Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: In a me-first generation, it's uncommon to meet someone who's truly humble. Someone who's willing to admit, "I'm wrong," "I'm sorry," or rarer still, "I repent." When was the last time you heard those words, or even used them yourself? Well, the book of Job ends with a picture of outright surrender. Job was broken, contrite, and finally at rest with his destiny.

So, what brought him to this point? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens Job chapter 42 to present a message titled "Full Repentance for All the Right Reasons."

Chuck Swindoll: I believe the Lord takes Job by the shoulders and gives him a good shake. I believe He is showing Job two animals that are at the top of the food chain—two animals that are virtually unintimidated. They can take care of themselves in the wild. Most every other animal bows to them, and if they don't, they pay a terrible price, usually their lives. The Behemoth represents the hippopotamus. The Leviathan is the crocodile. We'll look at the Leviathan in a moment.

Now, behold the hippopotamus. Isn't this an interesting sermon? Hippopotamus and crocodiles—I dare you to tell anybody tomorrow at work that that's what the preacher preached on yesterday. It may be a great opportunity for you to share with them something else you'd like to say. But anyway, first the hippopotamus. Verses 15 to 24, chapter 40: "I made that animal as well as you," notice the opening.

You're both creatures, very different. It walks on all fours, you walk erect. It eats grass like an ox, you do not eat that diet. He mentions his strength to begin with. "His strength is in his loins," 16 through 18 is a reference to the strength of the hippopotamus. The power is in his muscles. Tail is like a cedar, picture of strength. Sinews of thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, this is poetry.

Colorful language to illustrate this: his limbs are like bars of iron. He is first of the ways of God. That intriguing statement probably means he's chief or the mightiest among the animals. Other animals, when they see him, move away from him. God has given him an uppermost level of authority among his fellow creatures.

Surely the mountains bring him food, and all the beasts of the field play there. Verse 23: "If a river rages, he's not alarmed. He is confident though the Jordan rushes to his mouth." And look at this interesting statement about capturing the hippopotamus. Can anyone capture him when he is on watch? It's the picture of a hunter in those days.

With barbs, the idea of a spear, can anyone pierce his nose? It was believed in ancient days that to capture one of these, you'd have to pierce the nose or plug it up so that he'd have to open his mouth to breathe, and when he opens his mouth, you drive the javelin or the spear into the throat. You're able to kill him. But how rare that was.

The task is piercing the nose to begin with, getting there. Job is listening. The whole point is, even one species of animal life is enough to make you back down, Job. You're no match against something this strong, this overpowering. If I, Yahweh, am powerful enough to create and subdue a creature this strong and intimidating, I'm deserving of your trust, your submission, your worship.

But before Job can digest all of that, the Lord moves on to the Leviathan. "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?" Now, we who love to fish and hunt, we remember times when we chose the size hook depending on the size fish we wanted to catch. Larger hook, larger fish. Smaller hook usually meant little smaller mouth or smaller fish.

When I did a lot of fishing my younger years, I fished with my dad and my granddad both, and sometime down the bays of South Texas, we would hang a gar—old saltwater gar. You've seen pictures of them, some of you have even caught them or tried to. And they tear up your tackle. I don't care how big your hook is, usually they'll bend the hook and get away, or they'll tear everything up in the process.

Plus, they're no good to eat. And when you get them there, you just throw them back in. So my dad would say, as I thought I'd caught the biggest trout on the planet and the water was swirling and had all the signs of a huge fish that hadn't yet surfaced, he'd say, "Son, you got a gar. Just cut the line. Just cut the line, or he's going to tear your rod up, or he's going to tear your pole up, certainly going to tear up the tackle. We're not going to get him in this boat, he'll tear us up. So cut the line."

How much more a crocodile. That's the point as he begins. "Can you draw out Leviathan or croc with a hook?" Now, this is even more fierce. Look at all the "can you's" and "will you's" that follow. "Can you put a rope in its nose?" Verse 3, he has a little fun with the subject. "Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak to you soft words?"

Literally, it's an absurd thought. Will he literally speak soft and tender things to you? Do you ever have a croc give you soft little words and loving comments? "Hi, how are you? Looking great today." It makes us laugh as it's a little humor here. Verse 4: "Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him for a servant? Will you make a pet out of him?"

Will you play with him as with a bird? We all have the parakeets or cockatiels in mind. Will you have a little pet 12-foot croc that you've got running around the house? Will you bind him for your maidens? It's a picture of putting a leash around him for the daughters to have and to take them to school with them, a little pet croc. That makes us laugh. It's supposed to. It's ludicrous. It's absurd.

And he goes on and on and on talking about his skin that you can hardly harpoon, and the armor of their back, and the strength that's in their limbs. Verse 12: "And who can strip off the armor?" Verse 13: "And come within his double mail?" He goes on and on and on until he comes to the end, verse 33: "Nothing on earth is like him, and I control him, Job, this creature."

Now, you know when I use the croc, I realize I'm working against television because there is on this earth this man who swims with these suckers and thinks they're the greatest thing on earth. Late at night, he's out in his little dinghy and he slips into the swamp with his lantern, and he says, "I've lived all my life for this moment."

