Introduction:

The Loch Ness Monster has captured the minds of children and adults alike for many, many years. This great aquatic being allegedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, and is often described as being large in size, with a long neck and one or more humps protruding from the water. Popular interest and belief in this creature has varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence today is circumstantial. However, according to the book of Job there existed an aquatic sea monster that God himself described to this suffering servant.

He questioned Job with what he could not know and He reveals Job’s ignorant of two incredible beasts. After the discussion of Behemoth in Job 40:15-24, God called Job to consider another fearful monster, Leviathan. God gives Job a look at this remarkable creature that our Father called Leviathan in Job 41.

II A Second Example of God’s Awesomeness- “Leviathan” Job (41:1 -14)

1. Here God overwhelms Job with 20 questions about Leviathan. The name Leviathan means “twisting one”. This creature was first mentioned in Job 3:8; in that context Job considered how sailors and fishermen would curse the threatening Leviathan with the same passion he cursed the day of his birth. Older commentators identified leviathan as either a crocodile or Satan himself. I remind you that the evidence of dinosaurs wasn’t discovered until the 1820s, and wasn’t really known until 1841. Todays’ evident would be more in line with the characteristics of a dinosaur.

2. The name Leviathan is also used in other interesting places in Scripture. • Psalm 74:12-14 refers to Leviathan as a sea serpent, and that God broke the head of the Leviathan long ago, perhaps at the creation. • Psalm 104:26 also refers to Leviathan as a sea creature. • Isaiah 27:1 speaks of the future defeat of Leviathan, also associating it with a twisted serpent that lives in the sea. • Isaiah 51:9 and Psalm 89-8-10 also speak of a serpent associated with the sea that God defeated as a demonstration of His great strength, and identifies this serpent with the name Rahab, meaning proud one.

3. So, if taken literally, the text will show that the leviathan was dinosaur like. Isaiah recorded that the leviathan was “the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). The Psalmist recorded that leviathan “played” in the “great and wide sea” (Psalm 104:25, 26). God said in verses 1&2 that Job cannot capture leviathan with a hook and rope.

Can you snare his tongue with a line which you lower?
Can you put a reed through his nose?
Can you pierce his jaw with a hook?
…If this was a crocodile, then the answer is yes. Many crocodiles have been captured and placed in zoos. Many men have killed crocodiles with only a knife but not this creature…
The questions compile…

Will he make many supplications to you? Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity?
Will he speak softly to you?
Will he make a covenant with you? Will it agree to work for you?
Will you take him as a servant forever? to be your slave for life?
Will you play with him as a pet bird?
Can you give it to your little girls to play with?
Will your companions make a banquet of him?
Will they apportion him among the merchants?
Can you fill his skin with harpoons?
Can you fill his head with fishing spears?
And since no one dares to disturb it, who then can stand up to me?
Who could pry open its jaws?

III God’s description of Leviathan vv. 15-34

1. In verse 14: b the questioning shifts to God telling Job how awesome he created leviathan with its terrible teeth! Its scales are like rows of shields tightly sealed together. They are so close together that not even air can get between them. Each scale sticks tight to the next. They interlock and cannot be penetrated.

2. Verse 18-21 speaks of leviathan as a dragon breathing fire. Dragon legends recorded that dinosaurs did have this capability. There are indications that some dinosaurs may have been able to produce and expel combustible gases which could have ignited when they came into contact with oxygen.

This description of Leviathan seems much more like what we would think of as a dragon. Curiously, the dragon motif is common across cultures Verse 22-34 God speaks of the tremendous strength of Leviathan’s neck, flesh, heart and body. He brings terror and even the mighty are in fear. A sword, spear or arrows cannot stop him, nothing on earth is its equal, no other creature is so fearless it is the proudest. It is the king of beasts.” The lion is the king of the jungle but Leviathan the king of beasts

Conclusion:

God called Job to consider these unconquerable beasts each in their own way were examples of Satan and his power. In this God allowed Job to consider the fact that he could not stand before the power of Satan without God empowering him. Only God could defeat Leviathan and Satan. Job thought that he was all alone through his ordeal; indeed he felt he was alone. Yet this was God’s way of saying that he was not alone, because if he were then he surely would have crumbled before the power of Leviathan and Behemoth.

God ends His words to Job without ever telling him the story behind the story. Job was left ignorant about the contest between God and Satan that prompted his whole crisis (though perhaps God later told him). Though Job did not know the whole story, God did tell him of His great victory over Leviathan/Satan, giving Job assurance for the past, the present, and for the future.