Before Godzilla, There Was Leviathan: Why The Bible's Sea Monster Still Matters

In this Solo Scripture Samurai Arc sermon, I reflect on my journey to Awaji Island, Japan, where I experienced the Godzilla Interception Operation during a typhoon. Standing beneath the towering figure of Shin Godzilla made me think about humanity’s fascination with kaiju, sea monsters, and seemingly unstoppable forces—and ultimately led me back to the biblical account of Leviathan. 

I explore what Scripture says about Leviathan through Genesis, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Rather than claiming that Godzilla is Leviathan or settling every debate about whether Leviathan was literal, symbolic, or something else, I focus on the central message of these passages: a creature no human being could hope to control still belongs completely to God. The One who formed the seas, established their boundaries, and created Leviathan, which possesses power beyond anything humanity can manufacture or imagine. 

Leviathan also gives us a powerful way to understand the overwhelming problems we face. Financial hardship, damaged relationships, mental-health struggles, uncertain opportunities, and other crises can tower over us like kaiju. Some battles are beyond our ability to conquer alone—but they are never beyond God’s authority. 

This sermon is an invitation to stop measuring your problems against your own strength and start measuring them against the power of Yahweh. When the Leviathan in your life appears unbeatable, remember that God has already demonstrated His authority over every force beneath heaven. Your monster may be greater than you, but it is not greater than your Creator. 

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Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and this episode in particular is part of the Solo Scripture Samurai Arc, a sub-series of the Radiating Faith Ministry run on this podcast and by Kupo Nukes LLC, where I am making sermons and preaching based off of the Christian history here in Japan, or just sermons inspired by Japan and some of the culture I'm experiencing while here. Today's episode in particular was inspired by my time at Awaji Island. So it is an island in the southwest part of Japan. I went there during a, actually during a typhoon, to partake in the Godzilla interception operation before they were shutting it down on June 29th. So this sermon is a little bit delayed. I wanted to do it, uh, quite a while ago, but it's been a busy trip, and it was because, you know, during that time I got to zip line into a... I wouldn't call it life-size, but, you know, a pretty life-size, like, Godzilla that they built, uh, specifically Godzilla, the Shin Godzilla version. And it was a great time. They made a m- little miniature movie that you got to watch to get ready for, quote, "your mission," because it's supposed to be, like, a simulated experience where, you know, you are going into Godzilla for observation and sample collection and sample elimination. And it was a great time. It was a cool experience. They had the Godzilla art museum with the Mothra exhibit going on, so an amazing time where I got to take in the artwork, the different cultures around it, and, you know, it's, it's pretty cool. And in fact, Godzilla has kind of a dual culture here, where some people have addressed him as evil, as the embodiment of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and other people have said that Godzilla is a, you know, interesting kaiju, and they love it. There's a lot of stores and franchises and events here based on Godzilla. So it is a split crowd for sure. Very interesting concept, to be honest One thing I wanna mention is that I've seen people try to do videos about is Godzilla the Leviathan from the Bible? Is Godzilla inspired by Leviathan in the Bible? Now, this video is not one of those. You know, I'm not making such a claim, nor am I going to argue or debate such claims. You know, in fact, the Leviathan itself is a widely debated creature. Some scholars and people suggest that it's just an alligator. Other people suggest and theorize that it was a dragon, and others more that it was just a mixture between dragon and sea monster. Some people believe it didn't exist at all. So we're not here to debate that. We're here just to look at the biblical facts from the historical account of the Bible that we have available to us to look at it. Essentially, this sermon was inspired by seeing the almost life-sized Godzilla, looking up at it, and it was during a typhoon, right, that was coming to hit the island in Japan. Actually, two typhoons and an earthquake the day I left Awaji Island. So standing there soaking wet in the rain, one of the only people on the island, of course Looking at this monstrous being, uh, 'cause as you- there's a part of it where as you're turning the corner around this hill, you just see his back. You know, the dorsal plates, the muscularness of it, and it is just, it is towering over you. And mind you, this is not a life-sized Godzilla. I, I mean, it's probably 50 feet or more tall. I mean, it's ... And it's lying down. However, seeing it, the concept of it, I, I w- I started thinking about the Leviathan from the Bible and our fascination throughout religious lores of all kinds, including false religions, and just in fictional mediums, you know, we always have a fascination with the idea of kaiju, with monsters, that, you know, this creature, Godzilla, represents something catastrophic that can't be stopped by anyone. You know, and humanity has always tried to kill Godzilla. Sometimes they succeed, but he comes back. Sometimes, you know, they don't succeed at all, and they just completely fail. Sometimes, you know, Godzilla is a protective force, sometimes a destructive force, but always beyond humanity's grasp to understand and to control. And it made me think about the Bible, specifically the Leviathan, because essentially God speaks to Job about the Leviathan, and there are other parts of scripture that I researched about this. And essentially to give you a brief outline o- of what we'll be talking about today, you know, now that I've introduced Leviathan and Godzilla, again, not saying that the two are synonymous, but similar concepts into some degrees. We're gonna start with God creating the ocean, and then into the ocean he places the Leviathan. And then from there, the Bible describes Leviathan, and then there's God versus the Leviathan in a couple parts, and then I'll get into the conclusion of what this means for us today. Why are we still fascinated with these ideas? What does it mean? You know, and, and, and that was in the title itself. What does this deep sea creature that is in the Bible, whether symbolic or literal, whether a description for something that is maybe not as dramatic or maybe something that is, why does it matter? And that's what the real point of the sermon is. Not to glorify or worship Godzilla or the Leviathan, nor to go into this deep dive of what is the Leviathan, where is the Leviathan, and all that. So I wanna get into the whole point, to give you upfront summaries- There is only one thing more powerful than the Leviathan according to scripture, and that's God himself. What this sermon is is about scaling, and it's about showing how powerful God is. This creature that humanity could never hope to fight is swiftly and easily defeated by its creator, Yahweh. And so I think this sermon is, is pretty cool. You know, not to sound very biased, but it is something to reflect upon, right? Whether Leviathan and Behemoth are real or not, they stand in the Bible as emphasis, as showing a scaling view. And sometimes it takes that large picture view of zooming out and seeing our place, the place of these creatures, and the place of God to really understand and accept humility, grace, favor, and to understand all these other messages of the Bible. It's a refresher. It's a perspective. And so we're gonna get into that, and I'll be sharing, uh, some of this in Japanese as well just because of the sake of the Solo Scripture Samurai arc. I think it's cool to be here. I have been going to some bilingual churches when I can to check out, and just again, I've had some sermons already on this podcast about the global evangelization and intercultural exchange, and very grateful to God for this opportunity. So without further ado, let's get into it. And we're gonna start with what the Leviathan is. In Japanese, you know, Rebiyatan, Rebiyatan, right? And so here we have the Leviathan is a sea kaiju-like being that appears in the Bible, and I'll say that now in Japanese for everyone. Now, w- that's the introduction to Leviathan. But before we get into how the Bible introduces the creature, let's get into where it lives. And we see that in Genesis 1:9-10, I'll read it here directly. "And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good." Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna unpack right there. I know we haven't made it too far. That's the beauty of scripture, right? We're gonna stop right here to do some Hebrew analysis. We're gonna shift from English to Hebrew from Japanese, right? This particular word translated here as good, I have actually done some educational content before on this. And so as soon as I read it, I said, "Ah, I remember that word tov." And tov is meaning more than just good. Good is the English translation, but if you look at the Hebrew, it's a fuller meaning. Good, pleasing, beautiful, beneficial, fitting, ordered, functioning as intended. And so this is what is described of the ocean and of the dry ground, basically of the planet that God formed that we live on. And if you are an atheist, I highly encourage you to study the mathematical science of anything being just .0001% off and how all life would be wiped out. There is so much about just the formation of dry ground and seas that help support the existence of God. If you're struggling to believe, of course scientific evidence shouldn't be why you believe, but if that's a stepping stone for you, I highly