And he gets down in the water and he's swimming in the swamp and he says, "Look at their feet. They're beautiful." And I look at the feet and I think, "They'll tear you apart! Get out of the water!" Now, we all watch it. We're sitting there eating chips and sandwiches, and we go, "Hey, this is really great. Go for it, babe. Go get them."

You know what he married? A wife that likes them. So he's got this woman that just likes to hang around them and she grabs them and hugs them. He's never read Job 41. It's a crocodile, and it's not made to be a pet. It lives in the depths and it is ferocious. It is bloodthirsty. It is brutal. It is a killer. But it is submissive to God.

The crocodile cannot operate outside the realm, the parameters, the borders that God has established for the crocodile. Never dawns on him to do that. He does exactly what he was built to do. He swims because God made him to swim, and he feeds on this because God made him to do—he did it all. He made it all. He owns it all. That's verse 11: "Who has given to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine."

There's the shake, Job. You're mine. You're mine. You are clay in my hands. I'm doing a great work, and trust me in the mystery of it all. Remember I said that—in the mystery of it all. Job listens, and as he gets to the end of his second speech, verse 34, he looks on everything that is high. "He is king over all the sons of pride, Job."

He may have done this, I don't know that he did, but he may have put his hand up and said, "I've got enough. I got it. I got it." Remember Job earlier had said, "If only He would come and talk with me, I would plead my case before Him. He owes me a hearing," is the implication. He owes me an audience. After the way I've lived and look at my condition, at least He can present Himself before—stop, Job.

You don't give God a script. You don't dictate the parameters of God's existence and plan. "I've got it." Look at the response. It's fabulous. He answered and said, "I know that you can do all things. Whether it's creating and growing the hippo or the other creatures of the forest and the jungles, or whether it's a crocodile or whether it's a man or a woman, no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

It's like Daniel 4:35. Listen, listen to this. King Nebuchadnezzar, who has suffered for years living in the field as a wild, insane man because of pride, having finished his years in the field, he comes to his senses. And Nebuchadnezzar says, Daniel 4:35: "All the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing, and He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay His hand or say unto Him, 'What are you doing?'"

That's submission. "Oh God, I may be king on this earth, but you and I know I don't even breathe without your grace giving me breath. I can't move without your spirit giving my muscles and my ability, my bones, my body the ability to locomote. All heaven and earth is yours. You own it all, and nothing of yours can be thwarted."

Job asks, "Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? I have declared that which I do not understand. Things are too wonderful for me, which I do not know. I've come to the end of my understanding and I leave it with that. It's yours, oh God, it's yours to unravel the mystery, to handle the profound, strange events of my life."

By the way, God never in this passage, or even later in the passage, tells him about the deal between Him and Satan. He leaves Job in the mystery of it all. And Job simply acknowledges his inability to understand why, but there's never a fist in his words. "How dare you do this to me!" There's a broken and contrite spirit.

He says, "I've heard you by the hearing of the ear, and now my eye sees you, and oh, I take back so much of what I said. And I repent. I repent."

Years ago, Cynthia and I were friends with a wonderful family who was made up of a dad and a mom and three sons. The son was greatly gifted intellectually and musically. Took up the violin and was a splendid young violinist. The father had earlier in his high school years with the boy had some trouble with the boy's spirit of submission, but you know how you'll do with your gifted children—you'll give them room or give them slack.

The boy decided when he came of college age that he would go to school on the West Coast, chose a renowned university. The father paid the full tuition, and the boy began. Got with a tough crowd, continued his musicianship, found a place in the school's orchestra, as I recall, if not first chair, soon to be. And while he was there, he picked up a surly, independent spirit.

And he came back home at the summertime at the end of his first year, and it wasn't long before mom and dad and by now brothers realized they've got a real hellion on their hands. He's bright, he's gifted. He's also stubborn. He's arrogant, conceited. The family harmony was being disrupted, and the father late one afternoon had had enough.

He called the boy in, called his name and said, "Sit down." He said, "Everything that you have is mine. I bought every stitch of clothing in your closet. Your car that's in our garage is mine. The money in your pocket came from my account. I want you to leave everything in this house, and I want you to get out. You leave the money, you leave the car.

Oh, by the way, the violin—you leave the violin. I bought that instrument. You leave everything that you possess. I'll let you keep the clothes on your back and the shoes on your feet. You get out. When you are ready to change your mind and come back into this place as a family member, you need to know we accept you and would love to have you back. But you're not the boy that I raised, and I'm putting up with it no longer."

Father told me that the boy turned on his heels, put the money right there on the table, left everything and walked out the door. Took a left and got about three blocks. And he had a massive education between the front door of his house and about the third block at the curb. And he said he stood there with his hands in his pockets, thinking through, as night was falling, the elements he would be facing—the street life about which he knew nothing, and everything back home which he needed and longed for.

