Job 38 - 42

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Job 38 - 42

The section of the book of Job, chapters 38 - 42, features God speaking to Job in passing references. The exact message God conveys to Job remains unknown. However, it is a recurring theme in Psalms, particularly in nature Psalms, that God sets boundaries for natural elements such as oceans and rivers. God further draws attention to animals that are fed regularly, even among predators, and describes their pride and courage. The speaker suggests that God's speech in this section of Job may have been intended as poetic speech for man's meditation in the future.

Transcript

In the end of the book of Job, we have God speaking. Job's friends and Elihu, who was not formerly apparently a friend of his, but was fairly friendly, friendlier than his friends, actually, they've all spoken, and Job has spoken, and everyone's done, and really nothing has been solved. And so God appears, God shows up in the story and speaks, and he speaks at length for about four chapters, and of course, we anticipate when we see God coming out of the scene that we're going to then get the final word, and we do, we get the final word, but the final word doesn't answer any of the questions.

He does not, actually, in God's speeches, he doesn't even make reference to Job's trials at all. He does make reference to Job's words, so Elihu may be correct in saying that God doesn't have any complaints about Job's behavior previous to his trials, but after his trials, his words have needed some correcting, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, and God does make some passing references to Job's words, but not very much. God seems to just have something He wants to talk about, and He just talks about it, and what He talks about is nature.

He likes to point out things from nature. Now, some of the speeches previously have done this. They pointed out the things that God knows that man doesn't know, and the things that God does that are astonishing to man, and giving examples from nature has been fairly much a commonplace in the earlier speeches, that God has some other things he wants to talk about.

And there's a sense in which he's his whole speech is a rebuke to Job, but it's kind of a friendly review. We don't see God coming out in flashes of wrath and and lightning bolts and so forth. We see him kind of just kind of correcting Job in a way that doesn't seem very hostile.

And the biggest question I have in this whole section is, how did God speak these things to Job? We're told in verse one, Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, and that's it. Now, later on, Job said he is seeing God with his eye. In chapter 42, verse 5, he says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

And this gives the impression that God appeared visibly and spoke audibly out of a whirlwind. Now, a whirlwind is like a like a tornado. And it is possible that an actual tornado came and hovered there while these speeches were coming out of the tornado in a booming voice.

And therefore, you know, we just take it quite literally like that. On the other hand, of course, we have a whole book that's made up of poetry and the poets often speak of God speaking through natural things. In fact, Elihu has spoken about God doing that already, just in his last speech about how God speaks through the thundering of the thunder and of the lightning and so forth.

And there's many other places in the wisdom literature and, for example, in the Psalms, in which we we read such things that God speaks out of clouds or out of whirlwinds or things like that when it's not really literally talking about a theophany of God appearing and speaking, but rather God's voice being heard by a perceptive person who's observing natural phenomena, which are the works of God. They hear God speaking through these things in Psalm 18, 13, for example, Psalm 18, 13, says Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, the most high uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Now, apparently this is not about a storm, but it's spoken of as if God is speaking through this storm, this thundering sound in the heavens, this hailstorm.

It's indicated that God is speaking in that. In chapter 29 of the Psalms, Psalm 29 and verse 3, it says, The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders.

The Lord is over many waters. And he says, The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like a calf.

Lebanon and Syrian, like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.

The Lord shakes the wilderness. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to give birth. And strips the forest there.

And it's in his temple. Everyone says glory. Now, it's not clear exactly how the psalmist is thinking of the voice of the Lord here.

He mentions what might be natural phenomena, cedars splitting, deers giving birth, fire and other seemingly natural phenomenon being mentioned. And he sees the voice of the Lord behind these things or maybe in them. It's hard to say.

When Elijah expected to hear the voice of the Lord and second or first Kings chapter 19, we are told that the voice Lord came as a still small voice to him. But before it did, there were dramatic natural or maybe supernatural phenomena that they're they're like natural phenomena, perhaps supernaturally brought about. Which it says the Lord wasn't in those God wasn't speaking in those to Elijah.

This is in first Kings, 19, 11 and 12. Elijah went into a cave and expected to hear from God. And in verse 11, he said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord and the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord.

But the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake and after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord is not in the fire and after the fire, a still small voice. And as it turned out, when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Now, God. God spoke to Elijah, not in the in this case, not in the earthquake or in the fire or in the windstorm, but in a small voice. But in saying that God wasn't speaking in those other ways, it's I mean, that would that would go without saying, unless perhaps it was thought that he was expected to speak in those things.

Elijah thought God would speak in these dramatic ways, and he didn't. Instead, he spoke in a quiet, still small voice. But as Elihu has said earlier in his speeches, God speaks to people different ways.

He speaks in dreams and visions. He speaks through persons. He speaks through sufferings.

And in the Bible, certainly one of the ways that God speaks to people is through their contemplation on the works of God and the ways of God. Now, what the speeches of the Lord here are definitely meditations on the works of God. How he created the stars, how he feeds the wild animals, how he controls the sea, how he does these things, which a man might be just contemplate those things and God would speak to him through them.

It wouldn't be surprising. If something that God simply gave a man through meditation on these things was later put down in the Book of Job as a poetic speech, it's as I said earlier, it's possible that all the speeches were originally not poetic. It's possible that the poetry is a literary development of what was said, but was originally said without the poetic flourish.

