Job chapter 40 in the middle of it we turn to this morning picking up a thought of God's second speech his second speech in response to Job and his words and words and words and really accusing God in fact of This verse that we looked at a few weeks ago now, verse 8, really sets the frame or the idea of what God is speaking toward in this speech. And it's a question to Job. Will you really annul my judgment? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? In other words, Am I wrong? Do you have to prove me wrong so you can be right? What's this all about? Job, I know you're right. I endorsed you from the beginning multiple times. Not to Job's face, of course, but to all the angelic host and to Satan himself who was there. Job is a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. No question about that. And Job knows that as well. But somehow, where is this suffering coming from all of a sudden? Where is this even death? I mean, death of my children, and death of my servants, and the robbery of my stuff, my animals, and so forth. Where is this coming from? And so Job is kind of stuck in that kind of thinking, which even proceeds in the New Testament time period, and if you don't mind, proceeds into this present time period. And that is, if we're good, God will bless us. And if we're bad, or if they're bad, God is going to judge them, right? Because there's always the other person who needs God's judgment. No, we all need God's discipline and chastisement. That's what Elihu, the prophet, I think, was saying to Job during his really long speeches there in chapters 32 to 37. You know, stories and movies and all these different things usually develop the idea of world building, building some place that the builder, of course, has in mind that would be better than the situation we now have. And you can think any number of stories, any number of stories, the present, past, future, that reflect this idea of You know, some guy has an idea, some lady has an idea that, you know, things would be a whole lot better if this were the case, or my world would not include this, or, you know, my God is, you know, fashioned after own self. Well, it's all fine and whatever, you want to build your own world, but you can't controvert God's world. You can't say, well, my world is different than what God has given for us, or somehow I'm going to take matters into my own hands and say, I've got a better idea than God. And he really should have done it this way from the beginning, and finding fault with him so that we can be right. It's not just Job who has that issue. It's just a human issue that we want to, what is it, be like God. We want to follow after our, well, our former father, that is the father of lies, Satan, who is so much antagonistic, opposite to what God is. And yet he's a counterfeiter. He tries to give the same things as God does, but they're not the same things. They're death and destruction. When we take matters into our own hands or into our own mouth, our own words, because there's really a limited amount of stuff that we can do to make our own world, but we can talk a whole lot about it and get other people to get, yeah, we ought to do it this way. That's not helpful. If it contravenes, if it turns against God's idea, it's wickedness. It is treachery. It is antinomianism. It's against God's law. For God to be the world builder is okay because he is righteous, he is good, he is powerful, he is attentive to his creation. He is so near to every possible thing and he delights in it. Now, in this present age, we've seen this in chapters 38 and 39, that in that wonderful creation, boy, there's death. There's carnivory, you know, one animal eating another animal. There's these crazy ostriches doing their thing out there, and God delights in them. There are these war horses that just delight. They're just ready to charge into battle and kill and destroy these things. Well, our world would not have any of that stuff in there. Well, guess what? Neither did God's world have any of that stuff, but we sinned. We revolted against God's plan. We said, no, God, we think we would like to have that same prerogative, right? Isn't that Genesis 3? You will be like God. You will know the good from the bad. You'll have all this knowledge of good and evil. That's not all it's cracked up to be, when it involves violation of God's holy and righteous law, which was very simple to Adam and Eve. Don't eat of the fruit of the tree, and all is good and evil. And they did. For God to make a world. as we would like it, needs to be redeemed. It needs to be restored. This present age is full of death and lying and deceit and treachery and all these things. And this is what Job is angry about. He says, what about all these wicked people who are just prospering? Here I am, got my hands clean, so careful to honor the Lord in my own heart, in the hearts of my children, my family. And all of a sudden, the suffering, and not just a little suffering, I mean, just destroyed him and destroyed his body. And he says, where is God? And why did this all happen to me? And I demand my, God has to give an answer to this, because this is beyond. This was not part of the arrangement. And you can jump in and say, well, yeah, I've questioned God in that way, where he's taken something dear to me or not giving something dear to me that I really wanted. And I'm angry with him. I mean, he's done me wrong. God never does wrong. He's building the world, not us. We can rest in him. And even when we do see death or the absence of life, God is faithful in those things. He is demonstrating his justice through all these things. If anything, remember the two main categories in these chapters, God's response. First two chapters have to do with God's knowledge or God's wisdom, that he knows all things. He knows how all things put together, how they operate. He was the one who designed it in the first place. The second two chapters, 40 and 41, talk about God's power, his ability to manage and