Monday I wrote about my current obsession with studying how lions are written about in the Bible. About how I grew up with a mental picture of bad or evil or the devil when I thought about a prowling lion – and that certainly came from the Bible.
But then I heard this song. It’s what precipitated my studying lions. One average morning commute, I heard this song:
My God’s not dead,
He’s surely alive.
He’s living on the inside,
Roaring like a lion.
Roaring, roaring, He’s roaring like a lion.
Now I know some of you that read this blog read it for funny triplet stories and fashion commentary. This post is not that. This post won’t make much sense if faith is not your thing. But I am so deep into trying to grasp this bipolar concept, I’m writing about it for one more day. I have to tell you, I have never pictured God as the lion when I studied the Bible. This song made me go look for where the band might have pulled this imagery from – that’s when I discovered the 119 references to lions in the Bible. The reality is, 9 times out of 10, the reference in the Bible to a lion is used to portray something negative or evil. But sometimes, sometimes that mighty animal is claimed for good:
Proverbs 28 – The righteous are as bold as a lion.
Isaiah 31 – As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey—and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor—so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights…the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it… (Jeremiah 50 uses similar imagery of God coming as the lion to deliver His people.)
Amos 3 – The lion has roared…The Sovereign Lord has spoken…
Hosea 11 – For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.
I love this picture – the transformation of the lion from the lurking prowling danger to the powerful bold voice and victory of our God. This image in the song of God being a lion ROARING through you – as the power of freedom, of resurrection, of hope banishing the darkness. “Let Heaven Roar, Let Fire Fall, Come Shake The Ground With The Sound Of Revival:” What if we saw God as roaring us all awake, to action, to revival as the ground moves beneath the power of His Holy Roar?
Love this blog today. Grateful that we serve a mighty Lion of love and power and mercy.
Thank you Page – I’m grateful too.
Have you watched The Chronicles of Narnia (the first one – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)? I finally watched it recently and OH MY GOSH. God is portrayed as Aslan, a Lion. It was powerful.
The scene that seems to be on constant replay is this scene of young Lucy and her big sister walking with Aslan. They wake up in the middle of the night and see him start walking. He doesn’t tell them where he’s going, but they want to go with him – he allows them to (for a time). I won’t give anything away, but here is the scene…these two sisters, in the darkened woods, walking on each side of this grand lion, each sister holding onto his mane – almost as if they were holding his hand. Such a scary, yet safe scene. Ahhhh. To think of God like that. And that as we walk through the dark night, He is the Lion beside us. Oh, what a thought.
No – I haven’t seen it, will have to rent it now. (Do people still rent movies? I know nothing post-kids…) But I love that picture you drew.
Did you know that a lion is the symbol of the tribe of Judah? in Genesis 49:9 when Jacob was blessing his sons, he said that Judah was like a lion’s cub. That is the tribe Jesus came from and Jesus is referred to as the Lion of Judah in Revelation 5:5: “The Lion of the tribe of Judah (Jesus) has won the battle.” Maybe you already knew this but if not, I hope you find it helpful.
Yes – I love that. And I was reminded of that as I read through all these scriptures!