From the UCC Network - Devotional 9/15 "Behemoth and Leviathan"

Behemoth and Leviathan 

Excerpt from Job 40:6-14; 42:1-6

“Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me….Look at Behemoth . . . can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? . . . ” 

Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell 

I love this part of Job.  Up till this point, I’m always with Job, demanding from God an explanation for terrible things.  But here, where God’s all, “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself,” I come around to cheering God on.

Basically, God says the annoying thing that parents everywhere say: “Because I said so.”  It’s an unsatisfactory answer, but the poetry God uses to establish her dominion is magnificent.  It’s completely about the natural world.  “You want to know why I get to make the decisions, Job?  Look around.  Can YOU make a huge animal?  Can YOU make a huge sea monster?”  God describes them in glorious detail, and the reader cannot help but be seduced by the proof.

Christians have long argued about whether the natural world can tell us all we need to know about God, or whether we need special revelations as well.  All I know is, the Book of Job says if you want to know about the glory of God, look at a living thing.  It doesn’t have to be an elephant; a spider weaving a web is just as magnificent.  Your cat in your lap or a bird out on the porch are just as astounding.

Today, spend some time really looking at a living thing.  Unless you’re able to make one of those yourself, then praise the one who can.

Prayer
God, thank you for revealing yourself to me through and in your creations.  Grant that I might remember to stop—often—to notice your world and praise your name.  Amen.

About the Author Quinn G. Caldwell is Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts.