Am I Enough – Oh Yes, I Promised You Dragons

Greetings Dear Reader,

Before we walk through this part of Job’s story we must remember a few things.  The primary one is that God is describing real things in creation in order to demonstrate his power.  Whatever God is describing here is real.

Second we must consider that every major culture in the ancient world has a dragon of some kind in its narratives.  The ancient Chinese, Australian aboriginal, Egyptian, Babylonian, Welsh, Nordic, Mayan, and North American aboriginal cultures all have stories of dragons. 

So now let us consider the creature that God is describing to Job as a living symbol of God’s power:

• The creature is massive
• It has large spiky scales on its back
• No weapons contemporary to Job are useful against it
• It has glowing eyes
• The creature instills fear in the bravest of men
• It can fly
• It breaths fire

Considering all of this and the narratives of the ancient world I conclude that dragons are or a least were real.  They are so real that the living God uses them as an example of his power.  Leviathan is an example of the magnitude of God’s power over creation.  God explains that if man cannot stand in front of Leviathan, whom God has complete power over then how can man stand before God?

Get the picture in your mind.  The God of the universe is speaking to Job from a storm.  He is describing one of the most fearsome things in creation.  He claims power over it.  He places the entire situation in perspective.  Then he drives home his question.  He wants to know from Job in light of all that Job has seen, “Am I enough?” 

If Satan sifts you like wheat “Am I enough?” 

If you lose all your possessions and stature, “Am I enough?” 

If your children die in a tragic moment “Am I enough?” 

If your friends falsely accuse you in your moment of need, “Am I enough?”

If your wife loses faith in God and tells you to die, “Am I enough?” 

If I am silent whilst you go through all of this, “Am I enough?” 

Stand up like a man Job and tell me, “Am I enough?” 

It is in the moment of this question that I must live every moment.  It is in the answer that I find my life’s worth.  It is in the crucible of pain and suffering that I must carry the answer that is the only truth there is.  God is enough if I allow him to be enough.  He is enough anyway but for reasons I cannot understand gives me free will.

I have betrayed and been betrayed.  I have cause loss and suffered loss.  I have walked through the death of a child. I have been abandoned by friends in my time of need.  I have seen those I love in pain and been in pain so deep I wished to die.  If I am honest then I must say that in every moment the question from God is the same: “Am I enough?” 

Any answer from me but “YES” is a lie.  Now I must live the yes.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."

Job 41:1-34 

"Can you pull Leviathan out of the water with a fishhook or tie its tongue down with a rope?  (2)  Can you put a ring through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?  (3)  Will it plead with you for mercy or speak tenderly to you?  (4)  Will it make an agreement with you so that you can take it as your permanent slave?  (5)  Can you play with it like a bird or keep it on a leash for your girls?  (6)  Will traders bargain over it and divide it among the merchants?  (7)  Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?  (8)  Lay your hand on it. Think of the struggle! Don't do it again!  (9)  Certainly, any hope of defeating it is a false hope. Doesn't the sight of it overwhelm you?  (10)  No one is brave enough to provoke Leviathan. Then who can stand in front of me?  (11)  Who can confront me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to me! 

(12)  "I will not be silent about Leviathan's limbs, its strength, or its graceful form.  (13)  Who can skin its hide? Who can approach it with a harness?  (14)  Who can open its closed mouth? Its teeth are surrounded by terror.  (15)  Its back has rows of scales that are tightly sealed.  (16)  One is so close to the other that there is no space between them.  (17)  Each is joined to the other. They are locked together and inseparable.  (18)  When Leviathan sneezes, it gives out a flash of light. Its eyes are like the first rays of the dawn.  (19)  Flames shoot from its mouth. Sparks of fire fly from it.  (20)  Smoke comes from its nostrils like a boiling pot heated over brushwood.  (21)  Its breath sets coals on fire, and a flame pours from its mouth.  (22)  Strength resides in its neck, and power dances in front of it.  (23)  The folds of its flesh stick to each other. They are solid and cannot be moved.  (24)  Its chest is solid like a rock, solid like a millstone. 

(25)  "The mighty are afraid when Leviathan rises. Broken down, they draw back.  (26)  A sword may strike it but not pierce it. Neither will a spear, lance, or dart.  (27)  It considers iron to be like straw and bronze to be like rotten wood.  (28)  An arrow won't make it run away. Stones from a sling turn to dust against it.  (29)  It considers clubs to be like stubble, and it laughs at a rattling javelin.  (30)  Its underside is like sharp pieces of broken pottery. It stretches out like a threshing sledge on the mud.  (31)  It makes the deep sea boil like a pot. It stirs up the ocean like a boiling kettle.  (32)  It leaves a shining path behind it so that the sea appears to have silvery hair.  (33)  Nothing on land can compare to it. It was made fearless.  (34)  It looks down on all high things. It is king of everyone who is arrogant."