Brief: The
Bible includes descriptions of dragons and dinosaurs.
Needed: Dinosaur and Dragon Legends quiz (student sheet)
Recap
We’ve been looking at Genesis 1 and the record of
how God created the world. We talked about how God didn’t create every species
of plant and animal. He made the kinds of plants and animals. Now, let’s talk
about some of those specific kinds of animals.
Scripture: Genesis 1:20-25; Job 40:15-24; Job 41
Genesis
1:20-25: And God said, "Let the water teem with living
creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the
sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea
and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to
their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it
was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and
increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase
on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was
morning—the fifth day.
24
And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their
kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each
according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the
wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds,
and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And
God saw that it was good.
What about the dinosaurs? Does the Bible talk
about dinosaurs? Were the dinosaurs one of the things that God created?
Answers to Student Sheet Quiz Questions
1..Dinosaurs lived from about 6’000 to 4.5
thousand years ago. The Bible says that the world was created about 6’000 years
ago and that the Flood happened about 4.5 thousand years ago.
2. Dinosaurs were created in their kinds by God.
God did not create each species of dinosaur, but He created them in their
family groups, in their kinds. The flying and swimming dinosaurs were created
on day 5 with the rest of the flying and swimming animals, and the land dinosaurs were created on day 6
with the rest of the land animals.
3. Most of the dinosaurs were killed in the
Flood. Those that survived the Flood eventually
became extinct due to the changing climate of the world after the Flood, a
reduced food supply, and hunters.
4. Humans and dinosaurs did live at the same time. All land animals, including
the dinosaurs, and people were made by God on day 6. Dinosaurs lived with
humans until the dinosaurs became extinct.
5. Fire-breathing dragons,
or fire-breathing dinosaurs, were once real creatures. The Bible describes one.
6. The Bible does describe a couple of dinosaurs.
7. The Bible does describe a fire-breathing dragon, or dinosaur.
Let’s look at a couple of those descriptions that
the Bible gives of dinosaurs.
Job
40:15-24: "Look at the
behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. 16 What strength he has in his
loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! 17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews
of his thighs are close-knit. 18
His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. 19 He ranks first among the
works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword. 20 The hills bring him their
produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the
marsh. 22 The lotuses
conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him. 23 When the river rages, he is
not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. 24 Can anyone capture him by the
eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?
What does this passage sound like it’s
describing? (A brontosaurus.)
Job
41: Can you pull in
the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? 2
Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3
Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle
words? 4 Will he make
an agreement with you for you to take
him as your slave for life? 5 Can you make a pet of him
like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? 6 Will
traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7
Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8
If you lay a hand on him, you will
remember the struggle and never do it again! 9 Any hope
of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. 10
No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me. 12 "I will
not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and
his graceful form. 13 Who can strip off his outer coat?
Who would approach him with a bridle? 14 Who dares open the
doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? 15
His back has [e] rows of shields tightly sealed
together; 16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. 17
They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes
are like the rays of dawn. 19 Firebrands stream from his
mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. 20 Smoke pours from his
nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. 21
His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth. 22
Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him. 23
The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. 24
His chest is hard as rock, hard as a
lower millstone. 25 When he rises up, the mighty are
terrified; they retreat before his thrashing. 26 The sword
that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten
wood. 28 Arrows do not make him flee; slingstones are like chaff to him. 29
A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the rattling of the
lance. 30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving
a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 He
makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot
of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one
would think the deep had white hair. 33 Nothing on
earth is his equal— a creature without
fear. 34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is
king over all that are proud."
What does it sound like this passage
is describing? (A fire-breathing sea-dragon, or a fire-breathing water
dinosaur.)
So, the Bible does describe dinosaurs and dragons as part of God’s
creation.
The second sounds vaguely like the dunkleosteus
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