“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, (12) NIV
and…
‘Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.’(8) KJV
After a catalogue of His, the Lord God’s creations, ( both great and small ) Job is given, handed, the Leviathan, a sea monster to consider.
A most fearsome creature – Job is to see and touch; to hear and to imagine anew.
An entire chapter (41) is devoted to this Leviathan, this monster and its limbs. Why?
Because we all, have monsters who have scared us. And we, in our fears, in our suffering, treat, recreate these monsters as sacred relics, as idols that we worship in both fear and love.
We epithumia – over love – over fear – by our natures. https://www.blogos.org/exploringtheword/GG-epithumia-desire.php
I have ‘over loved’ the concept, the desire, of being seen, loved, heard and touched.
Job hears of all his monster’s limbs. This Leviathan is now his. His worst imaginings have shape and form. It is his and he also belongs to this Leviathan.
I belong to my desire. And it couldn’t be stated better for me than in Proverbs 19: 22,
“What a person desires is unfailing love”
Betrayed by parents, wife, church, friends, my own body, I so desire love, an unfailing love. My desire is epithumia; a desire that could my a wonder, but also can – and has been – a white whale, a Moby Dick.
How can Job, and I, deal with Leviathans? Verse 8 tells us to reach our hand out, to touch him. By doing so I identify my fear, know it, face it. Then, I must remember my past battles with my monster.
I don’t have to live in the past; but I must be able to remember how they felt. How they still, at times, feel. But I ‘do no more.’
They are there, a memory, but no longer an essential part of me, an all controlling desire. An epithumia. It is …
There, there, but not my heart, my mind, my life.
Job was becoming his suffering. But the Lord God speaks to him about the Leviathan last of all creation. He speaks so Job can heal. In Job’s last and only words to the Lord, he heals by saying,
“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job has seen and heard beyond his desire: he sees God, not the Leviathan. Not himself.
The blind, see; the deaf, hear.
And I have to do no more than see Jesus.
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