Forces of Chaos and Disorder
God uses the animals Behemoth and Leviathan to remind us that, like everything that exists, the enormous forces of chaos and disorder are subject to divine power, even if it does not annihilate them.
From the opening words the emphasis is on the creatureliness of these mighty beasts: "Look at Behemoth, my creature, just as you are!" (Job 40:15). Job has a trait in common with these animals: all have come from God's hand. They are, as it were, holdovers from the chaos out of which the world, the cosmos, emerged. Because of his undeserved suffering, Job sees existence as a chaos, a continuation of the original disorder. God is trying to show Job that divine power controls these chaotic forces, although at the same time God says that they will not be destroyed. They represent the wicked of whom God has just been speaking (Job 40:11–13); they are forces existing in the world. The Lord does not forthwith put an end to these remnants of the original chaos (into which Job has felt himself being thrust), but the Lord does control them. There is evil in the world, but the world is not evil. There are chaotic forces within the cosmos, but the cosmos is not a chaos.
From the opening words the emphasis is on the creatureliness of these mighty beasts: "Look at Behemoth, my creature, just as you are!" (Job 40:15). Job has a trait in common with these animals: all have come from God's hand. They are, as it were, holdovers from the chaos out of which the world, the cosmos, emerged. Because of his undeserved suffering, Job sees existence as a chaos, a continuation of the original disorder. God is trying to show Job that divine power controls these chaotic forces, although at the same time God says that they will not be destroyed. They represent the wicked of whom God has just been speaking (Job 40:11–13); they are forces existing in the world. The Lord does not forthwith put an end to these remnants of the original chaos (into which Job has felt himself being thrust), but the Lord does control them. There is evil in the world, but the world is not evil. There are chaotic forces within the cosmos, but the cosmos is not a chaos.
Gustavo Gutiérrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, translated by Matthew J. O'Connell (1987), p. 80.
Read online: https://tcrb.alexanderstreet.com/philologic/TCRB/navigate/47/4/5/5/
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