Wednesday, August 23rd | Leviathan Recap

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, August the 23rd. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm Jon Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online, leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. I was going to say our contesting pontin from. We're going to leave some links in the description so you can do just that.

It's a contest, and where can I find it? The verse of the day is coming from Ephesians 4, 30-31. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. But I'm a Christian, so I'm just forgiven. I can do whatever I want, because Jesus already paid the price for it on the cross.

I can do whatever I want. Well, no, you're still going to grieve the Spirit, though. You don't want to do that. Yes, we don't talk about that. You don't want to do that.

We don't talk about that. We don't think about the fact that we can make God sad. It seems like such a toddler thing like, well, I don't want to do that because it's going to make the Holy Spirit sad.

I heard someone put it this way one time, and it really kind of rocked my perspective. Every time that you make a decision, the Holy Spirit is right there riding shotgun with you. So, yes, ideally, God should be in the driver's seat, but let's be realistic here. Most of the time, you are the one making the calls, especially when it comes to choosing sin.

Correct. So, when you choose things that are disobedient to God, you are taking the Holy Spirit along with you. Do you think he wants to be brought along in those places?

Do you think he wants you to go into those places? I heard an illustration one time about this kid who was at summer camp or whatever, and his girlfriend was staying in the opposite cabin, the girl's cabin. He went and snuck her out of the cabin, and they got in their cars, and they hooked up. So, he snuck her back into her cabin, went to sleep, and then the counselor came and was like, hey, someone saw what you did last night. He just was so filled with fear. He was like, oh, my gosh, who saw it? And he was like, well, God saw you. And the kid was just filled with relief. He was like, oh, thank goodness.

Where does that relief come from? Because we don't care that God sees our sin. We don't care that God is, like you said, alongside our sin, because the consequences are not immediate.

They're not right now. Like, the Holy Spirit is sad. Okay, I can live with that. At least it was just God that saw me. Yikes! Our thinking is so messed up, but it's just one of those things that comes with maturity and comes with conviction. And the more that we read the Bible, the more that we pray, the closer we become to God, then our sin becomes more and more real to us. That's right. And the flip side of that is true. The more you engage in that sin, the more it'll deaden your sensitivity to the Spirit. Like, hey, you shouldn't have done that. So, stay away from sin.

Stay obedient to God. That's right. I'm tired, bro.

You tired? Yeah, we've been doing a lot of recording lately. Yeah, you have been like burning up the road between here and the recording studio.

I mean, that's the trek. And we've been recording some here as well and sending stuff over to our producer. Yeah. When we went the first time, actually, I kind of had a funny story about that. Our producer is a great, great guy. I'm not going to say his name on the podcast because I'm going to roast him a little bit. Just a gentle, just a light roast. This is like a light- He's going to be lightly toasted. So, you know how you do a light ribbing between friends? We're not close.

This is like if you've ever roasted marshmallows and you roast it to the point where the color doesn't change, but it gets a little bit crispy on the outside. That's what this is. He and I are not like close friends in life, but I'm going to roast him a little bit over the radio just to not sour working relationships. Of course. But when I met him and I took David with me when we did... So, I went and met him at his studio once just to talk about pricing and all that stuff. But then we went in to do a single for Power and Mercy.

The Power and Mercy single came out. So, I took David with me. We were going to do some singing on that.

And he's a great guy, super talented, very nice, very welcoming, very hospitable. And he came out to warn us. He was like, hey, so anyway, studio's right here through here. Here's the control room. Here's the laundry room if you ever need anything. We got some coffee. We got some tea.

Right back there's the bathroom. He's like, I just want to warn you. He's like, I love kind of retro art. So he's like, there's a picture of a plane in there, like a World War II, like a YouTube bomber or whatever. And I'm just really into that kind of stuff. But people are always asking me like, what's up with the plane in the bathroom? And I'm like, it's just me. So I'm like, he's like, but I just wanted to warn you guys. There is a picture of a plane in the bathroom. I was like, yeah, that's totally fine, man.