encourage you to check that out. There's a couple great sermons out there about, uh, you know, creation and existence and all that, especially if you're looking at mathematics. Now fast-forwarding, we look at God didn't just make the ocean, He controls it. He commands it where to stop. If we look at Jeremiah 5:22, " 'Should you not fear me?' declares the Lord. 'Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail. They may roar, but they cannot cross it.' " So we're gonna get into God versus the Leviathan, but right here we're seeing even just His power alone in setting boundaries in the ocean And so I think this is, this is just very powerful. I, I go to the beach a lot. I was raised on the beach, and I never really, you know, thought about it much in terms of creation other than, like, look at this beautiful environment that God made for us. I was really shocked because I read that quote. A boundary. God set a firm boundary, and creation obeys it, and it just really blew my mind. And that's the home of the Leviathan, which we'll get into. We know that God created Leviathan. In fact, it says so in Psalm 104:26, "There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed, to frolic there." And now I'll share that in Japanese as well, Psalm 104:26. Now we're gonna get into some more about the Leviathan, specifically from Job 3:8, "May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan." And so Job is talking about those with who can curse, right? And who would rouse Leviathan, right? So he's saying, "If you're gonna curse the day, send the Leviathan against it," right? Rouse the Leviathan because what could be more calamitous than the Leviathan spawning on the day of your birth? 'Cause this is when Job is in despair, weeping. He's despising his birth. He says, "May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan." And again, right here we're seeing an emphasis on how powerful and calamitous Leviathan is, right? I mean, relating back to Godzilla, think about any time he's shown up in a city and everything is destroyed, right? And we know from the description of Leviathan that he had such supernatural strength and power, and we'll get into that later on. But first I wanna share Job 3:8 in Japanese as well. And so to that point of the destructive force of the Leviathan, I wanna get into the description and the part about Leviathan in Job that I will not be sharing in Japanese 'cause it's a pretty long section we're gonna read here. Not too long. Don't go anywhere, right? It's verses one through 34 from the 41st chapter of Job, and I wanna read that verbatim here for y'all. "Can you pull in Leviathan with a fish hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women of your house? Will traders barter for it, or will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again. Any hope of subduing it is false. The mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. I will not fail to speak of Leviathan's limbs, its strength and graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together. Each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another. They cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light. Its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth. Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze and flames dart from its mouth." "Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable, its chest as hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee, sling stones are like chaff to it. A club seems to be but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. It makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stri- stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on Earth is its equal, a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are hardy; it is the king over all that are proud." Now, what's interesting is you, you see here nothing on Earth is its equal, but if you go back earlier, which we will do, God says, "Everything under heaven belongs to me." Mind you, this is God speaking. And so as you can read from that, there's a lot reminiscent in Godzilla and other kaiju and other cr- fictional creatures and, and creatures from false religion that definitely sound like this. And so I think it's really important to know the fascination and the power of these creatures that we create and that the Bible, that God actually created, and that we have mimicked in our mediums, you know, why we do so. I mean, it's overpowering, as it says right here. "The mere sight of it is overpowering; no one is fierce enough to rouse it." And God specifically says, "Who then is able to stand against me? If the Leviathan cannot be defeated by any human, and a Leviathan is under heaven belonging to me under my control, how much more powerful am I that you could c- hold me accountable or charge me to pay," right? So it's a power scaling system we're seeing here. And I also don't think it's an alligator, just to throw my personal opinion in there. Based off of this desc- description, I think it has to be something much more powerful