We really don't know. I guess what I'm saying is I don't know whether we have here a picture of God's voice booming audibly so everyone can hear these words, this poetry that God's speaking to Job. Or if it's like after Elihu spoke, Job began to quiet his heart more and to contemplate.

He might have even seen a tornado in which he felt like, wow, there's the power of God there. And he begins to contemplate all the powerful things that God has done. And God speaks to him through that.

I don't know. I don't have any real problem with God's voice booming out of a tornado because God can do that. But it'd be such an amazing thing and such a rare thing, because like I said in an earlier lecture, God never did that any other time that we know of, except at Mount Sinai.

And Mount Sinai was a history changing moment. Whereas the correction of one man, Job, doesn't seem like something on the same level of significance. And we don't find God speaking like that at other times.

Well, I mean, sometimes there is a booming voice from heaven, even in Jesus ministry, a voice from heaven was heard a few times that spoke, but not whole speeches, usually a sentence, a word. And when it happens, some said it thundered, according to John 12. God spoke from heaven and some said it thundered.

Others said an angel spoke. But the point is, we don't have anywhere that God giving such long discourses audibly out of a, you know, with a big voice out of the sky. But he could have.

I'm just not sure which way it was. And so I'm just telling you, I don't know. But this is the message of God that came to Job chapter 38.

Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements.

Surely, you know, or who stretched the line upon it. To what were its foundations fastened or who laid the cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Obviously, it's this verse, probably more than any other, that seems to point to the sons of God in Job in the earlier chapters that mentioned them being a reference to angels rather than human godly men. Because here we have a reference to the sons of God who are parallel with the morning stars singing and shouting for joy at the time that God laid the foundations of the earth.

There are certainly no men around at that time. Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, when I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, when I said this far you may come, but no farther. And here your proud waves must stop.

It's a recurring theme in many of the Psalms, especially the nature songs that God set the boundary for the sea that it must not pass over when those when that theme appears in the Psalms. It may well have been informed by this earlier speech that God has given to Job. The imagery is that God is giving orders to the sea.

You can go this far. You can't go further. And that's why we have shorelines.

And in general, we don't have the waves going beyond a certain limit. Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it? It takes on form like clay under a seal and stands out like a garment. From the wicked, their light is withheld and the upraised arm is broken.

That is, the arm that gets upraised in defiance against God eventually is broken by God defiance resistance is futile. Have you entered the springs of the sea? Now there I wonder if there really are springs of the sea. You know, many times lakes and certainly rivers originate from a spring of water coming out of the ground.

But this implies that there's water, perhaps springs that feed the sea. In the story of the flood, it says that the deep, the fountains of the great deep were broken up to add to the waters that came down from the sky to flood the earth. I don't know enough about oceanography to know about this.

I guess what we do know about a spring of the sea right now, that's springing out oil in the sea. But whether water comes up from the subterranean fountains or not, I'm not able to say. Perhaps someone here knows.

But it's an interesting picture. The sea being fed, its water being fed from under the earth's surface like springs. Have you walked in search of the depth? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me if you know all this.

God is obviously saying, well, I know all these things. I'm the one who does these things. When did you ever do anything like this? Do you even understand this? Do you even know where to find such things as these? Where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place that you may take it to its territory, that you may know its paths to its home? Now, he's personifying these things.

Light and darkness are sort of like they have to be guided to their proper places. Do you know where to find them and bring them out and take them to their proper places? You don't. God is the one who guides the light and the darkness.

Do you know it because you were born then or because the number of your days is great? This is sarcastic, of course, so obviously you weren't born when God created the light and brought it out of darkness and so forth. Have you entered the treasury of the snow or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of the battle and war? By what way is light diffused or the east wind scattered over the earth? And he pictures it as if he's got these great vaults up in heaven full of snow and hail just waiting for the proper days to pour it out. Even in battle, God pours out hail sometimes to make war, as he did in the days of Joshua on the enemies of Israel.

But it's figurative language. Of course, God is not really sane and nor is nor is the author of Job, assuming that somewhere up in the sky there's this big vault full of snow. He's already expressed awareness of the process of precipitation and evaporation and so forth.

Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water or a path for the thunderbolt to cause it to rain on a land where there is no one, a wilderness in which there is no man? In other words, who's going to keep who keeps the wilderness water? If you have a if you have a field and you're growing grain, you water it. But who waters these trees? Who waters the field where there's no man to take care of it? Man can take care of a little tiny spot of ground and water it and grow things on it. God grows things all over the world in the wilderness where no one is there to take care of it.

That's what he's saying. To satisfy the desolate waste, to cause the spring forth the growth of tender grass, has the rain a father or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice and the frost of heaven? Who gives it birth? The waters harden like stone. You start with freezing and the surface of the deep is frozen.

Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose the belt of Orion? These are obviously constellations, star constellations. The belt of Orion is it's interesting that these well-known constellations were known by names, the same names even back then. Astronomy, they say, is the oldest, the most ancient exact science that man ever developed.

Long before other natural sciences even were dreamed of, people were studying the stars and recognizing the regularities and of course navigating their ships by them and things like that. And way back in this oldest book in the world, there's reference to these constellations that we still recognize. Can you bring out Maseroth in its season? Now Maseroth means the zodiac actually.

