For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 41:12-34

12 ‘I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
    its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of armour?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
    ringed about with its fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields
    tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
    that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
    they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
    its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth;
    sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
    as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
    and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck;
    dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
    they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock,
    hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
    they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
    nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw
    and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee;
    slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
    it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
    leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing-sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron
    and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
    one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal –
    a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty;
    it is king over all that are proud.’

A. Find Out

1. On what further about Leviathan does the Lord comment? v.12-17
2. How does it appear? v.18-21
3. When then does He focus on about it? v.22-24
4. What does this make it? v.25-29
5. Where he goes, what is seen? v.30-32
6. What does the Lord conclude about it? v.33,34

B. Think:

1. What do you think is the point of v.12-25?
2. What follows in v.26-29?
3. What is the overall point of this passage?

C. Comment:

We have possibly just read one of the strangest passages of Scripture in the Bible! It is strange in that it may well leave us wondering, whatever impact can the characteristics of some wild creature have on my spiritual well-being, on my relationship with the Lord? For that is all it is, a description of a mighty creature in God’s creation! What is the point the Lord is making by taking a whole chapter to describe this one creature?

The point is not spelled out, so what does it say at surface level? Well, here is a creature that is strong (v.12,13), powerful, armed (v.14) armoured (v.15-17), who is fearsome in appearance (v.18-21), who is so strong and so armoured that even the mighty are terrified when confronted with him (v.22-25). Coming against him with swords or spears (v.26,27) or arrows (v.28) or clubs (v.29) is a complete waste of time. Wherever he goes he leaves a trail of devastation behind him (v.30-32) and there is no other like him (v.33,34).

Now if there is a creature like that in God’s creation who make us go in awe of him, how much greater should our awe of Almighty God be? This is a created animal, a mere small piece of God’s Creation, yet he scares the life out of us! If the Creation can do that, how much more so the Creator?  That is what this should be saying to us!

D. Application:

1. God’s Creation in awesome.
2. How much more is the Lord Himself? Worship Him!