The LORD Speaks (Part 4)
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The LORD Speaks (Part 4)
The LORD Speaks (Part 4)
We just have a few weeks left in Job.
As such, if you have developed any questions, please make a note of them and you can give them to me or email them.
We will plan to do a Q&R after we get through the book.
We have a final creature we are going to look at today.
As a reminder, we have covered...
The created divine beings (stars)
The creatures with breath (animals)
The chaos land creature (behemoth)
The chaos sea creature (leviathan)
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Leviathan, today
In all this, when we are done with the LORD’s poem, we will have covered all creation...
EXCEPT…humans.
Before we get to this creature, let’s look at what Isaiah the prophet wrote:
In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.
What is written of Leviathan is extensive, and not just modern writings.
People have written about this creature since the 13th and 12th BCE.
Mot’s Message to His Messengers (Continued)
1–4 “When you killed Litan, the Fleeing Serpent,
Annihilated the Twisty Serpent,
The Potentate with Seven Heads,
The heavens grew hot, they withered.
4–6 But let me tear you to pieces,
Let me eat flanks, innards, forearms.
6–8 Surely you will descend into Divine Mot’s throat,
Into the gullet of El’s Beloved, the Hero.”
These lines are from a tablet from ancient Ugarit, a site that was discovered in 1928.
The tablets come from the 13th century BCE (1300)
They are full of allusions that marry up with the religious writings of the biblical authors.
In short, the biblical authors are striking out against the Baal religions.
In all, Leviathan is the mythological creature of:
Mythological creatures:
Leviathan, Yam (Sea), Tannin (Dragon), Tiamat (Tehom), all ruled with Mot (Death) and Baal (Lord) and El (God).
Baal and Leviathan (Ugarit)
Marduk and Tiamat (Babylon)
Zeus and Thyphon (Greek)
Thor and Midgard Serpent (Norse)
Yahweh and Tehom (Gen 1)
Yahweh and Rahab (Egypt, Akkadian)
Yahweh and the Seas
As you can see, the stories have crossed many ancient cultures and times.
With this in mind, let’s read Chapter 41
“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
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 a 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 heaven is mine.
“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
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.
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 sneezings 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.
Out of his nostrils comes 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.”
Here is where I am with this:
It is not a dinosaur
It is not a crocodile
What good is a God of creation that proves his strength through a hippopotamus, dinosaur, or crocodile. Get enough people together and we can take any of these creatures down. Steve Irwin used to wrestle a crocodile by himself. God opens with where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth and he closes with a poem about a crocodile or dinosaur? I just don’t buy it.
I have not shared this yet, but BEHEMOTH, in Hebrew, sounds like:
BEAST of DEATH
And Leviathan is made up of words that equate to
TWISTING SERPENT
As I mentioned before, this is a cosmic creature with a rich history
Baal and Leviathan (Ugarit)
Marduk and Tiamat (Babylon)
Zeus and Thyphon (Greek)
Thor and Midgard Serpent (Norse)
Yahweh and Tehom (Gen 1)
Yahweh and Rahab (Egypt, Akkadian)
Yahweh and the Seas
Jesus and the Waters (turn to wine, walk on them, calm them)
New Creation (No sun, moon, or sea)
And here is something to consider.
Jonah, when he is “swallowed by a great fish,” he utters a poem prayer to God. In that prayer, Jonah speaks of being in a land of the dead (SHEOL).
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The NT authors wrote about Jesus and his encounters with the sea, with water.
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There will be no dwelling for Leviathan since there will be no sea.
It does not mean there will be no water…the text clearly refers to water in abundance.
This water in new creation will not be home to chaos monsters any longer.
This chaos monster is the representative of death. Something from which no human can escape without the aid of the living God.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
You see...
Jesus is the wounded lamb that stands in opposition to behemoth and leviathan. Because he gave himself to make us clean, God gives him all power over evil.
And in that power, God will resurrect us from the chaos (death) that will consume each of us someday.
Jesus teaches us to choose love not chaos. You cannot be loyal to both.
The indication here is that we must choose life.
Life is not compatible with the chaos of death.
There is a way that seems right to a person, but its way leads to death. To chaos.
Through all this chaos, ONE THING has been PRESERVED.
Job’s life.
That is what interests God.
It is what confuses Job. Job expects and has even desired to be dead.
But that is not God’s desire.
All that Job has was given to the Adversary, the satan.
But his life, that was never put in the hands of the satan.