No problem at all. So I go in, I do all my vocals or whatever. David goes in, he's singing. I'm like, man, I got to use the bathroom.

So I go in. I see the picture of the plane. He was not lying. The plane was there. I was like, okay, yeah, that's pretty cool. Then I go to the toilet and I'm using the restroom. And right above the toilet is a picture of him with another band.

And they're doing like a live tracking session. And I'm not gonna lie, it's a gorgeous print. Like it looks nice.

It looks really nice. But I was like, oh, he warned me about the plane. And so I go out and I spoke to him. I was like, hey dude, I saw the picture of the plane. Thank you for the heads up on that front because, but that was fine. Why did you warn me about the plane and then not warn me that you have a picture of yourself and another band, like right eye level with the toilet? We all had a good, yeah, exactly.

Exactly. And I was like, look at, I was like, I look away and then I'll like wash my hands. But then I look back to see like the eyes. It was crazy. So then I went back again. We went back to track drums for the rest of the songs. What's the single was out. We went back and now, okay, now album production begins.

I go in there. He's taking the picture of the plane down and I kid you not, Ryan, I'm not joking you, David, tell me if I'm lying. He's put up another picture of himself. So it's, it's, it's him. And I mean, again, it's a great picture.

It's like a big circle of people doing like a live recording with like a big scrim in the background. And the picture is like dead center is like the back of his head playing drums. But he's now put up, he warned me, he took the time to warn me and David about a picture of a plane in his bathroom and then has not now has not one, but two pictures of himself. Like if I'm sitting on the toilet, I'm staring at the back of his head.

If I'm facing the toilet going number one, I see a picture of his face. Oh my gosh. Those were strategically placed.

You know they were. Yeah. Yeah. We like even addressed it like to him about that and him and his, his, his co-producer made a joke about maybe putting like one of just a headshot of him, just like, like a really introspective, like Steve jobs looking thing. Fantastic.

I don't want to roast him too hard. Cause he is kind of in charge of our album. So yeah.

I love how that sounds interesting. Bathroom art choices, which is fine. It's fine. It's bad, bad.

It's fine and bad. We're going to jump into the show in just a second. If you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Hey there listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your first time ever tuning into the Clear View Today Show, we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a Ph.D. in Testament Textual Criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. You can see all of his work by visiting his website. That's AbbadanShah.com. I guess you could visit them.

You could visit his work. That's a weird verb to use. I stripped up because I'm wearing headphones for the first time, and I paid like a bad amount of money for this session, and my mic isn't even up, dude. I can't even hear myself. My mic isn't even up, dude. Next time we go into the studio to record the album, I want to do that. Just start crying.

My mic's not even up in the headphones, and I paid so much money. Let me know how that goes. I'm really anxious to hear. We're continuing to pray for Dr. Shah as he's traveling. He's over in India spending time with family after the recent passing of his mom. John and I are using this as an opportunity to take a deep dive into our favorite messages that Dr. Shah has preached.

We talk about that on the show. He is a pastor. He preaches every weekend here at Clearview, our church.

This is a chance for us to highlight our favorites, a chance for us to pick those apart and share clips of those with you. Again, like we've said, if you are interested or you want to learn more about his messages, you can visit his website at AbbadanShah.com. All of his transcripts are there. You can also watch all of those messages on our church website, ClearviewBC.org. I forgot to mention, you can also follow along with his messages as a podcast as well, Sermons by Abbadan Shah. You can follow that.

Just like you follow Clearview today, you can follow along and get the messages updated there on the podcast app. That's right. David, before we jump into the sermon, this is actually one that David chose. This is Leviathan.

I think this was preached in 2022. Oh, gosh, this one was a great one. Why did you pick this one, David?

I have always liked this sermon just because of the, I don't know what it was about Job, but it was not anything I ever considered in Job because Job always to me was like the tale of this guy, he's suffering and he is still faithful. And then, you know, he kind of has some questions and some doubts about God and he asked God, but I never really paid attention to how God answered, like, you know, God answered from a whirlwind and said, and then it's kind of like, okay, cool. I kind of checked out. But then once Dr. Shah went through this and kind of gave the meaning behind, you know, consider the Leviathan, consider this huge creature that I have made. And can you not see how powerful I am? Can you wrangle that beast? Can you do anything to stop that thing from killing you if it comes near?

