“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
I remember a number of years ago a song that had become popular called “The lion sleeps tonight”. The parts that were in English went like this. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the peaceful jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the village, the mighty village, the lion sleeps tonight. In the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight. Hush my Darling; don’t fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight. Hush my darling; don’t fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight.
The lion is the most feared animal in the jungle. The song lyrics indicate that everything is peaceful, as long as the lion is sleeping. It would also indicate that the lion eats people, their children and their livestock. So, the lion ate their family members and their food. That paints a bleak picture of total destruction. Now that is fear. How would they know when the lion was asleep? He could be stalking, lions don’t roar when stalking. It seems that when he is roaring and when he is quiet, there would be fear.
In our lives today, sometimes we are asleep when we should be awake and are awake when we should be asleep. The lion attacks the most vulnerable and weakest prey. The scriptures say that the devil roams over the whole earth seeking one to devour. We seem to think, if he is not attacking me he is asleep. Maybe he is stalking if he is quiet. Maybe, he already has his prey and doesn’t need to attack. Could be, if we don’t see blood, we think everything is fine. The scriptures say, that the kingdom of God is, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. In other words, if we abide in Him, stand in the right place and trust the Holy Ghost, we will lie down and sleep in peace. We will sleep at the right time and be awake at the right time and won’t get caught off guard. We must remember that we are always being stalked. We must be as alert as the stalker.
The devil is depicted as a lion and Jesus is depicted as a Lion also. Do we ever get them mixed up? One brings life and one brings death. Is it possible to get this backwards?
I talked to a young man once that was dying with terminal cancer. He was fearful of God. He thought that God was punishing him for his past failures. He thought that God would not forgive him on his dying bed. The devil had convinced him that God was his enemy and not him. He had sickened him to the point of death with no hope. Without intervention, this man would have died a miserable death. He had the lions mixed up. I was able to correct his thinking on this and he went home to be with the Lord, peacefully.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 53, the people thought because Jesus was afflicted, that God was punishing Him. Do we ever think this way about others?
As a child, when I would ask my father for something, the first thing he would say was, no, or it seemed that way to me, probably not though. But, I grew up thinking God is that way. I had had a distorted view of the fatherhood of God.
Our world is full of fear, because of one lion’s roar and the others quietness. One roars and destroys and the other quietly stalks the roarer. God is not to be feared as a roarer, it’s hard to sleep in peace thinking that way. He is for us and against the roarer. Our fear towards our God is to respect his ability to pull us out of the mouth of the destroying, roaring lion.
We live in a world of constant war and rumors of wars. There are storms, hurricanes, sickness and disease. We live in constant fear of what could happen to us next.
God says if we would draw near to Him, the devil will flee from us. He teaches us to combat the roaring lion, not Him. Jesus rebuked the roaring storms; He rebuked sickness and drove out the destroying devil in human beings. By the way, some accused Him of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub, or by the power of the roaring, destroying lion.
So, do we now know the difference of the two lions? To accuse the wrong one is to fear the wrong one. Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah for a reason. He was their defender and is ours also. He never slumbers or sleeps, so we can.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for searching the whole world for one convert and then making him twice the son of hell they were. The deceiving lion at work! If Jesus loses one sheep, he will search for him until he is found and return him to the safety and peace of the sheepfold. I am glad that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is watching while we sleep.
So the village in the song was asleep while there was no roaring? How dangerous is that? That is false security.
Before I was a Christian, I was able to sleep all the way through hurricane Camille, because my mother was there and praying. I only saw the after-math of the storm. He never slumbers or sleeps.
David McClary
avoicefromthemountain.com
