About

Call to worship: Romans 11:33-36

Text: Job 40:6-42:6

Sermon Outline:

1. The Lord's challenge to Job, 40:6-41:34
   • The crux of the matter: does Job possess the wisdom and power to rule the universe more righteously than God, 40:6-14?
   • Two lesser creatures illustrated to make God's point:
     • Behemoth, 40:15-24
     • Leviathan, 41:1-34
   • Evil principalities symbolized to make God's point further, 41:18-21, 34; see also Isa 27:1, Ps 74:13-14, Rev 12 and 20:2
2. Job's change in view of the Lord, 42:1-6
3. Three conclusions:
   • An affirmation of faith, 42:2
   • An admission in humility, 42:3
   • An action called repentance, 42:4-6

Prepare

Questions to Consider:

1. Most of all, what I'd like for you to do is read the sermon text together as a family prior to corporate worship. Do that, pray it, soak in it, discuss it as friends, as spouses, as parents. Some questions to help:
2. How would you articulate the crux of the matter in 40:6-14? It's this (and 42:2) that's at the heart of the book of Job.
3. As you read the descriptions of Behemoth and Leviathan, first, why are they given? What's God's point? What do they symbolize?
4. What are we to make mostly of Leviathan's description, particularly in 41:18-21? Read Ps 74:13-14, Isa 27:1, Rev 20:2. What would Job understand by the mention of Leviathan? Anything beyond (or behind) just another ole animal? Look back to Job 3:8.
5. How does Job respond to the import of this divine revelation, ie, that the Lord alone is able to rule the universe, with all its evil, righteously? How does and/or why does this serve as the climactic comfort for Job's suffering soul? Has the suffering ended? If not, and he's at peace, then what does this teach us about the relationship between God and true faith (attacked by Satan in the prologue)?