Ep 126 | Cover to Cover 5 | Pastor Ryan Clark | Feb 1, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

📍 Hello this is Pastor Ryan Clark You are listening to a message from St John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo Minnesota Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

A museum tour guide was guiding a group through the dinosaur display.

One day they came upon a rather large dinosaur and the tour guide, as he shared about the dinosaur, mentioned this monster behind me is 2,000,006 years old.

Well, there was silence for a few seconds and then someone from the tour group said what Everyone else was thinking, 2,000,006 years old.

I understand the 2 million, but how can you be so accurate with the additional six years.

The tour guide replied, Well, they told me when I started working here that the dinosaur was 2 million years old and I started working here six years ago.

You know when I hear things like that, 2,000,065 million, 140 million, when I hear things like that coming from the mouths of, of scientists, well-meaning scientists, I'm sure I always have the same question.

Excuse me.

Were you there? That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Do you know how long it is--165 million years? Or if they say something like this somewhere between 250 and 160 million years ago, do you know how far of a distance that is between 250 and 160? Were you there? And the obvious answer is no.

Nobody was there.

Well, as we finish up the Book of Job, as we are reading through the Bible cover to cover over these two years, we're faced with that same question here today, this time from God to Job.

Excuse me.

Were you there over the last 30 some chapters? For those of you that have been reading through it every day, it's been a hard read, hasn't it? And we're finally going to be done with the Book of Job after today and moving back into the Book of Genesis.

But for the first 30 some chapters here is Job and his friends arguing back and forth.

And then comes that young whipper Snapper Elihu, who gives a really long speech.

And as they're fighting back and forth, what always happens is the arguments get farther and farther from the truth.

On either side.

It's a really hard read.

But then finally in chapter 38, God speaks.

It says in chapter 38, verse one.

Then the Lord spoke to job out of the storm.

He said, who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man Job.

I will question you.

And you shall answer me.

Can you imagine God speaking to you like that? Brace yourself? Because here comes some questions and what is God's question to him? Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand, where were you Job.

Like, I remember when I made everything that there was, Jesus was there, the Holy Spirit was there, the angels were there rejoicing.

But where were you? I didn't quite see you.

And then he goes on to say all of these other things that he had created, the sun and the moon, and the rain and the snow and the sea, and all of these things.

And he says.

Where were you? In other words, were you there Job? Were you there when I did all this by my wisdom? Where were you when I made the earth? When I made the light and the darkness, when I made the sun.

When I made the seas.

When I made the rain in the snow.

Where were you when I put all those constellations up in the sky? So marvelously, where were you? And then he goes on to explain all of these different animals that he had created.

So ingeniously by the word of his mouth.

And he talks about things like the lion and the ox and the mountain goat, all of these different animals.

And then he goes into two amazing animals.

He says, Job.

Look at the Behemoth.

You say, well, I, I understand the mountain goats, and I understand the, the lion and the ostrich and all those others, but what's a behemoth? Well, it's not a word that we use a whole lot to today, but we have a few clues.

In the passage it says that its tail sways like a cedar tree.

That's a big tale.

And it ranks first among the works of God.

Another way of saying that it's the biggest of all of God's animals.

Now you think to yourself what has a tail the size of a cedar tree and is the largest of all of God's animals.

If you look in modern day commentaries, you know what you'll find a lot of times? Well, it must be an elephant or a or a hippopotamus.

Have you seen the tail on an elephant or a hippopotamus? Does that look like a cedar tree to you? It's very unimpressive, right? What would be the largest of all of the animals that God has made with a tail the size of a cedar tree? You know what fits the bill? A brachiosaurus.

That would be impressive.

That would be an understanding of a behemoth.

Not something that's just barely taller or bigger than a human being, like an elephant or a hippopotamus, but something gigantic.

Something marvelous.

Now maybe you're thinking, well wait a minute.

Didn't he say Job, look at the behemoth as if it was right there.

