Rahab the Dragon

2022-10-01

Rahab was an ancient dragon that God fought against. This is unrelated to Rahab who helped the spies in Joshua’s day. Let us look at who Rahab was and its significance; he (Rahab is a masculine noun in these instances) is mentioned twice.

O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. (Psalms 89:8-11)

Let us make some conclusions from this psalm’s mentioning of Rahab:

  1. Rahab lives in the violent sea. Maybe this dragon caused the sea to rage to some degree.
  2. The LORD broke this creature in pieces. Being God, He is more powerful than anything in His creation.
  3. The LORD is the creator and owner of the heavens and earth. He has sovereign power over all things.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? (Isaiah 51:9-10)

Consider what the prophet Isaiah said about Rahab:

  1. The battle between God and Rahab was in ancient times. How ancient is ancient? Well, it was ancient to a prophet speaking in the 7th century B.C.
  2. God cut and wounded Rahab.
  3. This Rahab is not the sea. It is distinct from the sea.
  4. As part of this battle, God tamed the watery depths. He did this, for example, at the Red Sea.

We should recall that Satan, the spiritual entity behind Leviathan, was also one with whom the Lord contended. This dragon Rahab must be the same as Leviathan. Rahab means “proud” or “boaster.” Recall that Leviathan “is a king over all the children of pride” (Job 41:34). Again, Satan said, “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14), and again, “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty” (Ezekiel 28:17).

This dragon of watery chaos is reminiscent of mythology of Mesopotamia. According to their religion, Tiamat was a goddess associated with saltwater, and for the vengeance of the destruction of her husband Apsu, becomes a sea dragon to destroy his murderers. However, Marduk, a god who descended from Apsu and Tiamat, fought Tiamat and won, and became a ruler of the gods. These ancients remembered some ancient battle but get almost all the facts wrong.

We know that at some time between the creation of the world and when Adam and Eve were in Eden, Satan rebelled against God. Given the description here, I propose Satan’s fall happened in Genesis 1:2. Consider in context:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (4) And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:1-4)

Now, to be clear, I do not believe in any “gap theory.” This rebellion would have happened on the first day of creation. But if you consider what you read about Rahab and then read this, it makes sense. I am not dogmatic about this; I could be very wrong. But it makes the most sense to me this way.

Unlike the Mesopotamians, major differences occur. The watery chaos is not some deity. It is just water. Satan is a spirit being distinct from the physical creation. Because no aquatic animal was created until the fifth day, this is likely metaphorical in nature. Satan is called a dragon and related terms elsewhere because of how he appeared in Eden; this is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. However, ancient peoples took this imagery too far, and superimposed their gods into real history, as they “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). God is not like Marduk, a created entity who gained power to overthrow the watery chaos. The LORD is the eternal creator over all (“God created the heaven and the earth”), and His Spirit subdued it (“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”).

This judgment over Satan is likened to what happened after the Flood. Compare the following:

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged (Genesis 8:1)

The word for “Spirit” and “wind” are the same; the Lord subdued the water after judgment. The similar language supports the hypothesis of judgment upon Satan very early in creation.

These are some thoughts concerning Rahab, perhaps some best taken with a grain of salt.