WWUTT 909 God's Final Words to Job?

Job has asked to hear from God, and God has spoken to Job, and pointed to Job the power that is displayed in his creation, which includes a description of dinosaurs, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the book of Job, chapter 40 today, and we'll probably finish up our study of Job.

We're going to be talking about dinosaurs. I'll explain here in just a moment. So where we are in our study,

God has been responding to Job out of the whirlwind. Job believes that he knows the intentions of God.

He knows the ways of God, and why God has done all of this to him, and he has justified himself.

God is speaking to Job and explaining to him that he doesn't even know the extent of creation, which is finite and limited, but Job's knowledge doesn't even go to the end of creation.

God is infinite, and so if Job can't even understand creation, what makes him think that he can fathom the depths of an infinite

God? So God has kind of been humbling Job in that sense, making him realize his lack of knowledge through chapters 38 and 39, and we get to the start of chapter 40, and the

Lord said to Job, Shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.

And of course, that's a direct jab at Job. And then Job answered the Lord and said, verse 4,

Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I shall lay my hand on my mouth.

I have spoken once, and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

Now that was actually the wrong answer, because Job has resolved himself not to say anything at all.

He should be praising God, and that wasn't his response to the word of God. Elihu had previously rebuked

Job for being silent when he should have praised God's name, and so here

Job is making the same mistake again. God has spoken to him. Job is recoiling with fear and saying,

Okay, I can see my words have gotten me into trouble, so I'm going to cover my mouth and not say anything. No, you are supposed to proclaim the praises of God because he is worthy of our praise.

It's pagan worshipers who will take these vows of silence, believing that they are holier or greater than others because they don't say anything at all.

But God demands of us our praise, that we would lift up our voices in extolling his greatness.

Job is not reacting that way. He's thinking, Hey, maybe if I don't say anything at all, then I will be holier, and so God has to respond to him again because clearly he's not getting the point.

So where previously God had challenged Job in his knowledge of creation, next he's going to challenge

Job in his understanding of justice and power. And that's what we're going to read here in chapters 40 and 41.

And God's still making reference to general revelation, pointing to creation.

But in this particular challenge, it's going to pertain to the justice of God and the power displayed in what has been made.

So in chapter 39, God made a reference to domesticated animals and that there are animals that man has not controlled that live out in the wilderness.

So if man is not tame, these animals, who is it that governs them? Who oversees them?

Who makes sure that that the donkey roams free or that the mountain goats give birth or that the wild ox still continues to feed on the land or that the ostrich, though it is an extremely dumb animal, yet continues to survive or the horse and the might he has when he is on his own, the fear that he does not have in man as this powerful animal.

So these are the kinds of animals that God has appealed to animals that can be domesticated. But next he's going to make reference to two extremely large animals that cannot be tamed.

So again, God still drawing from general revelation, making examples of that which is which he has created.

But but these examples pertain to the justice and power of God.

So the Lord answered Job. This is verse six out of the whirlwind and said, dress for action like a man.

I will question you and you make it known to me. God speaking from the whirlwind. So remember, this was a big storm that had come up.

Eli, who saw the storm storm coming. God speaks to Job out of the storm, and yet he is still speaking from the whirlwind.

This is not God in a presence that is right there in front of Job, whom Job can see. But he hears the voice of God speaking from the storm dress for action like a man.

I will question you and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like his adorn yourself with majesty and dignity?

Clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud and base him.

Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.

Hide them all in the dust together. Bind their faces in the world below. Then will

I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.

And all of this has been a reference to the justice of God. God can clothe himself in glory and splendor.

Can you do that? God has an arm that can save. Can you save yourself?

Are you able to bring the wicked low? Are you able to bring the proud down to a place that he is reminded that he is but man?

Can you do that? God can certainly do that. God has done that with Job already. So perhaps

Job in his own immediate experience is able to understand the reference that God is making to the supremacy of his own justice.

Then he goes and draws an example of the power of God from that which has been made.

Verse 15. Behold behemoth which I made as I made you this creature that was made on the sixth day of creation just as Job was made on the sixth day.

Well man was made on the sixth day of creation. He eats grass like an ox. Behold his strength in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly.

