Job 40: 15-24 & 41 BEHEMOTH VS. LEVIATHAN
BEHEMOTH vs. LEVIATHAN
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
(Job. 40: 15-24 and 41)
The detailed description of Behemoth in Job 40:15-24, and the vivid portrait of Leviathan is chapter 41 were not penned by God’s spirit by chance. They demonstrate the principles that flow through the book of Job. Behemoth points to the Lord Jesus Christ and his brethren; thus the corporate Son. Contrariwise, Leviathan speaks of the adversary, satan, and all his ministers (seed); thus, the corporate beast.
It is not affirmative to tell exactly what these animals actually were. The Hippopotamus is the best choice for the precise meaning of behemoth. His habitat is the water (21) his diet grass (15). His immense strength of bone and muscle is highlighted (16, 18). Since
Verse 19 is the key that points Behemoth as metaphorical of the Lord Jesus Christ. “He is the chief of the ways of God; He that made him can make his sword to approach to him.” This is the principle of firstfruits!
Jesus Christ “is the chief of the ways of God”. The word for “chief” means “first in place, time, order, or rank (specifically a first-fruit).” Jesus is the Chief Singer (Hab. 3:19) “The Lord god is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.” He is the Chief Cornerstone (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6), and the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 3:4). He is the firstfruits of those who slept (1 Cor. 16:20) and the firstborn among many brethren (Ps. 89:27;
- “He eats grass as an ox”. (Christ nature; burden-bearer who is changed into the cherub in Ez. 1:10; 10:14).
- “His strength is in his loins” (Neh. 8:10b) “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Eph. 6:14: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” The reproduction of himself is his Joy! And his force (spirit) is in the navel (muscles) of his belly. 1 Pet. 1:13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- “He moves his tail like a cedar” (king of the trees) Rev. 1:5a: and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the First Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the earth.” 1 Kings 4:33: ‘And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in
- “His bones are as strong as brass” His bones are bars of iron (judgment) like rods of iron—the branch or scepter)
- The sinews of his stones (“tendons of his thighs” are wrapped together). 1 Cor. 6:17: “But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”.
- “The mountains bring him forth food”. Ps. 72:3: “the mountains shall bring peace to the people.” Isa. 2: “And many people shall go and say, come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths.
- “He lies under the shady trees.” Isa. 28:12: “To whom He said, this is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing; yet they would not hear.” Heb. 4:10: “For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” This one rests beneath those leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations. “The shady trees cover him with their shadow (Ps. 91)
- “The willows of the brook compass him about” (Isa. 53:3-8) (fellowship of his sufferings)
- “”He drinks up a river” John 7: 37-39: In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst; let him come to Me, and drink. He that believes on Me, as the scriptures has said, out of his belly shall flow rovers of living water.
- “He can draw up
Behemoth is a creature of peace---and we too have been domesticated in Christ (Job. 40:15). “For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2: 10-11). John added, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”. (1 Jn. 3:1a).
Behemoth and the Leviathan are land/water animals. They reveal the contrast between the Godly and the ungodly. These are two huge creatures---there are two hosts great in number. There are two kingdoms. One is the
BEHEMOTH: God; Christ (Son of God); The Truth;
LEVIATHAN; satan; antichrist (son of satan); the lie; kingdom of darkness; unrighteousness; death; king over the children of pride (41:34); wild (41:1); Destructive (41:19); 9 specifics: scales, neesings, eyes, mouth, nostrils, breath, neck, flesh heart). Mouth spews out death (41:19); strength in his neck (41:22); Covered with scales and flakes of flesh; heart of stone (41:24); Sons of perdition; creeping thing; His fraud (41:1-22); His Features (41: 13-24); His fearlessness (41: 25-34).
Leviathan is the well-know mythological serpent Lotan, known from extra-biblical literature, which has seven heads (Rev. 12; 3). “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Isaiah 27:1 applies this name to the evil dragon of the last day. “In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
The sea is used throughout the Holy Bible as metaphorical of the masses of humanity.
Job 40:19: The sword is identified with Behemoth. He that made him can make His sword. Eph. 6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” Heb. 4:12: “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
In chapter 41 of Job, the dragon like crocodile is in view. For Canaanite mythology Lotan belonged to the forces of chaos personified by the sea and its monsters, which were conquered by the gods of order.
The key to understanding that this is, is found in Job. 41:34: “He beholds all high things; he is a king over all the children of pride.” As I preached on Sunday, there are two kingdoms in the world, the
The Hebrew word for “leviathan” is “livyathan” (#3882, 3867), which means a wreathed animal; a serpent (especially the crocodile or some other large sea monster); the constellation of the dragon; mourning; to twist or twine; to unite; to remain; also to borrow (as a form of obligation) or cause to lend; cleave, join.”
11 These. 2:1-3: Now we beseech you, brethren, buy the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that they day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called god, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of god, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what withholds that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity does already work; only he who now lets will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Leviathan’s tongue = all lies
“Bore his jaw through with a thorn” = Crown of Thorns at
“Will he make many supplications (seductions) unto thee”?
Will he break soft) or flattering) words unto you? (which leads to the covenant of Isa. 28:15: “because you have said, we have made a covenant with death ,and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” John 8:44: You are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.
God will expose the lie, and will reveal the truth.
Teeth – metaphorically represent power.
His scales are his pride (his defense mechanisms), shut up together as with a close seal (mark of the Beast). One is so near to the other that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another and they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings (“sneezing”) a light does shine and his are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire as out of a seething pot or cauldron (witches brew). In his neck (self-will) remains strength and sorrow is turned into joy before him (“fear, leaps before him as he goes”). His heart is firm as a stone, yes, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.”
When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; by reason of terrors.
He beholds all high things; he is a king over all the sons of Pride. The god and the prince of this world (Jn. 12:31; 11 Cor. 4:4) He is king over all the proud beasts (JPS) “Over all the pride of earth he reigns supreme” (Knox); “Of all the beasts, he is the proudest-monarch of all he sees,” (Living bible) such is the description of the son of perdition, doomed for defeat and destruction when the Lord shall consume him with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
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