The actual meaning of the word Maseroth, if you look up its etymology, is obscure, but almost all commentators believe this is a reference to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Can you guide the great bear with its cubs? Again, this is not talking about animals. They come up later on.

It's talking about the constellation called the great bear. Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set the dominion over the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds that the abundance of water, that the abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings that they go and say to you, here we are, and that they may go and say to you, here we are. I just want to comment on this because once in a while you'll see these apologetics treatments trying to prove that the Bible is the word of God, which it is.

But one of the proofs they bring up is how they say the Bible anticipated so many of the scientific things of our own time. And it just proves that it's of God, because certain things that we have now in technology are predicted in the Bible, they say. For example, in Amos, there's a reference to the chariots jostling in the streets.

And they say that's a reference to our modern freeways, which it isn't. But I mean, it's like they're looking for anything that bears the slightest resemblance to something today. And I've seen a track that actually uses this verse, 35.

Can you send out lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are? If you look, this is predicting radio and television, sending out electrical signals and they speak to you and they say, here we are. Well, they're missing the whole point, of course. First of all, this is not about the future.

This is not a prediction of something. This is talking about real lightning, as everything else in the chapter is talking about real natural phenomena. Not talking about technology.

He's saying, are you the one that the lightnings answer to and report to? He is saying that he, God, is the one who sends the lightning bolts out on their missions and they don't come to you, Job, and ask what their assignment is from you. Who has put wisdom in the mind? Who has given understanding to the heart? Who can number the clouds by wisdom or who can pour out the bottles of heaven? When the dust hardens and clumps and the clods cling together. That is now when you've got drought and the dust is all dry, the earth is like dust and clods and you want water.

Who can get the heavens to pour out their bottles of water? Well, only God can. Man is helpless in these areas. Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of the young lions when they crouch in their dens or lurk in their lairs to lie in wait? Who provides food for the raven? When its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food.

The mention of wild animals here being fed, no doubt, calls to mind the fact that Job was aware of feeding domestic animals. He had had thousands of camels and sheep and donkeys and so forth. And therefore, he knew how expensive it is, how much work it is to feed just that much livestock.

But God says, now who's out there feeding all the lions and the ravens and all the wild animals that you're not feeding? How much food does that take? How much attention, how much care to keep all of those animals fed? And yet the wild animals are fed just as regularly as yours are, as your livestock is fed. Someone's out there taking care of them. But you couldn't do that if that was your assignment, you'd be overwhelmed.

God does all that and he's not overwhelmed by it. Chapter 39, do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young or can you mark when the deer gives birth? Can you number the months that they fulfill or how do you know the time when they bear young or do you know the time when they bear young? They bow down, they bring forth their young, they deliver their offspring, their young ones are healthy and they grow strong with grain and they depart and do not return to them. Now, once again, all this reference to the wild animals and this whole chapter is going to be about how God takes care of the wild animals and Job does not.

It calls to attention the fact that there are far more animals being fed on a regular basis without the help of man than there are domesticated animals. You've got the deer. Now, when maybe when the ewes were bearing lambs in his flocks, you know, they probably were able to have their lambs without much attention.

But there might have been times when they had to help the help the birth along. There had to be some attention sometimes to it. But no one is there to give attention to the deer bearing its young.

And yet they bear healthy young and their young grow up and become independent of their parents without any human help at all. Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager? The onager is apparently a type of wild donkey. Whose home I have made the wilderness and the barren land is his dwelling.

Now, once again, this is in contrast to the donkeys that Job had. He had a lot of donkeys himself, but they all had to be cared for. They all had to be fed and so forth.

And yet God says, I've got my donkeys, too. And no one cares for them but me. Who takes care of them? You think you're important? Because your donkeys need you? Well, donkeys don't need you if they've got me because I can take care of them, too.

I make barren lands their dwelling. They live in the wilderness and those bear out among predators. They have to forage.

They don't have anyone bringing them fodder. And yet they get by because God takes care of them. The range of the mountains is his pasture.

He searches after every green thing. Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger? Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you? Will you trust him because of his strength being great? Or will you leave your labor to him? Will you trust him to bring home your grain and to gather it to your threshing floor? Again, we have read that Job had many yokes of oxen that used to plow for him. In fact, they were killed or stolen by raiders.

But there are wild oxen, too, that you can't get them to plow for you. The wings of the ostrich wave proudly. But are her wings and pinions like the kindly storks? For she leaves her eggs on the ground and warms them in the dust.

She forgets that a foot may crush them or that a wild beast may break them. She treats her young harshly as though they were not hers. Her labor is in vain, without concern.

Because God deprives her of wisdom and does not endow her with understanding. When she lifts herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider. Now, the ostrich is interesting in a way that they do actually treat their young with cruelty.

They do not treat their young well and they act like they're not theirs. They lay their eggs in the ground, of course, unlike most birds that nest in the trees. He says the ostrich is so stupid, doesn't realize if you lay your egg on the ground, someone may step on it and break it.

It's amazing they survive at all. And yet they're so proud of themselves. They wave their their wings proudly, even though they're not beautiful like a stork.

An ostrich is far from beautiful. It's ugly. And yet it's proud of itself.

Why? Because it's foolish. It doesn't know better than not to be proud. It doesn't even know how to take care of its young.

