LIFE IS A ZOO
THE LION
DR. JIM DIXON
2 PETER 5:7-11, REVELATION 5:1-5
JUNE 13, 2004
The lion is oftentimes called the “king of beasts,” and in the history of the world there is no animal on earth that has more captured the imagination of man. When a lion is born, the lion weighs approximately 3 pounds. Zoologists tell us that in those early days and weeks and months the lion is easily tamed, very playful, and makes a wonderful household pet. But there’s one problem. Lions grow up. An adult lion, male or female, is never really tamed and is always dangerous. A male adult lion weighs between 400 and 500 pounds, is able to spring 30 feet through the air, and is able to kill a human being with a single swipe of its paw. Lions are awesome.
In biblical times throughout the biblical world, lions were common. From Egypt to Babylon, lions walked the earth. They were favorite images in ancient Middle Eastern art and architecture. For instance, the Royal Street in the capital city of Babylon from the Ishtar Gate to the Temple of Marduk was lined with 60 carved massive, majestic lions. Of course, in Egypt, the Pharaohs of Egypt never went to war without having their lion with them. A caged lion was taken. This was always true of Ramses II and many other pharaohs. Of course, in Egypt you had the Sphinx, which was a lion with a human head. Its image was everywhere to guard and protect holy sites and high places.
The lion was very common also in Palestine, in Israel. From Dan to Beersheba, from north to south, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, from west to east, lions were everywhere. They were common in Israeli art. 1 Kings, chapters 7 and 10, tell us that lions decorated the Temple of Solomon on the Temple Mount. Lions decorated the Royal Palace of Solomon. Of course, the Tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe of Israel, had as its symbol a lion.
Lions are frequently mentioned in the Bible. Of course, they are common to many Bible stories, from Daniel in the Lion’s Den to the adventures of David and Samson. In the Old Testament there are actually five different Hebrew words for lion, depending on whether the lion was male or female, young or old. There’s a special Hebrew word just for a roaring lion. Oftentimes in the Bible, the lion is a symbol. The image of the lion is used metaphorically. It’s used illustratively. It’s used in a variety of ways.
This morning I would like us to take a look at two of the symbols of the biblical lion. The first is royal wrath and the second is royal love. I want us to begin with royal wrath. Of course, the male lion has a regal looking mane and was easily identified with royalty. The roar of the lion throughout Israel brought fear to the hearts of the people. So the image of the lion was oftentimes an image of royal wrath. Bible scholars agree that oftentimes in the Bible the lion represents royal wrath.
There are two Greek words for wrath: The word “orge” and the word “thumos.” There are even more Hebrew words for wrath. One of those Hebrew words, the most common, is the word, “makkeh.” This word for wrath quite literally means, “to smite.” Of course, in the ancient Roman world in biblical times, the Romans believed that the heavens were filled with wrath and that the heavens could smite. In the Roman world, they actually believed that the stars were capable of influencing events on earth, smiting people, expressing the wrath of heaven. So, when there was an earthquake in the Roman world, the Romans called is a disaster, from the Roman or Latin word “astrum” or “astor,” which means “star,” because they believed that the stars were expressing their wrath in the form of an earthquake.
When a person was sick and they had a fever and they had chills and aches, the Romans called it influenza, from the Latin word, “to influence,” because, again, they thought the heavens were expressing their wrath and the stars were influencing the health of the people. When people suffered from emotional or mental illness, the Romans said that the person was afflicted with lunacy, from the Roman or Latin word “lunar,” which means, “moon,” because, again, they thought that the heavens, the stars, were expressing their wrath and influencing the events on earth. For this reason, Romans practiced astrology and they charted the heavens. They surveyed the stars. They formed their horoscopes because they were trying to protect themselves from heavenly wrath.
Of course, today scientists know that earthquakes are actually caused by the shifting of continental plates along fault or rupture lines. Doctors know that influenza is caused by viral infection. Today we know that mental and emotional illness may have a variety of causes, none of which have anything to do with the moon or lunar influences. And yet, incredibly, today there are millions of Americans who practice astrology and read their horoscope every day. The Bible condemns this. Science condemns this. Even science tells us the stars do not smite. The stars have no wrath. They are cold; they are distant. They do not influence events on earth.
The Bible does speak in a sense of the wrath of heaven. The Bible does describe a kind of heavenly wrath, royal wrath. In the Bible, Satan himself is sometimes described as a lion with royal wrath because our Lord Jesus said Satan is the prince, the archon, the ruler of this world. He is a usurper and his wrath is never righteousness. His royal wrath is demonic. But we saw last week in the Book of Job that Satan can smite. He can afflict.
But how about God? Does God have heavenly wrath? Does God have royal rage? Does God have righteous wrath? The biblical answer is clearly yes. This is a difficult subject for me. I take no pleasure in talking about the wrath of God, but I would not be your faithful pastor—I would not be faithful to God—if I were not honest with the Word. The Word speaks of divine wrath.
