Job 41:7 Commentary and Bible Study

What if Job were to try to overcome Leviathan by force? What weapons would he choose to attack him with? How is he going to get through Leviathan’s tough skin, and how will he get close enough to make his attack effective? Can he approach this dangerous creature and fill his skin with harpoons so as to inflict a substantial wound on him? No, his skin is impenetrable. Can he fill Leviathan’s head with fishing spears as he might attack some other large fish? Let him try and see what results. This is not some creature that will passively take punishment without responding; it will take terrible revenge on any who dare to try. If Job were to make the mistake of launching an attack, then if he survived he would learn from the experience and never attempt something so foolhardy again. The reality is that any hope of overcoming this beast is a dream and the very sight of him ought to make anyone in their right senses think again. The repeated implication of these words is made explicit here. ‘If you can’t tame such a beast, how can you come to me? If you cannot take on one of the creatures that God has made, how can you expect to prevail against me? You bound into my presence, and you shake the fist at me, Job, and demand that I do what you say.’ How can Job do anything other than bow to the Lord’s sovereign ways? How can he not trust in the infinite goodness of God, even if he is prepared to send us hard things along the way? Ultimately he will bring every one of his children, with none missing, into his glorious eternal kingdom. But secondly, Leviathan could not easily be pierced by a harpoon, and yet Job was easily goaded and the comforters had stirred up his self-righteousness and his bad reaction. If only he had laid hold on the Lord and maintained his testimony. They only carried on because he reacted badly. That is how it ought to be with us: the worldling should have no hope of capturing us.