He makes his tail stiff like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

His bones are tubes of bronze. His limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God.

Let him who made him bring near his sword. For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.

Under the lotus plants he lies in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. For his shade the lotus trees cover him.

The willows of the brook surround him. Behold if the river is turbulent he is not frightened.

He is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can one take him by the eyes or pierce his nose with a snare?

And it's the description of this animal that has led many to believe that we're talking about a dinosaur.

Now that word dinosaur itself means terrible lizard.

It was coined by a paleontologist named Sir Richard Owen in the mid 1800s.

And he was looking at a series of large skeletons that had been discovered that had been unearthed and he realized that there were some similarities between these skeletons.

And these skeletons had all been discovered from the mid to late 1700s into the early 1800s.

And so seeing some similarities in these discoveries, he decided to give them one name.

These were all creatures that fit in a specific category. And he gave them the name dinosaur, which means terrible lizard.

It comes from the Greek word dino meaning terrible or dinos meaning terrible and soros meaning lizard or reptile.

And you know, it was a very kind of a charismatic name. Everybody loved the name and people started getting attached to these huge fierce creatures that were being discovered and fell into this category called dinosaurs.

But the thing about it is all these creatures that we call dinosaurs may not all actually be dinosaurs.

They aren't terrible lizards. And even many scientists, paleontologists, archaeologists, historians, etc.

have acknowledged that these weren't all great big giant lizards. In fact, some of them were probably predatory birds and others may have been large mammals.

So just the what we have from nothing but a skeleton, we've not been able to conclude exactly what these animals look like.

They may not have looked like you see in Jurassic Park. All of those animals were constructed with the whole terrible lizard concept in mind.

But that's the way we picture dinosaurs because of the way they were named, because that word means terrible lizard.

Some of these animals were likely dragons. In fact, we're going to read about one of those dragons coming up here in chapter 41, that which the the ancients referred to as dragons we call today as dinosaurs.

But behemoth may not have been a terrible lizard. He may have been a large animal bigger than an elephant.

So you're talking about something like a diplodocus or a brachiosaurus. Now, in the footnotes of your

Bible, this creature behemoth, which we don't know exactly what this animal was, but your footnotes may say that this was a hippopotamus and largely because it says that he lies under the lotus plants or that his shelter is in the reeds of the marsh.

And he's not intimidated by the turbulent force of the Jordan River. And so that has led many to believe that this is a hippo.

But the thing about it is that back in verse 20, it says, for the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.

So this is an animal that would be on the plains or would even go up into the foothills or the mountains.

And that doesn't describe a hippo. Furthermore, you have this reference to his tail being stiff like a cedar.

Well, that's certainly not a hippo's tail or an elephant's tail. It could apply to the elephant's trunk.

But we're talking about a tail here. There isn't an animal alive today that has a tail that would be described as being as stiff as a cedar.

But if you look into the fossil record and you see an animal like the diplodocus or the brachiosaurus or the supersaurus or something like that, then you've got an animal with a tail that would certainly have been that size.

And you're talking about an animal so large that the river would not even move him.

He would not budge if he walked into a turbulent river. So that's likely the kind of animal we're talking about.

The large, long necked dinosaurs. Verse 18.

Behold, his strength in his loins. That's actually a reference to his phallus, the power in the muscles of his belly.

He makes his tail stiff like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.

This is an animal that is practically indestructible because of its massive size.

And we read about another large, intimidating animal in Job chapter 41.

God is drawing from the largest of the creatures that he has made. Behemoth is the first of the land animals.

And then we have a reference to a sea creature named Leviathan Job 41.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

Will you play with him as with a bird or will you put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

Lay your hands on him. Remember the battle. You will not do it again. Behold, the hope of man is false.

He is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole of heaven is mine. That reference to who has first given to me that I should repay him.

Paul actually draws upon that in Romans chapter 11, where he said, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

Calling upon the very words of God himself to Job verse 12. I will not keep silence concerning his limbs or his mighty strength or his goodly frame.

Still describing Leviathan who can strip off his outer garment. Who would come near him with a bridle?

Who can open the doors of his face around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields shut up closely as with a seal.

Now, that certainly sounds like something reptilian because of the scales, the largeness of the scales.

