Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 3. Concerning leviathan.
I. THE ANIMAL INTENDED.
1. A serpentine creature. This implied in the name leviathan, which signifies "a wreathed or twisted animal," as distinguished from the tannin, or "long-extended monsters" (Genesis 1:21).
2. An aquatic monster. Though amphibious as to its habits, the behemoth was essentially a land animal; the entire description of leviathan points to a tenant of the deep (verses l, 2, 31, 32).
3. A gigantia crocodile. Believed by earlier interpreters to be the whale, it is now commonly accepted as the crocodile, which, equally with behemoth, frequented the Nile.
II. THE MONSTER DESCRIBED.
1. Its untamable ferocity. (Verses 1-9.) The idea is presented in a variety of ways.
2. Its terrifying aspect. (Verses 12-24.) Jehovah invites attention to three points: the parts of the animal, i.e. the separate limbs or members; the power of the brute, i.e. the great strength of which it is possessed; and the comely proportion of the creature, i.e. the beauty of his armour, or hide.
3. Its impetuous movement. One who saw two alligators fighting says "that their rapid passage was marked by the surface of the water as if it were boiling" (verse 23). The animal also moves with such velocity as to leave behind it a bright white trail of foam, as if the deep were hoary (verse 32).
4. Its incontestable supremacy. "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear." Hence all other creatures shrink before him. "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride," i.e. over all other beasts of prey.
III. THE LESSON INDICATED.
1. The impossibility of contending with God. If no man can hope successfully to encounter a crocodile, how foolish must it be to think of striving against God (verse 10)!
2. The sovereignty of God's procedure in the world. If God in fashioning so wonderful a beast had acted solely on his own irresponsible will, was it not probable that he might in the same manner act in connection with man (verse 11)?
3. The probability of God's works in providence being marked by wisdom. If in the structure of a crocodile there was so much appearance (and reality) of design, it was not surely unreasonable to hope that the same characteristic of design would not be absent from the Creator's doings in the higher realm of intelligence.
4. The likelihood of finding mysteries in God's dealings with men. If Job had been asked to say why God had made so ferocious a beast, he could not have done so. It is doubtful if any one can satisfactorily explain the introduction of carnivorous animals among other peaceful creatures. Why, then, should there not be found enigmas in the higher world of human life?
Learn:
1. The great power of God, who can control the fiercest of creatures.
2. The weakness of man, whom an unreasoning animal can affright.
3. The wisdom of faith, which always trusts where it cannot understand.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON