Behemoth: Trusting in the Flesh

The spirit of Behemoth is referenced in Job 40.

Behemoth and Leviathan are central to the theme of this part of the book of Job.

Many Theolgoians who do not have eyes to see look at these two creations as being mythological creatures, but God does not waste His Word. But rather, God gives revelation and understanding to those who have eyes to see.

When you are dealing with the spiritual real, both Behemoth and Leviathan are two key principalities in Satan's kingdom.

Behemoth differs from Leviathan.

You don't hear a lot about him. There is not a lot of teaching on the spirit of Behemoth.

Job 40:6-14 Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret. Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

In order for you to come to God, you have to humble yourself. You were created by God for God.

You cannot exist on your own.

Satan is the god of this world. He got inside of Man through the fall in the Garden of Eden.

He put his spirit in unregenerate Man, and that comes with a spirit of pride and self-righteousness.

God's answer to that is to abase Man.

What is God's answer to Man's pride.

It's humility. You are commanded to humble yourself.

But, after you have humbled yourself then God is able to use you.

But before He can use you, He has to kill you, spiritually speaking. You have to have your flesh crucified. He must kill your fleshly Adamic nature, which is what the Bible refers to as the Old Man.

Behemoth deals with the fleshy, carnal nature. Leviathan, which is covered in Job 41, deals with pride.

God will abase everyone who walks in pride. The end of the proud will be the pit. God will tread you down. That is Satan's plan for everyone. He wants to deceive the nations and lead them into the pit.

Job 40:12-13 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

Where the Bible says "in secret" (some translations read "the world below") that is referring to the pit and Sheol.

Job 40:14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

God requires you to acknowledge Him as being sovereign. No one should argue with God.

The whole story of Job is about God's sovereignty. Who are you to question the Creator about anything at all?

You cannot argue with Him. You have to humble yourself and submit to His will and let His will be done in your life.

Job 40:15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

The Lord is speaking of depravity. Man is also described as a beast in the Bible.

Without God you are like a beast.

Job 40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

The navel means sinew in anatomy. A tendon which unites a muscle to a bone.

Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

Stones is the Hebrew word "p̄ḥḏ" (pronounced pakh'-ad) means projected or imagined fear.

Per Tara Mohr, "According to the late Rabbi Alan Lew explains that in biblical Hebrew, there are several different words for fear. Pachad is “projected or imagined fear,” the “fear whose objects are imagined.” That, in contemporary terms, is what we might think of as overreactive, irrational, lizard brain fear: the fear of horrible rejection that will destroy us or the fear that we will simply combust if we step out of our comfort zones."

Fear envelops Behemoth. This spirit comes with fear.

"He moveth his tail like a cedar". Interestingly enough, the Bible says that God's people are the head and not the tail. His strength is in his tail. But God has made us the head. God is the ultimate head.

Do not forget that this is a spirit and a principality.

When we've dealt with this spirit in deliverance and interrogated it, we found that it is all tied into the flesh.

The Bible says that the flesh is weak.

You have to understand what the Bible means when it refers to "works of the flesh".

Works of the flesh are Antichrist. In fact, they are actually Satan's nature. You are looking here at the nature of Satan.

Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

Behemoth is basically immovable. His strength is in the flesh, not in the Spirit.

This ties in with stubbornness. This spirit is very stubborn.

Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

The only thing that will take Behemoth down is the Word of God.

When you are looking at the Word, it is the finished work of the Cross that deals with Behemoth.

Don't try to tame Behemoth in your own strength. If you walk in the flesh it will lead to death.

You can see where Man's strength, in his own eyes, is in a spirit of independence.

Some men will focus on building physical strength through working out. Jesus said, "If you live by the sword, then you shall die by the sword".

Independence is Man trusting in his own flesh and in his own strength.

Job 40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

Behemoth represents untamed beasts and wild animals.

Remember the story of King Nebuchadnezzar. God humbled him by making him like a wild beast. King Nebuchadnezzar was even eating grass. That's what God did to him due to his pride.

The characteristics of Behemoth are fleshly, instinctive, and alien to God.

Jeremiah 10:14-16 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.

Israel is now spiritual Israel. It is Israel above. We are Jews now, those who are Jews inwardly, not outwardly.

"Every man is brutish in his knowledge." This is where Man has been kicked out of the garden, no longer trusting in God, and has very much allowed himself to be ruled by Satan. Satan is lording it over mankind.

Satan has a body. Satan's body is the world. The world is in Satan's body, just as true born-again people, spiritual Israel, are the body of Christ.

We are not speaking of the earthly Israel (the country or the ethnic descendants of Jacob).

One who is a Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly.

Job 40:21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

This speaks of false comfort and hiding in fear. We saw earlier in the text how Behemoth has fear in his stones, in his lizard brain.

Without God, you get spiritual blindness.

This is like Eve hiding from God when she and Adam first sinned. They hid from God.

This is the state of Man. Man is hiding from God. But, in his pride, being led by Leviathan, and in his stubbornness, being led by Behemoth, Man is living in the power of his own flesh. He has abandoned God and is hiding from God.

He is hiding in the sanctuary of the flesh.

Job 40:22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.

God gave the Law to Israel but it was just a type and shadow. It was given to Israel purely to help them understand that they could not attain righteousness through their own good works.

They were literally abiding in a shadow. The light is Christ.

The Behemoth spirit will cause people to be comfortable in this shady place.  It will cause people to deceive themselves.

Job 40:23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.

The Holy Spirit does not touch Behemoth. He is oblivious to spiritual matters. The Spirit does not enlighten him because he is set in his own ways.

Job 40:24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

This spirit is blind, literally blind spiritually.

Behemoth is similar to Leviathan. No one can pierce him or draw him out with a snare.

Same, but different.

Leviathan being pride, Behemoth being the flesh.

The pride and the flesh work together.

Behemoth represents the flesh.

God's answer to the flesh is Christ. It is substitution. Reconciliation. It is the exchange at the Cross.

God's answer to the flesh is the Cross. The flesh must die.

God is not interested in the strength of Behemoth's flesh. He is interested in His strength.

God has done an amazing, awesome work.

It is no accident that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. God had a plan.

He used Man to destroy Satan.

God came down as a man. He prepared a body for his Son. Then, his Son did all the work for us.

It is very important to understand that when we try to do things in our own strength and on our own, it is an insult to God.

That is why going under the Law is an insult to God. That is your own righteousness.

That's called self-righteousness. That's you trying to attain righteousness by doing things yourself.

It is not possible. The Bible says that is because of the weakness of the flesh.

The flesh is weak.

Behemoth is the principality over the flesh.

It is a general one. The principality of Behemoth encompasses a lot of different spirits.

Philippians 3:15-19 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

Behemoth's strength is in his loins and his belly. His ribcage is like iron bars. He wanders around in the fields eating grass. That is his life.

It is gluttony. This spirit is very much a spirit of gluttony as well. It is appeasing the flesh. It's the lust of the flesh.

We have three principal areas of sin: the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh.

"Whose God is their belly". This is Behemoth.

Learn to discern the appetite of the flesh in the spirit of Behemoth.