“Who has first given to me that I should repay him. Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
– Job 41:11
How this verse as we come near the end of Job, is a good reminder to all of us, of the independence of God and our total dependence on God. The independence of God, “Who has first given to me that I should repay him. Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.” This is an attribute of God that we see all throughout scripture, that He doesn’t depend on anything else for His existence. For all that He has, He is totally in dependent. This is His revelation of Himself to Moses in Exodus 3, “I am who I am. I always have been. And I am now. I always will be,” in a way that’s totally different from us, right?
Job 41:11 Points to Our Dependency
We are not independent. We are dependent. And we came from God. If God did not create us, we would not be here. We are sustained by God. If God didn’t give us breath and a heartbeat right now, then we would not be here. We are totally dependent on God. And in this sense, there’s nothing we can give to God because God owns everything. God is totally independent, self-existent, self-sufficient, and we are totally dependent. And that is part of the point, isn’t it? For us to realize, for one that we are not equal with God. That even in our wrestling and our struggling in the middle of suffering and all of our questions, we’re not on equal plane with God.
This verse reminds Us of Our Tendency to Sin
I hope we’ve seen that as we’ve prayed through the Book of Job in so many different ways. It’s such a needed reminder day in, and day out for us as sinful people who are prone to take the place of God, who are prone to think as we’ve prayed at different points that we know better than God or that we are just, and we are right. And He is not just, or He is not righteous. That we are wise and He is not. That if we were in charge, we would do things differently. That’s the whole point we’re in not in charge. He is. And that is the greatest news in the world.
Job 41:11 Calls Us to Gratefulness
Can I just be honest with you? I’m really grateful that you are not in charge of the world and I’m really grateful. And I know you are really grateful that I’m not in charge of the world. I’m really grateful and I trust we all are grateful that the one who is in charge of the world, that is sovereign overall, to whom all things belong, the one who is self-existent is infinitely good and perfectly righteous, and totally holy, and the all sovereign, all-powerful one is also all-loving, and all-merciful, and all-wise and all just.
Job 41:11 Leads Us to Pray for God
So we pray to the independent God in total dependence on Him. God, we are so thankful today that You are God and we are not. We are so thankful that amidst all the things we don’t understand and specially as we walk through suffering and difficulties, we are so, so, so thankful that You not only understand all things, and see all things, and know all things, but You are sovereign overall things. And You have ultimately good purposes, glorious purposes that You’re working out for all who are trusting in You. So we say, “Yes, sign us up for trust in You. Sign us up for dependence on You.”
Praise God for His Sovereignty
We praise You as the sovereign owner of all things, whatever is under the whole heaven belongs to You. We’re so glad that You are sovereignly leading in all the universe and not us. So help us to live today with trust in You, with submission to You, with dependence on You and everything we do.
Help us to be glad in our dependence on You, not to rebel against dependence on You, not to presume that we know better than You, but to trust You. To trust and to obey You, to worship You and to follow You, and this to experience life. No matter what happens to us in this world, to know that You are all sovereign, all good, all loving and You are redeeming this world and redeeming us in it as we trust in You, in Jesus name, we pray in glad dependence on You, in glad submission to You. 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.
