Dragons and Dinosaurs

The world and the universe were created with all of the appearances and markings of great age. Trees were bearing fruit immediately upon creation. Light from the moon and the stars and the sun immediately cascaded over the earth.

A man and a woman immediately as mature adults began to walk in and talk. Not eggs first, but the chicken. I want you to know I do not interpret the Scriptures through the lens of the universe. I interpret the universe through the lens of the Scriptures. There are two competing worldviews concerning the creation and formation of the universe. One view is that we're the result of random chance and a natural process. The other is that God is the sovereign creator of all that is.

Which do you hold? Today, Stephen comes to an issue that clarifies the difference because the Bible indicates that people and dinosaurs lived at the same time. Did you know that the Bible mentions dinosaurs? That's right. Before archaeologists found bones of these extinct creatures, Scripture recorded their existence.

I wish I could deliver friends to you all. I have learned about the universe and the animal kingdom over the course of this study. It's proof to me all over again that I wasn't really listening in high school science class.

I really did deserve those bad grades because I've learned so many things for the first time. But as we come to the conclusion of this section where God speaks comfort to Job, God is going to once again focus on a couple of animals, two additional ones, magnificent, magnificent illustrations of God's power and providence. So let's pick up our study at verse 15 of chapter 40 as God says to Job, Look, behold now.

Evidently, Job knew all about it already, so he's just rehearsing what Job knows. Look at the behemoth, which I made as well as you. Now, if you're like me, you immediately stop and you think, OK, now back earlier, I know a little bit about the calf and the wild donkey and the horse and the ostrich, but I do not have any idea what a behemoth is. What in the world is a behemoth? Well, the word behemoth is simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word behemoth.

In fact, it's about as good as we can get right here. I hope that helps. It's actually a plural word which would normally be rendered beasts. In fact, because of its plural form, some believe that God is only talking in general about large creatures. But because he specifically describes one particular animal in view in this chapter and in chapter 41, he will specifically describe in detail another animal. I believe there is in his mind a particular behemoth in mind and the Leviathan later. Now, scholars debate long and loud about what animal the behemoth is. In fact, many evangelical authors have suggested, in fact, I even have in my notes here in this Bible, animals like the hippopotamus and later the crocodile. Some have suggested it's a water buffalo or maybe an elephant.

That might be something we could figure out, but the trouble is it doesn't quite fit the description of these animals entirely. In fact, look at verse 16 of the behemoth. Behold now his strength is in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly. He bends his tail like a cedar tree.

Not any elephant I've seen or water buffalo or even hippopotamus. Verse 23 says that even if Jordan was rushing toward it, it wouldn't budge him. Verse 24 says you can't catch him. You can't snare him.

You can't cage him. I would agree with those scholars who believe that this animal is a kind of dinosaur. Here you get the tail like a cedar tree.

Yet, it says in verse 15, he eats grass like an ox. You could, I believe, accurately translate behemoth, great beast, dinosaur. Now, we're not sure which dinosaur God was referring to. One author suggested it was the Brachiosaurus, which weighed, if you can imagine it, 90,000 pounds. It was 75 feet long.

It was over 40 feet tall, which means to get in here, it would have to crouch. The problem for the average person today, including the Christian, is that after a century of evolutionary conditioning, we've all been taught to believe that dinosaurs existed tens of millions of years before man ever walked the planet. They date these bones using indirect dating methods, which have been proven to be inconsistent and unstable. Not to mention, Christian, that according to the creation account, we have Adam and Eve and the beasts created on the same day. The world and the universe were created with all of the appearances and markings of great age for our benefit, ultimately. Trees were bearing fruit immediately upon creation. Light from the moon and the stars and the sun immediately cascaded over the earth.

A man and a woman immediately, as mature adults, began to walk and talk. Not eggs first, but the chicken. You heard it here first, the chicken came first.

Then the eggs, okay? Genesis is pretty clear. Even bones that seem to be millions of years old were fossilized quickly by the right amounts of pressure and sediment and water, explainable only in terms of a universal flood. And even the most secular scientists are now leaving room for a catastrophe that answers why literally millions of fossils would be heaped together all over the planet.

