Job 41:7

Leviathan was a water creature. He appears to be the crocodile, the most fearsome of all water animals, unless he was another animal like it that is now extinct... Harpoons were useless against him, because they could not get through his outer covering (v.7). If anyone was bold enough to lay a hand on him, let him remember the fight that came of any such attempt, and never do it again! (v.8).

Irons shaped like a harpoon, which go into the flesh easily but cannot be pulled out again. God, to show His wisdom and power to Job, speaks of the leviathan, or crocodile, which barbed irons cannot enter. Job 41:7.

"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?" You who can do such wonders; you can talk about God; and you can judge for God, and you can find fault with God! Well, can you catch leviathan with a hook?... Do not fight him. "Behold, the hope of him is in vain." Spears or arrows are nothing to him. Even a musket ball cannot pierce the skin of a crocodile. "His scales are his pride." It is not only that he has enormous strength, and that no ordinary weapon can wound him; he is also so confident in it himself.

People talk as if God's only purpose was to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that did the work? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God?... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.

In all this first part of the description, we see the fierce, unapproachable, untameable character of this creature. The clear conclusion is the one already pointed out: if the creature is so mighty, what must the Creator be? But, as I have said, we should expect something more here than a declaration of God's greatness and power. This is not only a mighty power; it is a power for evil. So Satan is spoken of as the dragon (Revelation 20:2)... "In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1).

Leviathan is a water creature. He plainly pictures the non-Jewish power that will rise during the Tribulation, a revival of the Roman Empire... Of him people will say, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Revelation 13:4)... While no man can stand before them, however, the Lord will bring them down to a defeat of abject humiliation.

Now what a relief this is. The believer looked at in himself has no power to overcome Satan. Man failed before him while he was still innocent. How much less can he stand now that he has fallen. It was independence of God that opened the door for Satan at first; and it is simple dependence on God alone that can shut it... It is very gracious of God to tell us how great the power of the enemy is. He does it so we may know that our only resource is a firm trust in Himself.