411 Or can you pull in the sea beast, Leviathan, with a fly rod and stuff him in your creel? 2 Can you lasso him with a rope, or snag him with an anchor? 3 Will he beg you over and over for mercy, or flatter you with flowery speech? 4 Will he apply for a job with you to run errands and serve you the rest of your life? 5 Will you play with him as if he were a pet goldfish? Will you make him the mascot of the neighborhood children? 6 Will you put him on display in the market and have shoppers haggle over the price? 7 Could you shoot him full of arrows like a pin cushion, or drive harpoons into his huge head? 8 If you so much as lay a hand on him, you won't live to tell the story. 9 What hope would you have with such a creature? Why, one look at him would do you in! 10 If you can't hold your own against his glowering visage, how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?
11 Who could confront me and get by with it? I'm in charge of all this - I run this universe! 12 "But I've more to say about Leviathan, the sea beast, his enormous bulk, his beautiful shape. 13 Who would even dream of piercing that tough skin or putting those jaws into bit and bridle? 14 And who would dare knock at the door of his mouth filled with row upon row of fierce teeth? 15 His pride is invincible; nothing can make a dent in that pride. 16 Nothing can get through that proud skin - impervious to weapons and weather, 17 The thickest and toughest of hides, impenetrable! 18 "He snorts and the world lights up with fire, he blinks and the dawn breaks. 19 Comets pour out of his mouth, fireworks arc and branch. 20 Smoke erupts from his nostrils like steam from a boiling pot. 21 He blows and fires blaze; flames of fire stream from his mouth. 22 All muscle he is - sheer and seamless muscle. To meet him is to dance with death. 23 Sinewy and lithe, there's not a soft spot in his entire body - 24 As tough inside as out, rock-hard, invulnerable. 25 Even angels run for cover when he surfaces, cowering before his tail-thrashing turbulence. 26 Javelins bounce harmlessly off his hide, harpoons ricochet wildly. 27 Iron bars are so much straw to him, bronze weapons beneath notice. 28 Arrows don't even make him blink; bullets make no more impression than raindrops. 29 A battle ax is nothing but a splinter of kindling; he treats a brandished harpoon as a joke. 30 His belly is armor-plated, inexorable - unstoppable as a barge. 31 He roils deep ocean the way you'd boil water, he whips the sea like you'd whip an egg into batter. 32 With a luminous trail stretching out behind him, you might think Ocean had grown a gray beard! 33 There's nothing on this earth quite like him, not an ounce of fear in that creature! 34 He surveys all the high and mighty - king of the ocean, king of the deep!"
421 Job answered God: 2 "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. 3 You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?' I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. 4 You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.' 5 I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand - from my own eyes and ears! 6 I'm sorry - forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor."
7 After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, "I've had it with you and your two friends. I'm fed up! You haven't been honest either with me or about me - not the way my friend Job has. 8 So here's what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has." 9 They did it. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did what God commanded. And God accepted Job's prayer.
10 After Job had interceded for his friends, God restored his fortune - and then doubled it! 11 All his brothers and sisters and friends came to his house and celebrated. They told him how sorry they were, and consoled him for all the trouble God had brought him. Each of them brought generous housewarming gifts. 12 God blessed Job's later life even more than his earlier life. He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first daughter Dove, the second, Cinnamon, and the third, Darkeyes. 15 There was not a woman in that country as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father treated them as equals with their brothers, providing the same inheritance. 16 Job lived on another hundred and forty years, living to see his children and grandchildren - four generations of them! 17 Then he died - an old man, a full life.
22 By this time the crowd had turned into a restless mob out for blood. 23 After beating them black and blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jailkeeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. 24 He did just that - threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.
