Leviathan

by Sandy Simpson, 9/21/14

 

This study is up for interpretation but I find descriptions of leviathan in the Bible fascinating.  This creature that existed, and may yet exist, is used as a description of the might and power of the enemy.

 

Isaiah 27:1 In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea. (NASB)

 

Speaking of the “day of the Lord”, when the Lord comes back again to rule and judge the earth, Isaiah says that the Lord will punish Leviathan the dragon.  Satan is likened to leviathan, a serpent, and he is said to live in the sea.

 

Revelation 13:1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. (NASB)

 

Again the dragon comes out of the sea, which is symbolic of the nations of the world, but perhaps is also tied to a literal meaning.  He has multiple heads which are symbolic of the heads of the nations of the end times, but he is also said to have multiple heads before the symbolism of the nations of the revived Babylon come into being, as recorded in Ps. 74:14 and Job.

 

Psalm 74:14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

 

God said that the Serpent would strike the heel of Jesus but that Jesus, in the generations coming from Eve, would crush the head of the Serpent. (Gen. 3:15)  So the symbolism is already there, authored by Asaph of God, of Jesus Christ crushing Satan. But notice that Leviathan has multiple heads like a mythological hydra.  Even as far back as Job and likely before the flood it was impossible to defeat a leviathan or dragon.

 

Job 41:1-34 Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. 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. “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? 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 cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.  It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.  It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.  Nothing on earth is its equal--a creature without fear.  It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”

 

Job 3:8 “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.

 

The Bible compares Leviathan to Satan because he cannot be killed by mortal men.  Only Jesus Christ can chain him in the Abyss and ultimately defeat him.

 

Notice also that “everything under heaven” belongs to leviathan.  This is not just true from the perspective that leviathan is the king of all the animal kingdom, but this is another proof that the kingdoms of the world belong to Satan since his fall till the return of Christ (Matt. 4:8-10).

 

Again, notice that Leviathan is said to speak.  This is why I believe it is possible that fallen angels demonized the dinosaurs called leviathan, and this would also be the case of the Serpent who talked and tempted Eve.  It also breathed fire.  It is not described as flying or walking in the time of Job but was a sea creature, which differs from descriptions of flying dragons in mythology.  Leviathan not having wings or apparently limbs to walk with is because of the curse on the Leviathan/Serpent that Satan used to tempt Eve … that it would, from that point on, crawl.  That would be the case for a sea creature without wings or legs.

 

Genesis 3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

 

Therefore part of the mythology of dragons has a real basis in history, just as the false religions of Greece and Rome are also likely loosely based on characters from the Ancient World … Nephalim, who were revered heroes.

 

Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

 

Leviathan being a type of the Dragon, or Satan, will be bound for 1000 years during the Millennial Kingdom.

 

Revelation 20:2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

 

Ultimately God will do away with the Dragon as is prophesied in Is. 27:1.  The Church cannot do this through Dominionism.  Jesus Christ is the only one who can do so.  At the end of that thousand year period the devil will be released one more time from the pit.

 

Revelation 20:3 & 7-10 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. … When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

 

Satan will be released once more to his final doom in the lake of fire.