The God we know is all-powerful and expansive in His works and actions. Our intellect is unable to understand and explain His works, especially in relation to the language used to describe Him. Therefore, analogies or a series of images become a tool for humans to gain an understanding of Him. This is what He also did when speaking to His people. Our passage this time is no different. God conveys His greatness to Job with a series of illustrations or analogies to make it easier for Job and us today to understand His words.
God revealed His power through His conquest of a large, wild animal that was a common story in ancient Middle Eastern culture at the time. That animal was Behemoth. The TB1 Bible translates it as the Hippopotamus, while TB2 maintains a more literal translation. Behemoth is a symbolic, wild, representation of a beast that is enormous and brutish and impossible for humans to subdue. However, the animal that became a scourge and a tale of fear was a creation of God. Allah placed Behemot like any other animal that eats grass like an ox.
His strength was great, which is shown through the description of the veins of his belly. Its tail is as strong as a cedar tree. Dramatically, Behemot is depicted as mighty with bones of copper and a skeleton of iron bars. Nonetheless, the beast is still God's creation. The habits and ins and outs of the behemoth's existence are known to Him. Its movements did not go unnoticed by God. By doing so, God wanted to emphasize His power that is unreachable by humans. The mighty power that man cannot match is not a problem for Him. He overshadows that power with His act of creation.
Friends of the Bible, our passage today reminds us to humble ourselves before Him. Humans often feel that they are in charge of everything based on their intellect and freedom. Whereas behind it all is God's plan that has unfolded so marvelously. He is in control of everything in the universe. Just like Behemot, which is so frightening and unreachable by humans, is apparently part of God's creation that is in His control.
