Beginning in Job chapter 40 verse 6. Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, gird up your loins like a strong man. I will question you and you may get known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity. Clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger. And look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low. And tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together. Bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. Behold Behemoth, which I made as I made you. He eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength is in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze. His limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God. Let him who made him bring near his sword, for the mountains yield food for him, where all the wild beasts play. Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. For his shade, the lotus trees cover him. The willows of the brook surround him. Behold, if the river is turbulent, he is not frightened. He is confident. though Jordan rushes against his mouth? Can anyone take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare? Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord? Or can you put a rope in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you? or to take him for your servant forever? Will you play with him like a bird? Will you put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hands upon him. Remember the battle. You will not do it again. Behold, the hope of a man is false. He is laid low, even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me that I should repay him? Everything under the whole heaven is mine. Then we'll read Job's response in Job 42, verse one to six. Then Job answered Yahweh and said, I know that you can do all things, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak. I will question you, and you make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself. and repent in dust and ashes. It's for the reading of God's profitable, inspired word. Please be seated. You know, there's so many examples I could draw from. I chose a couple. A couple examples of famous atheists demanding an answer from God. One recently, Robert De Niro, said in some interview, if there's a God, he's got a lot of explaining to do. Another one, another phrase that has been made popular is apparently something that was scrawled on the inside of a Holocaust concentration camp, which said, if there is a God, he will have to beg my forgiveness. Now, do you hear that? Do you hear that great blasphemy? A lot of people think that that's exactly what Job's doing, but that's not what Job's doing at all. Job is not having this kind of a confrontational, seeking to prove God wrong attitude. That's not his posture at all. And yet he still holds this charge of justice. He has said, I would march up to God like a prince. If I could have God write this like a scroll, a really long scroll, I would undo it and I would wrap it up like a garment. I would wear it. That's how firmly convinced I am that I could stand before God. This passage gets at that kind of concern. It addresses the power of God and whether he can be trusted. Tonight, and I don't think this passage will do it either, this passage is not gonna settle the debate on dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are great to think about. My son's really getting into them. It's not gonna settle the debate on them, but it will settle that debate that all those famous atheists bring up. it'll settle that question, can the Almighty be trusted? This passage gets at that exact issue. It's a question that the devil asked our first parents in the Garden of Eden. And that's the main point. Because our God is mighty to save, we can and we ought to trust him. We should trust him. Firstly, we'll look at that first, that middle part, from chapter 40. Then we'll look at Leviathan, and we'll lastly conclude with Job's response, and then one final look at Behemoth. In that first part of God's answer to Job, last sermon, Our God restored him. Remember how he used all those words that Job himself used in his cursing? Showing how God himself is wonderfully life-giving. God is in control of all things and he gives life and breath to all his creatures, even the carnivores. And yet, here we see there's still danger in Job's hands. Job had a response there. but that response was kind of like a cartoon character trying to just get his words back in his mouth. It'd be like a parent who's in the middle of disciplining your child out of love, and your child runs to his room, slams the door. Is that actually a mark of good obedience? Are you reconciled? No. Job actually responds there by kind of mentioning the silent treatment, the very kind of silent treatment that he was so afraid that God was showing towards him. He says, I will lay my hand over my mouth. So we see, this is why there's a round two. Our Lord's not willing that Job would be left in that kind of middle state of not really being reconciled to God. So he gets right to the point. Verse eight, he tackles Job's concern. Verse eight, will you condemn me so that you will be in the right? And that's at the heart of all of these atheists' pithy sayings. By condemning God's justice, they're saying he's not God at all. They're condemning his deity, because if God is not just and holy and righteous, he isn't God. That's why God mentions all this in the following verses, verses 9 to 13. He unpacks that complaint, and he asks more rhetorical questions of Job. In effect, he's having Job look in the mirror, saying, do you really know what you're asking? Do you really hear what you're saying? He's playing it back for him. So he asks Job, have you an arm like God? Can you thunder like he can with a voice like his? We've already seen God mention Job needs to change into his wrestling outfit, right? Gird up your loins like a man. Now he tells him to change again. He says in verse 10, put on your God clothes as if Job has any. And what would be the outcome then? If Job were to do this hypothetical situation, if Job were to enact justice like he says God isn't, what would be the outcome? Total annihilation. Forget any kind of Thanos snap, killing half the people in the universe to balance things out. No. God says in verses 11, 12, and 13, look at those. Everyone. Everyone. All those people. Then Yahweh says, at the height of sarcasm to his beloved servant Job. He says, then I will be first in line to praise you. Now this is a silly hypothetical situation. And I want you to hear how sarcasm is actually a way that our God is getting through to Job. It's a way that he gets through to us when we have the same kind of doubting concern. Whenever we have this sin of unbelief, There's