and dramatic. Dramatic in a sense that, you know, you think about things that God has made, and it doesn't seem so fictional. People say, "Oh, a, a dragon sounds so unrealistic." But if you have witnessed a volcano or studied the creatures of the deep, there are some things that are absolutely remarkable. And, you know, one thing that I, I studied once in a, in a sermon I was watching, they said, "Well, we've never found a creature with the bone structure to generate fire." And the guy arguing goes, "Well, there's not bone structures for some of the creatures that generate electricity, but they can still do it." Because not everything is within the bone structure. Some things are organs that aren't fossilized. Some things have yet to be discovered even, especially in the deep. And so I think it's really fascinating stuff. You know, the parts of the Bible that are yet to be fulfilled, because the Bible has fulfilled so much of prophecy already, I think they're gonna blow our mind. Especial- especially when we find out that some of the things we th- thought were symbolic are literal. Because the Bible does tell us oftentimes when something is symbolic and when it is not, and I think some people have misinterpreted scripture. But again, that's a whole different episode on its own. So we see the power here, right? In fact, we see this reaffirmment of God's power when you look at Psalm 74:14. "It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert." And actually, I wanna share it real quick in Japanese. You look at this, and one, it makes me wonder if people say, "Where is Leviathan?" Well, it very well may be dead. You know, scripture doesn't really tell us, tell us if it's alive or not. It always refers to it as a singular, and according to this, it had multiple heads, and also God crushed it and fed it to creatures in the desert. So who knows? But what we do know for a fact is that this is showing God's power, that this big calamitous being that no human could hope to fight, that our, our weapons that we have made are like pieces of straw to this creature, God crushed the heads of it and then distributed it as food. That's more than conquering. That is total conquering. And then again, we have, "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great, and powerful sword, Leviathan, the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the coiling serpent. He will slay the monster of the sea." And that comes to us from Isaiah 27:1, and I wanna share it here in Japanese as well. Sono hi, shu wa kibishiku, ookiku, tsuyoi tsurugi de nigaru hebi Reviatan, magari ku ni iru hebi Reviatan o bashi, umi ni iru ryuo o korosa re masu. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what's the point of this? As I mentioned, again, it's about perspective. It's about scale. Sometimes when we look at creation, we forget that there was the Creator. And I try not to take anything for granted. I try to take every sunset as a painting by God and every day as a blessing. But when I turned the hill and I saw the monstrous figure of Godzilla, I did think to myself, you know, about how, how big and monstrous it seems, and how big and towering a lot of our issues in life can seem like. But then imagine seeing God standing way above that with a giant sword. You would think, well, Godzilla's just a plaything, or Leviathan, or, you know, whatever this issue in your life might be that seems Kaiju-like. And then you think about how small you are, and it can feel maybe, for lack of better words, humiliating. Like I'm so weak or I'm so overwhelmed. But knowing that God is on your side and seeing His tall, powerful figure from heaven, no- doesn't that make your problems look so small in comparison? It's not about how small we are or how weak we are in comparison to the Kaiju issues in our life. It's about how much bigger is God than those Kaiju. And that might be a, a financial issue, it might be a relationship, it might be a job opportunity. It could be a number of things that is this monstrous, calamitous force that no human seems to be able to help. And that's important because sometimes people can't help us with our issues. Sometimes only God can crush the head of that Leviathan in our lives. And so I think that's really important to reflect on that. And so I hope the next time you feel like you're facing a Kaiju, you remember this giant heavenly sword and God up in heaven because He said everything under heaven is His, and He has crushed the head of the Leviathan before. And whatever Leviathan is in your life, He'll do it again easily But we need to stop facing the Kaiju problems on our own, and we need to accept our weakness and our scaling, and we need to seek the help of God who is so much larger and more powerful. So ladies and gentlemen, God bless you. I hope that this has helped just refresh your perspective. Please share it with someone who you think is facing a Kaiju in their life right now, and they need to remember that God is larger and more powerful, and thank you. That's all you know today.