He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41 closes God's long answer out of the storm, and the last picture He paints is a creature no man can handle. Why does God end His case against Job's complaints with a boiling sea?
The creature in view
Commentators read the description as that of a real animal. God pairs it with another beast, and sets both against man.
F. B. HoleFrom verse 15 to the end of Job 41, the Lord makes further reference to the wonders of His creation. He called Job's attention to behemoth and to leviathan — probably the hippopotamus and the crocodile. They had brute strength but no human intelligence. It would be easier to subdue them than to bring down proud man.
The words themselves are vivid. One rendering has him spreading a threshing-roller on the mire, making the deep boil as a pot, and leaving a shining path behind him.
William KellyHis under parts are the sharpest of shards; He spreads a threshing-roller on the mire, He makes the deep boil as a pot, He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Water stirred into turmoil
Several writers take the churned water as a picture of nations thrown into confusion by a coming world ruler.
Leslie M. GrantAs Leviathan stirs up the water, so the Roman Beast will stir up the nations (the sea) in tumultuous trouble. The "shining wake" he leaves behind him tells us that there will be marked results from the Beast's activity.
Commentators differ here. Another writer holds that God is displaying His own greatness through the created world, and that this alone answers Job:
Truth & TestimonyI have already said that nothing the Lord says there lies outside the life of men and animals and the creation as we know it. Some see a hidden picture in these creatures, but I do not believe there is the slightest justification for this... He was displaying the immense greatness of God. If one of God's creatures terrifies the man who looks at him, how wrong it was of Job to keep on questioning God.
Power turned to evil
Writers who read the chapter as a picture point to Isaiah, where the same name belongs to a power God Himself will judge.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIsaiah 27:1 says that in that day the LORD will punish leviathan the piercing serpent with His fierce and strong sword. He will punish leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon in the sea. Here leviathan is a picture of the power of darkness. Both behemoth and leviathan picture Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride. And now the conclusion Job could easily draw: if he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride.
The boiling deep, on this reading, is destruction left in a wake. One writer describes the effect on the earth: "The turmoil he creates in the earth, marking it with ruin, shows his pathway."
Why God shows Job this
God had an aim in showing Job all this.
Charles StanleyGod now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But why would God describe the enemy's power like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do everything."
The will that cannot be tamed
The picture also comes close to home. No one can tame the crocodile, and no one can reform the will it pictures.
Samuel RidoutApplied to each person, we see in this "crooked serpent" a picture of the perverted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience... What use is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile? Men may dream and plan, and try to drive misery off the earth. But even while it groans, creation mocks human efforts to subdue its own perverted will.
There is relief hidden in all this. God tells us how strong the enemy is so that we stop trying to fight him alone.
Charles StanleyThe believer looked at in himself has no power to overcome Satan... It was independence of God that opened the door to Satan at the start, and simple dependence on God alone can shut it. It is very gracious of God to tell us how strong the enemy is, so that we may know that our only resource is a firm trust in Himself.
Summary
- Creature — Leviathan is most likely a real animal, probably the crocodile: brute strength with no human intelligence. Proud man is harder to bring down than either.
- Churning — The boiling sea pictures a force that leaves everything behind it in turmoil. Several writers apply this to nations stirred up by a coming world ruler. Others read the chapter as plain nature, not a picture.
- Character — Read as a picture, leviathan stands for the power of darkness. Isaiah says the Lord will punish that serpent with His own sword.
- Confrontation — The point lands on Job. If one creature of God's terrifies a man, how could Job keep questioning God?
- Consequence — God shows us the enemy's strength so we stop trusting ourselves. The picture ends in complete dependence on Him.