Zoos are fascinating places.
Although we can feel badly for the animals being kept in such small
places, they do give a unique opportunity. We can look closely at some animals
that we would really not rather meet out on the street or in the fields. I am
most fascinated by the large cats, lions, tigers, leopards and cougars. I could sit and watch them for hours—as long as they are in a cage!
One of these animals that I have no particular desire to meet in
the street or out in their natural habitat is the legendary lion. I am thinking
of the great African lion—with his mane that
seems to reach from the East to the West and his gaping jaws battalioned with 4-6
inch fangs. And this is not to speak of the great lioness, whose physique is
nearly the same, whose head and jaws are nearly identical as that of her great
king. This is the kind of animal I would rather not come up close and personal
with on a dark night.
The National Geographic has given us some more reasons why we do not
wish to meet him there.
· -
A full-grown male is about
6-7 feet long, excluding the 3-foot long tail. He stands about 4 feet high at
the shoulder and weighs 370-500 pounds.
· -
The main job of males in the pride [the
family group of lions] is defending
the pride's territory.
·
-A male's loud roar, usually heard after sunset, can carry for as far
as five miles.
· -
Hunting
generally is done in the dark by the
lionesses.
· -
A typical meal for an adult male lion is 15 pounds of meat, though lions can consume as much as 60 pounds at a
sitting. After they feed, lions may not hunt for a few days. But when
they eat, they usually eat all of their
prey at once.
· -
Three ways lion obtain meat is by killing, scavenging from other
predators, or eating animals that have died
from disease or old age.
· -
When hunting, the cats pay no attention to the wind's direction,
which can carry their scent to their prey.
· -
They tire after running only
short distances.
-
-A high proportion of their hunts end in failure.
-When hunting, lionesses
(and lions) patiently stalk prey using
every bit of available cover and then run it down in a short, rapid rush. After
leaping on the prey, the lioness lunges at its neck and bites until the animal
is strangled.[1]
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want a 500 lb. carnivore
waiting in the bushes for me! This is absolutely terrifying if you think about
it. If a little speedy gazelle with four quick legs can be pounced upon, what
of me and my two not-so-nimble legs?! Even if I could run quickly the ground
covered by a four-footed creature is far more than you or I could cover in the
same amount of time. I don't want to imagine this too long because I might have
nightmares!
There is a very distressing story in the Old Testament about a way
that people used lions as a means of execution. Do you know the story of Daniel
and the lion's den? It is found in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Here we see
a good and godly man named Daniel praying three times daily to the one, true,
living God. God had made Daniel powerful and very influential to the king he
served—King Darius. Just as
when anyone who gets close to a powerful leader becomes an object of jealousy, Daniel had
become so to many of the lesser leaders and rulers in Babylon. And they were
determined to get rid of him in any way possible—so they came up with a law
designed solely to put Daniel in jeopardy.
Daniel 6:6-7
6 So these administrators and satraps went as a group to
the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! 7
The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all
agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone
who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you,
Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.
What we see here are a group of individuals acting as if they were
a lion. They have begun to stalk their
prey. What they proposed was a form of
capital punishment not unlike our electric chair or firing squads. But this
punishment was perhaps more terrifying because it exposed the accused either
publicly and privately to the whims and aggressions of wild beasts. Isn't that a terrifying form of punishment
and execution? Again, I don't want to imagine this too long.
Read
Daniel 6:10-16.
We could well imagine that Daniel was a quick meal for caged
lions. But God had something else in mind. The good King Darius, who had been
tricked into a law that condemned one of his favorite advisers, paced the floor
all night long, hoping against hope that there might be some way that Daniel's
God would rescue him. Who could stop wild
animals once they get to certain point of hunger, once they smell the blood? In
one moment a hungry lion could snap the neck of a man put in a cage with him.
The Bible says they put a great stone across the entrance to the
lion's den. That means it must have been dark. The moment Daniel was thrust
into that horrifying place those great beasts must have circled around him,
their hot breath on his neck.
Read Daniel 6:19-22.
Those last two verses are some of the favorite verses of my
childhood Bible story memories. God and his
angels acted on behalf of Daniel! Do you know what God did for Daniel? He saved him, saved
him and saved him all night long. With one little touch from God’s mighty hand those
great jaws were sealed closed. All night long they could do nothing but pace
around Daniel. God delivered Daniel from the mouths of the lions!
Did you know that you have a lion in your streets? This lion is not caged in the city square or
bunkered into a den. This lion roams all around you. He is your enemy. One who
seeks of his own will to destroy you. Jesus described this enemy in John 10:10
and this is what he said this lion does for a living: this lion "comes only to steal and kill and destroy."
