Does JOB 40:41 speak about Dinosaurs?

15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. 21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. 22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. 23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. 24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares. http://www.answersincreation.org/job4041a.htm There is one certainty about Job 40-41…they are not dinosaurs that lived 6,000 years ago. With the possibilities presented, I leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves what the correct answer is. We probably won’t know for certain until we get to heaven.

What do I believe? I lean toward the dinosaur theory. You may say, “How can Bible writers, such as David in Psalm 74, write about a dinosaur if it lived 65 million years ago?” This is simple. There were certainly dinosaur fossils available in Bible times.

They are in the rocks now, so they must have been in the rocks then. David, and others, probably saw these fossils, and wrote about them (see Paleontology Pioneers and Aboriginal Dinosaurs?

While I have revised my thinking on this, the revision hasn't been a whole lot. I've just come across some other thinking and scriptural references that may help.

First of all, we do have to take into account the culture of the time. Slavery was a given, and quite accepted. Scripture talks about believers who are slaves, and believers who own slaves. Slavery, while at times difficult, was not the same as the American version. Slaves were given positions of responsibility. Joseph, as you may recall, was second in command only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt. Yet he was a slave. Slaves ran things, and were responsible for the household. They made decisions, conducted business, and were influential in how the household ran. Good slaves meant a well-run household. Bad slaves could mean it's failure.

Second, when war was conducted, men of fighting age were usually killed, while women and children were captured, and they became slaves of the conquering army/civilization. When we read about women and children being sold into slavery during these times, the above situation could become their lot in life--slaves, but influential on the owners. The culture then was quite bloody as a general rule.

Now, when God handed down the ten commandments to Moses, He listed them in a very specific order. It was not an accident, nor coincidence that the first commandment was:

"You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,"

God was not kidding around when He said He is a jealous God. This is very important to Him. There is nothing more important than holding Him first in your life. When entire nations forsake Him, those nations will be forfeit. He will destroy them. In the case of Israel and Canaan, He used Israel to destroy the peoples of Canaan. The same thing can be said for the command in 1 Samuel.

The reason He wanted the entire nation--every man, woman, and child killed, every animal killed, and everything they built destroyed, was to erase the memory of the false gods those people worshipped. God set very specific rules about worship for the Israelite people as well--they were not to worship in the same manner as others worshipped their false gods--no tattoos, no temple prostitution (both genders), no orgies, etc. Israel and God were to be a people and God set apart from the rest of the world, so that people who looked at them would see they worshipped the one true God.

This is also the root of the laws that commanded execution for false worship, homosexuality, leading others astray. It is also why God commanded that every person die--so that they would grow up and influence Israeli households against God by introducing their own worship into the lives of the slave owners.

So--I have revised my theology a little from what I said before. However, I haven't changed it a lot. Basically, I've been able to add in some details and background to the original thought. I've added support other than "God said it" by including the reasoning behind why He said it. You could basically say "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" and it would be a beginning to the reasons why He wanted entire nations destroyed. However, He did have good reasons behind it, and we should respect that.

Read Deuteronomy for more background as well.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.