“A ROARING LION!”
“Be careful, be watchful; because your enemy the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Do you enjoy watching wild life programmes on Tv? I do, and a while ago I was watching a very interesting one filmed in Africa involving a pride of lions and their habits.
The lion crouched closer to the ground, virtually invisible in the long grass, her sides heaving as she breathed heavily in expectation. Soon the pangs of hunger gnawing at her insides would be satisfied. It was just a matter of time.
Nearby a herd of zebra was feeding on the grassy plains and, looking on with hungry eye, some distance away, was a large female lion. She had not eaten for some time, and back in her lair were some lively cubs who were also overdue for a feed. Almost out of sight in the long grass she crouched, watching and waiting. Her eyes narrowed to thin slits and her large tongue occasionally slid in and out past her sharp white teeth. Hunger made her impatient, but she knew she must wait for the right moment in order to make a kill.
Suddenly the zebra seemed to catch the scent of his enemy. His head came up with a jerk, his ears flattened back, he looked around him and began to turn back towards the herd. Realising her moment had come, the lioness sprang from her hiding place and rocketed towards the terrified beast. Vainly the zebra gathered speed, his front legs stretched out before him with every bound as he sought to regain the safety of the herd – but he had left it too late! Slashing claws and tearing fangs tore into his neck. In a cloud of dust lion and zebra hit the ground, and in a moment it was all over for the hapless zebra, while the rest of the herd galloped off into the distance.
One of the zebra on the fringe of the herd unwittingly began to edge further and further away from the rest of the herd as he nibbled first at this juicy patch of grass and then at that tasty bunch I relaxed my grip on the arms of of shrubs. He was quite unaware of his the chair and sat back. How quickly danger, and the further he moved from it had happened – a few moments of the herd, the closer he came to the lion. unwatchfulness had cost that zebra his I found myself leaning forward in my life! Thinking about what I had seen chair, wanting to shout at the foolish reminded me of the verse above, “Be animal to get back to the safety of the careful, be watchful; because your herd, but he continued to feed casually, enemy the devil, as a roaring lion, walks all the time coming closer and closer to about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). certain death.
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