God
at War with Leviathan
In this week's segment of our study of Isaiah,
we read: "On that day, The LORD will punish with a sword that
is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan
the coiled serpent; and God will slay the dragon that is in the
sea" (27:1). This article will strive to develop a deeper
understanding of "Leviathan."
This is one of a number of passages in the
Bible that allude to a battle between God and a monster (also called
a dragon or Rahab). But the story of this monster did not
begin with the literature of Israel. There are Canaanite myths
discovered in Ugarit in northern Syria which include the story of
a battle between the god Baal and the Sea. In this Ugarthic
mythology, Leviathan (appearing by the name "Lothan")
is one of the primeval sea monsters who battles against Baal on
the side of Mot (the god of the underworld) and who is ultimately
defeated. The Leviathan in Isaiah 27:1, "lewiyatan"
in Hebrew, is based on this Canaanite myth.
The dragon is a symbol of chaos representing
forces opposed to peace and order. In the Canaanite story,
there is a battle between a god and a dragon which symbolized the
victory of life and order over chaos. The Canaanite god slew
the monster and made civilized life possible. When the biblical
authors used this story, they replaced Baal with the name, Yahweh.
For the OT sacred writers, it is the Lord who slays
the dragon.
This mythological tradition was adopted
and transformed in the Bible where God appears as the victor over
sea monsters, (Ps 74:13-14) - "You stirred up the
sea by your might; you smashed the heads of the dragons in the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan, and made food of him
for the dolphins."
Job 26:12-13 - "With
divine power and might, God stirs up the sea and crushes Rahab.
God pierces the fugitive dragon as from God's hand it strives
to flee."
Job 41:10-34 goes into a detailed
description of Leviathan. One can recognize modern day images
of the fire breathing dragon in these verses: "When he sneezes,
light flashes forth. Out of his mouth go forth firebrands;
sparks of fire leap forth" (10-11).
Ps 104:26 - "In the sea,
ships move about with Leviathan, which you formed to make sport
of it" The reference to God "playing" with Leviathan
here is explainable on the basis of God's omnipotence; this reduces
this rebellious dragon to a plaything.
We might make a comparison of the Leviathan
story to Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick. The
central character, of course, is a huge white whale named Moby Dick.
The head of a whaling ship, Captain Ahab, is passionate in his desire
and vengeful effort to kill him. For Ahab and his crew,
Moby Dick is consummate evil. The book ends with their encounter
and final battle. It is not difficult to understand how such
a battle with the beast can take on symbolic power of the battle
between good and evil in our world.
This passage from Isaiah, however,
suggests that Leviathan has not yet been slain. The decisive
battle for the welfare and salvation of the world has not yet been
won. It remains in the future, to be fought on "that
day," the "day of the Lord." This expectation
of a future decisive action by God becomes increasingly prominent
in later biblical writings and in the apocalyptic literature.
The symbolism of the sea monsters plays a prominent role in Daniel
7 and in the Book of Revelation, especially chapters 12
and 13.
The future and final destruction of Leviathan
becomes a symbol in Isaiah for the death of evil doing,
to be succeeded by the redemption of Israel. This mythical
monster of ancient Near Eastern literature has become, in the OT,
a symbol of forces in rebellion against God, leaving a situation
that cries out for God to step into that world in order to defeat
this evil.
The image of the monster, Leviathan, is
an exceptionally powerful symbol signifying any threat to human
well being. Doing battle with the monster remains a useful
metaphor for our various struggles in life. We often hear
the phrase, "inner demons." Traditional Christianity
would relate this figure to Satan himself.
That is why there are scholars today who
view this single verse as having a deeper meaning and would say
that there is probably another way that Isaiah anticipates "that
day" when God's sovereignty will be fully enacted. Isaiah
has already described that sovereignty in God's victory over Israel's
historical enemies and judgment upon the unfaithful," human
sinners. Here, however, Isaiah may see in Leviathan,
the force of evil itself, a diabolical power that endlessly threatens
the stability of creation. There is something deeper than
human sin here.
There are some who conclude that evil in
the world is simply a consequence of human sin. There is an
alternative tradition in the Bible, however, that insists that there
is loose in the world a real, living, and objective power of evil,
without regard to human sin or virtue. That power infects
God's ordering of creation and endlessly undercuts God's order in
the world. God limits the power of that evil monster, yes,
but our Isaian text does not claim the final overcoming of that
evil, at least not yet. For we know that, as it was evident
in that ancient world, evil is obviously still on the loose in our
own time. Just watch the evening news!
And so, in our world of modern science and
rationalism, there is still need for giving poetic name to that
force of evil so close at hand, which is beyond human power to control
or eliminate. In his prophesy, Isaiah expresses the belief
that evil is on the prowl, free to threaten the very coherence of
creation. But Isaiah also foretells that the time will come when
God will not only punish and restrain that threatening monster,
but will indeed kill, that is, finally eliminate, the threat of
objective evil symbolized by "Leviathan." Revelation
21:1 puts forth the same hope: "the sea was no more."
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