control everything. And that's what he's really demonstrating here and putting on display here in these verses. a wonderful or two wonderful animals that we think, wow, we're kind of glad that those animals aren't around here right now. In fact, some people would go so far as to say, those aren't real animals. What God is describing here in chapters 40 and 41, those are just figments of his imagination or figments of Job's or the poet, the one who wrote down this whole narrative and all these speeches. They're just, you know, illustration points. No, God said, I made these along with you, Job. And you know them. Look at this. Consider these different animals. But we recognize the reason why God is doing this for Job, and not to Job, but for Job, is to show him the futility of arguing with God, that God is bigger. God knows more than you do. He has incorporated in this fallen world methods and means to accomplish his good purpose. Now, that involves or includes wonderful things that we would accept. They'd be part of our world, too. But then there are parts of our world, of our existence now that, hmm, Don't really like that idea. Don't really like losing 10 kids all of a sudden. Why is that a good thing? God, why do you think that was a good idea? Because God is good. God is gracious. God is sovereign over all these things. Whether we live or die, what are we? We're the Lord's. And he can do with us as he wishes. And it's always for his glory and ultimately even for our good. We don't always see that. We always kind of question. God, how are you going to redeem this situation? I don't see any way out of this. This is all bad. It's not all bad. God is working. God is always working. His good, his good plan. Well, he, the Lord, develops these ideas and he says, beginning at verse 15, in fact, because we're going to just walk our way through these these verses, he is describing, first of all, behemoth. And then second of all, he's going to describe Leviathan. Behemoth and Leviathan, these names are actually just that. They are names. They are transliterated from the Hebrew. And so to describe, oh, he's talking about an animal this way or an animal that way, well, We're given their names and we're given a description. In fact, the longest description of an animal up to this point has been the description of the war horse back in chapter 39. And it was a tremendous, powerful passage. But here he's going to spend a little bit more time talking about behemoth and then a whole chapter talking about Leviathan, the most detailed, extensive discussion or description of an animal in anywhere in scripture. And it's almost like God is saying, hey, why don't you look at that for a change? Why don't you consider and notice how small you are compared to that? We'll look at this description, these two descriptions, and many people would say, oh, he's talking about, for example, the behemoth they call, oh, that's a hippopotamus, or that's a rhinoceros, or that's an elephant, or maybe a water buffalo, things that we know in our present age. Well, do you remember when he described the wild ox earlier back in chapter 39? Yeah, chapter 39 talked about the wild ox, and I suggested that that's something we don't see right now. That's a wild beast called an aurochs. Tremendously huge, I mean a super cow kind of thing, and yet not a cow. But we don't see that anymore. It's extinct, almost 400 years. What about this? For God to describe a behemoth or a leviathan, do we have to be able to see that in our present age? No, but Job could see that in his age, and he knew. When God says, verse 15 of chapter 40, behold now behemoth, which I made along with you, it eats grass like an ox. And Job would know that. How could Job behold now the behemoth if it were not there? There are different explanations of, OK, where did these things come from? Again, these names, behemoth and Leviathan, are just transliterations from Hebrew. They are known or identifiable. Hey, Job, consider this behemoth. And he says, which one are you talking about? What are you talking about? I've never heard of a behemoth. I've just seen one. I don't even know what you're talking about. Job says, OK, yeah, I've got the picture in my mind. Tell me more about it. Leviathan, same way. For Job to be instructed to look at these things means that he has the possibility of doing it. They're not just supernatural or mythological creatures. when God uses kind of poetic imagery, which may or may not be, and we're gonna look at that. Some people would say, wait a minute, a leviathan? How can, and the suggestion for a leviathan is like a crocodile, even a saltwater crocodile, or a whale, sometimes people suggest it's a whale. But they get stuck on the idea of what's the thing doing sneezing fire all of a sudden, and out of his mouth, and his eyes are like that? How can that be? Oh, it's poetic language, just God is getting kind of carried away. No, God is describing something he made as part of his creation. And so poetic imagery has been used earlier. Remember when God says about tipping the water jars of the heavens and then rain comes out and so forth? Well, but is it poetic language here is the question. And by the way, here in verse 15, it said, I made them along with you. He describes Behemoth on, or excuse me, Behemoth is the largest land animal, extent at the time of Job anyway. And the Leviathan is the largest sea or marine animal. Now, land animals were made on day six of creation week, right? Along with, not animals, but animals and humans. Animals are made, land animals are made on day six and humans also, which is why God says here, I made behemoth along with you on day six. It doesn't say the same thing about Leviathan because the Leviathan is primarily a sea creature, sea creatures and bird creatures, air creatures are made on day five. And so God is saying, I made these things. I'm the maker. I'm the creator. And notice what this one does. It eats grass. like an ox. This is something that is