October 25, 2025

Scripture Study: The Behemoth

Let’s take a deep dive into the identification of the animal described in Job 40:15-24. Perhaps a list of facts from the text will help you recognize it, but first, note that v. 15 clearly states that God created the behemoth, “which I made along with you.”

Therefore, we can at least say that the behemoth is a real animal, living or dead, and not an imaginary or mythical creature.

1. It eats grass like the ox, v. 15—probably meaning that it’s a herbivore, though perhaps an omnivore, clearly not a carnivore.

2. It has strong “hips” (NKJV), v. 16—often translated as “loins,” perhaps implying that it has a powerful kick. This description and the following one are in poetic parallel, thus expressing two ways to describe the same general idea.

3. It has powerful “stomach muscles” (NKJV), v. 16—most other translations read “belly.”

4. It has a cedar-like tail, v. 17—perhaps suggesting both length and strength. This description and the following one are also in poetic parallel, both expressing power.

5. The sinews or tendons of its thighs are “tightly knit,” v. 17—an expression which may suggest that it can generate great force.

6. It has bones “like beams of bronze” and “ribs like bars of iron,” v. 18—more descriptions of its power and perhaps size.

7. Only God can kill it with the sword, v. 19—this suggests to me that its massive size or quickness would make it impossible for man to kill one on his own.

8. It lives in various habitats, including hilly areas with other animals as well as near brooks or wet areas where it lies under shady lotus trees and willows, vs. 20-22—v. 20 in the NKJV reads “mountains,” but the Hebrew word can also be translated as hills.

9. It doesn’t fear fast-moving water, v. 23—evidently rushing water can’t carry him away.

10. It can’t be hooked and led away captive, v. 24—the first part of the verse is tricky to interpret, but the second part suggests that it can’t be handled by men.

The most common identifications for the behemoth are the hippo, elephant and crocodile. Crocodiles can be eliminated from consideration quickly since they are carnivores. Elephants and hippos are both powerful, but hippos spend most of their time submerged in the water to protect their sensitive skin. They don’t live in hilly areas with other wild beasts nor do elephants, and neither hippos nor elephants have particularly long, thick or powerful tails. Hippos prefer slow-moving water and aren’t well-suited for fast-moving water, which can carry them and their calves away. Elephants fare better in fast-moving water because they can swim, but even so they avoid rushing water. Albeit dangerous, men in groups as small as five could kill a hippo or an elephant, but it would take a very large group of men, perhaps into the hundreds, to kill a sauropod dinosaur.

Could the behemoth refer to an extinct sauropod? After all, they were herbivores, could thrive in both gentle hills and flatlands, and grew to an enormous size with long, thick, powerful tails. The fossil evidence confirms as much, and there’s actually nothing about the description of the behemoth in Job 40 that readily excludes the dinosaur from consideration! Just saying!

Trivia Quesion (Answer below)

Major general is the second highest rank in the Israel Defense Forces under only the head of the IDF, but in its history how many major generals have been women?

Life in the Land: The Dead Sea Marathon

I used to run a lot, but now my knees tell me I’m done with that chapter of my life. Are you a runner? Where do you like to run? How would you like to run a race at the lowest point on earth? You can! For about $75 you can run a marathon at the southern end of the Dead Sea in Israel. The race course crosses two gravel embankments that span a small section of the salt lake, and you can choose to run the half marathon, full marathon, ultra marathon or smaller distances like the 5K and 10K.

The next race is scheduled for February 6, 2026 in Ein Bokek, starting at 6 a.m. You should expect the start time temperature to be around 57 degrees, and you’ll be glad that they don’t schedule the race during the summer when sunrise temperatures reach nearly 80 degrees and the day’s high can reach 108 degrees. In 2025 eight thousand runners from forty countries crowded the start line, so you are likely to meet some interesting people at the race like the family members of former hostages held in Gaza or Moshe Lederfien who runs with a pineapple on his head. Runners enjoy stunning views of the area, historically home to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

On your mark!

On Location: The Neighborhood of Mea Shearim: Its Uniqueness, part 1

Mea Shearim is an historic neighborhood in Jerusalem, located only a short walk north of the Old City’s New Gate. Founded in 1874 it is one of the very first neighborhoods built outside the city walls. Its name means “One Hundred Gates,” and the Hebrew comes directly from Genesis 26:12 which describes a time in the life of Isaac when the Lord blessed him with an abundant harvest. The verse reads, “Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold [mea shearim]; and the LORD blessed him.” The most common translation for the Hebrew word shearim is “gates,” but in this verse it’s acceptably rendered as “fold,” meaning a “measure” or a “portion.” Mea Shearim’s founders adopted this expression to represent their desire for future prosperity and spiritual abundance as they followed the Lord through “gates” of obedience.

