Angelic Conflict part 267: Master of the sea – Mar 4:39; Rom 8:22; Psa 74:10-15; Job 41: Isa 51:9-11; 27:1.Title: Angelic Conflict part 267: Master of the sea – Mar 4:39; Rom 8:22; Psa 74:10-15; Job 41: Isa 51:9-11; 27:1.
Christ displayed mastery over demons, physical illness, temptation, false doctrine, sin, evil, death, and nature.
Mar 4:39 And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
What we can say unequivocally is that Christ has power over the fallen groaning world.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
What is also significant about this passage is that the description of the Lord rebuking the wind (stated in all three synoptic gospels) and His commanding the waves to be quiet sounds remarkably like other exorcism narratives in the gospels. The word rebuke in both the old and new testaments is a term that denotes an authoritative exercise of God's power in subduing His enemies.
God created all things in nature as good in Gen 1 and then at the fall things went bad.
Animals have an aversion to man and can kill man. Man would have to till the ground by the sweet of his brow or it would only offer up thorns and thistles and some plants became poisonous. The earth produced quakes, storms, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc.
It is interesting to see in light of this that God often speaks of rebuking and restraining the sea.
Psa 104:6-7 Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; At the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away.
Job 38:10-11 And I placed boundaries on it [sea], And I set a bolt and doors, And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop'?
There is a sense of the sea, under its present curse, as a potential sinister force that would submerge the world if the Lord didn't restrain it.
There is a sense of the sea as some sinister force that, left to its own, would submerge the world and destroy God’s ordered creation.
What prevents this frightening possibility is the mastery of the Lord, who forces the sea into its proper place.
But sometimes it doesn't behave itself, as in the case with the Lord and His disciples on the sea. Yet the Lord has delivered us all from any disaster since even if it ended up in a believer's death, he would immediately find himself in heaven. Do you think any of them have ever wanted to come back? This is why the Lord asked the disciples why they were afraid while He slept. Are you afraid of physical death?
Every believer should be as David: Psa 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord Is the death of His godly ones.
Scripture introduces sea monsters as enemies of God and specifically Leviathan as a multi-headed dragon of the sea.
This is not a mythological figure or some kind of metaphor, but a real foe against God.
Psa 74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Thy name forever?
Psa 74:11Why dost Thou withdraw Thy hand, even Thy right hand? From within Thy bosom, destroy them!
Psa 74:12Yet God is my king from of old, Who works deeds of deliverance in the midst of the earth.
Psa 74:13Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength; Thou didst break the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
Psa 74:14Thou didst crush the heads of Leviathan; Thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
Psa 74:15Thou didst break open springs and torrents; Thou didst dry up ever-flowing streams.
This is not a mythological figure or some kind of metaphor, but a real foe against God.
It is clear that the psalmist knows that God is sovereign over such creatures of the sea, but none the less they war against Him and God battles them while delaying, in perfect timing, their ultimate defeat.
Job understood that the sea and the sea monster demanded a guard.
Job 7:11 "Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12"Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That Thou dost set a guard over me?
Job stated that God tramples down the waves.
Job 9:8 Who alone stretches out the heavens, And tramples down the waves of the sea;
Hab 3:15 Thou didst tread on the sea with Thy horses, On the surge of many waters.
The same imagery is used by Isaiah in telling of the release of the exodus and their crossing the Red Sea.
Isa 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not Thou who cut Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, Who pierced the dragon?
Isa 51:10Was it not Thou who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway For the redeemed to cross over?
Isa 51:11So the ransomed of the Lord will return, And come with joyful shouting to Zion; And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
These passages show that the prophets, song writers, Job, etc. knew the cosmos to be besieged at a structural level with the forces of evil that God Himself does battle.
Evil is not a minor anomalous occurrence on the otherwise pristine stage of the world. This warfare is being played out in the life of God's children as they confront their enemies, who are God's enemies.
He allows them to war against us while giving us sheep, conquering, surpassing power.
The cosmic warfare is not a thing of the past, nor is it a way that occurs in the heavenlies only, nor is it a war that God chose to fight alone.
God chose not to fight alone; rather He gave His children the power, the opportunity, and the privilege to do battle under His banner, under His colors.
The thrust of this last group of passages is to proclaim that this war is a present struggle, it occurs in human history, and it very much involves the human race, especially those who know God.
All who name the name of the Lord are called to identify and resist, in the power of God, the structural forces of evil that work to thwart God's plan for the earth in general and humanity in particular.
We do not seek to eradicate sin and evil, but to overcome it with God's good, which is God's plan and power. We do not fight in our own power, but we conquer through Him who keeps on pouring His power into us.
Of great interest is the sea monster or sea creature Leviathan. He is spoken of in great detail by God in Job 41.
