though we don't enjoy discovering our limits, we can't help but run into them. In today's episode, Jeff shares how Job 38-41 reveals the reality of our limits, while pointing us to a God whose love is unlimited. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Job 38-41

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. It might be one of the foulest, most unpleasant words you could use in our cultural moment today. No, it's not a four-letter obscenity that'll get you kicked out of a public library. But don't be fooled. This seemingly innocent word absolutely offends most people these days. What is it?

Limits. It's not that we're turned off by the same thing. sound of that word when it hits our ears, but we are absolutely turned off by the idea it conveys. Limits. The word limit just comes from an old French, Latin word, basically meaning boundary or border. It's the end of the territory that you're allowed to explore. And we don't like thinking that our ideas and our agency could possibly be constrained by any kind of boundary. We want to be limitless. We want to enhance our existence to optimize. We want ultimate freedom with no boundaries, no limits.

Now, this is problematic for us in a plethora of ways, yet one of our greatest limits is the force of uncontrolled, seemingly pointless suffering. If there's one book of the Bible that brings us to the edge of our boundaries and forces us to take a good, hard look in the mirror to see ourselves, along with our limitations, it's Job. That's true of the whole book of Job, yet it's especially evident in the two speeches near the very end of the book,

where Job and we finally get to hear God's perspective in the midst of Job's suffering. Now, before we dig into these big passages, let's just pause and ask for God's gracious presence to be felt in this time and space. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath, and thank you for your word. Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth,

Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Job. We pray in a special way for those who are suffering in ways that seem beyond explanation. I pray now for someone listening who may be in a time of deep sadness, pain, distress, or disorientation. Would you bless them in this time and beyond this time and give them a sense of your heart for them? God, as we read these words, let these words read us and restore us. and restore us in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let's brace ourselves for the two speeches from God in Job chapter 38 through 41. Now, brace yourself is one of the first messages in both speeches. In Job 38 verse 3 and 40 verse 7, God tells Job to get ready to brace himself for his divine response.

And the need to brace ourselves is amplified due to God's location in the midst of both speeches. He is speaking to Job from the whirlwind. Now throughout the Old Testament, God's presence in the whirlwind of a storm illuminates not only his power, but also his victory over the forces of chaos, sin, and evil in the world. It's a way of God saying and showing that he is in the battle with us, and he's victorious. This portrayal of God isn't simply meant to sober Job. It's meant to comfort him. as if God is saying, Job, I get that you're in a time of chaos right now. But you need to see that

I'm in the chaos fighting for you, fighting for my purposes. My words don't come from a distant place outside of the whirlwind. I'm talking to you from the whirlwind. I'm in the arena of chaos, and I am not limited. I am victorious. The limitless sovereign power of God is on full display in the words God has for Job. So in God's first speech within chapters 38 through 39, we see a presentation of his knowledge, perspective, power, and preservation over all creation. And Job's response to this message is humbling. Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? Job is almost speechless, humbled to his core. Yet this isn't the end of God's message for Job. There's more that he, and we need to know about the creator and sustainer of all things.

Because a big, looming question is still hanging in the tension of this book. It's a question raised in chapter 40, verse 8. Here, God asks Job a huge question from the whirlwind. He says this, would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? I know they'd put it, I like how the CSB says this. would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself? This has been one of the biggest issues at play in the book of Job. It gets back to the why question.

Why has all this been happening to Job? Is God unjust in allowing Job to suffer? Is he unloving? To get at the heart of this question, God presents Job with two images in his final speech spanning chapters 40 through 41. They're images of behemoth and Leviathan. Now, it's common to see these two figures as literal physical animals, with the behemoth representing a hippopotamus and Leviathan imaging a crocodile. And many faithful, wise biblical interpreters see the creatures this way. Yet there are some really valid, important reasons to view them as something more than members of the animal kingdom. Here's just a couple.