25 Along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn't believe their ears. 26 Then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose. 27 Startled from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges. Assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he pulled out his sword and was about to do himself in, figuring he was as good as dead anyway, 28 when Paul stopped him: "Don't do that! We're all still here! Nobody's run away!" 29 The jailer got a torch and ran inside. Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Paul and Silas. 30 He led them out of the jail and asked, "Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?" 31 They said, "Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to live - and everyone in your house included!" 32 They went on to spell out in detail the story of the Master - the entire family got in on this part. 33 They never did get to bed that night. The jailer made them feel at home, dressed their wounds, and then - he couldn't wait till morning! - was baptized, he and everyone in his family. 34 There in his home, he had food set out for a festive meal. It was a night to remember: He and his entire family had put their trust in God; everyone in the house was in on the celebration.
35 At daybreak, the court judges sent officers with the instructions, "Release these men." 36 The jailer gave Paul the message, "The judges sent word that you're free to go on your way. Congratulations! Go in peace!" 37 But Paul wouldn't budge. He told the officers, "They beat us up in public and threw us in jail, Roman citizens in good standing! And now they want to get us out of the way on the sly without anyone knowing? Nothing doing! If they want us out of here, let them come themselves and lead us out in broad daylight." 38 When the officers reported this, the judges panicked. They had no idea that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. 39 They hurried over and apologized, personally escorted them from the jail, and then asked them if they wouldn't please leave the city. 40 Walking out of the jail, Paul and Silas went straight to Lydia's house, saw their friends again, encouraged them in the faith, and only then went on their way.
(Read Acts 16:16-24)
Satan, though the father of lies, will declare the most important truths, when he can thereby serve his purposes. But much mischief is done to the real servants of Christ, by unholy and false preachers of the gospel, who are confounded with them by careless observers. Those who do good by drawing men from sin, may expect to be reviled as troublers of the city. While they teach men to fear God, to believe in Christ, to forsake sin, and to live godly lives, they will be accused of teaching bad customs.
(Read Acts 16:25-34)
The consolations of God to his suffering servants are neither few nor small. How much more happy are true Christians than their prosperous enemies! As in the dark, so out of the depths, we may cry unto God. No place, no time is amiss for prayer, if the heart be lifted up to God. No trouble, however grievous, should hinder us from praise. Christianity proves itself to be of God, in that it obliges us to be just to our own lives. Paul cried aloud to make the jailer hear, and to make him heed, saying, Do thyself no harm. All the cautions of the word of God against sin, and all appearances of it, and approaches to it, have this tendency. Man, woman, do not ruin thyself; hurt not thyself, and then none else can hurt thee; do not sin, for nothing but that can hurt thee. Even as to the body, we are cautioned against the sins which do harm to that. Converting grace changes people's language of and to good people and good ministers. How serious the jailer's inquiry! His salvation becomes his great concern; that lies nearest his heart, which before was furthest from his thoughts. It is his own precious soul that he is concerned about. Those who are thoroughly convinced of sin, and truly concerned about their salvation, will give themselves up to Christ. Here is the sum of the whole gospel, the covenant of grace in a few words; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. The Lord so blessed the word, that the jailer was at once softened and humbled. He treated them with kindness and compassion, and, professing faith in Christ, was baptized in that name, with his family. The Spirit of grace worked such a strong faith in them, as did away further doubt; and Paul and Silas knew by the Spirit, that a work of God was wrought in them. When sinners are thus converted, they will love and honour those whom they before despised and hated, and will seek to lessen the suffering they before desired to increase. When the fruits of faith begin to appear, terrors will be followed by confidence and joy in God.
(Read Acts 16:35-40)
Paul, though willing to suffer for the cause of Christ, and without any desire to avenge himself, did not choose to depart under the charge of having deserved wrongful punishment, and therefore required to be dismissed in an honourable manner. It was not a mere point of honour that the apostle stood upon, but justice, and not to himself so much as to his cause. And when proper apology is made, Christians should never express personal anger, nor insist too strictly upon personal amends. The Lord will make them more than conquerors in every conflict; instead of being cast down by their sufferings, they will become comforters of their brethren.
