I got fascinated again. and went off track a bit to chase down a thread that is through the whole Bible. What is Leviathan? Commonly known or believed to be real by the writers of the OT. It shows up in the most surprising places. Here is a list. Job 3:8, Job 40:15–41:26, Amos 9:3, Psalm 74:13–23, Psalm 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1. so here are the quotes in order. Job 7"Behold, let that night be barren; Let no joyful shout enter it. 8"Let those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. 9"Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; Let it wait for light but have none, And let it not see the breaking dawn;… Job 40 1“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? 2Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? 3Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? 4Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? 5Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? 6Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? 7Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? 8If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! 9Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. 10No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? 11Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. 12“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. 13Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armora ? 14Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? 15Its back hasb rows of shields tightly sealed together; 16each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. 17They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. 18Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. 19Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. 20Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. 21Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. 22Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. 23The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. 24Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. 25When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. 26The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. 27Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. 28Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. 29A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. 30Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. 32It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. 33Nothing on earth is its equal-- a creature without fear. 34It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.” Amos 9: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: Psalm 74…12 Yet God is my king from of old, Who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.… Psalm 104: …25 There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. 26 There the shi ps move along, And Leviathan, which You have formed to sport in it. 27 They all wait for You To give them their food in due season.… So, there is only one ( it has a title, and is never multiplied) it is a terrifying creature of the sea. It has a neck, a thick hide of overlapping scales.It is sometimes referred to as a serpent.At some point, God destroyed it ( the Flood would not have been a problem for it) or will destroy it. Confused? sure Here is another description of a serpent, it tallies more with Behemoth, being on land... Genesis 3: 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden '?" 2The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! 5"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Satan was able to control the serpent (some commentators feel the words are actually Shining One, a type of angel, and not a physical serpent). Because of its involvement, and Satan's. "Upon thy belly shalt thou go." This may mean no legs..snakes, or it may mean... abject surrender. the end of reptilian dominion. Because Leviathan dominated the sea and Behemoth the land.. marshy areas. read the description of Behemoth. Job 40 Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. 16 What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! 17Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. this continues for a while huge, big legged, tail like a cedar, elephants don;t have tails like cedar...or necks. neck implies some length, whales, crocodiles, fish and sharks.. no neck to speak of. But dinosaurs did. It's tantalizing, figuring out what people thousands of years ago meant by their descriptions of these animals., and dragons. which seem to range from those sea serpents, complete with fiery breath, to a terrifying end times vision. to animals left behind in desolate areas. we can at least agree those dragons are probably reptiles of some sort. I also wonder why land locked people who were never good sailors.. Solomon hired a navy, and a later king tried to have a navy, but it sank..would have such a vivid idea of what Leviathan was.. your most knowledgeable people of the era about sea creatures would have been.. fishermen. Job was not a fisherman, neither was David.Or Isaiah. Unless they knew WHO it was. Who has a description of being a dragon? Rev 20:And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. What if there never was a snake in the Garden at all, but just Satan in one of his preferred forms? Upon thy belly.. takes on a whole new dimension. it isn;t just that the seed of woman will crush the head of the serpent, but that he would be abased first. What if he has perpetuated his image throughout countless cultures...as a dragon? wise subtil crafty violent strong. ( if he can appear as an angel of light.... he can appear as anything) He is the king of this world in this present age...sending out terrifying images, that there is no place safe on land or sea... No wonder the children of Satan refuse to even live like human beings. They are following a reptile. |
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