Job 41 Meaning: Let’s turn in our Bibles to Job, chapter 41. Lord-willing, we’ll be finishing this chapter today! We’ll be studying verses 22-34. If you want to study verses 12-21 read this. Verses 1-11 are here.

And we’re entering into this section of God responding to Job’s accusations throughout this book. And in this last bit of this response we’ve seen the Lord point Job’s attention to this creature called Leviathan.

And in our last lesson we saw the Lord declare that he won’t keep silent about how he created this beast – but rather that he was going to elaborate on Leviathan’s physical features. And so, that’s just what he did for most of the last part that we studied. And the Lord continues doing that in these last verses of this chapter that we’ll be studying right now.

So, the last thing we heard about was how Leviathan literally breathed fire out of his mouth!

And now, in verse 22, the Lord continues to speak of Leviathan’s attributes – what he’s like. And God is going to mention the strength of this creature’s neck.

22 In his neck [remaineth/lodges/resides] strength,

So, that first statement is easy enough to understand – Leviathan has a really strong neck. That’s simple.

But what about that second statement? What does it mean and how does it relate to the first statement? Does it relate to that first statement?

Well, I think that the way we would tend to read the KJV rendering of that verse might give us the wrong impression. When it says, “sorrow is turned into joy before him,” what impression does that bring to your mind?

I’ll tell you how I picture it. We’ve had God talk about how frightening and dangerous and deadly this creature is for the last 21 verses. And all of a sudden, we get to the second line of verse 22 and it’s as if the dark clouds roll away – the sun starts to shine – and all of God’s creatures scamper joyfully in front of Leviathan and lead him on a joyful happy parade!

That cannot be what God is saying! Context, context, context!

What God is saying is that it’s as if sorrow or dismay or despair leap before him or run before him. In other words, these emotions are coming for you unless you get out of his way! Leviathan is a menacing, terrifying – and as the first line of this verse says – strong beast that you need to avoid.

And just like Leviathan, God is strong. He’s all-powerful. And to stand in his way is to invite upon yourself sorrow.

He is a God to be loved and close to. But he’s also a God who is strong and to be respected and yes feared.

Well, the Lord wants to move on to the next physical attribute of Leviathan that is noteworthy. And that’s his flesh in verse 23.

23 The [flakes/folds] of his flesh are joined [together/tightly]:

So, Leviathan’s skin had folds that were apparently very tight. So tight – in fact – that they were practically unmovable.

Now, God’s human creatures these days spend a lot of money on trying to achieve what Leviathan already had. You could go to a store and be confronted with a good portion of an aisle dedicated to tightening the folds of your flesh – to use the language of this passage. Maybe someone here could capitalize on this and develop some Leviathan cream!

Anyway, Leviathan had tight skin and that’s because that’s how God made him. He did nothing to get that kind of skin.

And just like Leviathan’s skin – God can’t be move