Job 41:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 41:18

Comments

Leviathan is such an impressive creature. Everything about him would have been awe inspiring to the people of Job’s day. God has spoken of his ferocity, of his impregnability, and now of his awesome presence. ‘By his neesings [sneezings] a light doth shine’ – the least relevant activities of Leviathan are awesome. You watch from a distance; he sneezes; you think, whatever is happening? He opens his mouth And sparks leap out; he breathes and smoke goes out of his nostrils; his breathe lights coals, and out of his mouth come flames. What hidden powers reside in a creature whose ordinary activities of life have such fearful effects?Nearly all commentators treat some elements of these verses as figurative and Matthew Henry calls them hyperbolical expressions. Those inclined to see Leviathan as a crocodile refer to the animal’s habit of sneezing as he basks in the sun on the banks of the Nile, or of the sudden exhalation of air after being submerged for a time, and the light of the sun catching the spray giving the appearance of sparks of fire coming from his nostrils. His eyes are said to be like the eyelids of the morning because the crocodile has red eyes which resemble the colour of the rising sun. It is significant, says Barnes and others, that the hieroglyphic symbol for the morning is the crocodile’s eye. These see some literal basis for the figures. Those with less respect for the inerrancy of Scripture believe the comparison borrows from mythology and that Leviathan is here being compared with a mythical fire-breathing creature, but this is a lesson from creation and it should be obvious that Job was familiar with this creature. The same figurative language is used in Psalm 18:8 where David says of the Lord, ‘There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.’ And as Matthew Henry comments, Isaiah 30:33 and 2 Thessalonians 2:8 use similar language.

Application

There is a ready application to the Lord, ‘who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting’ (1 Timothy 6:16). How can the Creator be less than what he has made. Every power in Leviathan is found on an infinitely greater scale in God. We cannot look upon any power or skill in the creature without translating it in our minds into something far more wonderful in our God. He understands perfectly what he has put in his creatures, and the effect those gifts will have on man who studies them. How then can any mortal man think to do battle with the Lord and overcome him in argument?

But believers also should have something of these attributes. We are puny in the physical realm compared to a Behemoth or a Leviathan, but we have a spirit within us, and that spirit is quickened by the Spirit of God, and man who can discern the spirit in his fellow man ought to recognise at least this much: that the believer belongs to the world to come and that is his home, and already it should be possible to see strength and faithfulness which is sufficient even to drive away Satan. ‘Resist the devil,’ says James, ‘and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7). Why does he flee? Because he see strengths in you by the help of the Lord which he is not able to resist, and which are a token of his own final destruction. When Stephen was about to be martyred, his persecutors looked upon him and ‘saw his face as it had been the face of an angel’ (Acts 6:15). Believers are meant to be strong where most are weak.

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Job 41:18 Commentary and Bible Study