Fossils of sea creatures on top of mountains and in the desert. Genesis 1 is a record worthy of our study and inspection. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know I do not interpret the scriptures through the lens of the universe. I interpret the universe through the lens of the scriptures.

And there's a difference there. Let me read from one account that I came across that will not be in your child science textbook anytime soon. It clearly indicates with this particular discovery that dinosaur bones are not as old as we've been told. 17 years ago, and we still haven't heard about it, 17 years ago scientists from the University of Montana found T-Rex bones that were not entirely fossilized. The sections of the bones were considered, one scientist called fresh bone because of what appeared to be blood cells. If these bones, the scientists explained, were really millions of years old, then the blood cells would have already totally disintegrated. A report by one of the scientists recorded this, and I quote, the lab was filled with murmurs of excitement as I focused on something inside the bone, the vessels that none of us had ever noticed before. Tiny round objects, translucent red with a dark center. They were in fact red blood cells. Blood cells are mostly water and cannot possibly have stayed preserved in the 65 million year old tyrannosaur. They were indeed hemoglobin fragments.

That discovery never made it to the PTA meetings I went to. Now still some would suggest that Behemoth in chapter 40 and Leviathan in chapter 41 are simply poetic creations. This is poetry. There can be metaphor, there can be hyperbole, there can be all sorts of different kinds of expressions. But that's what it must be. They're not to be taken literally. I take them literally.

Here's why. For one thing, all of the animals thus far presented to Job as proof of God's providence are real. The only one we haven't known anything really about is the Auroch, which we talked about in our last session, which is now extinct. Secondly, the detailed description of the anatomy of these two animals suggests real animals. Third, both of these animals are mentioned elsewhere in scripture without any mythological context. We know Leviathan has mythology wrapped around it.

It's seven headed, the seven headed beast. Well, Psalm 104 talks about the Leviathan playing in the sea. All the animals thus far are presented as proof. They're real. We know much of the first section.

The detailed description describes real animals. They're both these two mentioned elsewhere in scripture. And fourth, and most importantly, God said he created them. We could have stopped with that one. Verse 15, behold now, behemoth, behemoth, which I made, I created, just like I created you, Job.

That's good enough for me. The problem is that God implies here, and this is what causes so much heartburn and so many commentators, is that it implies that Job already knows about the behemoth. In fact, he's living during the days of Job. Behold, look, I made him as well as you, and he eats grass like an ox. I'm sure Job was glad the behemoth ate grass for dinner. This massive animal, which is now extinct in our generation, clearly living in Job's generation. You know, another thing I found that was fascinating to me is that these stone carvings and drawings of people several thousand years ago show them hunting, spearing mammoths and antelope, even drawings by American native Indians. However, those drawings ended up in textbooks, not drawings on the same walls of people chasing down animals that look a lot like dinosaurs. Those didn't end up in the books.

I need to warn you, and we're going to leave behemoth alone here, but I've got to warn you, if you've got trouble with this one, you're going to really have trouble with the next one. God describes what is nothing short of a fire-breathing dragon called a leviathan. Look at verse one of 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?

Can you pierce his jaw with a hook? Is he going to make supplication to you? Is he going to speak to you softly? Will he make a promise to you? Can you make him a servant? Will you play with him as a bird?

Are you going to leash him for one of your daughters? Are the traders going to bargain over him? Will they divide him among the merchants? By the way, this is the longest description of an animal anywhere in the Bible, the leviathan. Look at verse seven. Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? I like this next phrase.

Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle. You will not do it again. The Lord goes on in verse 13 to say, who can strip off his outer armor? Who can come within his double mail? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth there is terror.

His strong scales are his pride. Shut up as with a tight seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. Look at verse 18. His sneezes flash forth light and his eyes are like the islands of the morning. They are bright and glowing. Verse 19, out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth. I have heard all kinds of interesting commentary on this, that what he is doing is blowing a little water out of the mist.

The morning sun looks like smoke. Whatever we can do to come up with a creature that we fully understand. Now ladies and gentlemen, this is nothing less than a fire breathing creature and you say, now you have gone too far. Well, let's back up with what we know. Can you explain the bombardier beetle which stores inside its abdomen powerful chemicals that come down tubes, combine, form bombs that they fire away at their enemies without dying after the first bomb explodes?

Can you explain to me how a firefly can have a chemical reaction that converts chemical energy to light energy without burning a hole in its abdomen? Look at it. It's on Wikipedia. You can look it up just like I did. Look at the pictures.

It's all there. They burn with 90% efficiency. A light bulb is 10% efficiency. I mean you think one flash of light and it would be dead, smoldering ash. No, you can't explain how that happens. Why would it be so far-fetched that God could create some creature that could combine elements when mixed with oxygen become flammable? What we do know is that some dinosaur bones have been excavated that show a strange protrusion with an internal cavity when scientists write on the top of the head where some speculate that it could serve as a mixing chamber for combustible gases that would ignite when exhaled. Look at verse 21.

His breath kindles coals and a flame goes forth from his mouth. I'm glad I'm not running into them in the neighborhood. Aren't you? He's a real animal. Isaiah called this animal the dragon that lives in the sea.

Isaiah 27 one. The Leviathan was a real animal more than likely now extinct. If one happened to show up, it wouldn't ruin my view of Scripture. In fact, I'm telling you I believe in it.

It's the people that don't that would have trouble should one surface. This was the fiercest and the largest of the beasts that lived in the water. I will say this. I think it's interesting that God is concluding his tour of the animal world by ending with a dragon. Could it be we don't know for sure but could it be that God ends with this animal because it is this animal throughout scripture that represents the old serpent the dragon we know as Satan.

Listen as John writes of the tribulation period in the book of Revelation. Michael and his angels waged war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war and they were not strong enough. There was no longer a place found for the dragon is fallen angels in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down the serpent of old who was called the devil and Satan who deceive the whole world.

He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. Follow this as John writes the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. He who accuses them before our God day and night. The dragon is the accuser of the brethren. And one day he will be ultimately and finally defeated by the power of God. But now he accuses the brethren. It was the same dragon that accused Joe at the beginning of the book.

Remember Martin Luther wrote it this way. He knows his end. He knows his doom is sure. Now I don't know if Job caught this. I believe he probably lacked the revelation that we have to show the end of the dragon but I do know this that the dragon the great accusing dragon who accused Job was listening to this conversation between God and Job. He would not have missed it.

He would not have missed it. He knows his end. His doom is sure. Why would God choose to talk about these giant and fierce animals while they're intimidating they're uncontrollable they're fierce they're untamable.

You get in the presence of them and you would fear for your life. God is telling job look all of all the forces and all of the powers and all of the creatures of heaven and earth are under my control. Listen this this trip around the universe and field trip to the zoo changed Job's attitude and spirit one or two hours in the presence of God and God became everything. And Job found renewed security and and peace not in the storm but in the sovereign who rides through the storm.

Sarah Edwards was the wife of Jonathan Edwards who was one of the key architects of the Great Spiritual Awakening of the seventeen hundreds just after assuming the role of president of Princeton he died unexpectedly from smallpox in fact it was actually a reaction to a smallpox inoculation that he'd received a month earlier he died. His wife Sarah wrote their daughter Esther this note Esther was in fact still grieving the loss of her husband six months earlier Sarah wrote My dear child what shall I say a holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands upon our mouths a reference to Job chapter 40. The Lord has done this he has caused me to adore his goodness that we had your father for so long but my God lives and he has my heart. That's the response ultimately of Job it's fivefold chapter 42 first gives us affirmation from Job verse 2 I know Lord that you can do all things.

Oh I know that I've been reminded of that through this tour. No purpose of yours can be thwarted Lord in other words when you start something nobody can stop it and when you plan something nobody can hold it back. There is affirmation and there is secondly all. Verse 3 Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge therefore I've declared that which I did not understand things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Third there is attention verse 4 here now and I will speak Lord I'm going to ask you and you instruct me. I wanted an audience earlier with you Lord where I was going to tell you a thing or two.