What might have Daniel been thinking and feeling as they lead him
near the den, as he heard those terrible roars? Perhaps he was thinking that the
lions were going to kill him and destroy his body. That is what
might have happened. But, the
One who created those lions knew how to seal their jaws shut at just the right
time.
In 1 Peter 5:8-11 the Apostle Peter warned some dear
Christians about the reality that they already knew. They had an enemy of their
souls. This enemy demonstrated himself in the same way that the lions in those
terrifying Roman arenas did. It was there that perhaps some of them had seen
their loved ones die for their faith clenched in the jaws of a ravenous lion loosed
by the despicable Emperor Nero.
Christian persecutions were rampant during the days of this letter. Christians
were objects of scorn, dragged from their homes refusing to denounce their
faith in Jesus Christ. Thousands of Christians died as martyrs. It is to their
friends and relatives that Peter wrote. In 1 Peter 5:8-9 we read these
incredible words: 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you
know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same
kind of sufferings.
You, too, have an enemy, a hungry lion, who has caught your scent.
He is powerful and often illusive. He blends into the scenery. He never lets
up. He roams around you all the time, watching you, studying your weaknesses
and desires. He sniffs the air for fresh scents of doubt and rage. He hides in
the bushes, just at the edges of your peripheral vision, seeking the right
moment to leap out and drag you down.
Here is how that lion will win. At just the moment you don't
expect it, in a quiet moment or when you are exhausted, he will bring back an
old temptation. Maybe it will be one you thought you had conquered. Maybe it
will be a one you hoped would never come.
It's as if you heard that roar five miles away and it reminded you that
he was still here.
Or better yet (at least for him), perhaps he'll bring a new temptation
in and he will give you the
opportunity for your faith to crumble
to the ground in fear or disillusionment. Then it will be easy for him
to saunter over and take you without a fight. We have an enemy of our
souls.
But he is not an unknowable enemy. Just like a naturalist can study
and log the patterns of a lion's behavior, we also can be aware and
recognize his plans. The Apostle Paul wrote that
we don’t have to be unaware of the devil’s schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11) The naturalists tell us that the big cats pay no attention to the
wind's direction, which can carry their scent to their prey. When something is
amiss, when we can't quite figure out what is going wrong, we can learn to
recognize the smell of a dangerous enemy. We can learn his ways and even
anticipate his next move. Just as the great head of lion can be seen from a long
distance, his head, held high in arrogance believing he can take any prey he
sets his eye one, we can see how the devil operates, where he is most likely
to be hiding and how he plans to destroy us.
Here are some of the ways the lion in our streets tries to pull us
down.
He lies to us—telling us we have never been saved, or that we are too weak or that no one really cares about us. Read 1 Peter 5:6-11.
He captures our attention
with our own evil desires. Read James 1:13-15. Some of those desires are the most ancient of
desires: to be like God—the temptation offered
and accepted by Adam and Eve; to live selfishly and never think of others; to
satisfy our appetites in excessive ways, etc.
He waits for us to get weak
and tired. Read Psalm 10:9.
He lures us away from other
Christians, isolating and dividing us for easier defeat. Read Hebrews 10:25.
He convinces us that our
enemies are our neighbors, friends and family. Read Ephesians 6: 12. Our enemies are not our neighbors or our
family members or our co-workers. We have one sure enemy and that is that old
lion Satan seeking our destruction. People around us who do destructive and
divisive things are pawns used by the devil. He only entices them with the lie
of power and control, when all along he gains power and control over them. It is his plan to destroy them, us and our
relationship with God by whatever means necessary.
Like bands of lions, there are teams of the devil's workers
circling around us, trying to wear us down, intimidating and frightening us.
They can be successful in their hunt, except for one more true thing. When we believe
what God says—that salvation comes
through Jesus Christ, by his blood spilled on the cross for our sins—we have a
wall of protection around us that no roaring lion can penetrate. Then we can "be
strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
We must live with another truth when facing the lion in our
streets. Colossians 2:15 relates that
the powerful jaws of the lion have already been disarmed by the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ on the cruel cross. The
devil's roar may be great, but in God's view he is nothing more than a
toothless, run-down old cat. And that is how we can see him through the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Do you know what closed the mouths of those lions as Daniel prayed
all night long? Do you know who snapped their jaws shut? Do you know who stands
between you and the lion pacing in our streets?
It is the Word and person of God that stops the mouths of lions and always silences the roar of our enemy. In 1 John 4:4 the truth is
stated plainly. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the
world."
I imagine that Daniel learned this same powerful truth all night
long in that lion's den. There are many of us who can tell story after story of
the defeats of that old lion and how God has shut his mouth. Just like earthly
lions in their natural habitat tire after running only short distances and many
of their hunts end in failure, so too, the enemy lion in our streets tires
quickly when he is faced with the truth of Jesus Christ, the Word of God and
the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Amen.
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2013
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