God has not given it wisdom. Perhaps this is given as a picture of a man who is acting proud of his wisdom or something like that. And he looks as foolish as an ostrich does, who isn't wise and just thinks it's beautiful.

Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror. He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength. He gallops into the clash of arms.

He mocks its fear and is not frightened, nor does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and javelin. He devours the distance with fierceness and rage.

Nor does he stand firm because the trumpet is sounded at the blast of the trumpet. He says, aha. He smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains and shouting.

Now, what he's, of course, describing here is the courage of a horse in battle. Animals usually run away from danger. That's their instinct.

I mean, can you imagine very many animals that you could ride into battle, into the clash of arms with clanging metal and things like that, that freak out? Most animals, including domestic animals. The horse is pretty unusual that way. It can be taught to be courageous, to run right into danger and not care.

And it's not a stupid animal. Horses are intelligent animals. And yet God has put this courage in him.

He's talking about animals having traits like this. But, you know, it almost puts humans to shame. And yet God has made the horse this way.

God has given it its courage. God is the author of this. It's a mysterious thing to man.

Why? I mean, until you become too accustomed to it. We're so accustomed to horses being domesticated and used in war and so forth, as they were. But when you stop and think about it, it's really an amazing thing to have a horse that will serve man, an animal that will serve man, even at the risk of its life, going into battle up against swords and javelins and so forth that can kill it.

But it doesn't. I mean, animals have survival instincts. But the horse almost like ignores its survival instinct because it almost loves to go to battle.

It says, aha, when it hears the trumpet blast, which means, oh, good, I get to go fight. It's going to war. It smells the battle from afar and it's excited about it.

Does the hawk fly by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south? Does the eagle mount up at your command and make its nest on high? It dwells on the rock and resides on the crag of the rock in the stronghold. From there it spies out the prey, its eyes observed from afar, its young ones suck up blood, and where the slain are, there it is. Now, the fact that eagles and hawks can see their prey from afar, I guess an ancient man could have known this, although this is God speaking, so God could reveal that even if men didn't know they have it.

We know now that the eagle's eyes are so much more able to see clearly in a distance than we can. They're like, they have like telescopic vision. And and yet I don't know how an ancient person writing this would know this.

I mean, this says it's God speaking. I think that's probably the best explanation of how this information got in here, because I don't I mean, sure, they could say, well, the eagle's way up there. It sees its prey, so it sees it from afar off.

But if we can see the eagle, then it's not seen any better than we are to see us. And if it can see us and we can see it, that's not so exceptional. But an eagle up on the crag of the rock sees in the distance its prey and then goes swooping on it.

Just the there is there is observation being made of the exceptional vision of eagles and hawks and especially eagles. And I don't I'm not I'm really not sure how ancient people would have come to appreciate that as fully as we can. Now, that last line where the slain are there, it is that is there is the eagle.

The eagle is wherever there are dead people or dead dead things. Now, some people said eagles, they're not carrying birds. So this is not technically true.

They don't they don't feast on dead things. They hunt live prey and that this should be a reference maybe to vultures instead. But I always kind of thought that might be true because I didn't know much about eagles until I lived in Idaho.

And then we actually saw eagles. There are a lot of bald eagles we have a chance to observe flying over the river and things like that. And yeah, they do.

Of course, they hunt live prey. They hunt fish and they hunt a small game. But then once there was a dead deer or a dead cow or something by the side of the road where we lived and once you go in, there were four eagles on it pecking at it.

So I guess they don't just they're not that picky. You know, they do eat dead stuff, too. And that's what God said.

God said where the slain are. There it is. Now, this, I think, became like a proverb.

It probably originated from this verse in Job, but Jesus says twice in his in his talks, once is in the 17th chapter of Luke and once in Matthew 24, he said, where the eagles or the corpse is there, the eagles will be gathered, which is obviously a restatement of this verse. But he doesn't make it in the same context in the two places. In one place, he seems to be talking about Jerusalem being overrun by the Romans and Jerusalem is like a corpse and the Romans are like the eagles coming in, swooping in on it.

That's in his quotation of it in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 28. But in Luke 17, he also uses this proverb, Luke 17, 37, when he talks about the judgment, when Jesus comes back and judges the wicked, and he talks about one will be taken and the other be left and the disciples say, where, Lord, that is, where will they be taken? And he says, where the where the corpse is there, the eagles will be gathered. That is, those who are taken in the judgment are corpses.

And you can find them by looking for the eagles, because they'll always gather on corpses. But the point is, in two different contexts, he makes this statement where the where the corpse is, the eagles will be gathered. And it seems like it may have become just a proverb.

It's not really very different than our than our American proverb, where there's smoke, there's fire. You know, if you see smoke, you know, there's fire somewhere under it. In the distance, you can see smoke.

Well, you can deduce there's fire because that's what produces smoke. It's like where there's corpses, there's eagles. You want to find the corpses, look for the eagles, look for the birds that are going to be feasting on them.

And that appeared to become sort of a truism in later Hebrew. I mean, Jesus' use of it sounds like it, but it would have originated, apparently, from here. Now, Chapter 40.

Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, but only with a few sentences. Behold, I am vile.

What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice. But I will proceed no further.

So essentially, Job repents here. He says, I've spoken when I shouldn't have spoken. I won't do that again.

Sounds like he's repented. And therefore, it would seem that there doesn't need to be any more rebuke. But God continues.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Remember, Job said that I'd like to prepare a case to confront God in court.