No, but I can, cause I made it. And it just kind of was like, whoa. Yeah.

It's like a Testament to God's majesty and his, his like creation. You know what I mean? Plus, I mean, dinosaurs. Yeah. And I'm like, how often does your pastor from the pulpit be like, all right, in today's message, we are talking about Job, but we're going to hit dinosaurs too.

Like what in the world? That was so cool. It's something that's just always been used to justify evolution, which is, you know, completely against God's design when in reality, God uses it. And in the book of Job to testify towards his creation. So yeah, it was a, it was a eye-opening sermon for sure. And I think it was one that was part of that contend series that people just weren't expecting and it definitely stuck out as a unique one.

Yeah. That relates to our Contends Day Wednesdays. That's where the name came from. If you were wondering, why in the world do we call them Contends Day Wednesdays?

It's from his series on apologetics titled Contend, where we're like systematically walking through the Bible and answering those big apologetics level questions, such as like, what do you do with fossil dating and dinosaurs? We also do it cause it's cute. Contends Day Wednesdays, that's a cute name. It is cute. It is very cute. Much like the name Leviathan.

That's a cute name. You want to dive in? Let's dive in. Dinosaurs have been used to justify evolution. When in reality, they testify to God's marvelous creation.

Just the opposite. Learning about the power and the might of these creatures should lead us to worship. To bow before our sovereign God. It should also lead us to repent. Now I know you never put those two together, dinosaurs and repentance, but in today's message, you're going to see how those two come together. They're God's answers to our doubts in the midst of suffering.

So Job chapter 40 and go to verse 15. God is saying these words. He says, look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you. He eats grass like an ox. See now his strength is in his hips and his powers in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar.

The sinews of his ties are tightly knit. Now turn the page over to Chapter 41, Job 41 in verse one. Again, God is speaking. He's challenging Job. He's asking Job the question, can you draw out leviathan with a hook or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Translated, can you go fishing for a leviathan, Job?

Can you put a reed through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Verse 19, out of his mouth, out of the leviathan's mouth, go burning lights, sparks of fire, shoot out. Now the book of Job may seem like an unusual book to turn to in talking about dinosaurs, but as I mentioned to you, it has the most detailed description of dinosaurs anywhere in the Bible. In fact, dinosaurs are mentioned in several passages in the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Now who was Job?

Let's back up for a moment. This book, the main character is Job. The Bible describes him as a blameless and upright person, one who feared God and shunned evil. He was a righteous man. He was a good man. He had a wonderful family, seven sons and three daughters. He had all kinds of lifestyle.

The Bible describes him as the most affluent person living at that time. And yet something happens. Satan comes to God and asks God for permission to test Job. He wants to accuse Job before God saying that Job only loves you because of all that you give him.

Take it away and you'll see what happens. So God gave him permission. I want you to understand that when it comes to suffering in our lives, Satan has to get permission from God to touch us.

It's the sovereignty of God. He is ultimately in charge. So in one day, Job's world was turned upside down. First, he gets news that the Sabeans, this ancient tribe raided his farm, stole his oxen and donkeys and killed the servants.

The words had barely left the mouth of the messenger. Then another one came and said fire fell from heaven on his sheep and the servants also died. Barely did that messenger leave that a third one comes and says the Chaldean stole all your camels, Job, and they killed your servants. And then comes the worst blow. A great wind destroyed the house where your sons and your daughters were having a great dinner and they all died.

Wow. In just 24 hours, he lost his possessions, but much worse, he lost his children. But Satan wasn't done. He comes back to God and say, God, I know Job hasn't denied you.

God gives, God takes away kind of stuff. But listen, let me touch his body. Let me do something to his health and he will cuss you out.

And God says, okay, you can do that. Just don't kill him. So Job now is covered with boils all over his body. You can just imagine how miserable he is.

