Who Is This Great "Leviathan of the Sea" Spoken of In Isaiah Chapter 27?
Isaiah chapter 27 verse 1
27 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.
End Quote
Leviathan apparently comes from Levyatan, a Hebrew word that means to twist or turn or wind or coil.
More of the chapter quoted above is at the bottom of this article, for context. It appears that the phrase 'In that day..." may refer to our modern times, because verse 6 as you can see below refers to what I think is Israel the nation filling the whole world with fruit. Israel is actually a really prolific fruit producer in our day (2024 A.D.) and only in the last 50 years has refrigeration technology allowed us to ship fresh fruit 'throughout the world'. So some of these prophetic verses in Isaiah 27 may be speaking about us who live in the world in these recent decades. And therefore, these may be the times in which Leviathan the coiled serpent, the gliding serpent, whoever or whatever that refers to, is struck by God. In some scriptures, Leviathan is spoken of as having more than one head, however we should interpret that!
Above are two prominent symbols from the earlier years of US history. I am not sure if any other nation has prominent symbols of both a snake which is coiled (Above, Top - the famous early American colonies' Gadsen Flag from South Carolina's Charles Gadsen in 1775) such as Leviathan is described, and separately a snake posed roughly as snakes look when they glide along the ground such as Leviathan is also described. (Above, Bottom - a Revolutionary War era snake symbol flag by Benjamin Franklin first made in 1754 some sources say meant to encourage the uniting of independent American colonies. The bottom snake is speaking the words "Unite and conquer." The separate parts are S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and then for some reason the 6 states of New England as a group, so basically 12 states. You could note that the bottom picture shows a snake as if it were cut up by a blade, such as a sword, if you chose to view it that way. Also, it really isn't a classically depicted snake; doesn't the drawing show ears? It's almost more like the creatures that Vikings carved onto the prows of some of their raiding ships.
Which nation is likely to be 'the Leviathan' if the Leviathan is a nation? (Of course, Leviathan may not refer to a nation!) In the Bible in a few places it refers to a Leviathan, a great sea creature, which is struck on the head by God and destroyed. It is referred to in Isaiah 27 as both a gliding serpent and a coiled serpent. There is on this Earth a nation that is typified by both a coiled serpent and by a gliding serpent. So perhaps Leviathan refers to a nation...to that nation. If it refers to a nation it would probably need to be a nation that could be fairly described as being out there in the sea somewhere from the perspective of someone writing from the nation of Israel in Isaiah's time of the 8th century B.C. So is there such a nation? The word 'Levi' in the word Leviathan, as a stand alone word has the translated meaning of 'united'. The remaining portion of the word Leviathan...the 'athan'...can mean 'eternal life' or 'immortal' in some languages. Perhaps that is a clue, or perhaps not. I only found one nation which would seem to be a nation out in the sea somewhere back in Isaiah's time and which recently enough has a symbol of both a coiled serpent and of a gliding serpent prominently to be found as symbols of its national heritage: the United States is that nation. Below are two flags often used in the 1700's in the United States, in our founding years as a nation. In one case the serpent is coiled. In the other case it is stretched out as snakes are when gliding across the ground.
As a U.S. citizen I hope this is only a coincidental and meaningless correlation! We are not just associated, obviously, with the word 'United', but we are also famous the world over for pants referred to as Levi's. I'm kind of joking there with the Levi pants reference, but maybe not...sometimes there are clues about Biblical things in cultural trivia I suspect. Also, the Leviathan is portrayed as a large and prominent sea beast, and we are, at least for a moment in time, occupying a fairly prominent place among world nations.
On one hand, the Levites, from the ancient (1800's B.C.?) Israelite tribe of Levi, were honored later in Moses' time as the tribe that would most directly serve God in the Old Testament. Only they, the Levites, could be priests in Yahweh's holy temple in Jerusalem (there were violations/exceptions later made to this rule, but...) So, they were a particularly holy tribe of people, specially set apart for service to God! But also, as it turned out, they were the very tribe that most directly betrayed Jesus and caused Him to be crucified when He walked on Earth among us. Among all of the Israelite tribes they are the one that can most fairly be called 'betrayers of God's trust' in some senses, though their claim to fame was that God trusted them for the most holy of duties. In the United States our money actually has the words 'In God We Trust'. I like that! But can God really trust us...or have we gotten to a truly corrupted state of being as a nation? Will our having allowed the New World Order baddies to secretly occupy so many of our positions of prominence in our nation be enough to ruin us overall in the eyes of our Holy Father and of our King Jesus? Do we use whatever clout we have among the world nations to make the world a more Christian place? Do the roughly 70% of US citizens claiming to be Christians hold ourselves, our families and our government to Christian standards? We certainly must! We must try!
The United States may not be the Leviathan spoken of cryptically in scripture. But we possibly might be. It is yet another reason for our growingly Liberal, growingly "New World Order / One World Government", growingly Deep State, and increasingly Satanic nation to take stock of itself and chase out the evil from our character and our midst on both a personal level and a national level. Leviathan or not, we have more than just begun to stink of moral rot. Have we crossed the point of no return in the eyes of God? Are we, as a nation, willing to do that? Many of the people in the New World Order ranks have parents brothers and sisters who despise that organization. Why not call or reach out and have a very serious talk with family members or close friends who are ill-advisedly a part of that wicked movement embedded into our government and nation, and try to reel them back in to the light? We Americans need to give the New World Order the boot! We need to rid our shores of that group's influence. It holds no good what so ever for anyone that is a part of it. It is a sworn enemy of God and an active partisan cheerleader for Satan on Earth. It will cost so very many their souls.
Look Especially At This First Verse of Isaiah Chapter 27
Isaiah 27
27 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.
2 In that day—
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the Lord, watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it.
4 I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.
7 Has the Lord struck her
as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare[a] and exile you contend with her—
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[b] or incense altars
will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,
an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
there they lie down;
they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator shows them no favor.
12 In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
End Quote
America, the scriptures say that like all power structures in the world we, the United States, will be destroyed when Jesus comes back so that a more righteous and more just government can be formed under our Savior the Son of God.
"Then comes the end, when he {Jesus} delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power."1 Corinthians 15:24
End Quote
So scripture apparently tells us Christ will not rebuild His new kingdom as a hybrid of a faulty and somewhat evil older kingdom. He will destroy the old human made powers, sweep them away, and build anew but rightly, as the Son of God the Father has discernment, power, and authority to do. The Christians (the ones that Jesus identifies as actually being His own, anyway. Perhaps not everyone who proclaims themselves Christian) will I think be removed from the scene when the final phases of that destruction take place, though many believers (perhaps mostly believers that take faith during the Great Tribulation) will also lose their earthly lives when sticking with their faith.
But, until Jesus comes we must at least be doing our level best to be a just and righteous acting Christian nation among our valued brother nations here on this Earth, shouldn't we? Dare we do less? How could we justify wanting to do less. Adults can try to effect their sphere of influence in a way Jesus would approve. Parents can raise children who also do. And the leaders we elect should be the most Christian and rightful acting from among our choices. And we can reach out to help nations in need when troubles befall our neighbor nations. That is something that our sinful nation can aspire to always attempt as we struggle forward through the times, however much time is remaining. And we should pray to Jesus for strength and guidance as we wait for Him to come.