Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
~I Peter 5:8~
There’s an old sketch by a British comedy troupe where a man goes into a career counseling center looking for a job—as a lion tamer. The problem is that he has the wrong idea about lions. The career counselor eventually explains: “A lion is a huge savage beast about five feet high, ten feet long, weighing about four hundred pounds, running forty miles per hour, with masses of sharp pointed teeth and nasty, long, razor-sharp claws that can rip your belly open before you can say ‘Eric Robinson,’ and they look like this.” At this point, the counselor produces a picture of a roaring lion.
The man screams and passes out.
Most of us have only ever observed lions when they were safely behind bars. They are grand creatures, but we find no practical reason to fear them. But for Peter’s initial audience—members of the churches of Asia Minor—the analogy would have been a powerful one, for the wild beasts prowled in the darkness near their homes. The roar of an adult lion can be heard up to five miles and was no doubt a resonant momento mori for early Christians in that region.
In “Killer Animals,” Edward Ricciuti explains, “The call of lions in the darkness is the sound of the primeval, guaranteed to raise the hackles and send chills over the spine. The sound is not really a roar, but a series of coughing grunts which begin in staccato fashion, but mount in intensity, gradually merging into a thunderous wave that rolls over the darkened landscape, permeating the night and, I suspect, one’s soul.”
This terrible roar is certainly not a bluff, for the lion is a veritable killing machine. Ricciuti explains, “Lazing in the grass by day, the lion is not as imposing as the mental image conjured up by its thunder at night. When, stalking game, however, the lion leaves little doubt it is the mightiest predator of its grasslands home….The tawny coat of the lion blends so well with the brown savannah grass and scrub that lions can be close by and yet undetectable….Taking advantage of cover, hunting lions creep to within a hundred yards or so of their intended prey, and then burst from cover in a blood-chilling charge. Tail extended stiffly, head lowered, the cat aims for its victim’s neck with its huge fangs. Once its teeth have sheared into its victim’s flesh, the lion uses its weight—up to 500 pounds—to wrestle its prey to earth, or else snaps the neck of the victim with a blow of its forepaw.”
Like a lion, the devil often blends into his surroundings, creeping into our lives stealthily and gradually. We indulge in what we may see as mostly harmless behavior, but the devil soon has us by the neck. And which one of us has the strength to break free? Yet all things are possible with God: Peter explains that we can find the strength to resist this mighty predator by being sober, vigilant, and steadfast in our faith.
–Tyler Walker, The Weekly Bulletin, March 3, 2013