a kind of sarcasm that's not passive-aggressive. It's not a sign of highly dysfunctional families. Here, it's a sign of this loving relationship. We'll get into that a little bit more as we see how God compares himself to Leviathan. But is this what Job wants? Does Job really want to play God for a day? This is what all these, you know, internet troll atheists want. What maybe more famous ones like Robert De Niro or Dawkins or Hitchens or whoever. They all say that. They say, I could do a much better job. God's got to answer. God's not accountable. Is this what Job is asking? This is not at all what Job is asking for. Rather, it's a way for God to explode his complaint. In fact, it's so inconceivable that this is even a possibility that God just drops it. He doesn't even continue with it. So he gives Job something that might make more sense. He lowers the stakes, if you were. If you were, God takes a handicap. And he says, I will use this creature these creatures, Behemoth and Leviathan, to teach you, Job, to remind you who you are. You are just a finite, limited human being. It's almost like God's taken out flashcards. So why don't we go through them? Let's look first at Leviathan, starting in chapter 41. We only looked at the first 11 verses there. Remember this big picture scene, the background. I know this is going to be kind of difficult. Remember those first couple of chapters where Satan parades in front of God's court? Remember that? I'm asking you to think back most recently, all the way to July. Remember that big picture. This is the background. It's a courtroom scene where Satan accuses God of cheating. God says, look at my servant Job, he is a model, he is a trophy of grace. Job is evidence that God is saving people, that God will save himself a people. Job is evidence that Genesis 3.15 is on the move. This legal background is helpful here for us to go forward because God here introduces Leviathan as another one of these champions. God's going to put Leviathan against Job. And this is what Job's been asking for. Throughout, Job has prayed to God, saying, I need a mediator. I need to see my God. But I know that I can't. I'm a finite man. I'm a sinful human being. No one can see God and live. So God says, I will give you this opportunity. If you can wrestle, if you can beat this subhuman creature, this brute beast. Maybe you'll have a, maybe you have something to say. Why does God bring this creature up? This is the only way, this is the only way that he chooses to use Job and this creature to show how Job will be brought to his knees in humble submission. And by that, God's justice would be manifested. His grace would be shown. Just like Jacob wrestling with an angel. Remember that story? He wrestled with the angel all night. And what happened at the end? The angel of Yahweh puts his bone, his hip, out of place. But it's by that wrestling, and by that submission even, that Jacob prevails with God. In a similar way, God's doing that right here with Job. Wrestling with God here, even by his champion, by a proxy, Job is reminded that God is present with him. He's reminded that God is almighty, that he can't prevail against God, and that will be comforting to him in a minute. And he's also reminded that God is loving, We'll see that later, too. We see this in our text, that God is using Leviathan as a stand-in. We see this very clearly in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 41. God compares himself to his champion. And we're to see this as God introducing him as his champion. Verse 10 and 11 says, no one is so fierce that he would dare stir Leviathan up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who is first given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine." This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. He's saying to Job, If you can't stand up in front of this subhuman creature, this creature who at first maybe looks like a crocodile, but then kind of looks more like a dinosaur or even a dragon, or even something worse, more scary. If Job can't stand up against such a creature, how could he stand before the almighty, eternal, unchangeable, infinite God, the living God? How could he stand before his creator? If he can't domesticate Leviathan, if he can't put a leash on him, how could he hope to expect God to answer him in this way? Can Job domesticate God? Does Job even want to? Of course not. This is why we'll see God using a bunch of second-person pronouns, just the word you and your. He's driving this point home to Job. Look in verses one to eight of chapter 41. Can you draw out Leviathan? Can you put a tongue in his nose? Will he make many pleased to you? He's making Job, and by that, he's making us internalize this illustration. We need to come face to face with this. He's speaking to you. He demands your heart, your life, your all. If you have this kind of concern bubbling up, if you are thinking to yourself, I wish God would just put me in charge of 2020 for the last couple of months. If you think to yourself these things, God is speaking directly to you. He would have you repent. He would have you loosen your grip on this so-called righteousness that you would wear, like Job, like a crown. And you know what? This is only for your good. This is only for my good. It's like this is a ticking time bomb, and God is at work diffusing it. And in fact, by restoring us to himself, by taking this away and reminding us of all these things, God is showing us that we can find a rest that will never be interrupted by tears or nightmares. Job was one who has not been able to sleep. We hear that, as he tells us, in poetic form. He's not able to stomach food. All his friends have left him. His wife seems to have left him. And of course, he has lost all his children, all his livelihood, his health is ruined, everything. Find in the Lord a joy that doesn't hold back. Find in him a love that only grows stronger, that will not be put to shame by sin and misery and death. Find in him a life worth living. Our God here is speaking not just to his servant Job directly, he's speaking to all of us, because we all have at times questions and doubts. And sometimes we hold this record of wrongs in our hearts that no one can answer but God himself. All this does is come back to God himself, his discussion about Leviathan. He's asking Job, and he's asking us, if we think of him this way, not just content to think of God as a genie in a bottle. That might be a very American way of looking at God. Do we think of God as a commodity? Do we live as practical atheists in one way or another in our lives, thinking we can domesticate him, thinking he can be captured or defeated or trained to do tricks? As ridiculous as all these images are, They get the