God says, OK, you've got your day in court. Let me ask you some questions. You're the witness.

I'll be the interrogator here. Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like his? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath.

Look on everyone who is proud and humble him. These are things God can do. It's challenging Job to try to do the same things.

Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low. Tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together.

Bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you. As when you do a few of the things I do regularly, then I'll I'll be impressed and I'll admit that you can do something for yourself.

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 theater. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like the beams of iron.

His ribs like bars of iron. He is the first of the ways of God. Apparently the first ranking, the most impressive, only he who made him can bring near his sword.

Surely the mountains yield food for him and all the beasts of the field play there. He lies under the lotus trees in a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade.

The willows by the brooks around him, indeed, the river may rage, yet he's not disturbed. He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, though he takes it in his eyes or one pierces his nose with a snare. Now, the behemoth is not a known animal.

That is, there is no modern animal that is known to have been called behemoth by the ancient Hebrews. And therefore, this animal is not able to be identified except by its description. In other words, the word behemoth doesn't help us because there is no species of known animals that was known by that name.

So the description is what we must go by. Now, I personally think that behemoth was a dinosaur. I don't think anything else would fit the description quite so well.

There are some modern animals that come close to fitting the description, if you allow for a certain amount of hyperbole. And of course, God is referring to an animal that Job is familiar with. He's talked about horses and wild oxen and eagles.

And now he talks about behemoth. And everything God's talked about so far is something familiar to Job, and he's assuming that Job is familiar with these creatures. So behemoth is a creature that Job would have known, would have seen.

And modern science, modern evolutionary science, tells us that no one ever lived alongside dinosaurs. Dinosaurs died out millions of years before man came along. And therefore, those commentators that are influenced by that view of modern evolutionary science, they can't allow what would seem otherwise like an obvious conclusion.

The description is the description of a giant monster of some kind, not really a threat to man because it eats vegetation, but still so huge. Its bones are like bars of iron. And pretty much no one could conquer the animal, no one could kill it.

Only God could bring his sword to it. If he wants to kill it, he can, but no one else can. The hippopotamus is sometimes thought to be the animal here referred to, but he doesn't work.

And the elephant would be the other one. Elephant and hippo both are large animals that have strong bones and could possibly be seen in rivers because elephants like to frolic in rivers and wallows. And so forth and rivers and hippopotamus live in rivers.

And so and they eat a lot. One could say if one wished to use hyperbole, they could eat up the whole hillside of food. The problem is they don't fit the entire description very adequately.

The most obvious thing that everyone points out, and rightly so, is this creature has an impressive tail. And hippos and elephants have very small tails. If you're going to describe the majesty of one of these creatures, you're not going to make a reference to their tail.

You'll make reference to other things. They are huge, but their tails are not one of the things you'd mention. And certainly you would mention in these terms that he moves his tail like a cedar.

A cedar is a large tree. This creature has a tail that moves about like a tree. The creature actually must be no smaller than an elephant or else the elephant would be the chief of the ways of God.

This is the most impressive animal God has made, apparently the largest. So it can't be less than an elephant, but it can't be an elephant either, because it doesn't really describe an elephant. Has to be something bigger than that, bigger than any known animal to us.

And one that has a huge tail. And there really aren't any living animals like that that have huge tails. Reptiles are the one type of animal that have huge tails.

Some of them do. Mammals generally don't have huge tails. It could be a sea creature, but it's not because it eats up the hillside.

I mean, some sea creatures have huge tails like whales do. But as far as land animals, we're going to have to deal mainly with reptiles here. And usually lizard like reptiles are the ones that have the tails.

Crocodiles too have tails. But this is not a crocodile because it's again, a crocodile is a carnivore. And most lizards are too.

This is an herbivore and it's bigger than an elephant. And I think to make it out to be something like what we think of as a brontosaurus or brachiosaurus or something like that, some large herbivorous, monstrous dinosaur. A brachiosaurus is like those animals that were first shown if you saw Jurassic Park when they first got to Jurassic Park and they saw those long necked creatures.

They are considered to be one of the longest, one of the biggest of the dinosaurs. And yet they ate grass and vegetation primarily. And if it's not a dinosaur, it isn't anything we know about.

But we do know about dinosaurs. And so to me, it seems to me that this raises questions as to the current orthodoxy of science that dinosaurs all died out before men were around to observe them. Because this creature is observed.

Job knows of it. And if you just take it at face value, it does appear to be what we would today call a dinosaur. What species, we can't say for sure.

But the word dinosaur is a generic term for all. Dinosaur means terrible lizard in Latin. And it's a term that's given to all of the different huge reptilian species that once roamed the earth and don't appear to be around anymore.

And we have another one in chapter 41, says, can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? Now, Leviathan is a term that's used a number of places in the Bible. And commentators like to point out that Leviathan was a name for a mythical creature among the Canaanites. The Canaanites had a mythical sea monster called Leviathan that they spoke about.

But maybe it wasn't so mythical. Maybe there really was a sea monster. And only modern men think it's mythical because either they've totally died off or else they've made themselves scarce and we don't see them.

In any case, Leviathan here is treated very much like a real creature, not a mythical creature, because it talks about the well-known invulnerability of this creature to such things as spears and arrows and rocks, sling stones and so forth. Nothing can defeat it. And yet this is not a grass-eating, marsh-dwelling creature like the behemoth.

