In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
– Job 12:10
What a simple, extraordinary statement of the sovereignty of God and the sustenance of God in every living thing.
Job 12:10 reminds us that life is a gift from God.
Just look around you today. At every living thing, every insect, every bird, every plant and tree, the life of every living thing is in the hand of God. He is right now sustaining every single living thing around us and sovereign over every single living thing around us, and specifically in his hand is the breath of all mankind. Just look at all the people around you. Look at their breath. See them breathing and realize their breath is in the hands of God and realize that’s true for your own life as well. Just see the way that creation is totally 100% completely dependent on God at every single second.
He’s holding it all together in his hand at every moment, and let this lead you to praise God. Let this lead us to express our dependence on God, our trust in God. Oh, just think of all the different ways this leads us to pray. Let’s do that now. God, we praise you as the Author of all creation, as the One who holds in your hand right now, the life of every living thing. God, nothing around us exists because of natural selection.
Job 12:10 reminds us we are dependent on God’s supernatural provision.
Everything around us exists because of supernatural provision, because of your creating power and your sustaining power. God, we know we are breathing right now only because you are holding our breath in your hands and you are giving it to us. You are putting breath in our lungs with your hands. All glory be to your name, our Sustainer at this moment.
We have no life… God, we have no breath apart from you. We praise you for your sustenance, and we praise you for your sovereignty, that you hold us all, our lives, and the life of every living thing in your hand. We are so glad, oh God, that you are in control of it all. We’re so glad we’re not in control. We’re so glad no other sinner is in control.
You, the Holy God of the universe, you’re in control of all. Glory be to your name. And then to think, oh God, that you became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus, that you came to live among all these living things and even to be crucified by the very people who are sustained in their breath by divine hand. Oh, we praise you for your humility and for your love and your mercy toward us. We praise you for giving us eternal life through the forgiveness of sins, eternal life that will last far beyond our final breath in this world.
Prayer for the Ziban Bedouin People
Jesus, we love you. We glorify you. God, we praise you for the gospel. We pray for you to help us to spread the gospel. Help us to point others to you all day long today as the Creator and Sustainer of it all. And God we pray. We pray for the Ziban Bedouin people of Algeria who haven’t been reached for the good news of the love of Jesus. We pray that the gospel would spread in Algeria. God, we pray for the church there. We pray for the church and other parts of North Africa and beyond that, we would send laborers to the Ziban Bedouin people so that they might be reached with the good news that you are the Creator, Sustainer, and Savior of all mankind, of all trust in Jesus. In His name, we pray according to Job 12:10. 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.
