Behemoth

INTRO

In yesterday’s lesson, Job finally got what he wanted: a conversation with God. Job had been asking for a conversation with God because he felt he was suffering unjustly. Job endured his friends insisting he had sinned and deserved everything that happened to him. Job maintained his innocence but began to feel somewhat self-righteous. Elihu came onto the scene, called Job out for his self-righteousness, and admonished him to start praising God rather than insisting on his own righteousness. God responded to Job by asking him 77 questions from chapters 38—40. In chapter 39, we read how God questions Job about a variety of animals. In chapter 40, God questions Job about an altogether different kind of animal.

TEACHING

Job 40:1–2: : God concludes his first speech to Job. Constable notes, “God’s first speech began and ended with a challenge to Job. Job had found fault with God for allowing him to suffer when he was godly. He had said he wished he could meet God in court to face Him with His injustice and to hear His response (Job 13:3, 15).Now God asked Job if he still wanted to contend with Him after God had reminded him of his power and wisdom.”¹

Job 40:3-5: At the beginning of his trial, Job understood he could not defend himself against God. He was hesitant to address God: “How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?” (Job 9:14). Job became gradually more confident and demanded an audience with God: “Then call, and I will answer, or I will speak, and You can respond to me” (Job 13:22). Job moved from knowing he could not answer God to demanding an audience with God to then becoming so arrogant he called himself a prince: “I would give Him an account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince” (Job 31:37). Job became arrogant.

Job initially told his friends to cover their mouths at the site of his suffering (Job 21:5), now Job covered his own mouth at God’s interrogation of him. Wiersbe summarizes Job’s response as, “I am insignificant and unworthy. I have no right to debate with God.”²

Job 40:6-8: These verses begin God’s second speech. God continues to answer Job from the whirlwind, challenging him to answer His questions.

Job 40:9-14: Wiersbe notes God essentially asks Job, “Do you have the strength and holy wrath it takes to judge sinners?”³ God challenged Job to get dressed up like a judge and actually execute judgment and justice on the wicked. When Job was able to accomplish these tasks, then God would “confess to you that your own right hand can deliver you” (v. 14).

Job 40:15-24: God references “Behemoth” (v. 15). Behemoth means beast, but Wiersbe suggests the term could also mean super-beast.⁴ Some believe Behemoth could have been some kind of dinosaur.⁵ God lists several qualities of Behemoth:

1. He ate grass (v. 15).
2. He was strong and mighty (v. 16).
3. He had a powerful body (v. 16a).
4. He had strong muscles (v. 16b).
5. He had bones like iron rods (v. 18).
6. He lounged in the river (v. 21).
7. He was hidden under water (v. 21).
8. He wasn’t afraid of the river (v. 23).
9. He had a massive cedar tail (v. 17).
10. No one could capture him (v. 24).

Several options could have fit this description:

Elephant—one major problem. The text described Behemoth as having a massive cedar tail while elephants had a small tail.⁶

Water buffalo—one major problem. Water buffalos do not have large tails either.⁷

Hippopotamus—most commentators think Job described a hippopotamus,⁸ but the description of a “cedar tail” still would not work for a hippopotamus.

Answers in Genesis proposed that “Behemoth” was some sort of dinosaur.⁹ God reminds Job that He created Behemoth alongside Job. Wiersbe notes that while Job “ate a variety of fine foods,” he was “weak and unable to fight” Behemoth.¹⁰ Behemoth was “the foremost of God’s works; only his Maker can draw the sword against him” (v. 19).

CLOSING

This animal (Behemoth) was so great that only God could control it. Job, for all of his bluster, stood powerless to master an animal God had created.