Exit the Dragon

Every year, over a billion people around the world celebrates Chinese New Year.  With this year, we have exited the year of the dragon and entering the year of the snake, going from a fictitious reptile to a real reptile.  

But let's talk about the dragon for a minute...

In the Chinese culture, the dragon is a serpent-like creature that dwells at the bottom of the ocean, a deep lake or river, and has control over the waters and weather. Very similarly, the early Jews also has a large serpent which they called "Leviathan" which also lives in the ocean and mentioned in the book of Job. The views these serpents and ancient animals compare to the nearby Canaanites and other mid/near East people groups are almost very similar or the same as well.

When I was a younger Christian, I never really thought about dragons and monsters being in the Bible. However, as I got older and had questions about dinosaurs and other animals, I took a deeper dive into the events of creation in Genesis and also found verses on Leviathan and Behemoth (this was thought to be a mammoth, or some kind of large beast).

What distinctive about the worldview of dragons vs the Biblical view is that the Bible is the only place that only God can rule over Leviathan, or any animals on earth.  He created them, and not only does God have dominion over them, God also created us to have dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26-27).  

As we celebrate our holidays, and exit the dragon, let's not forget about our Creator who created all things on earth.