Today’s reading: Ezekiel 29; Ephesians 5
Pharaoh being described in Leviathan imagery is really fascinating as the torch of being the primary agent of chaos passes from Egypt to Babylon.
In Old Testament writings, as well as in other contemporary cultures’ stories, there is well known imagery of the Leviathan, the great sea dragon that opposes creation and order. To the ancient mind, the sea was untamable, dangerous, and risky; it was the disorder that juxtaposes the order of life on land. This is why so many ancient accounts of creation start with a world that is all seas before land is brought up from within the sea to make a home suitable for humanity. Consequently, this is also why Revelation, in describing the new earth in the last days, says that there is no sea in it; it is not saying that there will be no large body of water, or even necessarily no ocean, but that there will be no more chaos, as everything will be the created order God intended, suitable for humanity to thrive.
Just as the Leviathan is the agent of chaos opposing the order God is creating in bringing forth land for His people in the beginning (Job describes God taming Leviathan as part of the creation story, pushing back chaos to make an ordered, inhabitable space), so too is Egypt the agent of chaos opposing the order God is creating in bringing forth a nation for Himself from Abraham. In the Exodus story, as God was protecting His fledgling people by bringing them to Egypt during the famine, the Egyptians enslaved and oppressed them. Then, as God was seeking to bring them out to give them the land He had promised to Abraham, Pharaoh again tried to stand in the way. It's a great irony then, as the Israelites flee from Pharaoh's army, that the army is swallowed up by the sea, the very image of chaos that they were representing in trying to oppose the work and plans of God.
Over time though, the torch passed from Egypt to Assyria and then Babylon as the primary forces seeking to oppose the work of God by opposing His people. So we get this imagery in Ezekiel 29 of Pharaoh as Leviathan, the agent of chaos, being pulled up out of the waters by hooks in his jaws, and then thrown into the wilderness. On the one hand, this directly parallels Psalm 74 where God is said to have crushed the heads of Leviathan and given him as food to the creatures of the wilderness. However, this is also not the full end of chaos and opposition to God's plan, just the end of Egypt being the primary agent of that opposition.
I do love the picture of God's great mercy we see in this chapter though. Egypt has defied Him, actively seeking to thwart His purposes, and they will pay for it, being scattered, just like Israel. But, once God has drawn out the rebellion, casting Leviathan into the wilderness, He will bring the remnant of Egypt back, returning them to their land. There is no reason He is required to do this, and He would be perfectly justified in wiping Egypt out entirely, but He instead chooses to show them mercy, bringing them back together and giving them back their nation.
God is a God of justice, but He is also a God of astounding, undeserved mercy.
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