(Continued from page 299.)

In His second address the Lord deepens the work already taking place in Job's heart. In the first, Job is silenced and convinced by the majesty, power and wisdom of God. Such a Being, whose perfections are displayed in His works, cannot be arbitrary and unjust in His dealings with man. If His wisdom in the care of beasts and birds was beyond Job's comprehension, it must also be the case in His afflicting hand. The great effect of this first address upon Job seems to be that Jehovah has become a reality to him.

In the second address these impressions are deepened. God will not leave His servant with his lesson half learned:He plows more deeply into his heart until the hidden depths of pride are reached and judged. The second address therefore dwells upon this pride so common to the creature. He invites Job, as it were, to see whether lie can humble the proud and bring them low. The manifest implication is that Job himself is in that class.

The character of the address is very similar to the first as to its themes. God still would teach, from Nature's primer, the profoundest lessons of His ways. Thus we have in behemoth and leviathan, creatures like the aurochs or the horse, of immense strength and courage, the creatures of God, and preserved by Him. But there is a manifest typical and moral meaning connected with these creatures, which in that respect goes beyond the others. There the lesson was largely God's providential care; here it is rather His control of creatures whose strength defies man. They are in that way types of pride and of resistless strength, representing the culmination of creature power. Can Job subdue or control these ? Nay, does He not find himself morally in their company, for has he not lifted up himself against God ?

The address falls, as did the first, into four parts:

1. The call to Job to take the throne (chap. 40 :6-14).

2. Behemoth-resistless strength (vers. 15-24).

3. Leviathan-creature-pride fully manifested (chap. 41).

4. Job completely humbled (chap. 42 :1-6).

I. The Call to Job to take the throne (chap. 40 :6-14.)

God still speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, as He had already appeared to him. His divine glory and majesty are thus still before the patriarch. Yet in the call, "Gird up thy loins now like a man," we have encouragement as well as rebuke. God is not crushing His poor foolish servant, but appealing to his reason as well as his conscience. Already Job has learned, as indeed he has in measure known, God's power, wisdom and goodness. But the present appeal particularly is to his conscience. Will he annul, deny God's righteous judgment, and condemn God that he may establish a petty human righteousness ? For this is really what lay at the bottom of Job's complaints; he was suffering affliction which he did not deserve; he, a righteous man, was being treated as though he were unrighteous. The conclusion then was unavoidable-the One who was thus afflicting him was

unjust! Elihu had already pressed upon Job these awful consequences of his thoughts:"I am right, eons:and God hath taken away my judgment" (chap. 34 :5). " Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's ? " (chap. 35:2). The Lord would press home upon Job the heinousness of this sin. He has presumed, to judge God-upon what grounds ? Has he divine power and majesty ? Can he speak in a voice of thunder ?

If indeed he is thus qualified, Jehovah as it were invites him to take his seat upon the throne of divine judgment. Let him put on his robes of pomp and dignity, array himself in grandeur and majesty, and let the outpourings of his wrath flow out upon everyone that is proud, and bring him low. What awful, holy irony ! And yet how divinely just. If Job can sit in judgment upon God, he surely is qualified to administer all His affairs better than He! He can quell the proud rebellion of every evil doer, and bring men into the dust before him. Has he done so with his own proud and rebellious heart ? Has he humbled even his friends ? How much less the whole world.

Can such language be used of Job ?-"Thou art very great ; thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment" (Ps. 104:i, 2). "Those that walk in pride He is able to abase" (Dan. 4:37). If so, then Jehovah Himself will be the first to praise him, and to confess that he is able to succor himself. But had his own right hand even arrested the hordes that had driven away his possessions ? or averted the storm that had swept away his children ? Alas, it had taken a potsherd wherewith to scrape himself; his garment was sackcloth, not glory and majesty; his seat the ashes of a blasted life, not the throne of glory.

Is it cruel of Jehovah thus to deal with a poor heart-broken creature ? Rather let us ask, would it have been kindness to leave him holding his pride about him as a garment, and railing against the Almighty ? Only thus can pride be abased, by being brought face to face with its nothingness in the presence of the majesty and boundless goodness of God. Until Job has learned this, and learned it to the full, all the dispensations of God with him in his afflictions, and the reasonings of his friends and of Elihu, are in vain, and worse.