an herbivore, right? It's eating grass, it's eating vegetation, and notice it says, like an ox, which means it's vegetation, but it also, like an ox, like a lot of food, just constantly vigorous, vigorous eating going on there with this beast. Well, verse 16 continues to describe it and focuses on the strength of this guy. For a A salad eater is pretty impressive, right? Salads are good. You ought to eat some, not exclusively, you know, whatever. Verse 16 says, Behold now its power in its loins and its vigor in the muscles of its belly. So look at that thing. It is so strong. Its legs, its muscles, its belly is just... That's a hippopotamus, right? Hippopotamuses are pretty strong. In fact, in that ancient world, all throughout, especially the kings and the pharaohs and so forth, they really took pleasure and great delight and honor of going on a hippopotamus hunt. Not so much rhinos, but hippopotamus especially, because people will say, oh, he's talking about the Nile River and all this kind of stuff. He mentions the Jordan River, which is different. You can see the Jordan River on the map over there. You can't see the Nile River on that map over there. But he mentions the Jordan. And he says, this is something that is just, it's powerful, it is vigorous in the muscles of its belly. It hangs its tail like a cedar. I think the ESV talks about stiffening its tail like a cedar. That word hangs or stiffens, it probably has more idea of the, Letting down its tail like a cedar tree. Cedar trees are renowned in the scriptures for their height, for their strength, their stability, and their size, their dimension. It hangs its tail like a cedar, kind of like an elephant's tail. No, not like an elephant's tail. Not like a hippo's tail. No, not like that at all. Water buffalo, maybe. No, not like them either. It's a tree grown off their backside, and it is something that holds them down. And if I haven't tipped my hand already, I think this is a sauropod dinosaur. This is something that is just immense. It is the greatest, God describes it, the first or the chief of all the creation. It is something that needs that counterbalance. It's got this big, long head sticking out one way. It needs something longer than a little donkey tail or something. hanging out the back to balance that whole thing. And that is what's going on. Notice, how do you support this thing? Verse 18 says, its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs are like bars of iron. This thing is strong, not just the muscles. Well, the muscles need something to attach to. And these bones are able to take the burden and the brunt of what's going on with this huge, big beast. And this is demonstrating, wow, God knows what he's doing. When he makes big things like this, he uses not bronze. It is like this bronze. I mean, it doesn't have these mineral deposits. Bronze, by the way, is an alloy of copper and tin. And it is a little bit harder, by the way, than iron, apparently. It has a little higher hardness factor. One of the reasons why, if you know your archeological history, we go from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, there's that progression. One of the reasons is because the component tin kind of fell out of trade because of some political, it's always political dealings going on, and so iron, even though it wasn't quite as good, strong, and hard as bronze, it became more in use because it was able to be, didn't have to be mixed together with another metal. Eventually, there was the adding of carbon to the iron and make steel, and we get all that, but that's much later. But here he describes, hey, these bones and its limbs are just so immense and so strong. Here in verse 19, he says, this is the first of the ways of God. Let its maker bring near its sword. It is the chief of what God has made on earth. A lot of times we talk about the lion being king of the beast. Well, it is to a certain degree, but when you look at this, Behemoth? When you look at this huge thing, there's no question. Ask the one. But it's an herbivore. That means no harm. It is peaceful. In fact, we'll see, well, the next verse says that the beasts of the field play there. But God has put this beast as the first. Or the preeminent display of his creativity, of his power, of his wisdom in creating all of his different beasts. I mean, you can look at the largest thing, you can look at the smallest little beast, too, and say, that displays God's wisdom, his handiwork, his creativity, his ingenuity. How in the world did he do that? How does that beast, that insect, that little ant, that little termite, how does it do that? How did God program it that way? God is so wise. God is so powerful to do these things. End of verse 19 is, how does one person say it? that it is the despair of all commentators. This is from Anderson's commentary. Verse 19, the second part, is the despair of all commentators. The innumerable conflicting solutions offered do not encourage us to accept any of them, which is another way of saying, we don't know exactly what God meant to say here. Here is how they're presenting it here. Let us make her bring near its sword, which is to say, don't you all ever try fighting this thing? Don't you go forward and try to kill one of these big, mature, behemoth beasts. You're not going to, it's not going to go very well for you. But the maker, yeah, God himself, he can come near and do it. Maybe that's what God is getting at after here. Verse 20 says, Surely the mountains bring up food, and all the beasts of the field play there. So this idea of bringing food, it's kind of like a tribute or a vassal kind of a situation where various times in history, especially in the book of Kings and Chronicles, well, Kings primarily, that the opposing army came in and says, OK, give us all your stuff and we'll let you live, today anyway. And OK, so they give them all their stuff. That's the same idea here. The mountains and those on the mountains bring this beast, food, this, I