The Bible says he was sitting in ashes, scratching himself with a potsherd. I mean, think about this man, just a couple of days earlier, ruled the entire region. Very powerful, very happy. His family is doing great. His livestock are doing great.

Plenty of servants. And now he is lying there in this ash heap, scratching himself, utterly miserable, heartbroken. You can just imagine how he's feeling. His wife comes to him and says, Job, I see how miserable you are. Just curse God and die. Sometimes people talk bad about Job's wife, but really what she was saying is, I love you, but I can't see you suffer like this.

Just do the ultimate. Just blaspheme God and leave this world. His friends come to him to comfort him, but they only end up accusing him of saying, Job, you must be a hypocrite.

You must have some hidden sin in your life, Job. Job is at the lowest point of his life. His faith was running low. He was discouraged and doubtful of God's character. He was asking that old question, why do good things happen to bad things happen to good people?

I would love to say that. How do I do bad things happen to good things happen to bad people? Because that happens a lot. But Job is asking that old question. He is challenging the justice of God.

He wants to put God on a trial. You know, some of us are in that same place. We may not say it out loud, but we have that question, as much as I do for the church and as much as I serve God and as much as I try to read the Bible and pray and do what is right, why do these things keep happening to me? Why is it one after the other?

Man, I just need some relief. Don't raise your hand. Many of you all have said that recently.

Why is it that one after the other, something is always going wrong somewhere? You see, in that question, what we're really doing is we're challenging the justice of God. We're putting God on trial. We're saying you're not sovereign because you don't know what's happening down here in my life. You don't care for your people. You don't care for our misery. You're up there, you know, saving the world. And here we're suffering.

Now, we're not going to say that, but that's how we think. Well, God heard them for 37 chapters. And then finally, in Chapter 38, God shows up. In verse one, he says, And the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Translated, Why are you speaking things you don't know?

Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. You're not going to put me on trial.

I'm putting you on trial. And God begins to question Job starting in verse four. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me if you have understanding, Job. And after that, God listed over Chapter 38, 39. He listed all the wonders of his creation, starting with the natural world. Job, have you seen the sea? Have you seen the clouds?

Have you seen snow and hail and lightning and thunder? Job, do you understand what's going on? God also listed the wild animals, the bears, the lions, the mountain goats, the wild dogs, the ostriches. Consider their ways, Job. Do you know why they do what they do? Even domestic animals like horses, consider that horse, Job. Do you know how it gallops?

Do you know how it works? And then in chapters 40 and 41, God mentions dinosaurs. Now I find that very interesting. How fascinating that Job is over there scratching himself, crying at the same time. The ground is still soft where his children are buried. And God is saying, let me tell you about dinosaurs, Job. What would you all have done?

He would have said, okay, God, the dinosaur stuff is all cool and well. Maybe children will enjoy that. I want to have some hope, some truth. Give me some, give me some, this one liner that I can kind of hang over my, you know, dashboard or somewhere that I can look at it as I go through difficult time. Can you give me a book?

Is there a podcast? Something. Hey, listen, God will do that. There are places where God will encourage you with a book, with a message, with a podcast.

Somebody will come around and put their arm around you and help you get through your trial. There's a place for that. But many times I believe we're not listening to what God is saying. The way he spoke to Job, the oldest book in the Bible, where God is saying, let me pull back the curtain of life and let you see the world and see how small you are. Job, I care about you. If I can care about all this, I will care about you.

I have never been so encouraged by dinosaurs. I know, right? Well, the thing is with Job, Job is such a quintessential book when it comes to like perseverance and suffering and patience and trusting in God. But then also just reconciling who God is, his position as the living true God, his position and his sovereignty over all creation. Job is a master class on, I think, even just the character of God.

You know what I mean? Like not just my role in trusting him, but also just who he is, his establishment as the king and the ruler and the sovereign of the entire universe. And without messages like this, you may look at those passages in Job, because I mean, kind of like what David, what you were saying earlier, we get this response from God and it's just sort of like fast forward to the end. Like, yeah, Job, you shouldn't question God.

