Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Forty, verse fifteen through Chapter Forty-one
This reading is a bit longer, but I thought the verses concerning Behemoth and Leviathan fit together nicely. Humans were thought to be unable to contend with Behemoth or Leviathan, but they are not mightier than God. These great monsters would have been among the mythic creatures that dotted the pantheons of the surrounding cultures to Judaism.
If we can imagine Job representing Judah during the Babylonian exile, then Behemoth and Leviathan may represent the Babylonian empire.
We know that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and took the most powerful families back to Babylon.
As many saw the Temple as the place where God lived, its destruction may have caused some to question, "Are the Babylonians mightier than God?"
As we see Behemoth and Leviathan as less than God, this indicates that even the mightiest empires fall in line and show subservience to God.
This is helpful when we feel small in the face of changes we can't control. Empire today might be political forces at work in the world. Empire might be economic forces such as market woes. Empire could be systemic forces that demean certain people. Empire can seem so large that it may make one feel insignificant. God reminds us that even empires are finite. Behemoth and Leviathan are not eternal.
The disciples experienced Empire as well. Jesus ran into the Roman machine that decided he was not only expendable but detrimental to their well-being as the latest Empire in their time. The disciples are trying to figure out what comes next. We know the end of the story, but they are sitting in their grief on this Holy Saturday.
They will soon discover what we have seen in Job, that God is mightier than any Empire.
As we finish Lent, we have discovered that God is not as predictable as Job's friends would suggest. We'll finish the book on Easter as we anticipate an ending for the faithful.
Prayer for the day:
Gracious God, we often find that our problems seem mountainous. We forget that through faith, Jesus reminds us that we can indeed move mountains. Help us to see the possibilities more often that the difficulties. And when the difficulties do arise, may we find that they are insignificant compared to the power we find available in you. We pray these things in Christ's holy name. Amen.
Photo by Ravit Sages on Unsplash
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