Everybody knows that human beings and dinosaurs didn't live together, right? Excuse me.

Were you there? Were you there? No you weren't, and neither was I.

But God has been around since the very beginning.

He knows accurate history.

None of us were there at the time of Job to understand what the world must have looked like during the time of Job.

But there are all kinds of evidences that human beings and dinosaurs, what we call dinosaurs today live together in the world.

We're going to be talking about that more in Bible class in the next hour.

Then he goes into another marvelous being.

He says, can you pull in Leviathan with a fish hook? Or can you tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce? Its jaw with a hook? If you lay a hand on it, you'll remember the struggle and I guarantee you you'll never do it again.

He's talking about a large monster that is in the sea, a Leviathan.

Once again, what could this be? Well, as I did some research on this, there's a couple that I think stand out maybe as as being the Leviathan.

The first one is something called a Deinosuchus.

What a Deinosuchus was, was a really, really large crocodile that we have evidences of in the fossil record.

We're talking a crocodile over 35 feet long.

Now, why would we think it might be a Deinosuchus? Well, because it says in Job 41, who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together.

Each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.

They are joined fast to one another.

They clinging together and cannot be parted.

That sounds a lot like the ferocious.

Deinosuchus.

The other one that I think it could very well be is something that we have seen in the Fossil record as well called a Pliosaur.

A Pliosaur was also a gigantic sea monster, 35, 40 feet in length.

In December, 2023, fossil hunters revealed that they had finally unearthed a six and a half foot long Pliosaurs skull, just the skull, six and a half feet long from a rock cliff along the Jurassic Coast in England.

This fantastic find, listen to this, resembles the skull of a fiery dragon.

Why does this maybe fit? Because in Job 41 it says, flames stream from the Leviathan's mouth, sparks of fire, shoot out.

Smoke pores from its nostrils is from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

Now maybe you're thinking, oh, come on, Pastor, that's crazy.

There's no animal that shoots fire out of its mouth.

That's insane.

Excuse me.

Were you there? Did you see that? No.

You haven't seen that.

But interestingly, all the way up until the 18th and 19th centuries, there are stories of people traveling across the ocean that had these great sea monsters that appeared in front of their ship.

Were you there? In Job 41, then he continues talking about Leviathan.

He says, no one is fierce enough to rouse it.

Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay everything under Heaven belongs to me.

He says, if you can't control being so little, you can't control the Leviathan or the Behemoth.

Then why would you think that you can put up a fight against me, Job? Why would you think that you can stand against me? I made these mighty creatures in just a second with the word of my mouth.

The Lord said to Job, Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him.

And then Job replied to the Lord, Surely I spoke of things I did not understand.

Things too wonderful for me to know.

For 30 some chapters Job has been complaining about his life and none of us can blame him.

He lost everything, right? But he started saying the Lord, he must not know what he's doing.

And if he does know what he's doing, he's, he's doing something that he should never have done.

He's treating me wrongly.

I'm in the right, the Lord's in the wrong.

And finally the Lord responds to those accusations.

Have you ever thought about all that we don't understand? It is been said that the Bible has everything in it we need to know, but not necessarily everything that we want to know.

There's a whole lot that you and I do not understand about this world, about God, about why things happen.

We don't understand God's infinite and perfect wisdom.

It's been said that sin is making ourselves too big and God too small.

But it says in Isaiah 55, God says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

You and I can't grasp the picture of what it must mean to be God, and to control everything that there is.

Eight billion people on the planet and God is working in each and every person's life and working everything together.

Our wisdom isn't even close to his wisdom.

In 1 Corinthians 2, it says, for what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.

So that we may understand what God has freely given us.

For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, have the mind of Christ.

Because of what Jesus did on the cross, now you and I have the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ.

And now we have the mind of Christ.

And so when you seek the Lord and when you seek his wisdom, sometimes he will give you just a tidbit from his infinite wisdom.

And that's amazing, especially when we need it so much.

