12/8/2011 8:55:04 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Can You Subdue My Creation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 40:6-41-34
Message of the verses: I want to begin this SD by saying that I have the up most respect for Dr. Warren Wiersbe as I have used his commentaries for many years to help me unlock the mysteries of the Scriptures. I can also say that I hardly every disagree with his writings; however this section of Job I must say that I do not agree with what he is saying about the creatures that the Lord is describing in these two chapters of Job. I have listened to different men and read different articles from men about how old our earth is. I am now in the midst of a Bible Study using a book by John MacArthur entitled “The Battle for the Beginning,” which covers the first few chapters of the book of Genesis. The book is full of great information showing that evolution is impossible, and lists reasons why that is a true statement. Things do not mutate up, they never have and they never will no matter how much time the evolutionists want to give them to do so. There are other great scholars that support these findings such as Ken Ham, and Dr. John C. Whitcomb along with other. One can do an internet search to find volumes of material supporting the fact that evolution is impossible and as stated in earlier SD’s my belief is that evolution is a product of the enemy of our souls, none other than Satan who wants people to believe that this earth was just an accident and is continuing to evolve, but that is not the case. He reason for this is so that people will not have to be accountable to the God of this universe who is the Creator and sustainer of our world. If Satan convinces people that the world was not created by God then no one will have to worship God, and he has even got people of “Faith” to believe this lie, believing that the world is millions of years old.
I believe that God created dinosaurs on the sixth day and that the reason that they are not around today is because they could not live on this earth after the flood. After listening to a sermon by Dr. Whitcomb on this subject that is what he states. In the state of Texas there have been found both human footprints and also the tracts of a dinosaur, and this makes it difficult for the evolutionists to answer how this happened.
I believe that the creatures that are described in this portion of Job are dinosaurs and even though Job happened after the flood there may have been these creatures still around before they became extent.
I believe that there is a spiritual message in this section as well and therefore I wish to concentrate on it as well as putting in some material from Ken Ham and John MacArthur in this SD.
Remember in the last SD it was mentioned that Job was not quite broken at the place of sincere repentance and that the Lord was now going to continue His address to make sure this would happen. So instead of confronting Job some more with the broad sweep of His creation, God would not select two creatures that He created and confront Job with them. We could interrupt God as saying “My whole universe is too much for you to handle. However, here are two of My best products. What can you do with them.”
6 ¶ Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: 7 “Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 8 “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right? 9 Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? 10 All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty. 11 Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. 12 Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. 13 Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. 14 Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.” Job 40:6-14 NLT)
We can see in verse eight that the issue is not God’s power, but God’s justice. We remember that Job had said to his three friends that God was unjust in the way He was treating Job. He brought up some more charges like this too like God was failing to judge the wicked along with being unjust with Job. We can see in verses 9-14 that God is asking Job if he has the strength and holy wrath it takes to judge sinners, and if you do then get started doing the job.
Before God would turn Job loose on judging the wicked He tells him to practice with these two creatures.
At this point I wish to quote two notes from the “MacArthur Study Bible” to help make my case that these creatures are not the hippopotamus or the crocodile: “40:15-24 Behemoth. While this is a generic term used commonly in the OT for large cattle or land animals, the description in this passage suggests an extraordinary creature. The hippopotamus has been suggested by the details in the passage (vv. 19-24). However the short tail of a hippo is hardly consistent with v. 17, where tail could be translated ‘trunk.’ I could refer to an elephant, who could be considered ‘first’ or chief of God creatures whom only He can control (v.19). Some believe God is describing His most impressive creation of land animals, the dinosaur species, which fit all the characteristics.”
Second not from John MacArthur: “41:1 Leviathan. This term appears in 4 other OT texts (Job 3:8; Pss. 74:14; 104:26; Is 27:1). In each case Leviathan refers to some mighty creature who can overwhelm man but who is no match for God. Since this creature lives in the sea among ships (Ps. 104:26), some form of sea monster, possibly an ancient dinosaur, is in view. Some feel it is a crocodile, which had scaly hide (v 15), terrible teeth (v 14) and speed in the water (v 32). But crocodiles are not sea creatures, and clearly this one was (v 31). Some have thought it was a killer whale or a great white shark, because he is the ultimate killer beast over all other proud beasts (v-34). It could also have been a sea-going dinosaur.”
Here is a note from Ken Ham: “Job 41 describes a great animal that lived in the sea, Leviathan that even breathed fi re. This ‘dragon’ may have been something like the mighty 55-foot (17 m) long Kronosaurus,22 or the 82-foot (25 m) long Liopleurodon.
There is also mention of a flying serpent in the Bible: the ‘fiery flying serpent’ (Isa. 30:6). This could be a reference to one of the Pterodactyls, which are popularly thought of as flying dinosaurs, such as the Pteranodon, Rhamphorhynchus or Ornithocheirus.23
Not long after the Flood, God was showing a man called Job how great He was as Creator, by reminding Job of the largest land animal He had made: ‘Behold now behemoth, which I made with you; he eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the muscles of his belly. He moves his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are like tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God: his maker brings near his sword’ (Job 40:15–19). The phrase ‘chief of the ways of God’ suggests this was the largest land animal God had made. So what kind of animal was ‘behemoth’?
Bible translators, not being sure what this beast was, often transliterated the Hebrew, and thus the word behemoth (e.g. KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV). However, in many Bible commentaries and Bible footnotes, ‘behemoth’ is said to be ‘possibly the hippopotamus or elephant.’24 Some Bible versions actually translate ‘behemoth’ this way.25 Besides the fact that the elephant and hippo were not the largest land animals God made
(some of the dinosaurs far eclipsed these), this description does not make sense, since the tail of behemoth is compared to the large cedar tree (verse 17).
Now an elephant’s tiny tail (or a hippo’s tail that looks like a fl ap of skin!) is quite unlike a cedar
tree! Clearly the elephant and the hippo could not possibly be ‘behemoth.’ No living creature comes close to this description. However, behemoth is very like Brachiosaurus, one of the large dinosaurs.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to talk about the justice of God and say that there are times when I wish that God would take out some of the awful people in this world. I am sure if I were living during the time of the Second World War that I would have been wondering how God could allow such awfulness fall upon innocent people by such persons like Hitler. Here is the answer that I have to come up with and that is that God is in charge and if I were to get involved in having my way with getting rid of people like Hitler then I would miss out on what God’s plan was. Look at Saul of Tarsus who hounded the early church and perhaps many people wanted God to deal with him by having him killed, after all he was having believers killed. I wonder how many people back then were praying for Saul to become a believer. God has His plans and I have to trust them even when I wish, at times to have my justice prevail. This is all a part of learning contentment. As I read the 11th and 12th chapters of 2Cor. I have to believe that all of those awful things that happened to Paul were how he learned contentment. Patience and contentment go together. I still have a long way to go.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to learn contentment.
12/8/2011 10:19:00 AM
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