Creation And Chaos Series

Job 38:25-27, 41:1-8, 42:1-6 “Creation and Chaos”

INTRODUCTION

How do you build trust? Job had lost his trust in God. God had let him down. God had allowed these terrible things to happen to him and to his family. God was faced with the challenge of rebuilding Job’s trust in God. God did not shrink from the challenge.

Trust is built through action; by doing what one says he or she will do. Parents build trust by watching their children perform at the concert that they promised to attend. Young adults build trust by being honest with their parents and by doing what they said they would do. If they promised not to drink at a party they don’t come home staggering, sick and smelling of alcohol. God moved to restore Job’s trust by showing Job what God had done.

RAIN IN A DESOLATE LAND

We live in a desert. We know what desolate land looks like. We have gazed upon acres and acres of land that look totally devoid of life; everything was dried up.

If we are honest with ourselves, there are times when our lives look like the desert. Life has drained away, there is no more joy and the motivation for living has evaporated from our lives. Grief, prolonged struggle, broken trust and betrayal are situations that can make our lives desolate like the desert.

God points out to Job that God has cut the channels to allow the water to flow. God has brought rain to a land so desolate and remote than it is beyond human notice. Still God has caused the rain to fall and life to bloom again. As God has moved over the land with the refreshing rain, so God has moved over our lives and promises to continue to move in our lives.

CONTROLLING THE LEVIATHAN

Some of us have seen movies of whaling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries such as “Moby Dick” or “In the Heart of the Sea.” Six or eight men in a small boat would harpoon a Sperm Whale and go on the ride of their lives. Things were totally out of their control. I think that is as close a picture as we can imagine of what it would be like to hook the Leviathan.

The Leviathan were the huge, violent, unmanageable sea creatures. Other legends called them Kraken. They were able to eat whales and devour ships. They were the personification of evil and chaos. Humanly speaking they were uncontrollable. Yet the God of creation is able to control them because God created them.

I’ve had a couple of Leviathan in my life and I suspect you have encountered them in your lives, too. These were times that were totally out of control and that threatened you and all that you loved with annihilation. We survived those Leviathan. We are here today to tell about it. But our survival was not accomplished by our strength, intelligence or wit. Our Lord was our deliverance.

Job began to remember who God was. God was the God of creation; a great and powerful God.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

Job’s trust is restored. Job has seen how God has moved in creation and how God alone is able to control chaos. Job has realized that though God may not do what Job wanted done, still God had not been separated from him, nor was the situation beyond God’s control.

As followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, we live by faith. We trust that nothing can break the relationship that we have with God. We live our lives in the trust that God is a God of love and that God is moving in our lives on our behalf. We face the future in the presence of God.

CONCLUSION

The God of Creation has brought order out of chaos. Knowing that God is with us, we shun the fear that is so rampant around us, and step boldly into the day and the future with trust and hope—not in ourselves, but in our Lord.

Amen