think, sauropod dinosaur, and all the beasts of the field play there. Now, there's something inviting about this big old shady thing, right, because it brings shade and kind of gives peace, this huge immense creature there that all the other beasts come and say, hey, We like it around here. We're going to come and frolic and have a good time. And maybe we'll get some of the, you know, they're going to stir up things. And so we'll get some food from that. And he won't eat it all anyway. So we're going to have, well, there's benefit to this. God is saying, even in the strength, the immensity, the immense power of this beast, still I'm providing for other beasts as well. And in the course of this beast's life, there's going to provide a playground for, for other animals to prosper in their shade. Verse 21 talks about what kind of habitat does this like. Under the lotus plants, it lies down in the hidden places of the reeds and the marsh. And so we recognize, oh, this creature likes to be in kind of a wetlands environment or in the place where these special plants grow, and they have the benefit of this particular species of lotus, which somebody described as a thorny tree that grew in this hot and damp area in Israel, or that area, and Africa, so North Africa, Middle East area. It talks about the reeds of the marsh, which is more of a poplar plant or willow trees. So these different things, hey, it likes to lie down right there. It likes to hide and kind of nestle and take a refuge over here. And so this is what it's doing. Verse 22 says, the lotus plants cover it with shade. The willows of the brook surround it. It's a nice little habitat, nice little place over there. Try to make one in your living room, right? I mean, you can make places for guinea pigs and salamanders and chameleons. turtles and how about you get one of those behemoth guys in there and see how that goes. You need a whole tree and a whole forest really to provide for them and care for them. Verse 23 says, you know, if the river oppresses them, it's not alarmed. It is secure, though the Jordan burst forth to its mouth. So again, they like this wetlands environment. They like the Jordan River. Some people think, oh, he's mentioning the Jordan River kind of as an example of the Nile River, because obviously that's where the hippos are. No, he's talking about the Jordan River. He's talking about animals that lived right down there. Not so much nowadays, but in that day, the Jordan River, similar to the Nile, would have its flood stage and its normal stage. And this idea, even though the Jordan bursts forth to its mouth when it's in flood stage, no problem. Just raise your head just a little bit more. You'll be fine. It has those bones of bronze and limbs of iron. I mean, it's got the strength in its belly. No problem for this guy. Well, what about, do you think you can go and capture one of those things and see how that turns out? Verse 24 says, can anyone capture it before its eyes with snares to its nose? Are you going to go after one of those things? And OK, well, the question is, how'd Noah get one of those on the ark then? Well, he didn't take a full grown one. Who was it that sent the animals anyway? Did Noah go out and say, I need two of you, I need two of you? Didn't God send these animals? Don't you think God knows how to take care of his creatures? Don't you think God is able to choose just the right ones? And so a full-grown adult behemoth, no one's going to capture it before its eyes. You can't walk in front of it and say, I'm going to capture you. Come on home with me. Or sneak up on it using snares and catching it that way. Nobody's going to do that. which reminds us of that verse 19, the maker himself can draw near with the sword, but nobody else is going to have that capability up to, well, at this point anyway. And so discussing this whole thing about behemoth, tremendous beast, first of God's creation, But then we read about Leviathan, and we think, whoa, I'm glad that that's not around here anymore. Verse 1 of chapter 41, God begins this tremendous, again, longest, most detailed description of any animal in all of scripture, and he is discussing this Leviathan. As many people have suggested, oh, hey, maybe this is a crocodile. Maybe this is even some kind of a sea creature, maybe a whale. I think one translation has it. It is described elsewhere, this word leviathan was used actually earlier in Job. He talks about rousing leviathan, chapter three and verse eight. Let those curse it. The day of his birth who curse the day, who are ready to rouse leviathan. And God is going to talk about that rousing leviathan here in just a little bit. There are other words that describe this when we see that name, Leviathan, or a similar word, Rahab, not the lady from Jericho, the creature, the beast. We also read about the serpent. We read about the fleeing serpent, the twisted serpent. This is Isaiah 27, verse 1. This is the day when Yahweh will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, with his fierce and great and mighty sword. Even Leviathan, the twisted serpent, he will kill the dragon that lives in the sea. And wow, God's going to do that, which kind of indicates Maybe if this is a future prophecy, maybe there still are some of those things out in the wild, wild sea, right? Some of those maps that talk about derby dragons, right? Maybe there still are those things out there that God will describe here as we go along. There's so much talked about in scripture. Isaiah talks about it. Even when Nehemiah, I remember Nehemiah, 444 BC, somewhere in there, when he was rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem, one of the gates of the city in Jerusalem was called the Dragon Gate. Or this dragon spring, the direction of the dragon spring. And that is a word, tanin, that is used a lot of times in scripture to talk about this kind of a serpent-y, wild thing. By the way, unless we think, well, when did God make those? Well, day five of creation