Job 41:1-2

The Voice

In modern times, a leviathan is understood as something large and formidable. It may apply to an abstract entity, such as a totalitarian state, or to an actual monster, such as Captain Nemo’s giant squid. That modern idea is based on an ancient creation myth. Psalm 74 alludes to God’s conquest of Leviathan, a seven-headed monster that breathed fire, before His creation of the world. Leviathan was the master of chaos, living somewhere in the deep along with Rahab, another sea monster. The story goes that God chopped off six of Leviathan’s heads and imprisoned it in the deepest parts of the ocean, where it remains today. Leviathan creeps up occasionally in the Bible as a terrifying adversary, most notably in Revelation where it is described as a dragon or beast that comes up out of the sea and is specifically identified as Satan (Revelation 12:9; 13:1-3). So Leviathan will get another chance to fight God, but once again it will fall to the One who brought divine order to chaos.