“In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.”
-Job 12:10
Oh, this is part what I love about the book of Job. And we’ll see it most clearly when you get to God’s response to Job at the end of this book. It’s just a powerful revelation of who God is. But along the way, much like we are praying according to in Job 11, we see these glorious pictures of who God is, and his greatness, his power. And here, in Job 12:10, and his sustaining power in our lives.
In his hand is the life of every living thing. Just think about it. Every living thing. Not just even people. So you have seven plus billion people in the world. Not just people, every living thing. Every animal, every insect, every little living thing. Every fish, every bird, they all are in his hand. And the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:10 Teaches Us God Holds Us Up
Everything. Just think of all the living things in the world right now, that are at this moment, sustained by God. He’s holding them up. He’s holding you up, me up. He holds our breath in his hand. Your breath, that’s coming from God. That’s coming from God for you, and for me, and for every single one of us.
Oh, these verses in Job, just lead us to worship God. You are our sustainer. We don’t have breath. We don’t have another breath. Like, for the next minute, we won’t be able to breathe. If you don’t give us breath, we’ll be dead within minutes. If you don’t give us breath.
Job 12:10 Teaches Us God is Our Sustainer
God, we praise you as our sustainer. We look to you as our sustainer. And we say, we are so glad our lives are in your hand. It would be not comforting at all if our lives were in the hands of what God, or creator, who is not all good, and all-loving, and all-wise, and gracious and merciful and just. Oh God, we praise you. We are glad to be in your hand, and glad to be in a world where all things are in your hand. We praise you as a sustainer of fish, and birds, and animals, every living thing around us, including things that feed us, and the way you provide for us. God, we can’t do anything without you. You are our sustainer in every way.
This Verse Leads Us to Humility
So we just humble ourselves before you today, oh God. Rid us of our prideful ideas of self-sustenance. And we know we have nothing without you. We praise you as the author of every good thing, including our every single breath. Help us to live today in total dependence on you in all that we do. And to point others to you, to help others see you as the sustainer you are. That they might give you glory.
And that they might know you as their sustainer. That they might know you as a sustainer. That they might experience eternal life in you, through our sharing the gospel with them. God may it be so. We pray all this in light of Job, chapter 12, verse 10, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
