The Defeat of Evil
January 6, 2019

Scripture: Job 40:6-42:6

I. God will defeat death.

A. In his second speech to Job God addresses His justice. He asks Job in chapter 40 vs. 8: “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” Job wanted to put God on trial, to condemn God as guilty in order to justify himself as righteous. We begin to see God’s justice at work in a rather unusual way in Job 40:15. God begins to talk with Job about a creature called Behemoth in that verse. Behemoth appears to be describing a hippopotamus. Verse 15 says he eats grass like an ox. See also vs. 16, 21 and 23.

B.Behemoth is a symbol for death. He is insatiable for human flesh in the same way that the hippo is insatiable for grass. The good news is that God is in control of both the hippo and death (vs. 19). In Hebrews 2:14 we see that God’s plan was to destroy death and Satan through the death of His Son Jesus on our behalf: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”

 II. God will defeat Satan.

A. Job 41 speaks about a second animal that God has made. In vs. 14-16 we get a clear picture of who this water animal is. It’s a crocodile, a terrifying creature that none of us wants to get near. God says in vs. 10, “No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.” It’s not like a crocodile is a pet dog. Job, God says, if you aren’t strong enough to stand before a crocodile, then why do you think that you are strong enough to stand before me – the crocodile’s maker? You can’t! I am the maker and owner of all things.

B. Leviathan, the crocodile, is a symbol just like Behemoth was a symbol for death. In Job’s day, Leviathan is the name of a seven-headed sea dragon. And in the Bible the dragon is a symbol for Satan in Revelation 12:9, “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” God will one day completely defeat Satan. Revelation 20:2: “And (the angel) seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him.”

III. The proper response to God’s victory is worship.

A. When you read the first six verses of Job 42, you see two things about Job. Job is satisfied, and Job repents. And both of Job’s responses are responses of worship. Job learned that God is sovereign over all that He has made. God is even sovereign over death and Satan. So, Job worships God in verse 2 by saying, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” While Job is satisfied with what God has revealed about Himself, Job also repents. We read Job say in vs. 6, “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job is not repenting of any great sins he had committed before he suffered. He is repenting of saying that God is unfair and unjust and that Job is somehow more righteous than God. Job knows better now.

Application:
Don’t complain that God is unfair. Worship Him for His sovereign power over evil.

Sources:
The book of Job
Commentaries on Job by Francis Andersen and Christopher Ash
“For the Love of God” by D.A. Carson