SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR12/8/2011 8:55:04 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Can
You Subdue My Creation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 40:6-14
Message
of the verses: I want to begin this SD
by saying that I have the upmost 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 others. 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. His
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 now 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 now 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 now 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 fire. 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, and 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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