Step 2 – Spiritual Restoration
Isaiah does not bring the division between verse 21 and Chapter 27:1. They read together. Verse 2 turns to another subject in response to “in that day,” but verse 1 is the conclusion of the discussion of Chapter 26. During a season of visitation, God brings the Leviathan to account for involving himself in God’s affairs.
Leviathan comes out of the sea, inserts and intertwines within God assignment and perverts His expectations. Leviathan is a systematic spiritual delusion that functions in a culture to pervert its assignment with substitutes. The system affects the beliefs, values, and behavior of the people in a place during a time. People and time are a generation; people and a place are a culture.
To better understand this scenario, recall Jesus’ discussion of the kingdom by the parable of the wheat and weeds. A man sowed wheat in a field but during the night an enemy sowed weeds. When the seeds germinated, it was obvious that weeds had been sown among the wheat, and some suggested that the weeds should be removed. To this the Master says, “No, you will destroy the whole field doing that. Wait until the time of harvest (accounting for expected return) and then separate the weed seeds into the fire. We don’t want to plant wheat and weeds next year.
God deals with the separation of wheat and weeds in the day of visitation because the interwoven invasion of Leviathan must be dealt with strategically to avoid further damage and destruction to the people, place, and generation Leviathan has invaded. Otherwise, God would destroy the whole thing like Sodom and start over. But, He is not destroying the whole thing and starting over! He has put the remnant into refuge from which to partner with Him. He is doing surgical strike against an ancient foe.
That He isn’t destroying the whole thing and starting over is made clear in Verse 2 with the song of the Vineyard: “During the same time, a new song for the pure wine will be sung! I, the LORD, will watch over the vineyard and tend its fruitful vines. Each day I will water them; day and night I will watch to keep enemies away. My anger will be satisfied. If I find briers and thorns bothering her, I will burn them up. Enemies will be spared only if they surrender to My power.”
God will deal with this Leviathan system that has invaded. He will restore the His expectations to His dominion so that His paqad expectations have dominion. Keep in mind that the measurement of success in kingdom isn’t the disappearance of things that do not meet God’s expectations but the dominion of His expectations over these enemies. Do not fall for the idea that we will only see the kingdom of God when everybody is born again! God’s expectations can be realized by His remnant so that His enemies surrender to His expectations. Psalm 110 says He will rule in the midst of His enemies!
Isaiah introduces the spiritual entity, Leviathan, who is the dragon of the sea, as the culprit behind a culture-wide delusion. God will visit the Leviathan and bring him to account for coming out of the sea and intertwining himself in God’s affairs and assignments.
Leviathan appears a surprising number of times in Scripture. The picture of a very real physical creature also depicts a very real, spiritual condition. In the picture, we see a spiritual condition personified in the Garden of Eden and manifesting throughout history to reach ultimate exposure in the days of ultimates as that “old serpent or dragon, satan.” Revelation 12:9 says, “And the great dragon was cast out , that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.”
Two words are used here, “Livyathan and Tanniyn.” The first term is transliterated “Leviathan.” It is identified as a living creature in many accounts while appearing figuratively or prophetically to represent manifestations of a very real systematic spiritual delusion in others. The second term comes from the basic word, “tan,” to speak of serpents, sea or river monsters, dragons, whales, and poisonous snakes. We are not trying to track down these meanings in terms of dinosaurs and mythical creatures; we are looking wide-eyed at the revelation of a spiritual condition and systematic function God gives through the use of this identity.
“Leviathan” is a transliteration of the Hebrew that comes from the root word, lavah, “to join together” with a sense of “bringing together.” A variation serves as a root for “wreath, twist, coiling.” Isaiah notes the “systematic joining and interweaving” of this spiritual condition with the terms, “piercing” and “twisting.”
Since Isaiah is speaking of Leviathan in prophetic language as well as the sword of the Lord that will be visited upon Leviathan and destroy or ruin the Tanniyn of the sea, we should learn why this picture is being presented so we can understand the spiritual revelation. From its name and descriptors, we see its character and how it works. It inserts into the culture and moves into place creating a spiritual condition, weaving itself into a people, place, or generation. In particular, we see the strategic and systematic way into which this spiritual condition becomes interwoven into the culture so that people, places, and generations are influenced and controlled by the Leviathan delusion.
Have you asked yourself or said aloud, at any time in the last decade, “How can people be so blind?” Did you ever say, “How can people be so easily lead around by obviously foolish, fantastical, and foundationless ideas?” Have you said, “It seems that the population is walking around dazed?” Perceptive and prophetic people commonly have this spiritual perspective with regards to a systematic spiritual delusion produced by Leviathan.
Leviathans live in the deep waters of the sea, come out of the sea to function in conspiracy against God’s purposes. “The sea” represents “humanity.” I propose that the “dragon or tan” represents this spiritual condition present in the populations, the ever-present spiritual conspiracy against Messiah that has been at work since Eden to thwart and frustrate the purposes of God in the earth. The “Leviathan” represents a specific, systematic, spiritual delusion of pride, a dominant and dominating characteristic of this spiritual conspiracy, rooted in humanity that weaves itself into place, people, and generation.
Leviathan in an individual is a root of pride. Pride in a culture is a Leviathan system. As this systematic spiritual delusion is expressed in a culture, specific characteristics of this principality are exhibited in the beliefs, values, and behaviors of the people living in that place.
