The Devotional - 54

The Devotional

Comment:

Most of us have not been face to face with a wild animal, that is the ones that would do bodily harm. Yes we may have seen them at a close distance and know the dangers. We would be knowingly naïve to shun the danger. If you live in the south, say from South Carolina and below you will run into the alligator who roam the swamps. Coyotes, various cats, the fox and the bear are regulars throughout the U.S. but these all seem to keep their distance from us humans and likewise we keep our distance from them. However, if you have read anything from the Holy Bible you will notice that God is personally involved with all of the living. There is order in Creation, for example God did not create man and then build Creation around him. God prepared the earth to receive life and then when life was a Living thing, He Created mankind in His Image – Genesis 1:1-31. So the LORD God knows every living creature, all of Creation belong to Him and all respond to His watch care over them. All of Creation loves God, there is one exception! Fallen mankind is afraid of God.

Challenge: Job 40

God says to Job, “Job look at the behemoth” now Job did not say, “What, what is a behemoth”? Job knew very well this animal, its kind (possibility of the elephant family) and how large it was and Job also knew its strength. But do you need to guess? God knew the animal better than Job. God knows all the animals, their strengths, their weaknesses and their life span. Mostly you and I agree with this and we are even thankful that God knows these animals, but when it comes to you and me, we often find ourselves hiding from our Personal God. Nothing has changed from the fall of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:9 – “Adam, where are you”? God knew where Adam was and Adam knew that he was not where God had placed him. Adam was hiding, naked and afraid. Picture this “all of Creation loves God, yet all of fallen mankind are hiding, naked and afraid of God”.

There is an order of rank in the animal kingdom, it is the – Behemoth. God says this to Job, “Job let me tell you how the behemoth is put together. First I made him just as I made you, yet he feeds on the grass like an ox. He has strength in his loins and much power in the muscles of his belly. His tail (possibility his trunk) sways like a cedar tree in the wind. His tendons of his thighs are tightly fitted, his bones are like bronze tubes and his limbs like rods of iron. God is describing to Job in detail, His Created animal and then He says to Job, “the behemoth ranks FIRST among the works of God”. Now when God explained to Job that He Created Job as He made the behemoth He was not referring to a pecking order or the food chain, this kind of thinking is the “trash” from evolutionary thinking.

Job is silent and God continues with “Job I can approach him even with the sword and he will submit to me”. Job, the behemoth knows Me, he knows that the hills bring forth food that I have provided for him, he also knows that these very same hills provide food and pleasure for the other smaller animals. He is at peace with Me and with those around him, he is able to hide his large frame and rest in the lotus plants of the marsh lands. If the river rages, he is not alarmed, he is secure. Can he be captured and someone pierce his nose and cause him to go anywhere? Of course the answers from Job are nil, just as it would be for you and me. Why are we silent? Because God is AWESOME and we have AWE, but we have no words!

The LORD God has one more example; this one is from the waters of the world around Job. All of the others were land animals, this one is of the crocodile kind or species. We will look briefly at this one tomorrow, but all of these wonderful truths from the book of Job are very exciting. We must remember that Job has suffered greatly and that God is the only One who knows why? God will not tell Job why he suffered, but God does lead and direct Job through the suffering by showing Job that all of Creation suffers and that all of creation is comforted by the LORD God who created all things.