Job in his complaining had discredited God thus making himself equal with God. God confronted Job's contentions.
Job 40:6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm, and said,
Job 40:7 "Now gird up your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you instruct Me.
Job 40:8 "Will you really annul My judgment? Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Job 40:9 "Or do you have an arm like God, And can you thunder with a voice like His?
If Leviathan is a metaphor or an unreal mythological creature then God wouldn't boast of His power of him, for His boasting would be empty.
Leviathan has characteristics that are satan-esc and so we can conclude that he is a monster of darkness that only God can control.
The multi-headed dragon is a depiction of the fallen angel satan in the book of Revelation. The fierceness and great physical power are also characteristics of satan. But this creature is of the sea and is real, and not metaphor or imagery and is not an angel. Therefore, this monster is being used by God as an illustration of the power and danger of the KOD and their government, systems, and schemes, over which only God has power. To fight Leviathan on our own would be a grave mistake. This is real and not mythology and from it should flow a caution, alertness, and reverent fear of God. We can become casualties of war and ensue great pain.
The application to us is that we cannot ever think that we can control the forces of evil and darkness around us. We cannot domesticate the forces of opposition that inflict our lives. Only God can and at times He does not. Therefore, we can say with confidence that such-and-such wouldn't have happened if God had not allowed it. He is not the author of sin or evil, nor is His hand in it, but He has allowed it and therefore He has given you the solution which has more power than the problem, and that should comfort you.
No believer, nor the Church can control the forces of evil and darkness that surround them. God can but doesn't always. He faithfully gives surpassing power to overcome it.
Leviathan is a real creature of darkness that God is using to illustrate His own power over the entire organization of the kingdom of the earth and of darkness and it is a direct refutation that a believer, even the best believer, or even a group of the best believers cannot clean up the world or dismantle the systems of darkness or eradicate evil even in his own life, but when tapping into the power of God he has the surpassing power to overcome it.
Job 41:1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?
No one is mighty enough even to wake him up when he is sleeping, let alone to catch, control, or domesticate him.
Job 41:2 "Can you put a rope in his nose? Or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Job 41:3 "Will he make many supplications to you? Or will he speak to you soft words?
Job 41:4 "Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him for a servant forever?
Job 41:5 "Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your maidens?
Job 41:6 "Will the traders bargain over him? Will they divide him among the merchants?
Job 41:7 "Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?
Job 41:8 "Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle; you will not do it again!
Job 41:9 "Behold, your expectation is false; Will you be laid low even at the sight of him?
Job 41:10 "No one [no man or group] is so fierce that he dares to arouse him; Who then is he that can stand before Me?
Job 41:11 "Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.
God doesn't need us, not even our best, but we need His highest and best every day in order to gain life and avoid collapse.
Job 41:12 "I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Or his mighty strength, or his orderly frame.
Mankind has no power over him. Only God does.
Job 41:13 "Who can strip off his outer armor? Who can come within his double mail?
Job 41:14 "Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth there is terror.
Job 41:15 "His strong scales are his pride, Shut up as with a tight seal.
Job 41:16 "One is so near to another, That no air can come between them.
Job 41:17 "They are joined one to another; They clasp each other and cannot be separated.
He is organized, strong, and without even the slightest crack that anyone can penetrate and so he does not fear man at all.
He can destroy by force.
Job 41:18 "His sneezes flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
Job 41:19 "Out of his mouth go burning torches; Sparks of fire leap forth.
Job 41: 20 "Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
Job 41:21 "His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes forth from his mouth.
Job 41:22 "In his neck lodges strength, And dismay leaps before him.
Job 41:23 "The folds of his flesh are joined together, Firm on him and immovable.
Job 41:24 "His heart is as hard as a stone; Even as hard as a lower millstone.
The very sight of him causes panic. Those who are in the boat with God should not fear him or anything else.
Job 41:25 "When he raises himself up, the mighty fear; Because of the crashing they are bewildered.
This cosmic beast mocks human weapons.
Job 41:26 "The sword that reaches him cannot avail; Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
Job 41:27 "He regards iron as straw, Bronze as rotten wood.
Job 41:28 "The arrow cannot make him flee; Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.
Job 41:29 "Clubs are regarded as stubble; He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.
Job 41:30 "His underparts are like sharp potsherds; He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.
He has tremendous power in the physical world.
Job 41:31 "He makes the depths boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
Job 41:32 "Behind him he makes a wake to shine; One would think the deep to be gray-haired.
He does not fear anything on the earth nor the greatest men nor the greatest armies of mankind.
Job 41:33 "Nothing on earth is like him, One made without fear.
Job 41:34 "He looks on everything that is high; He is king over all the sons of pride."
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