Now you just teach me it's the right kind of attention. Affirmation all attention now forth there's adoration. Verse 5 I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you.

I thought I knew something about you not like I know now which leads him to genuine apology. Verse 6 therefore I retract and I repent in dust and dashes. Job has finally effectively come back into fellowship with God in a very real way now humbled as I can't imagine we would do anything less than respond like this as a believer with this panoramic display this personal audience with God who was speaking through a whirlwind. Wow.

Job here has come home. I read recently in one of my commentaries on this book of Job about a family of five personal friends with the author mom dad and three sons. The oldest son was gifted intellectually and musically along with being a fine young scholar he was also a splendid violinist. Earlier in his high school years the father who was a medical doctor had some trouble with a boy's spirit of submission upon graduation from high school he was accepted into a prestigious school on the West Coast very expensive but an excellent university known for its academics. The physician father paid the full tuition that year and the boy began his first year many miles from home.

It wasn't long before he started running with the wrong crowd. He continued playing violin in the school's orchestra and did well academically but while he was out there he cultivated even further a rebellious spirit. After completing his freshman year he returned home bringing his proud spirit of selfishness home with him.

His arrogant stubborn and mean spirited attitude disrupted the family harmony and late one afternoon the father had had enough. He called the young man into his study closed the door pointed to a large leather chair and said firmly sit down. He then delivered a speech the boy would never forget. And I quote him. Everything you own is mine. I bought every stitch of clothing you wear and everything that hangs in your closet. Your car out there in the driveway is mine.

I paid for it. The money in your pocket came from my account. Now what I want you to do is empty your pockets and your wallet on my desk. Leave everything that is mine in this house. And I want you to leave. Leave all your clothing. Give me the car keys. And by the way leave your violin.

I bought that too. Leave everything behind it you've been using which I am now claiming is rightfully mine. You can keep the clothes on your back and the shoes on your feet but that's it. There's the door and you may now leave.

Oh by the way if you decide to change your attitude and come back with a cooperative and submissive spirit you need to know we'll accept you and welcome you back as part of this family but not until then. I love you son and always will but you're not what we raised and I'm not putting up with it any longer. The father told this author I was reading that the boy stood defiantly to his feet pulled out his wallet put all the money on the desk left his keys there walked to the door and left everything there without saying one word not even goodbye. He proudly walked to the sidewalk out front took a left got about three blocks down the street and then stood there motionless with his hands in his empty pockets and began to think it through. Night was falling he thought about all he'd be facing the street life he knew nothing about everything he was leaving behind he had no money no prospects no car no job no food and no college sophomore year ahead of him. After his dad had taken everything he owned that was rightfully his this young man realized suddenly he had absolutely nothing left. When it was almost dark he turned around walked back home with his proud head now hanging down in a heart that was truly repentant he knocked on his own front door. Dad opened the door with mom standing next to his two younger brothers they had already been thinking who's going to get his room and all his stuff.

They were disappointed. Then came the words I am sorry I realize I really need you and love you I've been wrong and I want you to forgive my attitude and my spirit. They reached out and embraced him and welcomed him home. You know as I read Job's response I see him knocking on the doors that were with his proud head hanging low and his repentant heart now submissive to the unchangeable unknowable unspeakable unsearchable unexplainable ways of the heart and mind of God. I hear him saying Lord I'm wrong to demand my way to command that you answer me I declared foolishly I want an audience with God I have things to say in spite of my suffering great as it is I've tried to bring you down to where I am I've had no right to challenge you or condemn you or even question you everything I have everything I am you gave you made. Friends we like Job believe our solution is an answer. God's answer is bound up in our surrender to his sovereignty submission to his word his ways and his spirit. I hope that like Job you'll surrender your will and your thinking to God. Stephen's message today was entitled dragons and dinosaurs and it comes from a series called when God speaks. If you didn't hear the entire message you can listen to it or read it on our website or on our smartphone app. The website is wisdomonline.org and you can find the wisdom international app in both the itunes and the google play stores and then join us next time as Stephen continues through the book of Job right here on wisdom for the heart.