The end. But God points Job to these massive beasts, these incredible displays of his power and creativity and wonder. I mean, you have the behemoth who's like thundering along with trunk-like legs. And then you have the Leviathan who, I mean, the Bible says that fire comes from his mouth.

What kind of sea creature in the world are we talking about here? These are dinosaurs. These are mighty beasts and symbols of God's power. And then the message there is, God or Job, do you see these creatures?

Do you see these incredible beasts that no one can tame, no one can overthrow? I made them. Remember who it is that you're talking to. Number one, so that you can be respectful. Number two, so that you can trust that I'm able to work in your life. Just like I created these massive displays of power. I'm a powerful God. I'm a miraculous God. I'm a God who is far above your concept of what I can be. So trust that I am able to hold your life in the palm of my hand.

Yeah. Doing the right thing and checking the right boxes doesn't guarantee blessings in life. And we see that because Job, I mean, the whole book opens up, I think it's in the very first verse, it tells us that Job was a blameless, upright man who feared God and he turned away from evil. So it's not that he just did the right things.

His heart was also in the right place. Like he had a heart of worship, but his life still unravels. And so it's not that Job's suffering came because he was bad or he did the wrong things, or even that his heart was wrong. His sufferings actually came through his unwavering faithfulness to God. I think Pastor Josh said it, you know, Satan had to get permission before he even touched Job. And even before he touches us, you know, he has to get that permission. So sometimes it could be that our faithfulness actually causes our suffering.

And that's something that we don't really ever think about, but it's something that the next time you're under attack, you have to reconcile that, that not only is God allowing this, God gave express permission for it to happen. Yeah. Yeah.

He signed off on it. Absolutely. You know, I think back to difficult times in my life and seasons that were rough. And certainly they felt bad in the moment, like while we were going through that.

But I can always see, you know, looking back, I can see ways that God was kind of working and growing and shaping me. Not that I would ever say that the situation is good, but God is good. We talked about that in our summer sports camp just a few weeks ago, like, hey, boys and girls. And this is, I mean, this is like fifth grade and down that we're talking to. I was like, boys and girls, sometimes life is bad. You know, we can't excuse everything. We can't, you know, say this might seem bad, but this is actually good because no, let's call bad things bad. Let's, let's say that bad days are bad.

Let's say that hurtful things are hurtful. But even when life is bad, God is good. That's right. And it's important for us to remember that. I think it's important for us to remember that God is sovereign over all things. And even the things that take us by surprise and sort of send us reeling had to pass through God's hand first.

That's right. And blessings aren't always going to feel good. Blessings aren't always going to be something that we get to enjoy.

We'll benefit from them, but it may be painful in the short term. And it may be something that, you know, we have to see through to the end. And he's more powerful than your circumstances. He's more powerful than the enemy who's asking for permission to attack you.

I mean, think about the fact that like Satan had to keep going back and asking for more. He attacked Job and he said, look, watch, he's going to curse you. And then he doesn't do it. So he's like, all right, but do this.

And he will. And that's so his nature. And that's so our nature of sin is that it doesn't work. So I'm going to do a little bit more and then that doesn't work. And that doesn't give me someone to go a little further and a little further each time.

He doesn't start off by just completely annihilating Job. He does it little by little by little to where it's like, okay, we've established a new normal, right? So this is our new normal.

Let's go a little bit further and a little bit further. And I feel like that's so like, that's me. Like when I sin, that's how I'm going to do it. I'm never going to just start off by like killing someone or like, just straight out the deep end. Yeah.

Just like dropping a bomb on a city or something. I'm always going to start with a little bit by little bit by little bit and not allow myself to stop or really not let the Holy Spirit work in my life so that I can stop. That's right. What we want you to remember is that God is powerful. He is sovereign. He's in control even over the moments that in your life that feel out of control. And even on your worst days, God is still good.

And he is still working for your good and for his glory. If you enjoyed today's episode, if you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. You can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on ClearView Today.