A lion is standing on the hillside, it's grand silhouette framed by the blue sky. The slight breeze ruffles his thick mane, golden locks glinting as they catch the sunlight. A front paw rests on the limp body of a young lamb which it has taken from the shepherd's flock.
Below him a large group of shepherds has gathered. Grasping their shepherds' crooks and any other weapons they can grab hold of they are making as much noise as they can to frighten the lion away.
The feeble sound of their shouts and the clatter of their crooks as they bang them together drifts up to the lion.
He seemingly acknowledges their presence as he turns his head towards them, opens his mouth and roars. He is not afraid.
The group of shepherds comes closer, their shouting and clamour increasing. They are trying with all their might to drive the lion away from their flocks. Hearts racing, the sweat of fear on each man they come as close as they dare.
The lion is not afraid.
Another powerful roar echoes around the hills as he turns to face the crowd, which comes to a nervous halt before imperceptibly and then more quickly retreating hastily back down the hill.
They are afraid, but the lion has no fear.
*****
On a recent weekend I read Isaiah 31 for my morning reading and particularly noticed verse 4:
'For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof'.
(My study Bible suggests an additional meaning of 'nor abase himself' as 'nor be disturbed by').
I sat and thought about this verse for some while and a scene such as I have tried to describe came to life in my mind. And then I thought of our great God and how He is not disturbed by those things which trouble us or are against us - He is greater, bigger and more powerful than them all.
I then carried on with the day.
We had an important meeting planned at some distance away and were keen to get going with the journey without delay. We had sacrificed some much coveted weekend lay-in time, getting up near to our usual 5:30am and were making good progress despite feeling tired and headachey.
Then the phone rang.
After some delay we finished our breakfast and morning family worship and I got on with washing up.
In my mind I was having a conversation - not intentionally - but these were thoughts that seemed to come unbidden and preoccupy my thinking.
I was just unkindly telling somebody what I thought of them when the pyrex jug which I had washed, rinsed and was setting down upside down on the draining board literally exploded with a loud shattering pop out of my hand.
I stood stupified for some minutes as the broken glass continued crackling and shattering amongst the clean washing up and over the nearby counter.
"That was chastening for my unkind thoughts", I told myself and then bemoaned to my husband that everything was going wrong that day.
After considerable time spent carefully clearing up the shards of glass, rinsing the already clean crockery, emptying the washing up bowl and then starting again, we were running quite a bit later than we had hoped.
In the back of my mind a brief memory of my morning reading and an unperturbed lion flashed through my thoughts.
We left the house with a brief errand to do enroute before getting onto the motorway.
Disappointingly the shop was out of stock of what we needed and we had to drive a bit further to another shop. They had what we needed, but as we left we then had another delay of road works to get through.
Again a picture of a lion came to my thoughts, a lion not disturbed by all these trifling things.
The day unfolded, we were given safe journeys, and the Lord helped us at our appointment.
But the memory of this verse and that scene has stayed with me.
Was the Lord speaking to me that morning and preparing me for the day?
Preparing me that although it would seem that we were being hindered, He is greater than all these things, greater than our enemy, Satan, who may stir people up or cause things to happen to try to knock us off our path - greater than that big enemy, 'our old nature self' which fights against our new heart that wants to follow Jesus.
Was the Lord telling me that despite the 'shouting and clamour of the shepherds', those things that can disturb and trouble us, He is not disturbed, He is not afraid, He is not taken by surprise.
But how quickly, particularly when we are not feeling our best the enemy can bring us down.
Can you relate to my tale of woe?!! Do you have times like these?
Let us encourage ourselves a little as we take another look at this verse in Isaiah, and may the Lord bring it to our remembrance when we feel overwhelmed, troubled, fearful or hindered.
- The context
In this chapter Isaiah was giving an announcement of doom from the LORD against those Jews in Judah who would rely on Egypt and trust in the large numbers of their strong horse and chariot warriors for help against their great enemies the Assyrians (who came from the area of modern day Iraq).
Instead the LORD would defend, deliver and preserve Jerusalem (verse 5) and as a lion is not disturbed from its prey by shouting shepherds, so the LORD could not be driven away or frightened from saving His own people from their enemies.
(Isn't that beautiful - that the LORD cannot be driven away by our enemies ? His love is so great and strong that it overcame even death for His people).
- The Lion of Judah
We are first introduced to a prophetic description of Jesus, Son of God, as a lion in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
An old man, Jacob is dying, his twelve sons gathered around his bed. One of them is called Judah.
