Sometimes I run across a word, especially in the Old Testament, that I do not understand, and since it usually is not that important, I do not bother to study it out. One of those words has been the word "Leviathan".
Though I had been puzzled by what the word means or what/who it refers to, I had never bothered to really study it out - until now. The reason I have done so is that someone who is considered a prophet declared that he had a revelation from God about this "Leviathan". That caught my interest. He said that God showed him that Leviathan was a powerful evil spirit who has "been awakened" and is becoming active and that we must all watch out for him. I was skeptical of this because of the fact that spirits do not sleep or remain dormant for hundreds or thousands of years and then wake up to cause havoc. Evil spirits cause problems whenever they have the opportunity. They do not "wake up" since they do not sleep.
So, I thought I would study it out myself and see what I could come up with. There did not seem too much to work with because the word "Leviathan" is only referenced five times and only in the Old Testament. It is twice in Job, twice in Psalms and once in Isaiah where it is used prophetically about the End Times.
The one thing that stands out about most of these references is that Leviathan is some kind of sea creature or sea serpent. But that itself does not tell us much. This is where historians of the ancient world come in handy. Scholars say Leviathan may be an actual sea creature (perhaps no longer extant) or a mythological creature of the pagan religions. This sea monster represented the forces of chaos. One commentary on Job indicates that "to awaken Leviathan is to 'annihilate the existing order and plunge into catastrophe'". Some call it "the chaos monster".
Thinking this through we have to understand what things can be like on the sea or ocean. Things can get very chaotic. Winds and waves can toss a ship all around and sink it in minutes. A body of water that is usually calm can become deadly in a short period of time. This represents what life can become for people, families or even a nation. Things go along fine and then the unthinkable happens. A terrorist attack or a natural disaster can throw people into a disorder and chaos.
Let's go back to the scriptures again and see if we can understand better what the biblical writers were telling us.
"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." Isaiah 27:1 KJV
The expression, "in that day", refers to the Day of the Lord in prophecy which is the Tribulation Period followed by the Millennial Reign of Christ. So, now we must see if there are any parallels in the New Testament to this passage. And we do find a couple.
"Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Revelation 12:7-9
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished." Revelation 20:1-3
Notice that the dragon of Revelation who is Satan and the Devil is also called a serpent just as Leviathan was in Isaiah 27. To me, this is quite clear. Satan and Leviathan are the same. There is not a separate spirit apart from Satan called Leviathan.
Leviathan is actually an older concept than Satan is. Or, rather, the force that causes trouble and chaos in this world was called in very ancient times 'Leviathan'. Later, God revealed to Israel as late as the Babylonian Captivity that there was a fallen angel originally called Lucifer who fell and became 'Satan'. (It might seem strange to us, but there are no direct references to Satan before Isaiah 14.) After the Captivity (6th century B.C.), there are no more references to Leviathan but only to Satan. So, the New Testament never uses the term and, in fact, the Greek language had no word for it.
I have written all the above to say this. If you think that you have a revelation from God regarding some part of the Bible, study it out thoroughly in the Word before you seek more revelation on it and insist that it is all from God. If you don't you are opening yourself up to deception. This person who proclaimed that some ancient spirit was back from who knows where and that we have to watch out for him is, frankly, deceived. Leviathan is an ancient spirit, but we now know him as Satan.
All right, you might say, but why make a big deal about this fellow who thinks that Leviathan is some special evil spirit apart from Satan. Well, there is a tendency among some Christians today to focus too much on Satan and evil spirits. Now I believe in the activity of Satan and his demons and in spiritual warfare. But the Bible does not reveal a whole lot about any evil spirit other than Satan, a fallen angel. We do not have names of these evil spirits. We are sometimes given different classes of demons (principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness) and types of demons (unclean spirits is a general term for evil spirits, but there are spirits of divination and others).
But some have focused on certain spirits and assigned them names and claiming that it is scriptural. (Jezebel comes to mind.) Then we are warned to watch out for these spirits and given a list of things these spirits do which look remarkably like what Paul calls the works of the flesh - strife, envy, etc. What this does is cause us to focus on evil spirits, real and imagined, instead of the Lord. Books about some so-called evil spirits are multiplied and those who are on the lookout for these spirits are considered spiritual themselves.
I lived through that era in the charismatic world when we had the so-called "deliverance ministries". It was not pretty. We were told that there were demons in everybody and everything. Thank God, I was delivered from the deliverance ministry. That does not mean that I reject deliverance from demons or for the need for them to be cast out when necessary. But the incessant focus on the devil is unhealthy and unscriptural. The Bible tells us how to deal with the devil in very simple terms. "Resist him, firm in the faith." "Put on the full armor of God … " It says to "be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil … seeks whom he may devour."
But what happens when we start watching out, not just for Satan, but for Leviathan and Jezebel and whatever supposed evil spirit we are told about. Now we have a multitude of evil spirits to be aware of. This can make us demon-minded. We are no longer "seeking those things that are above", but those things on the earth especially evil spirits. You know, it seems like the old errors of the past, like the so-called deliverance ministries, just crop up in a different form later on. Once the church realizes and understands the activity and reality of the spirit realm, especially evil spirits, Satan is happy to give us a lot of "fake news" regarding what he is up to. He likes attention from the church though he hides himself from the world.
Therefore, anything that is revealed to us must be tested by the Word. The Word is final authority. Too many times we have gotten a little revelation and then turned it into a big revelation by adding to it and distorting the original revelation we were given. And sometimes we did not really get a revelation at all. We must "test all things, hold fast to what is good". Then discard the rest.
I am glad that we live in a time when the spiritual gifts are flowing. I want more of them. But if we are not careful we will get drawn off into error and deception. This has happened in the past and God has had to shut down the flow of revelation because immature and "enthusiastic" Spirit-filled believers could not handle it.
We need, in these last days, more than ever to keep disciplined and focused on Jesus and the Word of God. Yes, we need the Spirit, but we need to put the Word first and the Spirit second. That is the divine order and it will keep our attention on the right things.
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