Dragging Out the Dragon

In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. -- Isaiah 27:1

When we see “land” or “earth”, particularly in the Old Testament, it usually has something to do with or in some way symbolizes Israel, God’s people, and His system.  The sea is sometimes a symbol for the Gentile nations and the world system.  Revelation 13, for example, speaks of two beasts, one arising from the sea and another rising out of the earth.  

• And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. (Revelation 13:1)
• Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. (Revelation 13:11)

The life of the sea is mostly out of sight.  It is obscured and occult like the subconscious mind.  Leviathan terrorizes the depths, but this is not always apparent on the surface.  Our lives are often driven by fears and half-forgotten, hidden motives of which we are usually unaware.  We struggle with what appears, unable to understand the twisted thing that underlies it.  Leviathan flees for it is both a dread creature and a creature of dread.  

There is no place to stand upon the sea.  It shifts constantly beneath us.  We do well to stay afloat.  How then can we overcome this monster and free ourselves from this embodiment of all our dark confusion and anxiety?

The Lord delivers us by His sword, His word. 

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron … And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet … These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. (Revelation 19:15,20)

It is Christ who rescues us from the monsters, no matter whether they come from our subconscious, the secular system, or false religions.  Truth alone can always set us free.

Out of Order, and Order Out of

Come, my people, enter into your rooms,
And close the door behind you;
Hide for a little while,
Until indignation runs its course.

For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth shall reveal her bloodshed,
And will no longer cover the slain.

In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

--Isaiah 26:20,21; 27:1

Though the first two verses caught my attention, I don't really have any comment on them. There may be difficult days ahead, but I'm certainly not predicting anything or raising any prophetic flags. If anything, I would think God may be calling His people to private prayer, intercession and soul-searching. The passage sounds remarkably like Matthew 6:6, as Jesus said, "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Leviathan is usually seen as something like chaos, something that rises in opposition to God. The sea is also viewed as chaotic and primordial.

We see horrible events, sometimes perpetrated by humans, sometimes random natural disasters. Christians are fond of saying, “God is in control.” We build all kinds of explanations for why God allows evil to exist. I don’t have any answers, just more questions.

For example, consider if God is still creating. We know the Genesis account says God completed His work and rested on the seventh day. Yet, after the Fall, God rose up and by His own hand shed blood and provided a covering for Adam and Eve. He intervened in purging evil from the earth with the flood of Noah. He spoke with Abraham and established a covenant, and He called out Israel.

Speaking of Noah, it may be significant that God used the chaos of flood waters to cleanse the earth.

I get the impression sometimes that the sixth day lasted a long time. The book of Hebrews describes Jesus as finally sitting down at the right hand of the Father, but, according to 1 Corinthians 15, He is still in the process of conquering enemies. Perhaps in our timeline, the seventh day has not yet come. It exists, and we draw toward it, but it’s like the “Rocky Road to Dublin” and may require a right good fight to clear the way.

There is still unconquered chaos that wars against us. We are of God, seeking rest and order. It is randomness, disorder, and destruction, seen in loss, decay, and deterioration. You don’t even need to assume a malevolent intelligence, though it seems obvious that it has its own agents. You could look it as just “stuff” that is still potentially a part of the creative process of building the kingdom. It kind of makes sense, for we are not generally in the business of creating ex nihilo. We take iron ore and refine it, and we make plows or swords.

They say that when it is time for the marriage supper of the Lamb, a great pavilion will be needed. So the Lord will slay Leviathan, and we will sit in the shade of that adversary’s skin and celebrate the consummation of the kingdom.