week. Remember Genesis 1 and verse 21, God created the great sea monsters. And you think, why did God have to make it so kind of scary? It just makes us frightened. Well, because God delighted in it. And it was just a tremendous display of his creativity and power. I'm going to make something that is so ominous, so oppressive to other things, but it's mine. Everything under the whole heavens is mine. I made this great sea monster. There is much more that could be said about this serpent, this flying serpent. We'll look at an extension of this as we conclude this morning. But look here. He says, verse 1, can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Here fishy fishy right you put your little thing down and try to draw this out. No, you're not gonna do that. This idea of pressing down his tongue with a cord, different people have different understandings of that could be again using that crocodile analogy. Sometimes you see when PR alligator. When you see something like that caught, they will bind its its mouth together right because they I heard this years ago. I think it's still true. Things change. Science changes as we learn more. But I think the muscles that clamp down a crocodile are much stronger, like powers of 10 stronger than the muscles they have to open their mouth. And so if you get their mouth closed, you can actually hold it physically. I don't think this is a crocodile. But the point is, you treat it like that, and you try to catch it. And then what are you going to do with it? Now you got it. Well, try to get its mouth closed, because we're going to see what that mouth looks like. Verse two says, can you put a rope in its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook as if you're trying to lead it along the way? Come along with me. It'll be fine. Don't try that at home, right? Don't try that in the wild either. Don't try to put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook. Will it, if you catch it, will it make supplications to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Oh, please, please, let me go. I'll be nice to you. I won't eat your little rams and lambs and horses and devastate whole cities anymore. I'll be fine. I'll be your... No, he's not gonna do that. He's gonna fight you tooth and nail, everything. Verse four, will he cut a covenant with you? Will he make an agreement? Will you take it for a slave forever? In the Old Testament time period, there was, and today even, there are arrangements that we make, and we sell ourselves into slavery because you're gonna care for us, you're gonna do something. Do you think that is what Leviathan's gonna do for you? Because somehow you've overpowered it, you've outsmarted it, and he says, wow, you really are something. And I want to be with you, I want to be your slave forever. It's not going to happen. God is showing the foolishness of Job or any human up to that time to try to think we can manage these things. We can treat it like a slave or bring it home and it'll be like a little play thing for our young women, our daughters. It used to be, verse 5 says, will you play with it as with a bird or will you bind it for your young women? It used to be that People would catch birds and bring them home, and they'd be little play toys for the ladies. Now, I suppose you can do that with chickens, and turkeys. I don't know if turkeys are as amenable as chickens, but here he's giving that example. Hey, this big leviathan, bring it down to home, and you think it'll be fine for you? No, it's not going to do. What about you take it to market? Will the traders bargain over it? Will they divide it among the merchants? Say, hey, you take this part, you take this part, you take this part, this part, this part. And by the time everybody's fed, But are you able to even bring that beast into the market so that people can can distribute it for food? Hmm. Will the traders ever have the opportunity to bargain over it and divide it among the merchants? Can you even skin it? Excuse me, can you fill its skin with harpoons or its head with fishing spears, verse 7 says? Do you think you're gonna have success in your hunting operation? You know, you fill its skin or It's a possibility, a potentiality. Can you? Do you think you could? Let me tell you about the skin. He's going to describe it here in just a moment. From harpoons and spears, from a distance, trying to take it down, it's not going to happen. Verse 8 says, you put your hand on it, you'll remember the battle. You will not do that again. Thankfully, there's learning going on there. Let's not do that again. That didn't work out so well. Remember that fight that he gave up. Or presented. I don't think he would ever give up. But he presented a fierce battle. And you didn't win, did you? You'll not do that again. You've left without an arm, or a leg, or without half your army that went out. Because Leviathan is this ominous beast. Here in verse 9, he's not talking about the animal, his expectation. He's not talking about Leviathan's expectation. He's talking about the hunters, or even specifically Job. Behold, Job's expectation, or the hunter's expectation, is a lie. The expectation is, I'll succeed. It'll be fine. I'll take him home, sell him, you know, either present it as a little play thing for my daughters or take it to market and other people eat it. No. Whatever you think is going to happen, it's not going to happen. You are a liar. Will he be laid low even at the sight of it? You look upon that thing. And you say, ah, I think we're not going to hunt this thing today. I think I'm going to leave. So the hunter, you go out and fierce combat. And then you see it and say, no, not today. So that's what's going on here in verse 9. No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse it. Here's that idea of arousing that Job mentioned back in chapter 3, verse 8. No one is so fierce that says, hey, Leviathan, wake up so I can kill you. Who then is he that can stand before me? God applies it to himself. If