“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
or press down its tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
Will it make many supplications to you?
Will it speak soft words to you?
Will it make a covenant with you
to be taken as your servant forever?
Will you play with it as with a bird
or put it on a leash for your young women?
Will traders bargain over it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
Can you fill its skin with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
Lay hands on it;
think of the battle; you will not do it again!
Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed;
one is overwhelmed even at the sight of it.
No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
Who can stand before it?
Who can confront it and be safe?
—under the whole heaven, who?” (New Revised Standard Version)
Just as “Behemoth” is an English transliteration of the Hebrew word (Job 40:15), so is the word “Leviathan” (לִוְיָתָן). The reason for merely transliterating the words is that we don’t really know what sort of creatures they are with any certainty.
Yet, what we do know, is that both of them are strong and ferocious creatures, described by God as beyond the control of humans. They cannot be domesticated, or serve as pets. That’s because no human could ever hunt or capture one of them. Just to look at a Leviathan would cause a person to flee in fear.
The biblical character of Job had been through a lot. Back in the beginning of the Book of Job, he is described as a man who is upright and blameless. Because of this, Satan entered the picture, going to God and accusing Job of only being faithful because he was blessed. So, God allowed Satan to afflict Job, but not kill him.
Yet, Job knew nothing about this celestial conversation. All he knew was that he lost everything and everyone he cared about. On top of it all, Job experienced painful sores which left his health ravaged and his body unable to do much of anything.
Job’s three “friends” came to comfort him. But they did just the opposite by arguing with him and accusing him of secret sinning. All Job wanted was some vindication, some answers to his questions, and some sort of sense to all the senseless suffering.
After long speeches of both Job and his companions, God’s agonizing silence was finally broken. For several chapters (Job 38-41) God gives no answers, but instead, asks his own questions. The gist of God’s confrontational response comes down to this:
You are wondering about things that are way above your ability to know and understand. But what you need to know is that life consists in relationships, in dialogue and interaction with me, and especially with honesty and vulnerability which goes along with those relations.
Life cannot be boiled down to a nice, neat system of good people getting good stuff, and bad people getting bad stuff. Yell at me, and rage at me, if you must. Then you will be honest, real, and relating to me. But I have no tolerance for anyone who tries to be Me, and thinks they know how things actually are, and how they work.
There is no “The Universe For Dummies” by God on the way things operate in the universe. That’s because it cannot be dumbed-down enough for any human to grasp. All we have is relational interaction and connection.
We can’t even figure out what in the world creatures like Behemoth and Leviathan are, let alone understand how to deal with them. Methinks that despair has a much more prominent place for us humans than we realize. But that is a bigger discussion than Behemoth, and so, is for another time.
It could be that God talking of Leviathan – this big uncontrollable and unpredictable creature – is one way of helping us come to grips with our divine/human relationship.
You and I have absolutely no control over God. It’s not remotely possible, at all. And if nobody can domesticate, let alone capture, a Leviathan, then there is no possibility of ever using God as a personal pet for our own purposes.
Far too many of us humans, demand God to show up and explain himself; or we do all sorts of genuflections and pray volumes of words to try and leverage God into answering us and giving us what we want. But there is no leveraging a Leviathan.
Precious few persons on this earth simply let God be God; and choose to focus on being a real, vulnerable human who needs and wants God. Such persons do not try and capture God, because they have already been captured by God.
We are all at the mercy of God, and in no way can manipulate or cajole God toward our agenda for how we think things ought to go. We might as well try and catch a Leviathan.
Humanity does not hold onto God; God holds onto us. God is not obliged to serve us and do our bidding; but we are very much obliged to God in service and fidelity.
God, I believe, rightly seems perturbed by all of longwinded speeches, only because he was being treated as some sort of divine vending machine who dispenses the proper candy bar with an obligatory monetary oblation.
Do we actually believe that we can do a sort of spiritual credit card slide, and get a belly full of goodies? If you want good from God, then do good and be a good person, right?…
Um, no. Frankly, that kind of spirituality irks God. Good people sometimes get bad stuff. And that reality bothers some of us humans to no end.
There is a reason for all that occurs, but it’s way above our human pay grade to know and understand what it’s really all about. So, treat God as God, as the Sovereign of the universe, as the Holy One whom we must relate to in truth, honesty, realness, and vulnerability.
This is another day, O Lord. I don’t really know what it will bring forth. Regardless, make me ready for whatever this day may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and please give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 