When I was a boy there was a closet in the middle of my grandparents’ house that was dark and cold.

The door creaked when it was opened and it looked like a place where a kid might get lost and fall into the dark abyss of the earth. My uncle told me that a “Booger Man” lived in there. I believed him. Of course now I imagine he had something stashed in there that he didn’t want a four-year-old to disturb.

Years later I was captivated by the televison show “The Munsters.” Grandpa had a pet dragon named Spot that lived under the stairs. Every time the stairs were raised, Spot blew out a stream of fire that would singe your eyebrows, or worse. The Booger and Spot were little leviathans.

In Canaanite mythology, Lotan was a seven-headed monster of the deep. In the Bible, the mythological creature is called “Leviathan.” Leviathan is the symbol of chaos that no one can master. Leviathan is too big, too ferocious, too Herculean, too monstrous for any person to conquer.

Actually, a little leviathan is an oxymoron, meaning a two-word paradox. Little leviathans can actually be tamed.

Even Spot the dragon was domesticated. But a real leviathan cannot be tamed or domesticated. A real leviathan is not a little problem that can be worked out, a little fear that can be overcome, or a difficult relationship that can be smoothed out.

A real leviathan is a tidal wave; it’s a class five Hurricane; it’s an atomic bomb; it’s September 11; it’s suffering so great that death begins to look like a viable option; it’s the news that your child has cancer; it’s chaos that turns your world upside down and inside out, that threatens to consume you.

In the Bible, Job is engulfed in the clutches of the leviathan. The reader is told that Job has done nothing to deserve the chaos in his life. Having lost all his possessions, all his family to death except his wife who abandons him, all his friends, and even his health, Job pleads his case before God. He speaks boldly to God in protest until his lips tip the balance of his speech toward arrogance.

When God finally speaks to Job, he asks: “Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? ….No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” Job 40:1-5;10-11 (NIV)

Job then pulls back and realizes God is not obliged to do anything for him. He cannot make God do anything for him any more than he can tame the leviathan. Job then confesses that he believes God can do all things and that he spoke of things he did not understand, of things too wonderful for him to know. (41:2-3)

Job learned through his suffering that he had nowhere to turn except God but he had no more control over God’s actions than he did the leviathan’s. He confessed that God could do all things and placed his belief in God despite the injustice of his suffering.

Job knew that if the leviathan were ever going to release its chaotic hold on his life, God was the only one who could control it and defeat it. This is what the Psalmist believed. “But you, O God, are my king from of old; you bring salvation upon the earth. It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.” Ps 74:12-14 (NIV)

Have you ever met Leviathan? Do you know someone who has?

It’s a terrible thing. We all deal with little dragons, fears that keeps us from exploring certain areas of our lives, little Spots that stay tucked away under stairs but breathe out fire from time to time.

They threaten us but don’t destroy us.

We seem to keep go





ing despite their nuisances. But we are powerless against a real Leviathan.

When Leviathan has us in its grips and all order seems to have escaped our lives, it will serve us well to look to the only one who has defeated Leviathan and can bring us through our time of suffering.

We are not promised that we will come out unscathed.

We are not even promised that we will understand the reason for our suffering or have restored to us that which we have lost.

However, within our disorganized, chaotic world, the God of order will come to us and speak to us. We should be ready to listen.

Perhaps God will even speak out of the storm as He did to Job.

Whatever storm comes your way and whatever monster rises from the deep to claim you, remember, God will remain your refuge, your strength, and your salvation. Remember to call out to God to defeat Leviathan. God is our only hope.

We pray for the day that the words of Isaiah will come true: “In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.” Isa 27:1 (NIV)

May it be today, Lord. And if not today, let us live with the hope that such a day will soon come for all who suffer and are caught in the jaws of Leviathan.



The Rev. Michael Helms is pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Moultrie