you don't think you can come before Leviathan, one of my creatures, I made it for my own delight, my own glory, and for the working, the swimming around in the sea. If you wouldn't dare to arouse that, how do you think it's going to come when you stand before me? and demand that I give you an answer to your accusations, to your saying somehow God is wrong so that I can be proven right. No. Who is that one who can stand and give an answer, give an account, or call me to account before them? Who, in verse 11, who has given to me that I should repay him? Similar to what we read about in Romans chapter 11. Who has given to God that, oh, God is in our debt. He owes us something. Never could we say, God, you, you, you know, I did all this for you. And come on, there's a little payback coming. Make sure you fulfill your vows and everything. No, it's not God who fulfills his vows. I mean, he does fulfill his promises, but it's us who fulfill our vows to him. Make sure that you are not late in repaying the vows. But never is God in our debt. Never is God obligated to work on our behalf except as he's promised and he's promised all sorts of stuff but never it's it's never because of what we have done to him or for him somehow contributing to God and and really you know I help God out of a tight spot kind of like that old parable of the The lion and the mouse, was it? The mouse helped the lion with the little thorn in his paw, and so the lion was indebted. It's never gonna happen. Never gonna happen. You can never do anything for God that would make him have to repay. Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. We think, well, God, I have all this stuff I can give to you. He says, that's not your stuff. It's my stuff. You're just managing it. And so, OK, well, but I'm managing pretty well. Yes, you are doing it pretty well. But still, mine's always been mine. I give the increase. I take away to stuff also. Whatever, Leviathan, behemoth, your health, your children, your livelihood, your reputation, I have taken all these things for myself. Whatever, any possible thing under the whole heaven is mine. Now, the question is, between verse 11 and verse 12, did God kind of pause and give an opportunity for Job to respond? The only reason I say that is because he says in verse 12, I'll not keep silence concerning blah, blah, blah. He says, OK, you're not responding. I haven't humbled you enough. You haven't realized I'm trying to teach you the foolishness of trying to bring your argument before me. I'm going to tell you a bit more about this Leviathan. And we think, Job, when are you going to get a clue? When are you going to tune in to what God is communicating, what Eli, Elihu, has been communicating to you? And it's almost like God continues. Similar to what Elihu said, it seemed like he gave an opportunity for Job to respond. Job didn't. And so he kept on talking for another three or four chapters. Here, God is going to speak more about this Leviathan. He says, let me tell you about his limbs. Let me tell you about his mighty strength, his graceful frame. And you think, that's a beast. That's a dragon. That's a huge dinosaur. God says, I know. I made it. I like it. Let me tell you about it. And he just, he whacks. That's what God does about this whole thing. Who can strip off its outer armor? Who can come with its doubled bridle? Who can strip off its outer armor? I mean, this thing has scales. You can talk about that in just a moment, that are just interwoven. They're locked together. And you're going to try to take that off? It's not going to happen. This idea of coming with a doubled bridle. We can have the idea of what he presented earlier in chapter 41 about, you're going to take a rope and put it around its nose and lead it like a cow? No, not going to happen. I think the ESV translates this. who would come near with, no, actually, they attack a bridal too. Another translation is talking about double armor, this idea of, I mean, not just a single layer of scales and thick skin, but a double layer. In other words, this thing is impregnable. You cannot break into it at all. There is every encouragement for you to retreat, retreat, fall back, get out of the way, because this thing is huge. It's not going to be injured by us at all. Who can open, and notice how it says, who can open the doors of its face? I mean, this thing is huge. I mean, we have doors. You try to open that door. Think of a city gate. I mean, this is a big beast. Who do you think is going to be able to open the doors of his face? And by the way, when you do open it, what do you find? Around its teeth, there is dreadful terror. Let's close that back up because that's kind of scary right there. When we think, you know, we've got this thing, we're doing fine. Everything just falls apart. Who are you to think you can take on this Leviathan? Verse 15 says, its strong scales are its pride shut up as with a tight seal. It really enjoys its adornment, its dress. It's strong. It is able to withstand all those harpoons, all those spears thrown at it. It is shut up as a tight seal. And it says, verse 16, one scale is so near to another that no air can come between them. That's pretty tight. Pretty amazing. There's no chinks in that dragon's or that leviathan's armor. And he says further, verse 17, they cling to one another. It's not just they're close to each other, they attach, they interlock somehow and cannot be separated. Wow, God just thought of everything. And you think, when we try that, when we try to, you know, get all this steel or iron armor on ourselves, I mean, there are chinks and cracks and hard things we can't even, And it tries to be as interlocked as possible. That means that we're walking around as stiff and we don't have the full mobility and we fight like that. No, God made this animal so wonderfully that it can do whatever it wants to do. He focuses now in verse 18 and following on this fire thing, which people say, oh, obviously this poet is getting beyond