Chapter 41
End of 40, beginning of 41 God describes two animals he has created, both awe-inspiring, both untameable, uncatchable, uncontrollable my man. They are both huge, and man dare not stir them up. The second is called Leviathan - a creature of the sea. So God is pointing out the largest and most impressive land animal and the most spectacular sea animal. Leviathan could be a whale. Or a Pleisiosaur, and it could also be that Behemoth is an apatosaurus. Or it could just be a big buffalo and a big fish. After the long description of these two giant beasts, God ends with:
10 ...Who then is he who can stand before me? [Job 41:10b ESV]
2025 - MSB says there are four OT Leviathan references. Here, in Job 41:1, also in Job 3:8, Pss 71.14, 104.26, and Is 27.1. We know it lived in the sea, had scaly hide, terrible teeth and speed in the water. The idea in the current passage is that no man anywhere can cope with this creature, and yet even this thing is no match for God.
Dad showed me these descriptions once, in the days when we argued about evolution. The land beast sounds like an apatosaurus. It is a huge plant eating animal. The other sounds like a swimming reptile or scaled fish of great size. The description says it's scales are so tight that air cannot get between them. He seems to be able to breathe fire, and smoke comes from his nostrils. A dragon? Some more info about this swimming beast:
2025 - 21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. [Job 41:21 ESV]. This verse leaves little to the imagination though it describes something that we today would consider entirely imaginary. A fire breathing sea creature with scales and teeth. That's what is described here.
31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. 33 On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. [Job 41:31-33 ESV]
2022 - Sounds like a dragon that swims, instead of flies. Or maybe it does both, but the idea of dragons in the water, causing it to boil, is unlike any dragon legend I've ever heard about. Ought to do some research on that. Ancient depictions of them ever show them standing in water?
2024 - The point is that God made both these animals, so overwhelming that man dares not approach them and they are beyond his control. If God made these things that you dare not approach, how then is it that you think you can question God himself???