message across, don't they? Job's anger, Job's holding on to this righteousness is actually a way of saying God's not fit to be God. And isn't that the same temptation that Satan used against our parents in the Garden of Eden? That their eyes would be open, they would be like God, determining good and evil, right and wrong for themselves. But friends, this is not who God is. We see in this horrifying and terrifying picture of Leviathan, we see that God is an unstoppable force. We see that God is omnipotent, all-powerful. And that's enough. That would be enough if God was almighty, the creator and sustainer of the universe. That would be enough for him to be worthy of our praise. But more than that, God has revealed himself to us. He is mighty to save. His plan of salvation is unassailable. Nothing can stop this train of redemption. Nothing can come in between God and his people. Nothing and no one. So it's actually pretty ironic that God chose By using this flashcard with Job, he chose to use Leviathan as his stand-in champion, who would humble Job and teach Job. Leviathan is a picture of that ancient serpent of old. Confronting Job with this face that looks like a dragon, God is reminding him that that promise of salvation is coming to pass and will come to pass in the Lord Jesus. He's reminding him of that ancient promise the gospel preached beforehand to our first parents. And you know, friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord, this is why Job has a deeper and fuller and more passionate confession of faith at the end. He is reminded of this unstoppable gospel promise, even while God is lovingly disciplining him, like a father disciplining his child. See, friends, the freight train is coming, but it's not Job on the tracks. It's the devil himself. In fact, this unstoppable power of God, no one can stop his hand or twist his arm or change his mind. God's unstoppable power is actually what's going to save Job, and it's what saves us. Because he would not change his mind from sending his son to die for us. The Lord Jesus, even in the Garden of Gethsemane, before he was to be taken and crucified, bearing the full wrath of God for us, he prayed, not my will, but yours, be done. So, How should Job respond? How does he respond? And how should we respond? What kind of people should we be? Job responds, as we know, in those first six verses of chapter 42. But in light of God comparing himself to this dragon, to Leviathan, it's all the more interesting that God brings up behemoth, and he compares behemoth to Job in the last few verses of chapter 40. Starting from verse 15, he says, behold, behemoth, which I made like I made you. Job is to see this other flash card, this other beast of monstrous proportions, and he's to learn. He's to be reminded. how a believer responds when life's troubles come to us. What is behemoth? If not a picture of trust, a picture of not being able to be moved. Most English Bibles say this is likely a hippopotamus or something like that, right? Or why not a great dinosaur, Brontosaurus? I need to get my dinosaur lingo back freshened up. This creature, behemoth, creature of creatures, he lives and breathes out of this unshakable position of power. Nothing can ruin his day, nothing can really get to him, even if the whole Jordan River, the largest river close to that region, even if that river were to rush in his face, he would trust. This is the kind of trust that God is eliciting, is drawing out of Job, and it's the kind of trust he's drawing out of us. Just like how God provided for Behemoth, made him content, he made Job content when Job was well-fed. The comparison concludes in verses 23 and 24. Job, like Behemoth, should not fear when life's troubles rush at him full speed, like a flash flood, like a tidal wave, or to borrow language from the hymn that we'll sing at the close. Luther paraphrases from Psalm 46, Our helper is he. Amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. This is how we ought to respond. When life's trials, when temptations come to us, when we're faced with any kind of issue, right? 2020 has become a verb. Something is 2020, whatever. When we're faced with anything that this year or next year or the rest of our lives can throw at us, whether it's persecution for the sake of the gospel, whether it's governmental overreach, whether whoever wins this election, whether we're faced with dangers that are biological, that are political, that are interpersonal, whether we are afraid for our jobs, whether we do not have a job and need to find one. All these things should call the same response from us because of what God has done for us. Because God is mighty to save, we ought to trust him. We will not fear. If God is for us, who can be against us? Job has shown throughout. He's shown from the beginning. He knows this. He has trusted God. That's why we see him offering sacrifices. That's why we see him recall how he was a good king. He was a judge among his people. And Job prophetically spoke of the resurrection of the dead, and he spoke of his Savior standing before God for him. This is why Job repeats God's words back to him in part in his confession in chapter 42, but then he concludes. He says, I know you can do all things. No purpose of yours can be thwarted. I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. By this deepened confession, Job doesn't know if he'll be restored. That great passage at the end of Job, when God restores him double, we'll have to wait for another sermon. But Job doesn't know at this point whether he'll be restored that way. But Job is restored and reconciled to his God. He has a renewed, in fact, a deeper confession, a deeper relationship with his Lord. And by this confession, like Jacob, having his hips set out of place, being brought to his knees, unable to stand on his own legs, Job prevails with God. So what kind of people should we be? We should be a people that trusts our Lord. When we lose all kinds of things, even when we prosper, when we grieve deaths that seem to come out of turn, that come out of nowhere. We trust in our Lord. When providential circumstances prevent us from travel, from enjoying certain things, we trust our Lord. When natural disasters make us feel small and vulnerable, trust in your God. He is mighty to save. Trust him. When we go to him in prayer, Lord God, help us to trust you as we go about our daily lives, much affected as all of our lives are by sin and miseries in this world. Consecrate us for your service. Restore us when we need to be restored. Be with us when we are grieving, when we are in sorrow and loss. Cause us to trust you because you are unstoppable in your power to save. We pray these things in the name of our mighty Savior, Jesus. Amen.