The neighborhood is populated by various groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews whose lifestyle is modeled on pre-modern Jewish traditions with an intentional effort to preserve the religious customs and culture of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, similar to our understanding of the Amish here in the United States. The residents of Mea Shearim studiously follow biblical and rabbinical law. Most of the men study the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) full-time, and the community values modesty, family values and separation from secular society, which includes strict controls over media, technology and the education of their children. The men typically don black hats, white shirts and black coats called kapotes with full beards and sidelocks called peyot, and the women wear long skirts and long-sleeved blouses with high necklines. The married women cover their hair with scarves or wigs.

Scripture Study: Bibliology: The Illumination and Clarity of Scripture, part 3

The Holy Spirit illumines the reader of Scripture to understand its truth. Only the Holy Spirit can bring real understanding to a person’s mind about the meaning of a Scripture passage. This illumination is necessary due to the blindness of each person as a result of sin, the darkening work of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), and even for some a judicial compounding that further darkens the mind (Rom. 11:7-8). Some redeemed people require further illumination. Different people reach varying levels of maturity in their walk with Christ, even different intellectual capacities, and that’s fine. Some of the most faithful believers I’ve met can struggle to understand certain theological doctrines, for example. Theology may even confound them a bit, yet they are still such faithful people, deeply in love with the Lord. Different people possess varying intellectual capabilities, and some people require further illumination from the Holy Spirit to understand Scripture on different levels. Thankfully, God works with all of us as individuals.

But even though I think this is the case, Scripture is perspicuous in its meaning; that is, it’s clear. It’s understandable. No one person knows it all. No one comprehends every nuance of it. Still it is perspicuous. God did not give us the Bible to intentionally confound us. He revealed Himself in Scripture so that we could know Him. We may not be able to understand everything in it, but every Bible verse is nevertheless understandable. There are many things that we as sinful people will never comprehend even though we can apprehend them. Take the Trinity, for example. When I read the Bible, I can apprehend the concept of God being three in one and one in three. He’s one person with three subsistencies, if you will. But even that fails to really explain God, for He is unexplainable. I can’t fully comprehend the Trinity. Although I’ll be in heaven for fourteen quadrillion years, I still won’t be able to comprehend it. God is just infinitely beyond us. The Trinity may be incomprehensible, yet I believe it.

So, even though Scripture is perspicuous or clear in its meaning, it isn’t necessarily so in its significance to every reader. That is, you can have two people with one Bible verse. Both of them can know what it means, but one person may appreciate its significance and depth of meaning more than the other. That’s where wisdom comes in and maybe too the Holy Spirit further softens that person’s understanding of what that verse can mean to them.

Adam Keim

Archaeology, The First Church

Just south of the Old City of Jerusalem you can visit a busy tourist site on Mt. Zion that marks the traditional location of the Upper Room where the apostles shared the Last Supper with Jesus. Do I think that the site is genuine? I actually do. The evidence is quite compelling though I can only give you a taste of it in this post.

Today most of what you’ll see at the site is from the time of the Crusaders who built a church there in the twelfth century. In 1948 a Jewish archaeologist researched the site and found evidence of a fourth-century Byzantine church directly below the Crusader church and below that a first-century synagogue with graffiti that read in part, “Jesus is light.” The very first Christians were Jewish Christians as you may recall, including even “a great many of the priests” (Acts 6:7).

In any event long before Roman Emperor Constantine built churches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem to mark the sites of Jesus’ birth, death and ascension, very early Christian historians had noted that a first-century church stood atop Mount Zion and that it commemorated the spot where the apostles shared the Last Supper with Jesus (Mark 14:15), where they returned following Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:12-13), and where they “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brothers” (v. 14) as they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Today we often name our churches First Baptist, First Presbyterian or First United Methodist Church, but that first-century church on Mount Zion was THE First Church. It’s remarkable to stand in the surviving Crusader structure built over the First Church’s ancient remains and imagine the events, prayers, meals and conversations that took place there, including “one of you will betray me” (John 13:21), “I am the way, the truth and the life” (14:6), and “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (16:33).

Answer to the Trivia

B. 3