Fight In The Strength, Wisdom The Lord Provides.   by Kevin E. Jesmer    12-19-14

Job 41:25-34.  Key verse 33-34, 

“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.”

Job 41:25-34 reads, “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 caldron 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.” (NIV)

The Leviathan, probably a crocodile, is very powerful and foreboding. look at  verse 25, “When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.”  Even the mightiest person is terrified at this creature. Knowing how powerful the Leviathan is, what should be the wisest thing to

This creature is very impressive. Look at verse 32; “It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.”  It leaves a glistening wake when it moves through the waters. How glorious this creature is. While the path of it’s movement shines, still it is deceptive…because this creature is a great threat to all people.

The proud people have something to fear in this creature. This creature fears no people. Look at verse 34. “It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”  Apparently there were people who were haughty in the face of the Leviathan. They were proud towards him. They flung swords, spears, darts, arrows and slingstones at the creature but to no avail. V. 26-27, “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.”  They tried, but it had no effect. How futile were the attempts of these people to defy the leviathan!

     There are things in this life that raise it’s menacing head to us. They threaten our lives. They are very powerful. Satan, that ancient serpent magnifies and multiples the damage done to our souls by these things. When facing such things as these we tend to want to stand up before them in our strength. Though we are so weak and powerless, we still think we can do something to crush the forces of evil that assail our hearts and our minds. Satan and the forces of darkness are just too powerful to overcome with our own power. What about when depression or bitterness seeps into our hearts? What about when we despair captures us so that we no longer can go on in this world? What about relationships that seem to crumble before us, even though we try our best to hold these together? What about the every tightening vice of sins, that seem to suck us into a bottomless quagmire? Can we get out of the quicksand of sin on our own power? Can you control the negative, destructive thoughts that occupy our minds? What about disabling feelings and emotions? And what about sickness and death itself? Can we give meaning to life in a fallen world apart from Christ? Can we escape these things? Never! How can we ever think that we, mired in sin and weakness, can ever stand up before the Leviathans in our life?

What about Nations? There are nations who are crumbling because they do not have the right foundation. They are economically depressed, politically in turmoil, full of corruption and crime and war, and some are plain and simple, failed nations. But still they refuse to make Jesus and the Gospel the foundation of their nations. They try with their own human efforts to implement many things of human origin. They try education, false religion, political alliances, more money, but these don’t seem to help at all to bring about lasting results. They fail to change their situations and they lie there defeated. And Satan moves on leaving a “glistening wake” to his next victim.

Why is it so hard for individuals and nations to admit defeat, stop fighting with “human” efforts and submit fully to Jesus, who is the only one who can save? It has to do with false, human pride. We always think we can do something, when we can not. We think we are on the road to recover when in reality we are on the road to destruction. But still we fight and fight. Is it noble to fight a losing battle or is it more noble to abandon all hope in ourselves and place our hope in Jesus? Submit to God. Seek his wisdom and his direction and fight in the power and strength that he alone can provide.

I am not talking about pride in your nationality, or the work of your hands, or of your family or heritage. I am talking about pride that cuts us off from a relationship with God. Pride make us keep digging a hole, ignoring God’s pleas to stop digging and come on up out of that hole to follow him. It is the pride that keep us repeating the same failing methods, even though they are proven false and fruitless. Isn’t the definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? I call it pride. This false pride is the crowning sin that has always beset the human race. It is the foundation of all sin. If you dissected every sin, ultimately you would find pride. Pride is the sin that caused the fall of Adam and even in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:5-7, “5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” It is the sin that caused the downfall of Lucifer. Ezekiel 28:17, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” It is this false pride, which God apposes. James 4:6, “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  Pride is the sin that God hates more than any other sin for it keeps us from a relationship with our Creator. Proverbs 6:16-17, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,” (NIV)

There are many spiritual forces, “leviathans”, that try to assail me. Most of them are emotional and relational “leviathans” that threaten my soul with depression, angry reactions to things I feel I can’t control, despair, withdrawal, relational stresses. I think I can pull from my quiver, human weapons of war to fight this spiritual battle with my own power. But I can not fight forever on my own strength. In and of myself I am a weak. I am no match before the devil’s whiles for this battle is a spiritual battle. But Jesus is strong. God is the Creator. He is all-powerful. He can calm every storm and strengthen every relationship. He alone can create and re-create a new heart within me. In his sovereignty, he can rescue me from any circumstance according to his will. I need to abandon all feeble, and useless “human centered” efforts and submit to Lord. My strength comes from the Lord. My direction in this battle comes from my Spiritual General, Jesus. My hope comes from the Lord.