Thursday, July 07, 2016

Everything? Yes, everything!

God forces Job to realize that the horizon within which he acts as creator is much larger than the horizon of human culture. The creative acts of God extend way beyond the human sphere. This becomes clear in the list of animals in 38:39–39:30 as well as in the cosmology of the first speech (38:4–38). God leads Job through the underworld, the uninhabited desert, and the region of the stars and weather. The third speech, finally, deals with Behemoth and Leviathan. Job is told that God made Behemoth, “just as I made you” (40:15), and that God plays with Leviathan (40:29). God thus operates in a world that is also occupied by gigantic forces alien and dangerous to human life. God is the lord over all spheres of creation. Job probably never dreamed of the fact that God also cares for the creatures that symbolize chaos. There is no dualism consisting of God and (human) culture on the one hand and animals and chaos on the other. The first commandment is applied radically to everything: God is lord over everything.— Job's Journey, pages 80–81

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