itself. He's talking things, nonsense here. Well, is it? God is the one speaking, isn't it? It sneezes flash-forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Fire. Fire is what's going on here. There's something in it sneezes, and you think, reminds me of a book, doesn't it? Anyway, the sneezes are flammable. You think, well, no, there's no animal that does that. Yes, there actually is. It's kind of small. A bombardier beetle, right? Doesn't do it out of its sneezes. It does it out of its backside, but it's fire. It's hot. Well, couldn't God have kind of made that at a little bit more industrial scale? Put it in Leviathan? Sure. And he did. It sneezes, flash forth light. Its eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. And it looks out. There's something on fire that that even illuminates its eyes in this regard. Out of its mouth, verse 19, go burning torches, sparks of fire leap forth. So, you know, some people kind of like flamethrowers and kind of like the idea of being able to, you know, spread out the flame. This guy does it. And you've seen this displayed, all kind of stories and whatnot. Talk about dragons with fire, you know, fire-breathing dragon. That's what God is describing here. We think, well, that's just make-believe, right? Why do we see so many fire-breathing dragons, even flying serpents, even these kind of land-dwelling beasts, not just in the ancient Near East? How about the ancient Far East? How about the ancient South America, what we call South America? How about the ancient North America? These dragon legends are all over the world. Why? Probably because at some point there were dragons. that people could see, that we don't see them anymore. And yet these things were real for Job to go and consider. Verse 20 says, out of his nostrils smoke goes forth as from a boiling pot and burning reeds. Oh, just all this smoke coming out. It's not even a concert or anything. He's just, he's just doing, he's breathing, he's living. And this fire is going all over the place. Verse 21 says, his breath kindles colds and a flame goes forth from its mouth. This is one of the longest descriptions God gives. He talks about the strength. He talks about the scales and so forth. But he has spent so many verses, so many statements talking about fire. Kind of get the idea this thing had fire capabilities. Don't understand it, don't know how it worked, but it was an advantage for sure. He changes ideas here, verse 22. In its neck lodges strength and dismay leaps before it. People see it coming even though I was going to say, the herbivore, the behemoth, peaceful, land-dwelling creature. This one, not so peaceful. This will rip you apart. This will tear you, burn you, shish kebab, whatever. And you look at this neck coming out, and you just, ah, I run away. And you can't, because it's already eaten you. Verse 23 the folds of his flesh came together hardened upon it and it's not shaken. The again talking about the skin the outer realm of this thing is just so powerful and it is it's you can't. It's not interlocked. The hardness of it, the durability of it, is something that is not able to be removed or oppressed upon, not in any way. He says it's heart, which could be talking about the attitude of it, as cold-hearted, cold-blooded creature, just angry at everything. Or it could be talking about the heart, that the breast is hard as stone, even as hard as a lower millstone. Millstones were used to grind grain and make flour in the lower millstone. Upper millstone, lower millstone, lower millstone was a little bit harder, more denser material than the upper one. Upper one was just for weight to get the thing and grind it. So it's hard, hard stuff. And he says, when it raises itself up, the mighty fear because of the crashing, they are bewildered. We are undone. We just can't. Who had the bright idea of coming against this Leviathan in the first place? Why do we agree to it? What in the world? And they run for fear when this thing rises up, and perhaps you have in your mind, I do, and I'm not gonna reference what movie or story I'm talking about, but when you see this thing coming, the blood just drains from your body because it's about to drain from your body, literally, in just a moment, and your knees start shaking together, and you want to run away. This Leviathan, just by its sheer presence, makes this effect. How much more you come before God and you just say, hey God, how you doing? What? Hey, God, by the way, you did me wrong. When are you going to pay me back? What? You're going to have that attitude coming before God? Don't do it. Going back to Leviathan, verse 26, the sword that reaches it cannot avail, nor the spear, the dart, nor the javelin. So sword, hand to hand, direct combat, close combat, or you back up a little bit, the spear, the dart, the javelin, try to throw it. It's not going to avail. Verse 27, it regards iron as straw, Bronze as rotten wood. Oh, but we have the best defense. I mean, we have this great gate and we have this great ship and we have all this stuff and nothing. It's gone. It's like a twig like rotten wood. Not at all. The arrow cannot make it flavors 28 sling stones are turned into stubble for it. You're not going to have victory over it. Clubs are regarded as stubble that laughs at the rattling of the javelin. Is that all you have? Is that all you're bringing in this battle? Its underparts are like sharp potsherds that spreads out like a threshing sledge in the mire. You think, whoa. When it moves through the sea or maybe through the mire, through this kind of muddy situation, things just ooze out and spread. It has these sharp kind of protrusions on it that leave a mark. I mean, it leaves a path in the thing. Even when it's swimming through the water, verse 31, it makes the depths boil like a pot. It makes the sea like a jar of ointment, which is just boiling over. Not the ointment itself, but the making of it, the production of it. There's this, something's coming. You can see something is coming. We don't know what it is, but it's a big thing. And notice it says, verse 32, behind it, it makes a wake to shine or illuminates this, what comes after it. One would think the deep to be gray haired. And what's he even talking about? You ever notice when a big... Well, even a boat, right? Leaves are waked behind it and kind of turbulent behind. There's white water going on. That's what this, when this animal comes forward, it's not just kind of a, just an easy kind of thing. It is something that is oppressive. It is obvious that something's coming after you. There is, verse 33, there is nothing upon the dust like it, one made without tear. It fears nothing, has no fears of anything. It is just like the behemoth. Flood raises, you know, the river raises. Not a problem. Lift my head just a little bit. Be fine. Here, Leviathan says there's nothing that I am fearful of. In fact, verse 34, it looks on everything that is high or exalted or, you know, oh, they think they're pretty hot stuff. It is king over all the sons of pride. This idea of sons of pride is mentioned earlier in the scripture, in Job, actually, in talking about animals. It's not so much directing to people, even included, but principally it has animals. It is the king. It is the tyrannus, not Rex, because that's a different beast. Tyrannosaurus Rex was a land creature. This is a marine creature. But it says, he doesn't fear anything. He looks at everything. He says, what are you doing over here, blue whale? I can eat you in a gulp, or whatever. I mean, just amazing. God made it, and he made it for his own glory, his own display. This thing is, how did it say here? It is one made without terror, verse 33. In other words, it has no terror. It fears nothing. It is, if you don't mind, the super apex predator. It is the one with no parallel. Maybe another Leviathan would be a problem, but any other animal, no. What does this tell us about God? God is powerful. God is the one who does not need to be questioned. He is wise over all things. If Job does not think, and he ought to regard, I can't subdue Behemoth, I can't subdue Leviathan, how much less can I subdue God who made it? I should probably repent. I should probably withdraw my accusation against God. I should probably surrender to God's wonderful, impressive, intelligent wisdom and his immense power to do all these things and manage it and to use a beast like Behemoth or a beast like Leviathan to accomplish his good purpose in the world. Don't you think, Job, you ought to rest in that knowledge? Don't you think you ought to withdraw your claims against him? Don't you think that perhaps God does know what he's doing after all and his knowing what is He knows what to do, includes things that we regard as, I don't like that so much. I think that's a bad thing. God, can you not do that again? Because that really hurt, or that really was uncomfortable, or that was whatever. But in the course of that, we realize God is sovereign and loving and kind even over those things. Yahweh, God, is all-powerful, all-wise. He's able to do, and he does do, for his own glory. I mentioned that we're going to look at how Leviathan points forward. I'm going to have to give you this as homework. You can do your homework this week. It's a holiday week, but it's OK. Revelation chapter 12, and 20. Revelation 12 and 20 talk about this serpent, not so much this Leviathan, this creature, but as this creature was portraying the serpent, right? We met him back in Genesis 3, the serpent coming before Eve and Adam. But we read about that as a picture of Satan himself. And there is that time when the serpentine monster, The devil, Satan, the serpent of old, all these different names that are Old Testament names, but they're applied to Satan. It's not to say that every serpent we see is Satan. I know some people, you think every snake you see needs to be a dead snake, right? That's not the point, because it's Satan incarnate. No, it's not that. It's just a snake. But it pictures Satan. It draws our attention toward that massive, yucky, I mean, not just yucky, that's an understatement, evil, conniving, deceptive, deceiving, destructive, death person, death angel, Satan. And we read in Revelation 12 and 20, God vanquishes him. He's accomplished his purpose in the world, and he's done. Who is the one who's able to bring his sword? The maker himself. Leviathan, we don't see those anymore. I don't think anyway. Satan, there's gonna be a time coming when we won't see him anymore. We long for that day because when Christ comes, Satan will be no more. But wait a minute, when Christ comes, everything will be better. Job is coming to that recognition that when God is here, everything is fine. It may be hard and hurtful. I don't understand everything, but God is faithful. He is just. He is all wise and all powerful. Our Father in heaven, we are grateful for your message, we're grateful for your truth, and these beasts that you've described with such care and tender devotion, you love these things, you made them for your glory, much more if you made us in your image to reflect your glory, to have a relationship, communion with you, and yet we ruined it because of our sin, our treachery, and we continue to make decisions against your good and perfect will. We thank you for your pre- prevalent grace in our lives that you are changing us. You're helping us to align and line ourselves up under your purposes and to see your path, your pattern going forward. We thank you for Christ who makes all these things possible, helps us to give understanding, helps us to take, or not just helps, does take away our sin, our guilt, our foolishness, our misunderstandings, gives us clarity and hope and confidence in you. We thank you for Job and his life, a real man, some thousands of years ago, who came face to face with you and left a changed man. Please help us to leave changed men and women, boys and girls, for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.