But even so, there is so much that we're just going to have to take on faith because his ways and his wisdom are so much higher than ours.

What else don't we understand? This is the whole story of Job.

We don't always understand why bad things happen to us.

It doesn't make any sense.

It didn't make any sense to Job.

It doesn't make sense to me.

It doesn't always make sense to you either.

We don't understand how the struggles in my life work into God's good master plan for my life and the lives of others.

In other words, we don't get the full picture of how it all fits together.

We don't get it.

But he does.

And here's the thing, even when it doesn't look good, even when it looks completely disorganized, even when it looks like God is being harsh or being bad to us, the Bible tells us that his plan is always the good.

He has a good master plan.

We see that in Jeremiah 29.

He says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

These are plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future.

God has good plans for you and for me, but we can't see all of that when we're right in the middle of a difficult thing that we're going through.

We don't see the full picture.

That's what was happening in Job.

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the, out of the storm.

He says, brace yourself like a man.

I will question you and you shall answer me.

Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? And by the time Job finished talking, that's what he was doing.

He was saying one day I'm going to stand like a prince before God, and he's going to have to answer to me for all the things that he did to me.

I didn't do anything wrong.

God's the one that's in the wrong.

Ouch.

Excuse me, God would say to Job.

Were you there? Lastly, what don't we understand? We don't get a chance to see when we're right in the middle of a hard thing that we're going through.

We don't get a chance to see the end of the story and the end of Job's story was way better than what was in the middle.

It says in Job 42, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former part.

After this Job lived 140 years.

He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation, and so Job died an old man and full of years.

When Job was going through this really hard portion of his life, he couldn't possibly see that God still had good plans for him in the future.

And sometimes when we're going through something really hard in our life, it's hard for us to ever imagine that we're going to smile again.

That we're ever going to be able to laugh again; that there's anything good coming on the horizon.

We don't see those things, but God does and he's one who says, I have a good plan for you.

And even if the hard thing that you're going through ends in death, on the other side of the grave is something far, far better than you and I could ever ask or imagine.

The end of your and my story when we get to heaven, it is wonderful even if we can't see it right now, in the midst of the difficulties in our life.

And so Job said in, in chapter 42, my eyes had heard of you God, but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore, I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes.

The word repent means to change the way you're thinking.

And so he says, Lord, instead of thinking, I'm up here and you're down here, I'm changing my thinking.

You are up here.

I'm down here.

I don't understand, and you are worthy of praise.

Even when I don't understand.

Like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, when you're in the middle of a trial, a tribulation.

When you've just gone through loss or through an accident or whatever it may be, and it doesn't look good, what do we do? We look to the cross because God's character and his love are on display when you look at the cross.

Who is God? Does he love me? Does he still care for me? Has he left me? No, he hasn't, and we can tell by the cross.

So just as we finish this message, just a few things that when you're going through one of those hard things in your life, number one, begin by reminding yourself who God is.

You've got to remind yourself, you've got to be around people that are going to remind you of who God is because just like Job, after a while of going through a difficult thing, it's easy to see God incorrectly.

Number two.

Remember that the cross brought you close to the father so that he can now hear you when you call upon him, and he can come to your aid.

That's what the cross is all about.

Jesus washed away all of our sins so that God could be close to us so that he could hear us, so that he could come to help us just like he did Job.

Then number three, ask him for his help.

Knowing that he's close, knowing that he's not way, way, way up there.

He's close to you, he can hear you.

He wants to help you.

And then having asked him for help, trust that he heard you and that his help is on the way.

And then as you're waiting, and sometimes just like Job, we've got to wait for the Lord.

His timing is perfect, but sometimes it feels like he's taking too long.

As you're waiting for him, worship him as you wait.

And as we finish the Book of Job, this book all about trials.

When you're going through trials, may you find yourself here in Jesus name, Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.

stjohnsbuffalo.

org.

Thank you and God bless you.