“Systematic” answers to the characteristics of Leviathan’s scaled hide and the sense of the root word, lavah, “to join together, woven, wreath, twisting, coiling.” His scales overlap to create a system skin that is difficult to pierce, with a protective of overlapping that symbolizes the coalitions and patterns this spiritual manifests in the seven cultural mountains. Leviathan joins coalitions of delusion into every aspect of society. With this patterned protection in place, it seems to hold together when attacked. It also maintains a pattern of growth through a coalition of movable parts.
A Leviathan pierces and weaves its way into a people, place, and generation in a way that protects the whole systematic delusion from outside attack. The system holds together and its overlapping layers make it seem impossible to penetrate, and intimidatingly fierce.
When we look at the inroads of delusion in the seven aspects of American culture, we discover a philosophical system that gradually perverts the foundations of medicine, education, arts, government, business, media, family, and religion. None escapes the pollution because each is infiltrated with this penetrating invasion, weaving itself into the fabric to produce a different pattern from that produced by God’s expectations.
For example, Leviathan thinking how so inserted and woven itself into medicine that what should be the safest place in the universe is now the most dangerous: the most dangerous place for a baby in modern America is his mother’s womb. A baby is more likely to be killed in his mother’s womb than anywhere else on earth! In New York City alone more than 80,000 babies are aborted each year, and in some demographics more than 60% are aborted! While not all medical personnel participate or approve of this spiritual condition; none are able to stop it.
“Spiritual” answers to the character of the Leviathan spirit. We can recognize any demon by its character, and we often name a spirit by its character. Paul says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear.” A spirit of fear is a demon most easily recognized by its character. Paul identifies a more systematic spiritual condition in Ephesians 2:2 as “the prince of the power of the air” and clarifies that this is “the spirit that operating among and within the obstinate, rebellious children.” Paul says pre-saved people are influenced and controlled in their behaviors by this principality. Leviathan represents a manifestation of this kind of darkness. It is a spiritual system.
Leviathan is identified in Job 41 and here in Isaiah 28 with pride, or as God tells Job, as “the king of the children of pride.” In other words, Leviathan senses that he is impossibly powerful, overwhelming in his dominance, and becomes arrogant in his intimidation. He sees himself as undefeatable. He begins to throw his weight around, consuming more and more of the culture, growing fat by absorbing increasing amounts of the values, beliefs, and behaviors of the people, place, and generation. Leviathan is insatiable in its conquest of a people, in a place because it inserts and weaves its into the fabric of culture as a way of substituting the expectations of people for the expectations of God.
A spiritual system affects the behavior of a people by perverting their beliefs and values. The purpose of God for that people and place becomes something foreign to the culture. Certainly, this is a clear picture of modern American culture! At times this culture ran nearly parallel with Scripture; now, it runs cross grain to Scripture.
“Delusion” answers to the understanding that pride is deception, and pride developed at a cultural level becomes a “strong delusion.” Isaiah 28 speaks of the “crown or wreath of pride.” Ephraim is “drunk” with pride, moving from deception and delusion into drunkenness. This is the picture of Leviathan interwoven into a culture, systematically deceiving the generation.
Delusions strike deeply into the mind of people driven by invading their beliefs. They believe someone is in love with them. They believe they have a great talent or ability unrecognized that makes them an exception or more valuable. They believe they are persecuted and treated unfairly or unjustly as a way of understanding their present conditions. They believe they are suffering from some malady undetectable to tests and examination. They believe people in their lives are betraying them or being unfaithful to them. They believe, and the belief affects behavior in a fundamental way.
Delusions provide a justification for personal problems. Delusions provide an explanation for why others succeed, have more money, friends, and happiness. Delusions provide invest value into things that are worthless as symbols of a fantasy. Delusions provide escapes from realities too difficult to countenance or undesirably inconsistent with chosen points of view.
Delusions are another level of deception because they affect beliefs, values, and behavior in a more systematic way.
Pride is deception. Pride is satan’s spiritual DNA and essential character. He is the father of lies because his DNA is deceptive pride. He raised his five-finger fist in the face of God and said “I will” five times, and each of his “I will” deceptions define the delusions of pride.
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good God stuff……..amen
I found this 3rd section the most helpful in understanding practically what Leviathan looks like in our culture. Wow! I see examples of this everyday in my classroom. Children are the products of the 7 mountains of culture, and to see it all culminate in the youth of today and understanding that it isn’t merely a “this generation” thing. The pride of the elder generations pointing the finger at the kids as though they are the problem and not the product is that pride you speak of at work again. These kids refer to themselves as “YOLO’s: You Only Live Once.” I was speaking with someone about this yesterday, and I was amazed by the misuse of this idea to promote doing anything you want to satisfy yourself and meet the needs of your flesh simply because “You Only Live Once.” Of course, I can easily spot the paper trail that lead to this dysfunction by looking at the media over the years. The movie “Bucket List” and the song, “Live Like You Were Dying” were heart-warningly sweet stories in and of themselves, but they have been perverted to create a deeper mindset of “Live for yourself,” “Your purpose on earth is to enjoy your life,” etc.
Further, Leviathan has become so prideful, it is easy to see evidence of the things that were once hidden. With the most popular musicians and actors flashing the 666 and declassification of government documents showing things they have denied for generations. Even the gross and obvious ways many politicians have been “outed” without ever having to answer for it points to the blindness in our culture. So many things are starting to come together for me now, and I’m beginning to get a bigger picture. Not that you haven’t seen these various smaller pieces yet- I’m just processing.