How to Spot a Leviathan, the Many-Headed Marine Spirit — Transcript

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1. 0:00Leviathan. How to spot a leviathan? The many  headed marine spirit. What is leviathan? Is
2. 0:07this just something that deliverance ministries  come up with or is it actually in the Bible and
3. 0:12what are some characteristics of a leviathan?  Let's start from the beginning. We need to
4. 0:17understand the background to leviathan. Pagan  gods and the cosmic battle against chaos. Yes,
5. 0:24you heard me right. Ancient people were  afraid of chaos. Their gods battled the force
6. 0:30of chaos kind of like American cartoon superheroes  and these gods brought order to the universe. In
7. 0:39ancient near Eastern cosmology, the sea was  often associated with chaos, darkness and
8. 0:46danger. Baal fought the god of the sea Yam and  Baal's victory symbolized him bringing order to
9. 0:54chaos in the universe. Now when it comes to Hebrew  supernatural worldview, the sea often referred to
10. 1:02as yam symbolized the chaos and the forces of  disorder. If we look at Genesis 1:1 it says,
11. 1:10In the beginning, God created the heavens and the  earth. The earth was without form, verse two and
12. 1:15void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face
13. 1:22of the waters. And so we see in verse three,  God said, "Let there be light" and there was
14. 1:27light. So we meet waters before water appears in  the order of creation. We meet the light before
15. 1:37He created the son, the moon, and the stars. So  in Genesis 1:2 we see there's a deep darkness,
16. 1:44there is abyss, there's raging out of control  sea. Interesting, you go to the end of the Bible,
17. 1:52Revelation 21:1 you see there is no more  sea. God says that there is new heaven,
18. 1:59new earth. The first heaven and the first earth  has passed away and there is no more sea meaning,
19. 2:04there will be no more chaotic destructive waters  or their inhabitants in the new planet. Greg Boyd
20. 2:12in his book, God at War talks about the Hebrew  supernatural world view, a warfare world view
21. 2:20that presented God as sovereign over the hostile  waters. Now, we think of just waters but there was
22. 2:28deeper spiritual meaning in the Hebrew worldview.  Hostile waters, cosmic beasts like leviathan,
23. 2:35Rahab, behemoth, and rebel gods, and Satan. So  these enemies, the hostile waters, cosmic beasts
24. 2:44and rebel gods and Satan was a strong demonic  power. That's why there was a strong attraction
25. 2:51to paganism in all of those ancient cultures.  Idols are not appealing unless there is power
26. 3:01behind them to make it real and enticing and Satan  and the kingdom of the demonic use these idols to
27. 3:09draw an attraction to the kingdom of the demonic  and so, leviathan comes into this picture, as
28. 3:17being this ancient enemy that the God of the Bible  is sovereign over. Now, let's use the background
29. 3:23that the Bible provides us to understand Leviathan  a little bit more. First of all, leviathan means
30. 3:29'twisted one.' The word leviathan appears about  six times in the Hebrew Bible. In Job chapter 3:8,
31. 3:38we see that Job is cursing the day of his  birth and leviathan is referred to as something
32. 3:44dangerous but that's all. In Job 41:1-34 God is  speaking to Job, asking him if he has any power
33. 3:55against a great sea creature named leviathan.  Leviathan is presented as a giant body with
34. 4:02scales, with terrible teeth, and he breathes  fire. It's like something like out of comics
35. 4:08or a movie. Leviathan is a sea creature that can  move upon the land. Leviathan in Job is seen as a
36. 4:15symbol of God's greatness. Leviathan in Job 41 is  not a demonic entity, quite the opposite. It is a
37. 4:24physical creature whose existence glorifies God.  Now, let's go to Psalm 74 in verse 13 it says,
38. 4:32You divided the sea by Your strength. Divided  the sea, remember, how we talked about the sea,
39. 4:38the cosmic beasts, and rebel gods, and Satan.  Satan being God's enemy. So, You divided the
40. 4:45sea speaks more of like a spiritual force is there  by Your strength. You broke the heads of the sea
41. 4:52serpents in the waters. And then the next verse  14, You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.
42. 5:00And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the  wilderness. Now in here, leviathan has multiple
43. 5:08heads. The context of Psalm 74 is God's salvation  of His people from destructive chaos caused by
44. 5:16their wicked enemies. The spiritual battle is  going on because Jehovah's temple has been burned,
45. 5:23and the spiritual signs and the prophets are no  longer present. Instead the physical enemies are
46. 5:31present. So Psalm 74 in reference to leviathan  is definitely dealing with spiritual warfare.
47. 5:38The psalmist reminds that Jehovah defeated the  evil forces of the past. Leviathan was beaten by
48. 5:45Jehovah. God will do it again, and God will answer  the cry of His people. The psalmist is confident
49. 5:52that Jehovah will defeat leviathan and listen  to this, give this monster as food to those who
50. 5:58have suffered in the wilderness of destruction.  Satan has to pay back. Now, if we go a little
51. 6:04bit further in Psalm 104: 26 just like the Job  21 passage, leviathan is presented as a natural
52. 6:14creature that brings glory by its existence  to Jehovah God. Now let's go to Isaiah 27:1,
53. 6:22In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great  and strong, Will punish Leviathan the fleeing
54. 6:29serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; And He  will slay the reptile that is in the sea. So this
55. 6:37is the famous day of the Lord. When Jehovah will  defeat the nations that have persecuted His people
56. 6:45Israel. Here, leviathan represents the spiritual  powers that are behind the suffering of God's
57. 6:51people. God is going to defeat those spiritual  powers permanently. So in the day of victory
58. 6:57over leviathan which is still in the future, must  Christians live under the spiritual oppression
59. 7:04today? Absolutely not. Because Messiah has come.  He has entrusted the church with the job of
60. 7:10slaughtering the leviathan. The ultimate messianic  triumph is yet to come. The final feast is still
61. 7:18being prepared but already, the church of Jesus  Christ is defeating the spiritual powers of evil,
62. 7:24the dark chaos that brings suffering and cruelty  to this world. Now, let's look at the leviathan...
