In the 2014 Dreamworks’ animated film How to Train Your Dragon 2, a nerdy character classified an extremely large dragon lurking in the water as a “level 5 leviathan.” (1)
<<SPOILER ALERT: This “level 5 Leviathan” killed the dad of the main character, Hiccup.>>
Just as the leviathan in How to Train Your Dragon 2 severed Hiccup from sharing his life with his dad, there is a creature called “leviathan” who works to sever us from intimacy with our heavenly Father (God).
The word “leviathan” appears five times in the Old Testament and is used to describe a dragon-like creature who inhabits the waters. (2) God devotes an entire chapter of the Bible (Job 41) to describe how this creature operates.
In the book of Job, a righteous and godly man suffers extreme trauma and loss instigated by Satan. The devil kills his children, steals all his assets, and later makes Job sick with a disease understood to be elephantiasis (according to the Hebrew-Chaldee lexicon’s description of the word “boil.”) After Job and his friends engage in theological debate and discussion about what Job is going through, God Himself encounters Job.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (see James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34). In God’s fatherly rebuke to Job, as He corrects and trains Job in righteousness through His instruction, His final words to Job are that Leviathan “looks on everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.” (see Job 41:34 NASB1995).
When God concludes His fatherly correction to Job with revelation-knowledge about Leviathan, Job repents–or changes the way he thinks–and his situation finally turns around when he humbles himself in Job 42.
Self-pity is a form of pride. (3) Self-pity is narcissistic (self-centered), for it says, “Look at me! Look at all that I’m going though. Look how much I’ve suffered! Look at all my sacrifice and all the hardship, sickness, injustice, calamity, and trouble I’m going through in spite of my impeccable track record!”
Because Job manifested a rejection and self-pity mindset that was rooted and grounded in pride, God had to address Job’s wrong mindset in order for Job to enter into God’s best intentions for him. Then Job could be rooted and grounded in the good news of God’s love and just character, and Job could grow up to greater maturity in God.
Job didn’t trust God after bad things happened to him, so Job had to be convinced that God was not arbitrary and unjust in what He sovereignly allowed or permitted Satan to do to him. A man reaps what he sows, and God cannot be mocked (see Galatians 6:7).
The “little sins” of pride and fear lurking within Job’s heart were exposed after Job lost everything. But righteous Job finally humbled himself and found God to be his source of joy once more at the end of the book.
Self-pity does not say, “Look at the cross of Jesus Christ! Look at all that Jesus went through and suffered on my behalf! Look what the Lord has done! I will rejoice and be glad today! Nothing I’ve gone through can compare with what Jesus went through for me because He loved me and gave Himself for me. Therefore I choose to rejoice in the Lord always and in all circumstances.” See 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
Job and his three friends never talked about the good news of the coming Messiah unless briefly in a passing reference. Their debates were filled with human wisdom, speculation, strife, and condemnation, which resulted in more feelings of rejection and depression (see Job 30:29; 32:1-3). They did not joyfully and compassionately demonstrate and declare the power and wisdom of God (which was later revealed more fully through the good news of Jesus).
According to John Piper in his book Future Grace, “Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride.” (4)
Throughout Job’s discourse with his friends, Job wallowed in self-pity in light of all the trauma, pain, and calamity he was going through. In His fatherly correction, God is telling Job that Job’s mindset of self-pity was not from God, for self-pity has nothing to do with God’s character qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, true long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, humility, meekness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23).
Rather, arrogant pride, self-righteousness, and self-pity is not of God, but of the domain of darkness. Self-pity and pride are of Leviathan, a principality (or high and lofty personality’s mindset) from Satan’s kingdom, not from the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (see Romans 14:17). One who wallows in self-pity has no joy nor the peace that passes understanding (see Philippians 4:4-8). When one has a self-pity complex or mindset, then the enemy (Satan or Leviathan) has stolen their joy.
Joy and depression are opposites; for that reason, God offers the garment of praise in exchange for the spirit of heaviness. The spirit of heaviness (depression) must be removed and replaced with joy and praise (see Isaiah 61:1-3).
Peace and self-pity are also contradictory. One cannot be in perfect peace with His mind fixed on God when self-pity has one’s gaze transfixed on the traumatic experiences or losses of one’s past. See Isaiah 26:3; 1 Peter 1:13; Colossians 3:1-2.
Pride (Leviathan) was blocking Job’s healing. Pride stole Job’s joy and peace by filling him with shame (see Proverbs 11:2). Job’s heart was broken in response to all his traumatic experiences, and therefore his immune system became compromised as his bone marrow dried up (see Proverbs 17:22; 15:13, 30; 18:14). (4)
However, when Job humbled himself in Job 42 and repented, then God gave Him his glorious grace. Job’s broken heart was binded up and healed, and God’s joy functioned as “good medicine” to his immune system.
When Job knew the truth, the truth made him free. See John 8:31-32. When Job broke agreement with pride by retracting his accusation against God that God did care for him and acted unjustly towards him, Job’s heart could finally be filled with love, joy, and peace once more. Job came out of the pit of depression when God’s innocence–not Job’s own innocence–was vindicated.
When Job repented of his self-righteous attitude of self-pity (Leviathan’s rejection mindset), Job was filled with joy. His broken spirit was replaced with a cheerful heart. His cheerful heart worked like a good medicine which restored his immune system and killed the viruses causing his elephantiasis (see Job 33, 42). When Job’s soul came out of its prison or pit, Job could prosper and be in health once more (see Psalm 142:7; Isaiah 61:1-3; 3 John 2).
For more information on this subject, read this blogpost: “Grace Kills Pride.”
For more information on starting a relationship with God, see this post: “Crushing Pride.”
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646971/
- See five verses with the word “leviathan” (NKJV) here:
- I enjoyed reading this article on better identifying and overcoming self-pity: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/woe-is-me.
- Verses accessed by searching the word “spirit” in the book of Proverbs (NASB1995) here:
- https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1384046-both-are-manifestations-of-pride-boasting-is-the-response-of#:~:text=Self%2Dpity%20is%20the%20voice,it%20appears%20to%20be%20needy.