This is a carnivore. Its teeth are brimming with, its mouth is brimming with sharp teeth. At the very sight of it, people faint.

This is a large carnivorous, probably reptile. It talks about its scales. There's not many scaly creatures.

I mean, there are fish and reptiles have scales. Basically, that exhausts the possibilities. It's not a fish because although it does go in the water, it also goes on land and people fight them on land.

So it's a reptile. Once again, those who don't believe that dinosaurs and man ever dwelt together on the same planet at the same time, they would say this is a reference to the crocodile. And in almost all respects, it does resemble a crocodile, except a crocodile is not invulnerable.

A crocodile has fairly tough, scaly skin, it's true, but you can pierce it with a spear easily enough or with an arrow. But this creature, when you shoot arrows against its scales, they break against its scales like they were made of grass, like they were made of dry grass, the arrows. And so we're talking about something much more formidable than a crocodile.

And I mean, as you read the description, it even talks about it breathing fire. Which, if it's literal, that certainly is not a crocodile either. Let's just look at what it says.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose or pierce his jaws with a hook? You could with a crocodile, but not with Leviathan. Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? In other words, can you domesticate him? Can you make a pet of him? Will he play? Can you play with him as with a bird or will you leash him for your maidens so they can take him for a walk? Will your companions make a banquet of him? You're not even going to eat him. You know, you have to kill him first.

You can't do that. Will they apportion him among the merchants? By the way, the fact that he assumes that you cannot make a meal of him means it's not a crocodile or any other known reptile that's alive today that we can find because people do eat crocodile. It's not a common delicacy for most civilized people, but they are edible and they are eaten.

This creature has never been eaten by men because not because it's not tasty, but because no one can get can find out if it's tasty or not, because people apparently are tasty to it. Can you fill his skin with harpoons? The implicate it implies, no, you can't. Or his head with fishing spears, lay your hand on him, remember the battle, never do that again.

There's you try to engage him in battle and you'll never you'll learn your lesson. You'll never try that a second time. Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is vain.

Shall not one be overwhelmed at the very sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare to stir him up. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has preceded me that I should pay him everything under him in his mind, as I'm greater than Leviathan, I can take care of Leviathan. I made him, I control him.

You're afraid of him, you should be more afraid of me. I will not conceal his limbs. He continues talking about his mighty power or his graceful proportions.

This does not seem like a crocodile either. Crocodiles don't have impressive limbs, they have short little stubby legs. They're not exactly graceful either.

I suppose in the water they might be seen to be graceful, a little awkward on land. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? You're going to put a bridle on him and ride him like a horse? Who can open the doors of his face with his terrible teeth all around? His rows of scales are his pride. Shut up tightly as with a seal.

One is so near another that no air can come between them. He's got a watertight and even airtight coat of scales. They're joined one to another, they stick together, they cannot be parted.

His sneezing splashed forth light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Apparently his eyes kind of seem to glow.

If you got fire in your head, I guess your eyes would glow, wouldn't they? From the outside. Like windows. It says, out of his mouth go burning lights, sparks of fire shoot out.

Smoke goes out from his nostrils as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals and a flame goes out of his mouth. Strength dwells in his neck and sorrow dances before him.

Now, let's just talk for a moment about this fire-breathing sock. What's that about? Certainly crocodiles don't breathe fire, although in fact, no animal we know of breathes fire. In fact, we don't even know that any dinosaur ever breathes fire.

Although there are all over the world legends about fire-breathing dragons that go back a long time. China, some of the oldest civilizations have very old legends about dragons. And the dragons are depicted as reptilian creatures and very huge.

They may be remembrances of this creature when it used to terrorize humanity. In some lands, they worshiped dragons. Perhaps that was a way of placating this creature.

They didn't know any way to keep it from coming and eating all their children and their cattle. So they tried to placate it with sacrifices or something. But it's interesting how many different lands believe that there were dragons and that there were fire-breathing dragons.

I mean, that's a strange thing to imagine. Fire-breathing? It's normal for us because we've seen fire-breathing dragons in cartoons and stuff from the time we were young. But think about it.

If you've never had the concept of a dragon breathing fire, you've never seen an animal that breathes fire. The concept is crazy. You might have some little land somewhere come up with an imaginary animal that breathes fire.

But why would you have that in all these different countries coming up independently? I don't know. It's possible, of course, that some of the things that were observed, like, you know, when a whale blows its air hole open and there's all steam, perhaps if it was seen in the early morning and the sunlight made it look red, they might think that's smoke or fire coming out. But this isn't a whale.

And, you know, there are animals that have strange powers, even today. You know, I'm sure. There are, well, everyone knows about electric eels.

All living things generate electricity. Our life systems are electrical. But some have the ability to create high voltage.

An electric eel, really, if you grab it, you'll be electrocuted, like grabbing a live wire. It's incredible. You don't think of an animal generating high-voltage electricity, but some do.

And there are some that generate light, like some of the deep-sea fishes that they only know about in recent times. Since we've got bathyspheres and bathyscaphes, we can go down to the deep sea where there's no light. There are fish that have been discovered that have, like a fishing pole growing out of their head with a light that attracts fish that are its food.

It's like bait. It's like fishing with a lure. And the lure is something that is light.

