The 4 leviathans

The word "leviathan" is used in Scripture to describe a large aquatic animal. Some (including myself) believe that this animal is the now-extinct dinosaur. The Hebrew word for "leviathan" is livyathan, which is derived from the word lavah meaning "to join" or "to borrow, to lend"; the name "Levi" is also derived from lavah. The word livyathan appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Old Testament (Job 3:8, Job 41:1, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26, and Isaiah 27:1). Here is one of those appearances:

"¹Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? ²Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? ³Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? ⁴Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? ⁵Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? ⁶Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? ⁷Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? ⁸Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. ⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? ¹⁰None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?" (Job 41:1-10)

Notice that leviathan is described as a large and fierce creature with tough skin. According to Amos 2:9, "tallness" and "strength" are associated with the Amorite spirit, meaning that leviathan can be taken to represent earthly kingdoms that are ruled by the Amorite spirit of pride and self-exaltation.

Since sister Cindy saw 4 leviathan faces, it must mean that there are 4 types of Amorite spirits. As we asked the Lord what these 4 types could be, 4 kings of Israel came to our hearts:

1. King Saul

   In 1 Samuel chapter 14, Saul was fighting the Philistines, and he imposed the following restriction on the Israelites who were with him:

    

   "²⁴And the men of Israel were distressed that day: for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. ²⁵And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground. ²⁶And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath." (1 Samuel 14:24-26)

    

   Notice that Saul placed the army on a forced fast. They found a wooded area overflowing with honey, but they dared not enjoy the honey because of the oath that Saul had forced them to take. The spiritual invalidity of this forced fast is certified by the verses that follow:

    

   "²⁷But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. ²⁸Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. ²⁹Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. ³⁰How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?" (1 Samuel 14:27-30)

    

   A few verses earlier, in that same chapter, Jonathan and his armor bearer had acted by faith and killed 20 Philistines on their own, while the rest of the army stayed back, cringing in fear of the Philistines as they remained under the leadership of Saul. After Jonathan and his armor bearer killed the 20 Philistines, the entire host of them went into disarray, and God shook the Earth, causing the Philistines to flee in fear (1 Samuel 14:6-15). When Saul learned that Jonathan had tasted the honey on the ground, he tried to kill him, but the people convinced him to spare Jonathan, arguing that he had given Israel a great victory that day (1 Samuel 14:43-45).

    

   As we have said before, "honey" in Scripture is usually associated with "wisdom to judge". By denying the Israelites the opportunity to taste the honey, Saul was spiritually denying them the right to make judgments on their own. He bound the Israelites to his own misguided judgment, and he forbade them the right to question that misguided judgment in the wisdom of God.

    

   As we have seen before, Jebusites are quick to punish anyone who dares to make independent judgments and question the authorities' decrees. Jebusites are "threshers" who stomp any believer who dares to think that he or she has any spiritual authority from God. Jebusites turn believers into spiritual cripples. When Saul learned that Jonathan had tasted the honey, his immediate reaction was to kill him. He was more interested in the people not eating anything than in God's people having victory over the Philistines. Therefore, it can be safely said that king Saul was a Jebusite. He was an Amorite king who enforced his own decrees with Jebusite ruthlessness.

    

2. King Ahab

   As we have seen before, 2 Chronicles chapter 18 reveals that king Ahab was under a strong influence of Hittite spirits of deceit. Where "Ahabs" rule, people become focused on spiritual manifestations of power without a focus on truth and judgments. This results in deceitful power that leads people into lives of Hittite emptiness and purposelessness. Those who allow such power to deceive them end up surrendering their prophetic calling without them even knowing it. Such power leads to spiritual suicide.

    

   As we have said before, when a foundation of righteousness is laid, an atmosphere of extraordinary power is enabled. This extraordinary power is impossible in an atmosphere dominated by Hittite power.

    

3. King Jeroboam II

   This king's rule is briefly described in the following passage:

    

   "²³In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. ²⁴And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. ²⁵He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher. ²⁶For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. ²⁷And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. ²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ²⁹And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead." (2 Kings 14:23-29)

   
   Notice that this king was a very wicked man who "made Israel to sin" (v24). Even so, God used him to conquer a large chunk of territory from the southern kingdom of Judah that had belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel before. According to verse 26, this king acted as a "liberator" for the people of Israel. All of this shows that Jeroboam II had the calling of an evangelist, since evangelists are called to be spiritual conquerors who liberate multitudes from the clutches of Amorite kings. Unfortunately, Jeroboam II also used his evangelistic gift to persuade the Israelites to sin against God (v24).

    

   In conclusion, we can say that this king represents an Amorite spirit with a strong "expansive" and "conquering" tendency.

    

4. King Manasseh

   Manasseh's reign is described in the following passage:

    

   "¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: ²But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. ³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. ⁴Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. ⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. ⁶And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger." (2 Chronicles 33:1-6)

    

   This is why the Lord said the following against Manasseh:

    

   "¹¹Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: ¹²Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. ¹³And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. ¹⁴And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; ¹⁵Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day." (2 Kings 21:11-15)

   [Notice how the Lord compares Manasseh to the Amorites that had gone before him in verse 11]

    

   From the two passages quoted above, we can see that Manasseh wanted to adapt Judah to the pagan rituals of the surrounding nations, which shows that Manasseh had strong tendencies of "Canaanite unity". Manasseh abhorred the monotheistic faith of the Jews because it made them "too different" from the rest of the nations, so he did all he could to make the Jewish people blend in better with the surrounding pagans.

    

   Manasseh also restored traditions that his father Hezekiah had abolished (2 Chronicles 33:3), and he did his best to follow the traditions of the nations that the Lord had "cast out before the children of Israel" (2 Chronicles 33:2). This regression towards ancient traditions reveals that Manasseh also had a strong influence of the backward-looking Girgashite spirit of religious traditions.

As we have seen before, the Lord declares that there are 4 types of spiritual faces which we all must develop: the lion face, the eagle face, the ox face, and the man face. Each of the 4 Amorite spirits mentioned above is a distortion of each of these 4 faces:

1. The Saul spirit is a distortion of the lion face because that is the "apostolic" face of judgments, and the Saul spirit enforces legalistic, human judgments.

    

2. The Ahab spirit is a distortion of the eagle face because that is the "prophetic" face, and the Ahab spirit promotes a spirit of false, Hittite prophecy.

    

3. The Jeroboam-II spirit is a distortion of the ox face because that is the "evangelistic" face, and the Jeroboam-II spirit is an Amorite spirit with "expansion" capabilities.

    

4. The Manasseh spirit is a distortion of the man face because that is the "pastoral-evangelistic" face, and the Manasseh spirit operates under the influence of Canaanite and Girgashite spirits, which are the spirits manifested in distorted pastors and teachers.

In summary, these are the 4 Amorite spirits represented by the 4 leviathan faces in the dream: