9th October 2025

9th October 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 3v8) 


Message (Scott Woodburn) 


I can't cover everything in these devotions and Tuesday's effort deliberately made no mention of Leviathan. Job 3 contains a difficult verse which states "Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan." In the context of chapter three Job is wrestling with his birth and wondering if it would not have been better for him to never have been born. Verse eight is a difficult verse to understand with various attempts to explain it. To try and simplify it, I think Job is wondering if there is anyone who could curse or blank out the day of his birth - perhaps even Leviathan could be woken to help in this work. 


But who or what is Leviathan? Leviathan is mentioned five times in Scripture (Job 3v8, Job 41v1, Psalm 74v14, Psalm 104v26 & Isaiah 27v1). Some suggest that Leviathan represents a crocodile - we have no crocodiles on our island but we know such a creature is vicious and highly dangerous.  Yet Leviathan also symbolises the nation of Egypt which held God's people in slavery and is described as "a dragon in the seas" (Ezekiel 32v2). Others argue that Leviathan is a mythological sea monster which was once defeated by the false god Baal. More still see Leviathan as a symbol of evil and chaos which has been at work in the world since the Fall.


I think there is a little bit of each of these positions in the Biblical account. In Psalm 74v14, Leviathan was described as having many heads which were crushed by God Himself - perhaps we see an allusion here to the sea monster allegedly destroyed by Baal which had seven heads. Equally Psalm 74 is alluding to the Israelite escape from Egypt. On the day that the Red Sea parted, the Lord showed his power over Egypt the "dragon in the seas." Psalm 104v26 on the other hand surely equates Leviathan with the crocodile or some other sea creature. The Psalmist tells us that the Lord made the seas and created Leviathan to play in the waters. Isaiah 27v1 suggests that the Lord will certainly punish Leviathan and I suspect we here see a glimpse of evil in all of it's repugnant ways coming under the judgement of God. Lastly in Job 41 the Lord asks Job if he is able to catch Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord - the answer of course is no.


What do we make of Leviathan? My answer is that only God is great. He has made all things including the creatures of the deep. He is the one true God above all other false gods and their boasts. He is the God who brought His people out of captivity and was able to defeat the great nation of Egypt. Indeed God is so mighty that evil in all of it's ways will be destroyed.


Even if we fear to approach the crocodile we can remember that the Lord is good and the Lord is for us. The God who made Leviathan and hooks his mouth is also the God who sent His Son to make the death of death. Nothing can pluck us from His hand.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q95 To whom is Baptism to be administered?
Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible Church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible Church are to be baptized.
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