Leviathan Rising: How to Protect Yourself From This Principality
Leviathan isn’t some mystical creature that makes for a good Hollywood blockbuster title.
Leviathan is a very real demonic principality that is not to be taken lightly or approached with the Aussie mindset of “she’ll be right, mate.” Leviathan is explained in a detailed manner in Job 41. I share this not to instill your heart with fear, but so that we might know what we are dealing with and, more importantly, how to combat this enemy principality. No good sergeant major sends his troops into battle without knowing the enemy he is dealing with; likewise, God is giving us wisdom and understanding in this hour to know who we are dealing with and to implement the strategies of heaven to combat this principality.
Job describes Leviathan like this:
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? (Job 41:1-5 ESV)
Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine (Job 41:8-11 ESV).
Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable. His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him, sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment (Job 41:13-31 ESV).
On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride (Job 41:33-34 ESV).
The name Leviathan comes from the Hebrew word Livyatan, which is derived from a root that means “to twist, to turn, to coil, and also wind.” It additionally means, “the joiner” or “to put one and one together” or “logic of thought.” Isn’t it interesting that it is a creature of the wind, just like those tornados of thought I mentioned earlier? Leviathan uses thoughts and ideologies to twist, turn, and coil against God and all that He is and stands for. Leviathan joins “thought” with a lie, causing logic to twist and coil against the infallible truth. Have you ever seen how a crocodile kills its prey? It clenches down with its mighty jaws upon its unsuspecting victim and then pulls them into a death roll. The death roll is used to dismember its prey as well as to disorient them, making them dizzy so they can’t escape. Leviathan has a similar tactic. Through means of the endless news cycles and a barrage of tornados of ideologies and thought, naïve victims are being death rolled into submission to his thoughts and ways, disorienting them from the truth. You will know you have been bitten by Leviathan if you are feeling this sense of “swirling” and disorientation. During the years of 2020 and 2021 especially, his wind words were unleashed as I have never seen them before. The vicious arguing, confusion, and disillusionment was evidence of his poisonous jaws.
Notice that Job’s description begins with the weapon of Leviathan’s tongue. It is his sword, and he uses it to strike a blow with his ideologies. The chapter then ends with the power of his strength, which is hidden in the high places (idols) through the pride in the hearts of men. Pride is the undergirding of his strength, and you will notice today that pride is often mentioned as a virtue when it is, in fact, the very opposite. Job describes Leviathan like a dragon with a heavy coat of armor that no one can defeat. However, there is only one who can defeat him, and His name is Jesus, and there is hope for you and me as we find ourselves hidden in His shelter. This doesn’t mean we are to retreat into a place of fear; it means that our hearts and minds are covered and protected from the barrage of his tornado winds and lies. It means that you will see with clarity what is truth and what is a lie. It means that you will discern with Holy Spirit wisdom how to speak the truth, and you will be protected as you do. However, we have a weapon he cannot conquer, and that is the secret place of God’s presence.
Leviathan is mentioned again in Psalm 74, and this verse is very telling of God’s strength and power over him. Let’s read:
For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness (Psalm 74:12-14 NKJV).
While Leviathan is not to be taken lightly, we have this hope hidden in the shelter of His wings—God is the One who will break the head of Leviathan in pieces and give him as food for us in the midst of the battles we face. When the storms of thought tornados come, and they will, make no mistake— you will be prepared. Your family will be secure because you will have your shelter readied under the shadow of His mighty wings. You were not designed by God to be tossed to and fro with the winds of Leviathan; you were called to this moment to reign in the turbulent gales and command them to be still.
Deborah’s Secret Place
It is no mistake that we are given Deborah’s strategy in the very first verses of her account in Judges 4:4-5 (NIV):
Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.
Deborah was both a prophet and a wife. Even though scripture does not specifically tell us if she was a physical mother of children, given the Hebrew culture of her day that highly valued women as mothers, we can likely assume she was also a physical mother of children as well as a mother to Israel. This description of her speaks of her devotion to God in her calling as a prophet, her role and commitment to her husband and family, and finally her nurturing nature as a mother to the people of Israel. Her husband’s name, Lappidoth, means “torches and flames.” Some have used this meaning to give Deborah the analogy of a “woman of a fiery spirit.” I like that description for you and me—“women of fiery spirits.” I also see the meaning of her husband’s name to describe him as leading with a torch in the dark of night. He is the picture of Jesus here—together, hand in hand, he navigates her through life’s darks storms as he holds the torch leading the way. I realize many women reading this book won’t have a physical husband by their sides. Perhaps your husband passed or you were left and betrayed by the man you loved and trusted. I want to encourage you here, Jesus is your Lappidoth—He is your torch and flame. As you cleave yourself to Him, He is the one who will guide you on the right paths with the flame of His Spirit.