Jacob foretells (prophesies) that Judah and his tribe is like a lion. Jacob also says that 'the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver ... until Shiloh come', the sceptre being a symbol of kingship, and Shiloh, my Study Bible explains, being a hidden name for the Messiah (Genesis 49:10).
In Matthew 1 and Luke 3 we then have the genealogies of Jesus, which includes tracing back his human ancestry through the generations to Judah the son of Jacob. We see the fulfilment of this prophecy of the Messiah.
If we next turn to the last book of the Bible, Revelation 5:5, Jesus' aged disciple John has a vision of a book - or scroll - in heaven which is firmly sealed seven times, but nobody is found worthy to open it except for 'the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David' (who in the next verse is also described as 'a Lamb as it had been slain').
We learn then that our Lord Jesus, the Son of God is 'the Lion'. He is powerful, fearless, strong, formidable, majestic.
As Jesus says before ascending back into heaven after his resurrection, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth' (Matthew 28:18).
We read of His great majesty in Revelations 19:11-15, and His name, the 'KING of KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS' (Revelations 19:16).
We read of Him conquering our great enemy Satan and throwing him and all those that have served Satan into a lake of fire (Revelations 19,20).
- Our enemies and need of God today
Dear friend are you feeling disheartened and dismayed by whatever is going on in your life or in life's events round you today?
Are you fearing your future?
Do you feel that you constantly need protection, you need reassurance of God's love and care of you?
We know that Satan is also like a lion roaming around and attempting to destroy believers (1 Peter 5:8), but let us remember God is greater than Satan. Satan only has a limited time before the end will come and he will forever be bound in hell.
Let us remember that as the Apostle John encourages followers of Jesus 'greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world' (1 John 4:4).
Are you fearful and anxious? Do you have those in your home, work or government who try to catch you out, who mock you or wish you harm? God is not afraid of your enemies.
As the lion on the hillside is not in the least perturbed by the clamour and noise of the men so God said He will laugh at those who set themselves against His anointed and will have them in derision (Psalm 4).
God will not give up His care and love to you. He is a strong and determined God. He is truth itself. He will never lie. You can depend on Him.
Think how Jesus was as the verse above when it speaks of God as a lion not giving up his prey and so coming down to deliver His people. Likewise we see Jesus' determination to save His people in Isaiah's prophetic words 'I set my face like a flint' (Isaiah 50:7).
As a lion is a protector of its 'pride' of lionesses and cubs, so our Heavenly Lion protects and guards His church.
We have this illustrated so clearly in the life of Job, when we hear that Satan cannot hurt Job without God's permission, God having made as it were 'a hedge about him and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side' (Job 1:10)
God will only ever allow anything to happen to you that will be for your good, even if it seems terrible at the time. 'We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose' (Romans 8:28).
Think how Jesus, the Son of God was crucified and suffered such an awful death - that in itself is still awful and terrible, but the most amazing good came of that - the redemption of all His people.
We read of people who suffer imprisonment and terrible sufferings - but God comes to them in their prison cell and pours His love and comfort into them. He can come though locked doors and barred windows.
We wonder why, but He will use this assault by the wicked one to bless you with more revelations of His love to you, and perhaps use it to witness and convert others.
Anyone that hurts you is like someone touching the 'pupil' or apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8). Today we understand this to mean somebody touching your most cherished and valuable possession. You, as a child of God are His most cherished and valuable possession.
Look up dear believer and look to Him who is greater than all your troubles here below.
We aren't to be naive, but to be on our guard, to remember that we will suffer persecutions and troubles, that Satan will try to destroy us and the Lord's work, but God is greater and we will overcome in the end because He has overcome death and Satan for us.
- Let us remember the power of prayer.
At a prayer meeting of early believers no doubt pleading for the life of their much loved Peter the Apostle who had been thrown into prison, was heavily guarded, with death imminent, how astounded they were when he arrived having been miraculously let out of prison by an angel (Acts 12).
- Let us remember the power of prayer and praise.
We think of Paul the Apostle and fellow missionary Silas beaten and imprisoned in the most secure part of a Macedonian prison, yet praying and singing praises to God. An earthquake opened the prison doors and released their chains. The prison keeper was converted and him and his whole house baptised in the name of Jesus, firstly washing and tending to their wounds that very hour and feeding them in his own house (Acts 16).
- Let us seek refuge in The Lion of the tribe of Judah
Our Lord Jesus Christ is 'as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest: as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land' (Isaiah 32:2).
He says, 'When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee' (Isaiah 43:2).
Strong, powerful, ever present, all knowing, full of tender mercies to those He loves, our God is not perturbed or hindered from His purposes by the things that perturb and hinder us. He is greater than them all.
May the Lord encourage us.
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