But we're not talking about something like a crocodile or an alligator here, because men have tamed crocodiles and alligators.

Can you fill his mouth with harpoons? Well, yeah. I mean, alligators and crocodiles are pretty large animals, but it would just take a couple of spears and then their mouth is full of harpoons.

So again, his back is made of rows of shields shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

They are joined one to another. They clasp each other and cannot be separated. His sneezing's flash forth light.

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches.

Sparks of fire leap forth. What are we reading about there? We're reading about a dragon that breathes fire.

You know, there are those who study dinosaurs that have said that they have recognized even within skeletons of some of these beasts that there were pockets where certain pouches may have been and chemicals would have mixed to allow that animal to breathe fire.

So even those who study dinosaurs think that the dinosaurs may have been fire breathers. Some of them anyway.

And Leviathan is being described that way. Out of his nostrils come forth smoke as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

His breath kindles coals and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength and terror dances before him.

The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.

His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.

At the crashing, they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

He counts iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee.

For him, sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rattle of javelins.

His underparts are like sharp potsherds. He spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

He makes the deep boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

Behind him, he leaves a shining wake. One would think the deep to be white haired.

On earth, there is not his like, a creature without fear.

He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.

So once again, God is describing an actual creature here. It would be ridiculous for God to have been describing something mythological because he's displaying the power that he has in what has been made.

You think these creatures are powerful? I'm even greater than these. And so Job answered the

Lord in verse 42. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand.

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Here and I will speak. I will question you and you will make it known to me.

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear. But now my eye sees you.

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

And this is different than the dust and ashes that Job wore at the start of the book.

When he was in grief, when he was he found no meaning or purpose in the calamity that had come upon him.

Why would God allow this to happen to me? And now with God's response, Job is at peace.

He is contrite before God. He has actually been comforted by these words.

Here's what R .C. Sproul says at the conclusion of Job 42 verses 2 through 6. When we read this section of the book of Job, we may get the idea that God was bullying

Job. He cried out for answers, and God said that he would answer Job's questions. But the answers never came forth.

To be sure, there was a condition attached to the promise of answers. Job was required to answer first.

But Job flunked his exam. You know, when God said, give me the answers to this, and Job instead took a vow of silence.

So God then gave no answers. Dr. Sproul goes on. Yet Job was satisfied.

Even though God gave no answers, Job's questions were put to rest. He received a higher answer than any direct reply would have provided.

God answered Job's questions not with words, but with himself. As soon as Job saw who

God is, Job was satisfied. Seeing the manifestation of God was all that he needed.

He was able to leave the details in God's hands. Once God himself was no longer shrouded in mystery,

Job was able to live comfortably with a few unanswered questions. When God appeared,

Job was so busy repenting that he did not have time for further challenges.

His rage was redirected to himself. I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

We go on from there. Verse 7. After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the

Temanite, My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant

Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant

Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant

Job has. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the

Shuhite and Zophar the Neamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the

Lord accepted Job's prayer. Now notice that it said, God said to Job's friends,

You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Well, I thought God just rebuked

Job. Even though Job expressed a grief and a frustration, he nevertheless desired

God. He wanted to appear before God. He wanted to hear from God. And it was the fact that he hadn't heard from God that left

Job with all of these questions and doubts that he had. Job's friends, on the other hand, when they used the name of God, they used his name in vain, because they used it to justify their own knowledge and make

Job feel small and tear him down. And so they sinned when they referenced the name of God.

But God did not count Job's words regarding him as sin. Job justifying himself was certainly sin, but he did not speak ill of the

Lord. So verse 10, And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before and ate bread with him in his house.

And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him.

And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the

Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camels, 1 ,000 yoke of oxen, and 1 ,000 female donkeys.

He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemima. And the name of the second daughter was

Keziah. And the name of the third was Karen Hapuk. And these names mean dove.

The second is a kind of perfume. And the third is a kind of eyeshadow. So these names are in reference to their beauty.

As it goes on in verse 15, And in all the land, there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters.

And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this, Job lived 140 years.

And he saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations. And Job died an old man, over 200 years old by the time he died, and full of days.

And that's our study of the book of Job. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.