The Roaring Lion

             Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 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. (I Peter 5:8-9)

 

Sorry, no pictures of hunting lions. Instead, it’s a hunting Wood Stork. It raises a wing as it stirs up the mud, and its prey, seeing the shadow generated by its wing flees, the stork hopes, in the direction of its beak. Similarly, a lion will roar, or sometimes show itself to its prey, and when the prey flees, it’s in the direction of one or more lions who are waiting to ambush the fleeing animals. In both cases, the apparent danger is not the real danger. The apparent danger is only the means to distract you from the real danger, and push you in its direction.

            It’s impossible to say what Peter understood about lion hunting strategies, but God understood. If you don’t respond to the lion’s roar by running away, you place yourself in danger from the lion that roared. If you do run away – in the direction the lion wants you to, you’re in greater danger. This is why we need to be sober. Being afraid makes us more easily manipulated.

            Years ago, Keanu Reeves started in the movie The Devil’s Advocate. I’m not recommending the movie because it gets rather lewd, but in it, the young lawyer (Reeves) goes to the restroom after destroying a witness and getting a “not guilty” verdict for a client he knows to be guilty and being offered a job by a high-powered attorney (Al Pacino.)  The next thing you know he gains power, wealth, and lots of sex, but his wife is haunted by visions. At the end, he’s back in the restroom. He goes out and turns down the job (as I recall it.) One understanding of the story is that Reeves’ character narrowly avoids or overcomes temptation. Some people see the story as the character actually getting “all that” and turning away. As I see it, the majority of the movie took place in the character’s imagination.

            And as I remember it, Pacino’s character smiles when his offer is rejected because as a result, Reeves’ character believes well of himself, having “beaten the devil” and shown himself “good.” In short, Reeves; character runs from the roaring lion, right into the trap of (the) pride. And… gotcha!

            Therefore, we must be alert and sober because this is where it gets interesting. Recently, I wrote about the story of the two wolves in the heart of every man, and the one that wins is the one you feed. Well, there are two lions, too. There is the roaring lion that seeks who he may devour and there’s the Lion of Judah. And the secret to escaping the former is to run toward the latter. So you need to keep an eye on where the Lion of Judah is, and to stay near Him.