Well, we know fireflies generate light. I mean, there are insects, there are fish. There are creatures of many kinds that generate electricity, light, even explosive heat.

You may have heard about the bombardier beetle, which actually has in its body the chemicals necessary to combine to make an explosion of, as I understand it, I've never seen one in action except in pictures. I've seen videos of them, but I've never seen one in real life. But apparently they shoot up this really hot steam out of their rear end at their enemies.

So like a skunk sprays with a foul-smelling musk, the bombardier beetle sprays out like really hot steam. Is that what it is? Is it hot steam? And it's got these chemicals that God put in his body to generate this heat that sprays out against his enemies. Now, we don't know anything that breathes fire.

But the things we do know are just as weird. That there could be creatures that once lived that did breathe fire is not impossible. And to say, well, that just sounds so mythical only because we have so many myths about it.

But where did the myths come from? Why do people generate myths about something so strange as that? Why does God speak to Job as if he knows of such creatures? As if he's seen this, as if his generation has. And remember, even if someone didn't think that this was an inspired book and didn't think that God was speaking these words, still, whoever wrote it thought his readers would be familiar with this. The writer was writing at a time when the reader would be expected to know about this creature, because the impression of the author is to make an impression on the reader.

And so, I mean, we really have to consider that there were animals that did breathe fire, sparks of fire. And it's not it's not so far fetched when you think of some of the things that really we know of in modern times. In ancient times, there may have been far more.

Verse 23, the folds of his flesh are joined together, they are firm on him and cannot be moved. His heart is as hard as stone. Probably it means his chest.

If you tried to throw something through his heart to kill him, you're going to find you might as well throw your spear at a piece of stone. You're going to get no further than that. Even as hard as the lower millstone.

When he raises himself up, which crocodiles do not do, the mighty are afraid. Well, I guess crocodiles do raise themselves up when they're going to run. They get up on their all four legs and kind of run kind of an awkward little way.

Most of the time they lay on their bellies because they're lazy, but if they want to chase something, they can get up and they can run about 30 miles an hour. You don't want to be pursued by one. I guess you would be afraid when they raise themselves up.

But this sounds more like he's raising himself up on. I mean, I guess we can't really say for sure, but the impression I get is he raises himself up on his hind legs. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid because of his crashing.

They are beside themselves. You know, though a crocodile may raise himself up and then then you may be in trouble. If you're one of the mighty, you're not to be afraid of him.

And he wasn't going to be afraid of a charging, you know, bull or any other kind of animal. This this creature is not like most animals that can hurt you. This is an invulnerable animal, invulnerable to your weapons.

Because of his crashing, they are beside themselves. Crashing like you picture these movies about dinosaurs or like King Kong or something. And the people in the jungle, they hear these trees crashing and falling over as this creature is approaching.

You haven't seen it yet, but you get to soon. And, you know, I just picked that or even in Lost and they have something like that going on in Lost at the beginning. I didn't see the series, but, you know, the sound of crashing in the forest and stuff.

Apparently, this creature, you know, you could tell he was coming by the crashing sounds. And it makes people beside themselves, not just afraid, it makes them go crazy with fear. I can imagine.

Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail as if you could get close enough to him to stab him. You're not going to be able to get through. It says, nor does the spear or the dart, which is an arrow or the javelin.

Of course, it's never gone up against our friend Jeremiah with the javelin. Never know, maybe he could maybe he could take it out, but they didn't have javelins back then that could penetrate it. He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood, bronze metal weapons.

It it reacts those like rotten wood being thrown against it. The arrow cannot make him flee. Slingstones become like stubble to him.

Darts or arrows are regarded like straw. He laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp pushers.

He spreads pointed marks in the mire. That is, you can see his tracks. This is why you know that this is an animal that Job was really smitten.

God's pointing out. You've seen his tracks. You've seen the image that his belly leaves in the mud when he's been there.

You can see the pointed marks that the scales on his belly have left. He makes the deep boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

He leaves a shining wake behind him. One would think the deep had white hair. Now, this does not need to be taken literally that when he goes in the water, suddenly the water starts boiling.

Rather, it's probably that he moves. He displaces so much water when he goes in the water and he swims that it's like he leaves this this cauldron of bubbling and disturbed water behind him. It's like it's boiling.

He beholds on Earth. There is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing.

He is king over all the children of pride. And that's the end of God's speech. He talks about these dinosaurs.

I believe they're dinosaurs. What else could they be? There's nothing else that could be. And yet they are animals that were living at the time of Job's contemporaries, so they could know what God's talking about and recognize that he's telling the truth about these creatures.

Then Job answered chapter 42, the Lord, and said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak.

You said I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. But now my eye sees you.

Therefore, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. So a vision of God doesn't really help someone's self-esteem. He sees God and he says, I abhor myself.

And that's a good thing. That's when things got better for him. Humanistic psychology says you need to really guard your self-esteem.

You need to uphold your self-esteem. If you have low self-esteem, you know, that's going to be damaging to you. Well, in the Bible, it's kind of the opposite.

People of highest self-esteem are not in touch with reality. They're not in touch with God. When someone actually sees God, it always ends up being like this.

They fall down, they feel humiliated, they feel like nothing, they feel self-loathing. Why? Because God is so great and we are so small. And and when we we don't recognize how small we are, we're simply not living in reality, at least not the reality of knowing God.