2. Behemoth-resistless strength (vers. 15-24).

We are brought thus to hearken to the -application by Jehovah of the lesson of creature-strength and pride, as exhibited and typified in the behemoth and leviathan. Our present section deals with the former of these creatures; the next, with the latter. The first is primarily a land animal, the second is chiefly aquatic. Together, they embrace, in type, all creation.

Students are agreed that the first beast is the hippopotamus, the model of resistless force and strength. It is one of Job's fellow-creatures, but how transcendently mighty. Every portion of his anatomy speaks of strength-loins and body, legs and bones, and even tail, are instinct with this power. He is thus a chief of God's creatures, excelling in strength. With his sharp sword like teeth, furnished by his Creator, he mows down the grass like an ox-harmless too when not roused up, for the other beasts sport in the same pasture. He lies down in the shade, taking his ease; yet he fears nothing, even if a raging flood should seek to engulf him. Can he be caught in a trap, like some lesser animal, or be held with a cord and ring through his nostrils ?

In other words, he is an untamable, uncontrollable beast. He is of no use for man's service. The entire description gives the impression of absolute power used for utterly selfish ends. It lives for itself, refusing to yield its strength to the service of others.

And yet he is but a creature, endowed by God, for His all – wise purposes, with superhuman strength. Let Job, let all who are tempted to trust in their own strength, whether of body, as here, or of heart and mind, consider this creature, self-sufficient and resistless. How puny will their own arm appear.

Some have thought this creature must typify Satan, in his character as primate among God's creatures (Ezek. 28), excelling in strength and pride. The same would be true as to leviathan, in the next chapter. Both beasts typify power and pride. It must be confessed therefore that it does not seem altogether fanciful to say with Wordsworth, "It seems probable that behemoth represents the Evil One acting in the animal and carnal elements of man's own constitution, and that leviathan symbolizes the Evil One energizing as his external enemy. Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy without us."

But as "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," we may think of these creatures as figures of evil men energized and controlled by Satan, rather than Satan himself. Merely as a suggestion, it is asked whether in behemoth, the creature of earth, we do not have a figure of "the man of sin," the Beast that riseth out of the earth (2 Thess. 2; Rev. 13 :11-18). He would stand thus for the Antichrist, the lawless one, who is the consummation of all evil in connection with the professed people of God.

But " even now are there many antichrists; " and may we not trace in this hideous creature that "mystery of iniquity that already worketh ?"-that insidious development of evil which, outwardly claiming a place among God's creatures, which live for man's use, is really exalting itself, even to the ultimate denial of all that is called God! This is that spirit of antichrist so rife in the profession of to-day, denying the Father and the Son; boasting in its own sufficiency, glorying in its own strength and achievements, living for itself. This is what is at work now, feeding itself along with the timid sheep and the serving ox, but utterly unlike them.

Nor need we be surprised that God should speak thus of evil in Job's early age. For sin has this character from the beginning, only it develops into the full display of its nature as revelation advances. To Job thus, behemoth would stand for that creature of pride which flourishes amid the professed people of God. If he asked who was the counterpart of that evil beast, he could not solace himself by looking at Eliphaz or his companions. In the pride of his own self-righteousness, " showing himself that he is God," he would catch glimpses of this evil thing one day to be developed in all the fulness of hideous apostasy. What more awful revelation of the evil of pride could he, or we, have? Self-righteousness, self-seeking, pride of conduct or of character, denies its need of Christ and of God. Such is sin in the flesh-incorrigible and hideous. Who can subdue it or change its nature ?

And yet behemoth is controlled, though not by man. God is over all, and "He who now letteth, will let." The flesh will be controlled by the Spirit; and, as He abides in the Church, He does not permit the full development of iniquity. So, too, in a more modified way, the Spirit controls and hinders the activity of the flesh. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

So also in Job's day, he could recognize an evil principle within himself which God alone could check, a principle which he learns to abhor and to judge as himself-leaving aside for the time all the conscious confidence in God, and the really excellent fruits of grace in his heart. But this will come before us more fully in a little while.

3. Leviathan-creature-pride fully manifested (chap. 41).

Most interpreters are agreed that in "leviathan" we have the crocodile of Egypt, Which is described in great detail. As the hippopotamus is largely a land animal, the crocodile is chiefly aquatic, and both are amphibious. This creature is described in a manner quite similar to the previous one, but at much greater length. We may therefore seek to recognize the various parts into which the description is divided. There seem to be three:

(1) His untamable ferocity (vers. i-11).

