When it rises up, the mighty are terrified they retreat before its thrashing.- Job 41:25

Today's Scripture Reading (August 7, 2021): Job 41

Once upon a time, in Cappadocia, or maybe Libya depending on the version of the story to which you are listening, there lived a dragon. The dragon was fierce and dominated the area. When the dragon rose up, the people were terrified; they were so terrified that the people were willing to give the dragon whatever it wanted.

In the early days of the dragon's rule over the area, all the dragon wanted was a few sheep, which was an inexpensive price to pay to keep the dragon happy. But the dragon's hunger for sheep eventually waned, and the dragon demanded something more valuable; a human life. The people of the town were given the task each day to choose who would be sacrificed. One day, the one chosen by the people happened to be the daughter of King. There was a rule that someone could take the place of the one selected. But on this day, no one could be found who would take the place of the King's daughter. On this day, the princess would have to be sacrificed.

But it was at that moment that the hero of the story rode into town. The hero was a soldier of the Roman Army named George, and George decided that while everyone else might fear the dragon, he didn't. George decided that rather than give the King's daughter as a sacrifice or becoming the substitute sacrifice for the dragon, George would fight the dragon. And fight him he did, killing the dragon with his lance and saving not only the princess but the town as well. In ancient times, dragons were often the proving ground for heroes, and that included Saint George.

We have no idea what it was that God was describing to Job as a leviathan. Sometimes, it sounds like a genuine crocodile or hippopotamus, and some experts have made that suggestion. Sometimes it sounds like a whale or some other beast of the deep. But there are times when the only animal that comes to mind is the dragon-like one who fought Saint George. Some write it off as just an exaggeration created by the author of Job, or maybe even someone who copied the story at a later date. Some even wonder, as unlikely as this seems, if there were fire-breathing creatures that became the models for our belief in dragons at some point in the past.

There is another possibility. Dragons might have never terrified the people of a town in Cappadocia or even Libya. Still, dragons have terrified the imaginations of people ever since the beginning of time, or at least, the story of Job. We can get lost in the argument about whether or not dragons are real, and in the process, we miss the story's point. If we can't imagine how we would handle an imaginary leviathan or a dragon, how much more are we at a loss when we try to defeat God. Not even Saint George could do that.

Saint George was a real person who was executed for his faith in 303 C.E., but we know very little about the exploits of the real George. Almost two hundred years after Saint George's life, Pope Gelasius I, who was Pope from 492 until he died in 496, acknowledged that Saint George was among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 42