In the shadows of the farmhouse where I grew up, monsters dwelt. They hid in the barn after dark, in the upstairs midnight hallways, and most certainly underneath my bed. Big, hairy, but unreal, they prickled my skin, chased my feet, and mademy heart gallop. For a little girl sleeping alone with a mammoth imagination, some nights passed too afraid to stay under the feather ticks, yet too fearful to get out and run. Stuck, trapped, and scared by frightful fancies I cowered as if I had no way out.
Perhaps part of those childhood fears are simply preparations for real life.
Have you ever been in a situation which cornered you? Have you ever felt there was no clear direction or path to follow? Or have circumstances so tangled you, you thought release would never come, as if some unrelenting shackle would forever hold you captive?
I have. Somewhere in life, probably most of us have been prisoner to “no-way-out.” Job in the Old Testament surely felt like that.
When our daughter first became ill with a brain stem mass, I stayed away from the book of Job like the plague. As if it would contaminate me, bring something worse than the monster we already faced, I kept Job at arm’s length.
I knew the story well, or so I thought. Job lost everything he possessed, one after another, cut from his life, until finally even his ten children were taken. Ten. Then Job himself suffered a terrible health crisis.
I mean, who really needs to read that in the depths of a catastrophic illness and grief, I thought?
Well, for sure, I did.
Job became one of my richest and tenderest reminders then and now that God has all the Behemoths, Leviathans, and other monsters in the palm of His hand.
Look now at the Behemoth, which I made along with you … God told a suffering Job in chapter 41:15. He is the first of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword. (Job 41:19 NKJV)
Who Can Stand Against
God, the Creator and Slayer of Monsters, after decimating the Behemoth in Job 40, commenced to take on the Leviathan in the next chapter. Those powerful, almost unconquerable beasts vividly displayed to Job that God was greater than even the monster of his physical misery, loss, and deep grief.
Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook,
Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? (Job 41:1 NKJV)
-Will he beg mercy from you?
-Will you put him on a leash for your girls?
-Will you make him a servant or play with him like a bird?
-Will you make a banquet of him?
-Will you fill him with harpoons or fishing spears?
No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.
Who then is able to stand against Me?
Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him?
Everything under heaven is Mine. (Job 41:10-11 NKJV)
Monsters real or unreal are not tamed by our own hands. The book of Job, probably the very first written book of the Bible, lays a foundation through the vast Sovereignty of God. Everything passes through a Loving Divine Hand. Perfect and Spotless. Righteous and Just.
In Job’s eyes his situation felt impossible, more than he could handle, with no way out. But God opened an unseen reality. The picture turned from what Job saw, to something bigger, greater, and more magnificent than he could comprehend. In fact, Job never understood why all the tragedy occurred, but his sight moved from the monsters he knew to a Sovereign God he hadn’t before known.
Things Too Wonderful
Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You … Therefore 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, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:1-6 NKJV)
There is still that little-kid fear in us at times. Situations loom like monsters beneath the bed and in the corner. Through deep trials we discover “no-way-out” circumstances invite “one-way-up” reality.
There may be things now which seem more than you can bear. But friend, there is no monstrous circumstance that can separate you from the arms of your Loving Father. He is bigger. He is greater. He is better.
No Behemoth or Leviathan has any power beyond His Sovereignty or authority. What Job recognized, we can too. He is completely able. No purpose of His can be thwarted. Dark shadowy corners reveal tiny glimpses of a glorious God. And from that view, we begin to see things too wonderful.
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