63. 7:31we looked at the historic, supernatural background  of the Middle East worldview where they saw
64. 7:37leviathan and this cosmic battle between the sea,  and people, and their gods were rescuing people
65. 7:45from these forces of chaos. We see that in the  Hebrew world view, God is sovereign over the sea.
66. 7:53He is sovereign over the monsters. He's sovereign  over the rebel gods and over Satan. We also see
67. 8:00scriptural references in Job as I mentioned.  There's reference to leviathan as a glorious
68. 8:05sea creature that actually shows the majesty of  God and then there is a supernatural spiritual
69. 8:11force that's presented both in Psalms and in  Isaiah as God fighting against this monster and
70. 8:19destroying it and making this monster, food for  God's people. Now, I do want to look at leviathan
71. 8:25from pseudepigrapha. Pseudepigrapha refers to  the collection of ancient books that are not
72. 8:31considered part of the canon by most Jewish  and Christian traditions. In fact, the word
73. 8:36pseudepigrapha comes from two words, 'false'  and 'to write' indicating that these works
74. 8:41were attributed to authors who did not actually  write them. I have a whole video on the book of
75. 8:47Enoch that you can watch where I go a little  bit deeper into that but I am curious to see
76. 8:51what pseudepigrapha writings say about leviathan  as well. For example, the book of Enoch from the
77. 8:572nd century CE mentions that there are two huge  monsters. Leviathan, a sea creature and behemoth,
78. 9:06which is a land creature and they are mentioned as  food for God's people but it's also suggested that
79. 9:12they might be separated from each other. These  two creatures, sea creature and land creature.
80. 9:18In second Baruch, from the 1st century CE, it is  said that leviathan and behemoth will appear when
81. 9:26the Messiah comes and people will eat them.  So you see this, pseudepigrapha writings also
82. 9:32refer to spiritual forces and God's people eating  them as it's mentioned in Isaiah. Fourth of Ezra
83. 9:40also refers to the pseudepigrapha collection  of books was written around the end of the
84. 9:461st century CE mentions that God created behemoth  and leviathan and kept them for special occasions
85. 9:55to be eaten. So the theme of leviathan being  eaten is very much present. Now in conclusion,
86. 10:03the common traits of this leviathan. Leviathan  can be characterized as a marine spirit. Leviathan
87. 10:10twists the truth. Leviathan destroys communication  in relationships. Leviathan like a sea monster
88. 10:17can cause spiritual ship wrecks. Leviathan is  involved in everything relating to pride. As a
89. 10:25king of pride, leviathan can have power over us  if we have pride in our hearts. Leviathan as a
90. 10:31principality is too mighty to challenge yourself.  Leviathan as a marine spirit affecting your life
91. 10:39must be fought with God's word. You must rightly  divide the word of God because he wants to twist
92. 10:46the truth. We as Christians, must study the truth  and rightly divide the truth. Leviathan must be
93. 10:54defeated with humility. So as a king of pride, he  wants to have power over you if you have pride in
94. 11:02you. The way to overcome this evil spirit is  just another name for the devil's minions,
95. 11:09the way to overcome him is to live in humility.  He wants to twist things and the way we overcome
96. 11:15that is by rightly dividing the truth. We need to  stop taking scriptures out of context and live by
97. 11:21the word of God. As a principality, it's someone  that Jesus is going to defeat when He comes at His
98. 11:27coming and I have whole other videos that deal  with not fighting principalities but casting
99. 11:33demons out of people. So in conclusion, leviathan  in the Bible can be either real, physical creature
100. 11:38that glorifies Creator God or it's a symbol of  evil spiritual powers that hurt God's people.
101. 11:45The old testament is clear that on the day of the  Lord, leviathan will be defeated and become food
102. 11:50for God's people. Jesus, our Messiah is the One  who walks on water and feeds His followers with
103. 11:56miraculous multiplication of food, who saved the  wedding feast with a miracle of wine, He is the
104. 12:02One that's bringing the messianic banquet. The  feast of messiah has already begun but it's not
105. 12:08yet fully arrived. Jesus's church is commissioned  to cast out demons just like Jesus cast them out
106. 12:15and bring the celebration to the whole world. Get  filled with Jesus's new wine. Don't let leviathan
107. 12:23defeat you. Leviathan is meant to be a lunch for  the Christians. Thank you for watching this video.
108. 12:29I hope that you were equipped, encouraged and  also given a broad understanding of the topic
109. 12:36and this mysterious sea creature, leviathan. Let  me know in the comments what you learned today.
110. 12:40Share this with somebody. Like this video,  and subscribe, and I'll see you next time!