Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: SNOOZE (07/20/17)
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TITLE: Where a Lion Roams | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elaine Hemingway
07/27/17 -
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A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
There is much to be learned from this poor sluggard who was too lazy even to eat or to build on his knowledge, as we read in the verses that follow this one.
There are many today who may have accepted the invitation to repent and accept the salvation offered by Jesus’ sacrificial death but fail to recognise that more is needed. We need to acknowledge our need of knowledge! We have to grow in our faith. We have to examine the Word of God in order to progress from baby food to a full diet of nourishing Spiritual food. We cannot afford to slumber.
1 Peter 5:8 & 9 “Be self-controlled and alert. 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 your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
A lion is a symbol of strength and power, and when confronted by one it would be natural to turn and run. Seeking protection would be an expected reaction as in normal consideration a puny human would stand little chance. But we have one who gives us the strength to withstand every temptation the enemy may throw at us if we stay wide awake and ready for action; if we recognise the enemy’s tactics. He may look like a kitten and act like a kitten but he grows.
Samson was an exception as, far from being lazy, he was himself a strong man. He relied on his physical attributes. Unfortunately though, his weakness lay with women, and particularly one called Delilah, a seductive kitten. To find the secret of his strength, Delilah tempted him, soothing him with soft words, hushing him into a state of compliance and flaunting herself before him. He became oblivious to the lessons he had been taught and succumbed to her enticements. He forgot that kittens grow into cats, big cats.
He forgot the day he encountered a lion on the path and killed it with his bare hands. He forgot the trouble it had caused him when he used its carcass to confuse the Philistines with a riddle because he wanted to marry a Philistine woman. He forgot that his life was supposed to have real meaning as he grew as a Nazirite in obedience and submission to the Lord.
He allowed a woman to lull him to sleep and remove from him the source of his strength, his hair. He had to wake up to the realisation that a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of symbolic hands would deprive him of his riches and bring him to poverty of soul and scarcity of strength.
Proverbs 24:33-34 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed bandit.
We will do well to consider the lions that cross our path in life, lions strong in malice and temptation but there is another Lion who is our source of strength. The Lion of Judah, Jesus, our Lord, the foundation of our salvation.
Revelation 5:5 tells us that the Lion of Judah is the sacrificial lamb who will return as King, mighty in power – our Rock and Refuge.
We will do well to remain aware of His coming for He is coming soon!
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