And that's the end of the poetic section of the book. The last verses are all written in prose, just like the first two chapters were. And so it was after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz, the Temanite.

My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now, therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams. Go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering.

And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly, because you've not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now, Job obviously is functioning like a priest. Which means it must be prior to the establishment of the ordinary priesthood of the Levites.

He had done this for his own children. He'd offered sacrifices for them. Now he's to offer sacrifices and pray for these men, his his friends.

They are now at his mercy. And fortunately, Job is merciful. He's humbled.

He's not going to, you know, elevate himself above them just because they weren't very kind to him. It's interesting that God says twice to Eliphaz that he and his friends had not spoken rightly of God. Yet it seems to me that what they said of God didn't seem like the problem.

The problem is what they said about Job. Seems like the things they said about God were all positive things about God. They insisted that God is just and God is powerful and so forth.

Those seem like the right things to say. But they had said the wrong things about Job because they said he was evil and he wasn't. But apparently what was wrong with what they said was, again, what they said had had essential truth to it, but they didn't recognize that it's not universally true.

They had God put in a box and they couldn't allow that God has dealings that go beyond the basic predictable truth that we know about God. And therefore, by limiting the ways of God to those which man can understand, they they were speaking wrongly of God. But Job, all the way through, said, I know God is just.

I mean, he's a good God and all that. But I don't understand. There are things God does that we can't understand.

And I don't understand this. And that's apparently a good way to talk about God. It's sometimes good to say, I don't know.

It's not always right to act like we know all the answers. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and so far the Neanothite went and did as the Lord commanded them, for the Lord had accepted Job. And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.

Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. I like that the Lord restored Job when he prayed for his friends. God didn't restore Job when he prayed for himself to be restored.

It's when he stopped whining about himself and started, you know, caring for the needs, the spiritual needs, in this case of his friends, that his healing came. His prosperity came back when he was not thinking about it, when he was not obsessing on it. But when he was more concerned about the well-being of his friends, that's when his restoration also came.

Then all his brothers and his sisters and all those who had been his acquaintances before came to him and ate food with him in his house. And they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and a ring of gold.

If there were a lot of them, that would help begin his new estate being restored. Now, these people had abandoned him when he was in need. I don't know if I were him if I'd be really eager to have them come and console me now.

OK, so when I really need you, you guys run out of me. Now, when I'm prospering again, now you all show up and eat. We want to eat again.

You know, all the relatives show up when the money comes back. That doesn't sound like very good friends, but, you know, he had been abandoned. He probably is just glad to have some some company again and nonjudgmental company at this point.

Now, the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning, for he had 14000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 yoke of oxen and 1000 female donkeys. That's exactly double what he had at the beginning. He also had seven sons and three daughters, which is exactly the same as what he at the beginning.

And it was discussed earlier whether these were the same sons and daughters who had not really died, but the report had only been premature that they had died and that they really were alive. Or whether God gave him three more daughters and seven more sons so that indeed he did have double because he had seven sons and three daughters in heaven and seven sons and three daughters on earth. So he now had 14 sons and six daughters.

I suppose you could see it either way. And he called the name of the first daughter, Jemima. The name of the second was Keziah and the name of the third, Teran-Hapuk.

These I don't know why he named them these names. Jemima means handsome as the day. And Keziah means Cassia and Teran-Hapuk means the horn of color.

I mean, those are not those names have obvious significance to the story or anything like that that I can see. And and yet daughters names are seldom given, especially in the absence of sons names. The sons are not named.

Usually the sons names are given, not the daughters. So I'm not really sure why this is brought up. However, this is a very pro woman outcome because not only are the daughters honored by name when the sons are not, but also in all the land there were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

That was not commonplace. Usually the brothers received inheritance. The daughters were expected to receive inheritance from their husband's family.

They would marry and therefore daughters usually did not get an inheritance from their father because as married women, they would receive the inheritance of their husband's family. But Job gave special care to his daughters more than to his sons, it would appear. I mean, not that he gave the sons less, but he gave the daughters more than men would usually give to his daughters.

He didn't give the sons more than he usually gives to his sons. So he seemed to have preference for his daughters. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.

Then Job died old and full of days and and and apparently didn't have any of those kinds of trials again. Job then stands as one that James tells us to remember, you know, when we're going through trials. Basically, Job is a man who, to my mind, is just an example of who kept the faith when there's absolutely nothing.

Nothing to profit up a man who just had naked faith without evidence. A man who, when all the facts of his life seemed to say that God is not there or is not just or is not good. Nonetheless, just from his memories and what he just knew intuitively knew that God is good and God is just and God is there, and none of the circumstances were able to move him from that.

That's a pretty unusual thing. I've seen people move away from God on much less provocation than what Job suffered. Sometimes no provocation at all drives people away from God.

They just nothing even happens to be trials in their life. They just they just get tired of God. They just get tired of having faith.

They just give up. But Job's faith was tried, as probably no one else we will ever know. Was there as faith was tried, that he stands probably the man of the greatest faith of anyone in the Bible, with maybe the exception of Jesus.

But of all the men of faith, Job stands out as the the one whose faith really was tried more than any other. And yet he held on to his faith, had trouble, had trouble figuring things out and understanding how it all fits that he didn't give up his faith in God. All right.

So we're done with Job.