(2) Analysis of his various parts (vers. 12-24).

(3) His preeminent strength (vers. 25-34).

Before however going into details, it will be well to inquire as to the significance of this beast, as compared with the former. That, as we have suggested, typifies the spirit of apostasy from revealed truth, culminating in the Antichrist, the man of sin. This, as arising out of the water, suggests the first Beast of Rev. 13, the great world-power, as seen in the various beasts in Daniel's vision of chap. 7. If in behemoth we have the spirit of apostasy in religion, in leviathan we see it in civil government. It is the world-power, rather than that of the false prophet; and yet the two are closely linked together. But this is looking forward to the culmination in the last days. The principle (independence of God), seeking to make itself a name, has been manifest since the days of Cain, who established a city, and of Nimrod, the founder of the first great world-empire (Gen. 10 :8-10). Nor is this confined to national pre-eminence; the same spirit of strong self-will, brooking no contradiction, is seen in the individual as well, an untamable insubjection to authority. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man ? But this brings us to the details, as opened for us in our chapter.

(1) The closing question as to behemoth leads on to a similar one as to leviathan. Can he be captured with a net or hook, by a line pressing down upon his tongue ? Can he be bound as an ordinary fish
with a rush rope passed through the gills ? Is he timid and fawning, or loyal and subservient ? Can he be made into a plaything, like a bird, for the amusement of the household ? Is he a staple commodity in the markets, bought and sold ? If not caught as a fish, is he assailable with darts, with weapons ? Whoever has attempted this will surely remember the fearful battle, and make no further attempt. He is the despair of all opposition ; none dare stir him up or stand before him.

If this be so with this mere creature, who can stand before the Creator ? (For thus should verse 10 be rendered, leading up to verse n, "Who will stand before Me?" Who has first given to Jehovah, that he can demand it back again ? Or, as the apostle asks, "Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again ? " (Rom. 11:35).

In all this first part of the description, we have the fierce, unapproachable, untamable character of this creature; the evident deduction is, as already indicated, if the creature be so mighty, what must the Creator be ? But, as has been said, we are led to expect something more than this declaration of God's greatness and power. It is not only a mighty power that is described, but a power for evil. So Satan is spoken of as the dragon (Rev. 20:2), and as ruler of the earth, through his instrument the ruler of Egypt; it is said of him, " In that day the Lord, with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan, the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isa. 27 :i, 12, 13). How remarkable that the world-ruler should thus
be spoken of ! Can we fail to see the connection with the power of evil seen in our chapter ?

Man's rule, as opposed to God's-how common it has been! In Nebuchadnezzar we have this pride displayed at the very summit of Babylon's greatness. And ever since his day, how kings have dreamed of world-empire -Median, Grecian, Roman, and all the lesser Caesars since that day. How fierce and cruel they have been-how intractable, how untamable. Who could dispute with them in the zenith of their power-"remember the battle, do so no more."

Is Job willing to be found in such company-of men who, to gratify their own ambitions, would cast Jehovah from His throne ? What awful wickedness, and how appalling!

Coming to the individual application, we see in this "crooked serpent "a figure of the perverted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience. Smile at it as men may, what more awful thing is there than this self-will-the carnal mind ; the mind of the flesh, "is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be " (Rom. 8 :7). Of what avail is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile ? Men may dream and plan, and seek to banish misery from the earth, but even amid its groans, creation mocks at human efforts to subdue its own perverted will. Again, how awful for Job to find such possibilities of evil and rebellion lurking in his heart.

(2) Coming to details, Jehovah shows that not only is the beast irresistible, if looked at as a whole, but that each of its members declares the same all-conquering power. Beginning with its dreadful
mouth, with sharp, cruel teeth set round, the Lord points out that all is of the same character. The scales upon his head and body are, like pride, an impervious armor-each scale linked to its fellow, and no "joint of the harness" where an arrow could pierce. The very sneezing of such a creature is like sulphurous light from hidden fires within (vers. 18-21); his eyes flash forth like rays of the rising sun. Like the horses of the sixth trumpet, his mouth belches forth "fire, and smoke, and brimstone " (Rev. 9 :17). His neck is the embodiment of strength, causing despair, not joy, to dance before him-he is the herald of misery. His flanks, usually a vulnerable part in animals, unprotected by the ribs, are compact and impervious. Within is a heart like stone, indifferent to all fear. S. R.

(Concluded in next number.)