Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
God's speech from the whirlwind ends with leviathan, a creature no one can hook, tame, or fight. If no one dares face that beast, who can face its Maker — and what could anyone ever hand God that was not already His?
From the Creature to the Creator
The whole leviathan description builds to this verse. One writer reads verse 10 as the lead-in, so the challenge shifts from the animal to God Himself.
Samuel RidoutIf this is true of a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? (For this is how verse 10 should be rendered — "Who will stand before Me?" — leading up to verse 11.) Who has first given to Jehovah, that he can demand it back again? Or, as the apostle asks, "Who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him again?" (Rom. 11:35).
Another writer lists what nobody can do with this creature, then asks what facing God would be like.
William KellyHe is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent for battle. The very sight of him might knock a man flat, and the man who provokes him is reckless. Yet what is that compared to making a stand before God? And who ever gave to Him that He should repay, since all under heaven is His?
The Untamable Will
The creature no one can tame has a human counterpart. One writer traces the same refusal to be mastered in the will of man.
Samuel RidoutThe principle — independence of God, seeking to make a name for itself — has been visible since the days of Cain, who built a city, and of Nimrod, who founded the first great world-empire (Gen. 10:8-10). This is not limited to national greatness. The same spirit of strong self-will, which puts up with no contradiction, shows up in the individual too — an untamable refusal to be under authority. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man?
Nobody Gives to God First
The first half of the verse rules out a whole way of relating to God. Man keeps trying to reverse the roles, and Scripture keeps refusing.
C. H. MackintoshMan would gladly make God a receiver instead of a giver. But this cannot be. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and God must have the more blessed place. God can accept the smallest gift from a heart that has learned the deep truth in those words, "Of your own have we given you." But the moment a man dares to take the place of the first giver, God's reply is, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you." For "He is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life and breath and everything." Praise is all that we can offer to God. But we can only offer it when we know clearly that our sins are all put away, and that comes only through faith in the accomplished atonement.
Another writer turns the question on people who treat their own good works as a claim on God.
L. M. GrantWe have neither known His mind, nor had anything to do with His counsel. Still less have we given to Him first, so that He should be in debt to repay us. This has been Israel's folly, and the folly of many more. They would gladly make themselves creditors of God, as though their good works and assumed righteousness were a claim upon Him! Elihu rightly demanded of Job, "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?" (Job 35:7).
Everything Under Heaven Is Mine
The second half of the verse gives the ground for the first: since all is His already, no gift of ours can be first. One writer notes how easily talk of rights leaves God out.
William KellyHow seldom those who talk of rights seem to think that God has any! They are absorbed in themselves, in man; God is in none of their thoughts. Yet if any rights are to be respected at all, His must come first — the One whose sovereign will gave us being and everything else. If we think ourselves entitled to do what we like with what is ours, what shall we say of Him? We ourselves and all that we have belong to Him.
The Conclusion Job Was Meant to Draw
All of this aimed at one man: Job, who had been judging God's ways.
William KellyIf such is the strength of mere animals, made by God's creative will, what folly to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
Summary
- Creature, then Creator. No one dares provoke leviathan. So no one can make a stand before the One who made him.
- Nothing given first. No one has ever put God under obligation. The same question turns up again in Romans 11:35.
- Because all is His. Since everything under heaven already belongs to God, no gift can be original — "of your own have we given you."
- The reversed roles. Man keeps trying to make God a receiver and himself a creditor, treating good works as a claim. But God gives to all life and breath and everything.
- The result in Job. If mere animals are beyond him, it is folly to resist, criticise, or judge God's ways.