Behemoth is best translated from Hebrew as something like, super beast. It's a symbol for something more powerful than humans can tame. And throughout the Old Testament, the Leviathan is known as a supernatural chaos monster. It seems most likely that these are images representing the real supernatural powers of chaos and evil that rebel against God and that human beings cannot tame. God presents a long running description of behemoth and Leviathan in his final speech to Job. In fact, his portrayal of Leviathan is the longest running physical depiction of any figure in the Bible. And these drawn out portraits of the chaotic powers, we see their fear-inducing might in the face of humanity. Nobody can stand against them. Now, what's the point of this

lengthy description? We get a sense in verse 10 of chapter 41, where God says this, no one is ferocious enough to rouse leviathan who then can stand against me this is big i'm going to read again really quickly no one is ferocious enough to rouse leviathan who can stand against me this verse is a pivotal moment in god's message to job and to us as much as leviathan's terrifying glory makes people tremble God is even more worthy of glory, far more worthy. God is opening Job's eyes to the power of Leviathan and behemoth. But really, ultimately, God is opening Job's eyes to the glory and power of his creator. We see that the whole point of this speech, and arguably the whole point of this book,

is to see God differently. To see God as he is. The ending to God's speech can seem perplexing to modern readers. God's words about the Leviathan lead right into Job's confession and repentance. It can feel like a non-sequitur. I really appreciate how the biblical scholar Eric Ortland reflects on the importance of this speech from God. Now, just a quick side note, Ortland's book on Job is entitled Suffering Wisely and Well,

and it has been a big resource for me in exploring Job during this time. I strongly recommend it if you want to dig deeper into Job. I want to read some excerpts directly from Ortland's book that shed some light on why this seemingly strange ending in God's message to Job is so significant. Ortland writes this. The long description of Leviathan is God's way of implying to Job that he understands how profoundly Job has suffered. He is intimately aware of everything that went wrong with Job's life, more so than Job

ever could be. God is definitely not the distant, uncaring tyrant Job had worried about. Orling goes on to say this. Most importantly, God reveals to Job in the behemoth and Leviathan speeches that he will one day defeat the supernatural evil that he presently tolerates. Behemoth and Leviathan are meant to be terrifying. The merest sight of the monster would make us tremble. But there is coming a day when God will bring his sword near and engage in battle that no human could. Orland finishes his quote with this. This is really good. In other words, the one person who most clearly sees what is wrong with his world is the one person who promises he will not let it stay this way forever. There is coming a day when God will gloriously scour every last trace of evil

from his world and make all things new. Job cannot so much as lay a finger on Leviathan, but Leviathan could not so much as lay a finger on God. The coming battle will be entirely one-sided. This is God's justice. Wow, that's really good. Many theological props to Eric Ortland here. Job got to a place where he questioned God's justice and love. Perhaps there was a limit to God's justice and love, not only in his life, but within the scope of the universe as well. God's response to Job clarifies a big truth for all of us. It's not that God's love and justice are limited. It's that our perspective of him and his victory are limited.

The speeches in these chapters cause us to run into our limitations. Yet they also cause us to run into the love and justice of our Creator God. Our God who is going to battle against the chaos of sin, death, and evil. To see that victory of God, we don't just look back at these speeches in the book of Job. We also look back to the finished work of Jesus on a Roman cross. When the Apostle Paul reflected on the significance of the cross in Colossians 2.15, he said this, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he, God, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

On the cross of Jesus, God's love and justice meet with a power that triumphs over behemoth and Leviathan, a love that conquers sin, death, and evil. These powers seem titanic to us, yet they are no match for the love of God in Jesus. When we are brought to the edge of our limitations and knowledge and control, we're also brought into the love of God. in whatever uncertainty, suffering, or disorientation you face today, remember that those hard realities do not limit the love and justice of your maker. He is with you in the whirlwind.

He is victorious over the whirlwind. See him as he is. Trust him. And as you run into your limitations, remember that you are invited to run into his love. Amen.