The what?? Behemoth is a word in the Bible, used only once, and I had to look it up. It was simple to figure out that God was the Maker, He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth and all things seen and unseen. But my curiosity still wanted to know what animal could possibly be a Behemoth.
I have stayed in the Book of Job for the last couple of weeks. Re-reading over and over again and gaining so much comfort and getting consumed in many rabbit trails that the Lord has sent me on.
Today the Lord has me in the details of the Behemoth. The word appeared in Job 40:15-24 (NIV). Behemoth only appears once in the Bible.
… the vocabulary of Job has several distinctive features. Pope notes that Job has more hapax legomena (words which occur only once in the whole Bible) than any other Biblical book.
~ Answers In Genisis; Could Behemoth Have Been a Dinosaur?
Okay, so, since God put some words in the Bible only one time, I want to know what this Behemoth is.
Obviously an animal of some sort…
15 “Look at Behemoth,
~ Job 40:15-19 (NIV)
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
16 What strength it has in its loins,
what power in the muscles of its belly!
17 Its tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
18 Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like rods of iron.
19 It ranks first among the works of God,
yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
Short Conclusion
If you have no interest in reading the details and learning the details of grammar, history, extinction, etc. –
… the most reasonable interpretation (which also takes the whole passage into account) is that Behemoth was a large animal, now extinct, which had a large tail. Thus some type of extinct dinosaur should still be considered a perfectly reasonable possibility according to our present state of knowledge.
~ Answers In Genisis; Could Behemoth Have Been a Dinosaur?
Does It Matter What a Behemoth Was?
Maybe!! Depends on where God has you at this very moment.
Today, the Lord had my nose in the possible details of a Behemoth.
My brain does not always wrap around details and it certainly does not recall them at later dates. Never has. Whether it has been brain damage from life-long Lyme disease or brain damage from TMI’s or lack of oxygen and blood to my brain from another incident or just because that is how my Maker created my particular brain, I don’t know. But the Lord has me in the details of a Behemoth today. Oh how the Lord makes me smile!!!!
It has taken me out of my own thinking and into the Bible. That alone is a good thing. I cannot solve all the mysteries of how my brain works (or doesn’t work) but I can follow the Lord’s direction toward this one detailed task today.
He does not send us on tasks without providing for what it takes to accomplish them!!!
I kept coming back to the animals of the Earth. As a Christian, I obviously believe that God created them, because He said so.
God also says there is a distinction between humans and animals…
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, another of birds.
~ 1 Corinthians 15:39 (NIV)
Our Value Compared to Animals
No doubt, we as humans, are just dust of the Earth, meek and small. But our value remains true, above the animals.
I am finding comfort in being humbled though recovering from chronic illness to identify with my smallness, my lack of importance, my meekness of ability.
I also am learning about God’s intense
Claiming that animals are the same as people only ends up devaluing human life.
- God gave man dominion over all his earthly creation in the beginning. Humans were the last creature God made, but the last became first in his earthly order and the only creature to be made in his image. Mankind was assigned the job of taking care of everything on earth, including animals (Genesis 1:28-31).
- Noah and his family built the ark and saved the animals from the flood. God didn’t tell any of the animals the plans for building the ark, when the flood would come, or how to get themselves into the ark. It was Noah and his family that took care of all of that because animals are of a far inferior intellect.
- Jesus died for man’s sins and for man’s salvation. Animals, although they will one day reap the benefits of Christ’s kingdom, were not the Lord’s target for his blessed hope of eternal life. Jesus was made like his brothers–humans–and not like any of the other creatures, which proves humans are way more valuable than any animal or group of animals.
- Jesus said that God cares about sparrows, but that man was more valuable than many sparrows. In Luke 12:1-7, he told his disciples not to be afraid to share the gospel and confess him before men, reassuring them that if God was mindful of some cheap sparrows, he would certainly be much more mindful of their well-being since they had much more value than an innumerable amount of birds.
- Jesus freed the Gadarenes man from the Legion of devils and ordered them into a herd of pigs (Mark 5:1-13). He obviously thought the man’s health was of far greater importance than a whole group of pigs. As a matter of fact, the pigs were of no value to Jesus compared to the value of the man’s life and he was the one who created the pigs.
CREDIT to Sun & Shield; 5 Things in the Bible proving humans are superior to all animals
Hum-Diddly-Do
I love that saying. It is a way for me to say that I clearly do not have all the answers but God does.
God says He loves me, cares for me, provides and has the ultimate plan, for everything. His promises have been revealed numerous times in my life. My value is what HE says it is, nothing more and nothing less.
During your chronic illness, my hope remains that your nose will be in the Bible and your heart open to revelations that continue your walk with Jesus. You ARE very important, ill or not. You ARE loved.
Dig Deeper, Grow More
Learn more about the difference between animals and humans, according to God…
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