Job is another biblical man who caught my attention and I want to devote today’s entry to him. To be clear, Job was a God-fearing, righteous and honest person, he had a wife and children, and he lived according to the laws given to him and his predecessors by the creator.
But Satan believed that Job worshiped God only for the worldly goods he had earned and that he would turn away from God if his good fortune ended. Satan decided to make a bet with God about it. God cruelly tested Job, taking away all his possessions and family, sending him leprosy, and even his friends turned away from him. Job did not give in, despite all the misfortunes he persevered in faith in his God, so God rewarded him for all his suffering…
So much for the purely theological message. As usual, I am interested in what is hidden between the lines, which does not fit the spiritual messages.
This “something” is the description of the animal – the hippopotamus, which Job saw, but which did not have to be a flesh-and-blood animal. So what was it?
Book of Job 40:15,18-19
15 To him the mountains bring forth grass: there all the beasts of the field shall play.
18 Behold, he will drink up a river, and not wonder: and he trusteth that the Jordan may run into his mouth.
19 In his eyes as with a hook he shall take him, and bore through his nostrils with stakes.
Book if Job 41:1,7-9,11-13,17-19,20-25
1 I will not stir him up, like one that is cruel, for who can resist my countenance?
7 One is joined to another, and not so much as any air can come between them:
8 They stick one to another and they hold one another fast, and shall not be separated.
9 His sneezing is like the shining of fire, and his eyes like the eyelids of the morning.
11 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, like that of a pot heated and boiling.
12 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame cometh forth out of his mouth.
13 In his neck strength shall dwell, and want goeth before his face.
17 When a sword shall lay at him, it shall not be able to hold, nor a spear, nor a breastplate.
18 For he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
19 The archer shall not put him to flight, the stones of the sling are to him like stubble.
20 As stubble will he esteem the hammer, and he will laugh him to scorn who shaketh the spear.
21 The beams of the sun shall be under him, and he shall strew gold under him like mire.
22 He shall make the deep sea to boil like a pot, and shall make it as when ointments boil.
23 A path shall shine after him, he shall esteem the deep as growing old.
24 There is no power upon earth that can be compared with him who was made to fear no one,
25 He beholdeth every high thing, he is king over all the children of pride.
As usual, in this type of messages it must be taken into account that such stories were passed from mouth to mouth, they could be distorted, misunderstood, partially forgotten, added to and poorly translated, not to mention writing them down and translating them into other languages.
What comes out of this is a strange message about an animal that didn’t have to be an animal at all, but Job, a man with a low level of technical education, named “that” something he saw with the animal that most resembled him, a hippopotamus.
…Flames burst from his mouth, sparks fly… Smoke comes out of his nostrils… He ignites coals with his breath, fire gushes out of his mouth… slashing with a sword to no avail… For him, iron is chaff… He will stir up the depths of the waters like a cauldron and turn them into boiling water…
I’m not a zoologist, but this is probably not a description, even a distorted one, of an animal, but of a machine, device or motor vehicle made of metal or other artificial material.
So the big question for today is: what did Job actually see? was it a type of animal or, taking into account modern technical knowledge, a mechanical vehicle driven by “Gods” or representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization?
As usual, I leave the answer to this question to each of you individual.