Focus
Experience silence in the midst of your busy day. Take some time to relax into a time to be with God.
Read
Job 41:12-34
“I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,
or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
13 Who can strip off its outer garment?
Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?[j]
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
There is terror all around its teeth.
15 Its back[k] is made of shields in rows,
shut up closely as with a seal.
16 One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18 Its sneezes flash forth light,
and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
19 From its mouth go flaming torches;
sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 Its breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes out of its mouth.
22 In its neck abides strength,
and terror dances before it.
23 The folds of its flesh cling together;
it is firmly cast and immovable.
24 Its heart is as hard as stone,
as hard as the lower millstone.
25 When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26 Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27 It counts iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make it flee;
slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
29 Clubs are counted as chaff;
it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
30 Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31 It makes the deep boil like a pot;
it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a shining wake behind it;
one would think the deep to be white-haired.
33 On earth it has no equal,
a creature without fear.
34 It surveys everything that is lofty;
it is king over all that are proud.”
Reflect
As a high school English teacher, I taught The Hobbit to my sophomores for many years. Not a huge fan of dragons and fantasy creatures myself, I kept this novel in my curriculum because it held a high level of fascination with my young students.
I believe Tolkien may have been similarly fascinated with, or perhaps even inspired by, Job 41. Tolkien’s Smaug and our own dragons and the leviathan described in Job cannot be subdued. He has breath that “kindles coals and a flame comes out of its mouth . . . . Its heart is as hard as stone . . . . On earth it has no equal.”
God’s message to Job reminds us He is the creator and the One who rules over all, great and small. Our reliance on our own wisdom can only lead to failure and defeat.
These metaphorical monsters continue to plague our world today and wreak havoc with our humble hobbits. Our human arrows cannot drive them away. However, we need not fear. As God continued to remind Job then and us today, He is in control.
God is our heroic hobbit, our Bard the Bowman, our dragon slayer. If we put our faith in Him, we need not fear.
Pray
Dear Lord, help me to fight the mighty monsters in my life. I alone cannot find the vulnerability in their two-ply armor. I need you to be my hero and direct my arrows. Amen.
