There are many names, titles or adjectives used across scripture in reference to Satan. In the last article, Satan: always the devil?! we saw him presented as “the Wicked One”.
We also saw a clear connection between Proverbs 16:4 and Colossians 1:16 where Proverbs established that the LORD made all things, even the wicked and Colossians told us how he created principalities and powers i.e. Spiritual wickedness.
In this article, we will continue outlining how scripture testifies of Satan being created evil with specific focus on one of his other titles: The Leviathan.
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Revelation 20:2 KJV
The dragon is the Devil, called by another name; Leviathan!:
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.
Now consider this, God uses natural things (traits, animals, weather etc.) we know, as a means of communicating spiritual truths we have yet to understand. Satan is not a lion, a snake or dragon (Leviathan), but each is used in reference to him as each has traits that are characteristic of him.
The lion and snake are animals known to us today, however, the leviathan/dragon, has been relegated by many to the realm of legend. But many legends have there root in facts. For those who accept the Bible to be the word of God, let’s examine the facts it presents pertaining to leviathan. In doing so we will be able to see how the traits of the leviathan, as with the lion and snake, is being used in a characteristic sense of the devil.
So let’s examine and compare some of his traits:
Created for the sea
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. [26] There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast madeto play therein.
Psalm 104:25-26 KJV
Notice that the leviathan was made/created to play in the sea. What’s the significance of this?
The sea is often used to represent darkness. Hence the promise of the LORD in the old testament to send for fishers:
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jeremiah 16:16 KJV
A promise fulfilled in Christ
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Mark 1:17 KJV
‘Fishers of men’ are meant to pull men (fishes) out of darkness (the sea). Fishermen pull fish out of the sea, fishers of men pull men out of darkness. Before we (believers in Christ) were made fishers of men, we were fishes in the sea, that is, we were in darkness. But when we were fished out of the darkness, we are no longer ‘fish in the sea, for the darkness has passed because we were fished out of it.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
1 John 2:8 KJV
This is why Revelation 21:1 says “there was no more sea” and “there will be no night (darkness) there” (Rev 22:5) in the new heaven and new earth.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:1 KJV
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:5 KJV
The leviathan being created for the sea is symbolic of the devil being created for darkness.
The leviathan cannot be fished out of the sea
The Leviathan/Satan, was created to play in darkness (the sea). When he’s in the sea/darkness, he’s in his natural element. This is why Jesus said “when he lies, he speaks from his own nature” (John 8:44 NASB).
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44 NASB
We saw earlier that men, who are given the role “fishers of men” by Christ Jesus, can fish other men out of the darkness. Now consider, in the natural, fishermen use hooks (Amos 4:2) or nets to draw/pull fish from the sea. But these are fishers of fish… what of fishers of men? Will they not use the same tool?
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
Matthew 13:47 KJV
The LORD God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks
Amos 4:2 KJV
There is a clear change that takes place in man’s nature when we are fished from darkness. We are changed from glory (flesh) to glory (spirit), from a child of darkness to a son of light. So pulling men out of darkness via the hook/net of the gospel results in a change in nature. Not so with the leviathan/devil.
The scripture communicates to us, via a rhetorical question, that the leviathan cannot be fished out of the sea/darkness.
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:1 KJV
Note: This artist’s depiction is speculative in appearance and is only intended to illustrate, in agreement with scripture, that pulling the leviathan out of the sea is an absurd notion.
Why can’t he be fished out? Because he was made for the sea/darkness and is therefore in his natural element in it.
God’s nature is Light i.e. truth, life, love, etc. so he dwells in Light:
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:16 KJV
The leviathan/devil’s nature is darkness i.e. lies, death, hate etc. So he dwells in darkness/the sea.
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44 NASB
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
God has no darkness in him, equally the devil has no light in him. The devil cannot be hooked and drawn out of darkness (the sea) because he (his very nature) is darkness, even as God’s (very nature) is light.
Leviathan is king of the sea
Scripture identifies the devil as king over the forces of darkness:
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
Revelation 9:11 KJV
It’s important that we realize that the forces of darkness includes all men who are not “for Christ”:
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Matthew 12:30 KJV
Therefore men who are against Christ, the devil/leviathan is their king:
He beholdeth all high things: he (the Leviathan) is a king over all the children of pride.
Job 41:34 KJV
‘Children of pride’ are children of the devil. The Leviathan is called their king because he is both king and father to those who are in darkness (pride is behaviour of darkness – Proverbs 16:18), even as God is King and Father to ‘children of humility’ (humility is a behaviour of light – 1 Peter 5:6):
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3-4 KJV
Satan’s behaviour is naturally of darkness because from the beginning, that is to say, from the very start of creation, he was created dark, crooked, a murderer, a thief, having no light in him.
By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Job 26:13 KJV
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44 NASB
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 45:7 KJV
The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Proverbs 16:4 KJV
Now Job 41:34 also said: “he (the Leviathan) beholdeth all high things…”. What does this mean? High is used scripturally in reference to authority. The devil and his demons are high:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV
While God is in the highest place of authority:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Luke 2:14 KJV
The Leviathan beholding all high things therefore gives a clear connection to the position of power the devil had as king. We get confirmation of this here:
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luke 4:5 KJV
He took Jesus up high so Jesus could behold or be shown the high things of this world that he (the devil) reigned over as king over.
So here is a summation of what the bible has revealed to us, by the Grace of God concerning the leviathan/Satan/serpent/the wicked one:
He was created to play in darkness (the sea) (Psalm 104:25-26)
He cannot be drawn out of darkness (the sea) because it’s his natural element i.e. he was made for darkness (Job 41:1, John 8:44)
He is the king & father of the darkness. Everything and everyone in darkness is subject to him (Job 41:34)
There is much more to be said of the leviathan, however, the above, in scope with this article’s purpose, which is to show that the Leviathan/Satan was created evil, sufficiently covers the topic. In the next article we will look at yet another reference for the devil: “The Smith and The Waster“, who was created by God, to destroy.
Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Would you say that the article helped broaden your understanding at any level? If so, would you mind sharing??