In the movie Bruce Almighty, TV reporter Bruce Nolan complains once too often about how God is running the world. So, God puts Nolan in charge for a while to see how he will cope. It's a silly movie, and possibly rather blasphemous. But the main point is to laugh at the complete mess that this complaining reporter gets into when he tries to run the world.

In the Lord's second speech (Job 40:6-41:34), God again asks Job to ″brace yourself like a man, I will question you, and you shall answer me″ (40:7; see 38:3). He rebukes Job for discrediting His justice and condemning Him (vv. 6-8). Job still has not learned what he needs to learn. The second speech is more than a postscript to the first. For in this second speech, God says something much greater than He does in the first.

In verses 9-14, God gives Job an imaginary challenge. Why don't you put on My royal robes, Job? Go on, ″adorn yourself with glory and splendour, and clothe yourself in honour and majesty″ (v. 10). Then, when you have put on My royal and judicial clothes, set about being angry with proud, wicked people (vv. 11-12). And don't just be angry with them; bring them down to the ″dust″–that is, end their lives (v. 13). Bring them right down to the place of the dead. And then, when you have dealt with all the wicked, ″I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you″ (v. 14). Go on, have a go! But of course, wickedness is much too strong and perplexing for Job to deal with on his own. Only the judge of all the earth (Genesis 18:25) can do this.

After this, there is a portrait of a magnificent and frightening land creature called ″Behemoth″ (Job 40:15-24). Some have thought this to be a hippopotamus, for there are some similarities. Behemoth is very strong, lives by the river, and eats grass. But it would seem that Behemoth (which means something like ″super beast″) refers to something supernatural or extinct, something more frightening than you could ever find in a zoo today. Perhaps he is Death personified, a far cry from the persona of death we sometimes see drawn in cartoons– a hooded figure with a sickle.

Job not only cannot defeat this beast, but he doesn't understand how this victory will be achieved. For it will only be by the death of Jesus Christ in the place of sinners, that the devil and death itself will be defeated (Hebrews 2:14). And yet, even though Job does not understand this, by a strange paradox, his innocent sufferings foreshadow that great and future victory.