The Church has many enemies, but commonly someone that is more formidable than the rest.
So Sennacherib was in his day, and Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his. So Pharaoh had been formerly; and he is called “leviathan,” and the “dragon” (Psa_74:14; Isa_51:9; Eze_29:3). And the New Testament Church has had its leviathans; we read of a “great red dragon, ready to devour it” (Rev_12:3). Those malignant, persecuting powers are here compared to the leviathan in bulk and strength, and the mighty bustle they make in the world; to dragons, for their rage and fury; to serpents, piercing serpents, penetrating in their counsels, quick in their motions, that if they once get in their head, will soon wind in their whole body; “crossing like a bar,” so the margin, standing in the way of all their neighbours and obstructing them; to crooked serpents, subtle sad insinuating, but perverse and mischievous. (M. Henry.)
