“In that day the lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan that piercing serpent, . . . that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah. 27:1)
Many people who are not familiar with the Bible may think it is an outdated book written by ancient people according to the limited understanding and superstitions of their times. However, for those who read and compare it to life and the real world, the Bible is the key to understanding the past, present, and future.
Biblical Relevance
Bible statements have been the inspiration for great discoveries. Matthew Maury read about “the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8:8) and spent many years in the navy charting ocean currents and winds. All U.S. government charts have been based on his studies. Maury was called “the pathfinder of the seas.”
Many would be surprised to find the Bible touches principles of science, communications, travel, and even contains insights into outer and inner space. The discovery and decoding of the genome of various plants and animals helps us understand Psalm 139:13-16. Here again the Bible was ahead of the scientists. Bits of information (my substance, verse 16) are the cause of every constructive detail in life. Features don’t just originate from the needs of environmental pressure. There is always an information cause. God wrote all the original genetic codes for life—perfectly!
In the field of earth sciences, geology (the sedimentary rock layers) and paleontology (fossils of plant and animal life), the Bible is relevant. Some imagine that the discovery of many strange reptile creatures, named dinosaurs, along with many other extinct creatures has made the Bible irrelevant. In fact, evolutionists use dinosaurs in a determined effort through movies and public education to saturate children with godless evolution.
Dinosaurs in Eden
Dinosaurs not only fit into God’s whole scheme of things but they are full of significance. Reptile creatures have been prominent players in the conflict between God and Satan for the souls of men.
God created everything in the beginning “very good”—perfect, fully formed, functioning, and at peace. The fossil record shows that reptiles evidently dominated this first warm world. This ideal climate continued until the cataclysm of Noah’s Flood.
However, God had left with men and angels the choice to submit to His all-wise jurisdiction. Lucifer, a chief archangel, soon rebelled and was cast out of Heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15). He then went about to corrupt God’s creation by turning men’s loyalties to himself. Lucifer’s creature of choice to entice Adam and Eve was a “serpent” (Genesis 3:1). This reptile was not the common snake we know today—it had legs!
A serpent with legs that did not drag its belly on the ground (Gen. 3:14) would have been similar to long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs. It could have been a quadruped like an alligator but that was still on its stomach. Some of the smaller, bipedal types of dinosaurs had long thin necks and tails with an enlarged central body, strong legs, and small arms. According to one source, the Hebrew word nachash (translated “serpent” in Genesis 3:14) indicates a shining upright creature. He could look man in the eye. The troodon was such a dinosaur with a skull that had a larger brain cavity and large eye sockets suggesting more intelligence and sharper eyesight than many dinosaurs. A cunning reptile is indicated in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord God had made.”
Adam and Eve fell victim to Satan. However, they returned to God and repented when God called to them in the cool of the garden. He then made a way to be accepted through sacrifice. These sacrifices looked forward to that effective sacrifice—God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.
Down through history Satan has been using his serpent character to steal the loyalties of men. “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
Job, Behemoth, and Leviathan
Job is a classic example demonstrating the contest between God and Satan to prove God’s power to save a man and keep him. The case set up by God (Job 1:8)) was that God would remove His protection over Job but would spare Job’s life. Satan then went about to destroy Job’s wealth and health. In the throes of Job’s physical and spiritual agony, he cries out to find the God he knew, “In the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness” (Job 29:2, 3). God finally spoke and gives Job a clue to who was troubling him by describing two fearsome land and sea reptile creatures.
Only in the last 150 years have the fossil bones of dinosaurs been reconstructed to see how these extinct creatures best fit the description of Job 40 and 41. Behemoth, Job 40:15-24 who dwelled among the reeds and willows of the brooks, was a plant-eating creature with a tail like a cedar tree. This could describe the immense sauropods who definitely could be called “chief of the ways of God” (verse 19). Behemoth along with Leviathan was so strong and fearsome that man could not hope to slay, let alone control them. In this allusion to Satan’s power over men, God said, but “he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.” In essence God was saying, “Job, trust me, I will bring Satan’s power to an end.”
Leviathan is described as a sea-dwelling, fire-breathing reptile that ancient stories also give credence to, “Out of his mouth go .. . sparks, fire, smoke, a flame . . . he maketh the deep to boil like a pot” (Job 41:18-34). God ended His description of the leviathan with a final clue. “Upon earth there is not his like …. He is king over all the children of pride.” Pride describes the chief fault of Satan and all his followers (Isaiah 14:12-13; Ezekiel 28:14-17).
Satan, Dragon of the Deep
Many legends through Europe and China speak about dragons of land and sea. Such accounts are based on some reality within the memory of man. Ancient pictures show creatures like the dinosaurs and plesiosaurs (sea reptiles) such as those reconstructed in museums today. Dragons of land and sea throughout the Bible evidently refer to these dinosaur-like creatures.
The Bible forecasts Satan’s end in the typology of serpent and dragon. “In that day the lord with his . . . strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent. . . that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). The great red dragon of Revelation 12 describes Satan’s efforts to frustrate God’s redemption by destroying the “man child” (Jesus, verse 13), and the woman (Israel [John 4:22]). This culminates with war in heaven when Satan is defeated. “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9).
Dinosaur Mania
It is no accident that these large reptile creatures have come to the fore in the current effort to rid the world of belief in the Creator God. Movies, museums, and public schools keep up a constant bombardment of evolutionary propaganda. Evolutionists proclaim as “fact” that birds changed over from dinosaurs. But that would have required millions of bits of ordered information to be added to the genome. Also, the dinosaur, which looked like an ostrich (struthiomimus) had lizard hipbones instead of bird hips!
Movies such as “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost World,” and “Mutant Turtles” produced to entertain children saturate with a godless mindset. Statements deliberately declare that there is no God who made all these things. We can observe the results in a purposeless, destructive life-style among youth.
“Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve”
Satan’s figurative reptile description is true to his end. “An angel. . . laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan and bound him a thousand years.” Afterwards he will be “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Revelation 20:1, 2, 10)
The transcending truth of God’s Word in the natural and spiritual realms is evidence of its divine origin. There is no other book like the Bible. To understand the issues of life, we must become acquainted with its author.
The final evidence that this “worldview” is correct is that it explains man’s main problem (sin), and his deliverance or salvation. Salvation is found in returning to God and the noble fruitful life that can be experienced in His will. It works!
Resources: Defenders Study Bible — Henry Morris
World Book Encyclopedia —Dinosaur
-by Elvin Stauffer