Ready to Pounce
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
— 1 Peter 5:8
A number of years ago I read an interesting book called Death in the Long Grass. Its author, a big-game hunter, recounts stories of not only hunting lions, but also of lions hunting people.
There was a certain group of lions that had a taste for human blood and would come into camps at night, step over people without even waking them, and find their intended prey. It was never determined why the lions chose whom they chose. But they would pick up their victims, kill them immediately, and drag them away without waking a single person. The author wrote about one large cat in particular that killed over one hundred people. The book also mentions that a charging lion can cover one hundred yards in just three seconds.
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Lions are powerful and very frightening creatures. And they have the capability to take you out rapidly if they want to.
The Bible likens the Devil to a lion. First Peter 5:8 tells us, "Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour."
And in Genesis, God gave this warning to Cain: "But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master" (4:7). God was saying, "Listen, you are flirting with disaster. You had better throw on the brakes, because sin is like a wild beast, and it is ready to pounce." The Devil is always looking for trouble, pacing back and forth like a lion in his cage.
Sin was crouching at Cain's door, and it is crouching at our door too. And for some, it is already across the threshold. So we must be careful.
