Job 40 – 42 and Dehydrating Mushrooms

Job 40 – 42

The last three chapters are very interesting. After God demonstrates His power to Job with a series of questions Job can’t answer, God asks Job if he still wants to argue with the Almighty. “You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?”

Needless to say, Job is very humbled by God’s words. He even says he is nothing. “…how could I ever find the answers? I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”

Well, God has a few more things to say to Job and a few more rhetorical and instructive questions for him. God mentions two fairly scary creatures: Behemoth and Leviathon.

Characteristics of Behemoth:

• Made by God
• Eats grass like an ox
• Has powerful loins and belly muscles
• Tail as strong as a cedar
• Sinews of its thighs are knit tightly together
• Bones are tubes of bronze
• Limbs are bars of iron
• Prime example of God’s handiwork
• Only its Creator can threaten it
• Mountains offer it their best food
• Lies under lotus plants, hidden by reeds in the marsh
• Lotus plants give it shade among the willows beside the stream
• Not disturbed by the raging river
• Not concerned when the swelling Jordan rushes around it
• No one can catch it off guard or put a ring in its nose and lead it away

Characteristics of Leviathan:

• Can’t be caught by Job with a hook or a a noose around its jaw
• Can’t be tied by by Job with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike
• Won’t beg Job for mercy or implore him for pity
• Won’t agree to work for Job or be his slave for life
• Can’t be made a pet like a bird
• Can’t be given to Job’s little girls to play with
• Merchants can’t buy it to sell in their shops
• Its hide will not be hurt by spears
• Its head will not be hurt by a harpoon
• Trying to lay a hand on it will certainly make your remember the battle that follows
• Useless to try to capture it
• Will knock down the hunter who attempts to capture it
• God emphasizes Leviathan’s limbs and enormous strength and graceful form
• In regard to its hide:
  • Who can strip it off
  • Who can penetrate its double layer of armor
• Can’t pry open its jaws
• Teeth are terrible
• Scales are like rows of shields, so tightly sealed together no air can get between them
• Each stale sticks tight to the next, interlocking so they cannot be penetrated
• When it sneezes, it flashes light
• Its eyes are like the red of dawn
• Lightning leaps from its mouth
• Flames of fire flash out
• Smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes
• Its breath would kindle coals, for flames shoot from its nostrils
• The tremendous strength in his neck strikes terror wherever it goes
• Its flesh is hard and firm and cannot be penetrated
• Its heart is hard as a rock, hard as a millstone
• When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror
• No sword, spear, dart or javelin can stop it
• Iron is nothing but straw to it and bronze like rotten wood
• Arrows cannot make it flee
• Stones shot from a sting are like bits of grass
• Clubs are like a blade of grass
• It laughs at the swish of javelins
• Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass
• It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud
• It makes the water boil with its commotion
• It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment
• Water glistens in its wake making the sea look white
• Nothing on earth is its equal
• No other creature is so fearless
• Of all the creatures, it is the proudest
• It is the king of beasts

Did you ever wonder if dragons were just a legend? It doesn’t sound like it from God’s description of Leviathan. And either of them could be a description of a dinosaur.

When God finishes, Job is convinced, as evidenced by what he says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show m repentance.

But God doesn’t stop there. He then reads the riot act to Eliphaz the Temanite. Apparently, Eliphaz and his two friends could also hear and/or see God also. God is angry because the three had not spoken accurately about God. He is a forgiving God though, giving them a way to be forgiven: “So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves.”

Job is part of this because he must offer the sacrifice and pray for his friends. After he prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, per Job 42:10, “…the Lord gave him twice as much as before.” In terms of wealth, Job’s fortunes are restored. In terms of family, God gave Job seven more sons and three daughters. Isn’t it strange that the daughters are named, but not the sons?

And Job was apparently enlightened for his time – he put the daughters in his will along with his sons.

Isn’t it great that he lived to see four generations of his children and grandchildren? Simply said in Job 42:17, “Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.”

Tomorrow, it’s back to Genesis, where we will read Genesis 12 – 15. If you recall, in the last few verses of Genesis 11, we first ran into Abram.

Dehyrdrating Mushrooms

Today, I decided to try out the dehydrator I bought from  Bass Pro Shop in Lawrenceville, GA. Publix was having a sale on pre-washed, sliced mushrooms – two 12-ounce packages for $5.00. I bought their last two packages, which filled three of the five trays in my dehydrator. It’s been going for about foujr hours and the smell is incredible. It’s supposed to take from 6 to 14 hours. I expect it will take closer to the 14-hour mark.

I think the next thing I do will be strawberries. The produce stand over at I-4 and Branch Forbes rose has 1/2 flat of strawberries for $4.99. Prep on these will take much longer, but the mandoline my brother Jeff and his wife Kathy got me for Christmas. I just hope I can keep my fingers out of it.

Yesterday, I had to shred some fresh coconut and managed to do two of them with only nicking my left index finger enough to make typing painful. But, I did end up with 2 – 3 cups of beautiful shredded, unsweetened coconut.

Until next time…