He turned around, came to the door, knocked on his own front door. Dad opened the door with mom standing near. And then came the words, "I'm wrong. I'm sorry." Arms of embracing. Probably the brothers were thinking, "Who's going to get his room?" You know how brothers are. But as I recall, that evening there was a dinner together as there was a sense of the return of another young man.

I'm not through with the subject, but I need to stop here. It is all about God, men and women. It is all about our God. Your business is about our God. Your family is about our God. Everything you say you possess, He owns. Every privilege you enjoy is granted, none of it deserved. We don't get it!

We don't get it until we are faced with these impossible moments that level us. And we finally begin to emerge as a people of God. We don't lose any of our giftedness, we don't lose any of our sense of ability—in fact, it's enhanced. And the beautiful thing to witness is this still strong-hearted person who is surrendered and humble, with a broken and contrite spirit.

Entertaining no grudges, making no demands, having no expectations, offering no conditions, anticipating no favors—we repent before our God. And the marvelous thing, He begins to use us in the most amazing ways, because the world doesn't see that kind of combination very often. I so want you to be one of those people.

Job finally gets it. The result is blessing after blessing, double blessings, double blessings. And he dies an old man, full of days, the last verse of the book says. Let's bow our heads. Let's close our eyes. I don't know who's shaking your shoulders. Somebody probably is. Think of it, if you will, as the Lord.

I'm not talking about yielding to abuse and molestation—that's not in my subject today, please don't rush there. I'm talking about giving up rights that were not your rights to begin with. They're God's rights. I'm not talking about defending our country—this is not that subject. This is about a very personal relationship with the God who made us, who is trying in every possible way to get our attention, to give up the fight.

To learn to say, "Yes, sir. No, sir. I agree with you, sir. I bow before you as the servant. You are my master, oh God. If it is your pleasure, use me. If it is not, take me, if that would bring more honor to you. I exist for you." If you've never come to the Lord Jesus Christ, of course this sounds absurd to you.

It's the most impossible suggestion you could ever sit through and endure because you've not made the first commitment of submission, that you can't save yourself. If you were to die tonight, nothing in your person would deserve heaven or would cause God to graciously provide you with forgiveness and eternity with Him.

Your sin separates you from Him, and you know it. So begin by coming first to Christ. And because most of us have done that, I say to all of us who remain, you may very well be at that crossroads where it's time to say, "I surrender. I give up the fight. I repent. I release my rights for God to do with me however He may be pleased to do."

It's our great desire, our Father, to live a life that is wholly committed to you. We still are on this earth, we still must connect with other earthlings, we still have a life to live here for as long as you would grant us. But we long to be your men and women living and moving among this world that has long since lost its direction.

I pray that you would use these words, halting though they have been at times, these simple words, these examples from your book to stop us in our tracks and make us realize how arrogant and conceited we have become and how wholly dependent we are upon you for forgiveness, for the ability to go on with our lives.

I pray that you would set apart a handful of men and women who now truly grasp this. Change their whole direction, I pray, so that a difference will be made where they work, where they play, among their family members, and most importantly, in the quietness of their own hearts. Give them a blessed relief and release of their wills to yours.

And then may we know the joy of a renewed life lived truly for your greater glory. Now our Father, I commit to you and to your power and grace, we who have been a part of this worship time. I pray that you would begin the process of change even this day and may it never cease until we see your Son face to face.

Whom having not seen we love, in whom though now we see Him not, yet believing we rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory. In His great name I pray, and all God's people said, amen.

Bill Meyer: "I'm wrong," "I'm sorry," "I repent." Simple words, and yet so hard to say. Maybe today, Chuck Swindoll has put his finger on a place in your own heart—a fight you've been fighting, a grudge you've been holding, a surrender you've been resisting. If so, don't rush past this moment.

This is Insight for Living. Chuck titled today's message "Full Repentance for All the Right Reasons." If you were inspired by Job's response and if you're ready to take your next steps, let me point you to a helpful resource. It's a book Chuck's written called *Finding God When the World's on Fire*.

This book is for anyone whose faith is being tested by real life—by loss, by illness, by uncertainty, by a world that refuses to settle down. And when you support Insight for Living with a donation, we'll send a copy to you with our thanks. We're deeply grateful for your financial support of this non-profit ministry.

By giving generously, you're helping others discover the hope that God offers in His Word. And we have a lot of evidence, because of the countless emails we receive from grateful listeners. Not long ago, we received a note from a woman who said, "Chuck, I want you to know that your faithfulness through the years has not been without effect.

The Lord has used you, even here in Jerusalem, in the life of someone you don't know, to strengthen, to guide, and to refine. Thank you for your obedience to the call placed on your life." You know, when you give, you're coming alongside brothers and sisters in Christ, even in Israel, offering the wisdom of God's Word.

So let us thank you for your support. When you make a gift today, be sure to ask for the book *Finding God When the World's on Fire*. Call 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/donate. Here's the number one more time: 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/donate. Ever grow tired of waiting on God to settle the score? I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll describes a moment when justice is served, Tuesday, on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Full Repentance for All the Right Reasons," was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, 2010, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.