1 ¶ Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?
or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? 2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore
his jaw through with a thorn? 3 Will he
make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? 4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou
take him for a servant for ever? 5 Wilt
thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
6 Shall the companions make a banquet of
him? shall they part him among the merchants? 7
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish
spears? 8 Lay thine hand upon him,
remember the battle, do no more. 9
Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at
the sight of him? 10 None is so fierce
that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
The word, leviathan, is found
elsewhere in the Bible. First, in what appears to be a mysterious reference to
the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea and possibly spiritual events that accompanied
the physical.
Psalm 74:12
¶ For God is my King of old, working
salvation in the midst of the earth. 13
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the
dragons in the waters.14 Thou brakest
the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people
inhabiting the wilderness.
A reference to a large sea creature,
great fish, or whale.
Psalm
104:26 There go the ships: there is that
leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
And a connection to the Devil in
Revelation, chapter 12, by cross reference.
Isaiah
27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore
and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even
leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the
sea.
Revelation
12:9 And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The leviathan in chapter 41 of Job
here is huge, untamable, and unconquerable, at least by man. On one level this,
too, as behemoth, appears to be a reference to a dinosaur, a dragon. If this
creature is so great and fearful and God created him, then who can stand before
God? In the next verses we can see how this is the example, the beginning, of
all of the great legends over the earth, from China to Europe of the dragon.
The dragon is a common memory of man celebrated in folklore and mythology,
almost universally. The Greek, drakon, refers to a huge serpent.
But, as this next passage moves
forward the description travels from the view of a fearsome creature to
something more. At no time has God revealed to Job who has initiated the awful
terrors that have visited him, but here we have, perhaps, a description of
Job’s true adversary, Satan.
First, a picture of Satan, or
Lucifer, is painted in the Bible. Beginning in the Garden of Eden. Keep in mind
that serpent is also an historical name for a dragon.
Genesis
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than
any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
It is confirmed later that this was
indeed Satan in the Garden of Eden as God pronounces judgment on him as he
likens the King of Tyre to him.
Ezekiel 28:11
¶ Moreover the word of the LORD came
unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up
a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord
GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created. 14
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou
wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst
of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was
found in thee.
What iniquity was it that was found
in Satan? He questioned God’s words. Why? We have our clue as to that here as
God has the prophet, Isaiah, cast a prophecy against the king of Babylon which
includes a reference likening him to Satan. Lucifer is a title which means
light-bearer.
Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north: 14 I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to
the sides of the pit.
Satan, as we saw in Ezekiel is a
cherub, the anointed cherub. Cherubs are creatures that have the appearance of
animals in Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10, and appear around the throne in
Revelation, chapter 4. Satan can appear as an angel of light to deceive, as in
2Corinthians 11:14, but is not one of that number. He leads or led fallen sons
of God, angels, in rebellion but is not one of them.
Satan is the fire-breathing dragon
of human mythology and literature. Mankind remembers Satan physically but has
marginalized him as simply a force of evil and not having an individual
identity. Satan appears to be preoccupied in history with keeping himself out
of sight and making human beings think they are serving God by serving him.
Such is most of the history of Christianity, particularly state-church
combinations, the list of wrongs and egregious sins committed in the service of
Satan, but in the name of God. It is no coincidence why the dragon featured
prominently in medieval heraldry and symbol and as a cultural icon as a link to
mankind’s true motivations and with whom his heart really lies.
11 ¶
Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the
whole heaven is mine. 12 I will not
conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. 13 Who can discover the face of his garment? or
who can come to him with his double bridle? 14
Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
15 His scales are his pride, shut up
together as with a close seal. 16 One is
so near to another, that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined one to another, they stick
together, that they cannot be sundered. 18
By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of
the morning. 19 Out of his mouth go
burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. 20
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
21 His breath kindleth coals, and a
flame goeth out of his mouth. 22 In his
neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. 23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together:
they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. 24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard
as a piece of the nether millstone. 25
When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of
breakings they purify themselves. 26 The
sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the
habergeon. 27 He esteemeth iron as
straw, and brass as rotten wood. 28 The
arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
29 Darts are counted as stubble: he
laugheth at the shaking of a spear. 30
Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the
mire. 31 He maketh the deep to boil like
a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one
would think the deep to be hoary. 33
Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. 34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king
over all the children of pride.
God has described the appearance of
the individual who came before God along with the sons of God in the beginning
of this book. He capped off his physical description with the statement that
shows that this is more than just an ordinary dinosaur. “He is a king over all
the children of pride.”
Satan tempts us with questioning God’s
word and with the same three things with which he tempted Eve.
Genesis
3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
1John
2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world.
Paul showed us to whom we belonged
before we came to Christ.
Ephesians 2:1
¶ And you hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others.
As Jesus noted a fact about the
paternity of the men of His time on earth.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Perhaps a reference to Cain’s true
paternity, whether the reference is spiritually, physically, or both.
1John
3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked
one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works
were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
And so, chapter 41 ends with a
physical description of man’s great adversary, who usually goes unnamed, but
works behind the scenes, anonymously, to ruin everything we would try to
accomplish for ourselves or for God, working through our flesh, but who can do
nothing to us without God’s permission. This is a being who works through
natural events and wicked people to achieve his ends as well as craft and
subterfuge. There is no one more subtle and clever.
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