What I love about Deborah is she is divinely balanced. What I mean by that is, she carried each of her roles with grace. Our world today tells a woman that to be successful she has to murder her children, begrudge men, and do whatever she can to get to the top. In a recent documentary on Marilyn Monroe, it was shared how she stood in the crowds of adoring fans and, with tears streaming down her face, whispered to herself, “For this, you killed your children.” Feminism has been one of those destructive tornadoes of ideology that has convinced women to destroy the very gift God gave them as bearers of life and murder their own infants. I understand that there are women reading this book who have gone through with an abortion or even multiple abortions. I want you to hear my words loud and clear. I am not casting shame upon you when I speak of these things. I am merely bringing light to the hidden darkness that has been unspoken for far too long—and where there is light, there is freedom to be found. I pray you would hear the words of Jesus over you right now: “Daughter, your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.” The enemy has snared a generation of women into the lie of abortion—that it is their right to murder their own young. Then, when they have followed through with that lie, he has cast them down into shame, guilt, and condemnation. No more, daughter, are you to wear these clothes of condemnation, for Jesus is robing you with this mantle of Deborah. It is a mantle of restoration, vindication, and justice. You will slay these principalities by His Blood and by the Word of your testimony. Your baby prays for you in heaven as a part of the great cloud of witnesses. I see you speaking to the tornado words of feminism that have shackled other women, and I see you breaking them free by your testimony. It’s time to step into your freedom.
Feminism has left a wake of destruction, much like the path of a tornado, over a generation of women, reducing them into murderers of their own children, angry, vile-hat wearing, men-despising echo chambers of vicious thought and speech. This is not who you are. You are called to be a daughter of the Most High, echoing His truth, applied with His love. Whatever your story, God is anointing you, daughter, with the mantle of Deborah in this hour and positioning you with strategy for the days ahead. Deborah wore the mantle of her two roles with grace, which is what God is calling you to. A daughter who is hidden in the secret place of His heart, a daughter who is given grace by Him to hold the multiple roles He has called you to, you will carry them with His ease. It may not always be easy, but there will always be sufficient grace to glean from Him.
Weighing Thoughts and Intentions from the Secret Place
I want you to pay specific attention to Deborah’s position here, for it gives us this key strategy for our role in carrying this mantle. The two verses of Judges 4:4-5 immediately poise Deborah with the strength of her roles and the strategy of her position. Allow me to show you how. Let’s read Judges 4:5 (NIV) again for context:
She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.
Let’s first look at the Hebrew words used for “held court,” which is also translated to say “she would sit” under the palm. It is the Hebrew word yashab (Strong’s H3427)—this word means, literally, “to dwell, abide and convene, to inhabit and sit in peace; to be married to, to remain, to be a resident of.” Do you see how this links in with the strategy of the secret place? What is the secret place then? It is the habitation of God’s dwelling; it is where He invites you and me to convene with Him, talk with Him, and make room for Him in our days.
I mentioned earlier that you need to find those small daily increments of time to read your Bible, but I also want to highlight to you that the secret place is the place you remain throughout your day. Don’t leave there. You may not be physically lying on the floor in His presence all day long, but your position is one that continues to convene with Him throughout the day. When you are working or tending to your children or cooking dinner or studying at college, your mind is fixed and stayed on Him. “How do I do that?” you might ask me. Through repetition. When you wake up in the morning, before opening your phone or checking the news, turn your heart toward Him.
With saying that, be careful of what your eyes are looking at throughout the day. Are you watching horror movies? Because that is an easy way to unseat you from that position of peace. Are you reading the newsfeeds on your social media all day long? Again, you’ll find yourself in that windswept place of fear rather than by the calming streams of His presence. The definition of abide means to “continue for a long time, to endure.” It is the practice of being in His presence that keeps you protected from the onslaught of lies that will surround you in culture. It is this habitual choice to keep in constant communion with your Creator, God, that will enable you, like Deborah, to discern with truth the disputes that you see swirling all around you.
This was Deborah’s first and most important strategy—to dwell in the presence of God—and it is this very position that poised her for victory. I’ll address the significance of the palm tree in just a moment, but first I want to highlight the meanings of Ramah, Bethel, and Ephraim. Notice that Deborah was “dwelling” under the palm tree between Ramah and Bethel. Ramah means “high and exalted.” This may be somewhat of a rabbit trail here, but I want you to consider with me something important that was mentioned about Leviathan. Do you remember in Job 41:31 how it told of Leviathan’s position, his strategy? It tells us that “he sees everything that is high” and he is “king over all the sons of pride.” This is an interesting parallel here, because we find Deborah sitting between a place called Ramah, meaning “high and exalted” or “lofty place,” and Bethel. This tells me that she was weighing the high and exalted places when she held court. Now Bethel, on the other hand, means “house of God.” Deborah was weighing and balancing disputes, much like a scales of justice, and discerning between what was a high and lofty lie on one side and what was truth according to the house of God on the other. Had she not been positioned in peace in the secret place under the palm tree, she would not have been able to discern what was right, what was true, and what was deserving of Godly justice.
Deborah was also positioned in the hill country of Ephraim, which means “to be fruitful.” Again, looping back to an earlier mention in Chapter One, you may remember how God assigned the tribe of Ephraim to cast out the enemy inhabitants and they failed to do so, rejecting the prophetic promise upon their life “to be fruitful.” Deborah however, was positioned in the hill country of fruitfulness as a divine messenger of recompense for what was lost in previous years. This is important to take note of. It paints a beautiful picture of the fulfillment of God’s promises despite the failure of others. The Lord always will find a way to see that which He has promised brought into fulfilment.
Perhaps you have failed to follow His calling in years gone by, and you are wondering, Will I ever see that promise fulfilled despite my failure? The answer is yes. As you surrender to the secret place, God is positioning you in the hill country of “fruitfulness” to see the promise fulfilled.