In Ezekiel, chapter 7, verse 9, God is given the name “Jehovah Makkeh,” “the Lord who smites.” A wrath word is applied to God. The image of the lion is repeatedly applied to God in the Old Testament, such as Hosea, chapter 5, verse 14, where God is called a lion who will come in His royal wrath. Therefore, God does not forebear forever the sins of man. God is holy. Therefore, He hates sin. God is truth. Therefore, He hates falsehood, deception, apostasy. God is just. He hates oppression. He hates injustice. The fact that God has love means that God can hate. Of course, God has holy hate, righteous indignation. He did not forebear forever the sin of Noah’s day, but he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. He did not forebear forever the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he reduced those cities to ashes. Archeologists tell us that to this day they lie buried beneath the Dead Sea.
God did not forebear forever the rebellion of Korah and his 250 followers, but the Bible tells us God opened up the earth and they were swallowed up into a subterranean grave. The 10,000 who heard and heeded them were smitten with the plague—the royal wrath of God. God did not forebear forever the evil of Jezebel, but her flesh was torn from her bone by a pack of wild dogs in fulfillment of divine prophecy. Royal wrath.
You might be thinking, “Well, you know, that’s Old Testament.” So, we come to the New Testament and surely we have a different image of God. But, you see, the Bible is really not schizophrenic. The God of the Old Testament IS the God of the New Testament. In the New Testament we see wrath mentioned time and again. In the New Testament, wrath is almost exclusively connected to Jesus Christ. So, you have John 3:36 where the Bible says, “He who believes in the Son of God has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the Son of God has not life but the wrath of God rests upon him.”
When you come to Romans 1, the Apostle Paul writes, “The wrath of God is poured out from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who, by their wickedness, suppress the truth.” When the truth is suppressed, God exercises wrath. Of course, Jesus said, “Ego eimi he aletheia”—”I AM the truth.” Jesus said to Pilate, “For this I was born and for this I’ve come into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth.” Jesus said, “My word is truth.”
Everybody knows John 3:16, but so few seem to know the verses that follow it. John 3:16-19: “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in the Son of God is not condemned. He who does not believe in the Son of God is condemned already because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgement. Light came into the world and man loved darkness rather than the light.” Thus, the wrath of God.
So, in the New Testament, Jesus is called “The Lion of Judah,” the royal tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe of Israel. He is called “The Lion of Judah.” We see this image in Revelation, chapter 5, and it is an image of wrath where Jesus comes and He opens the scroll and he breaks the seven seals and he unleashes the divine judgement and wrath. He is the Lion of Judah.
Jesus came the first time as a lamb, suffering and sacrificing for us, The Lamb of God. When He comes again, He will be the Lion. He will be the Lion of Judah. Oh, He will come to rescue His people and He will come to judge the earth, the Lion of Judah. We have this image of the second coming of Christ in Revelation, chapter 19, where John writes, “I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. He who was sat upon it was called ‘Faithful and True.’ In righteousness, He judges and wages war. His eyes are like a flame of fire. On His head are many crowns, many diadems. He has a named inscribed which no one knows but He Himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is ‘The Word of God.’ The armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. From His mouth issues a sharp two-edged sword with which to smite the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the wrath of the fury of the Lord God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh, a name is written, ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords.’” That’s Jesus at the consummation. The Lion of Judah coming with royal wrath.
In Revelation 22, Jesus said, “Behold, I’m coming soon, bringing My recompense to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” In Revelation, chapter 6, the Bible tells us that “the earth awaits the wrath of Him who sits upon the throne.” Then it speaks of the wrath of the Lamb because the Lamb IS the Lion.
Even when Jesus came the first time, there were moments of wrath when He turned over the tables of the moneychangers, when he pronounced the reviling judgement upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Those cities were destroyed. To this day they’ve never been built again. Jesus pronounced judgement upon the City of Jerusalem because of their unbelief. Titus and his Roman legions swept over the city, destroying it in fulfillment of divine prophecy and royal wrath.
We need to understand that God is just and God is fair. God wants everyone to have a chance to hear His gospel and God knows that all over the world there are people who have not yet heard the gospel. There are people who have died and never heard the gospel. There are people who maybe heard the gospel but they never really understood it. God understands all this. We have varying degrees of light. The Bible is clear. God will judge us by the light that we have. But don’t think there’s no wrath and don’t think that wrath is not tied to Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah. And don’t think that the gospel is anything but the word of salvation. God offers the gospel to the world that we might embrace the gospel and no longer fear His wrath.
In Matthew, chapter 10, and Luke, chapter 12, Jesus said, “Do not fear him who is able to destroy the body, but fear rather He who is able to assign both body and soul to hell.” If ever the world needed to hear that, it’s today. We’ve lost our holy fear, and it is holy fear that’s meant to draw us to the gospel. Then as we come to Jesus Christ and we make that commitment, perfect love casts out all fear. That’s how it works. If you do not fear judgement, if you have no fear of sin, then your heart is hardened. The gospel cannot save you. God is holy. God is just. God is true. We are fallen.
The lion is the image of royal wrath, but it is also the image of royal love. And I’m happy to end on a more positive note. Bible scholars, when they look at Revelation, chapter 5, all agree that the image of the Lion of Judah there is not simply an image of wrath (although the lion opens the scroll and breaks the seals that bring the wrath and the judgement of God). They all point out that the Lion of Judah in Revelation 5 is also the champion of His people.
When we think of the lion and when we think of Christ as the Lion, we don’t just think of royal wrath but we think of royal love. In the book of Job, remember how God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind? God said to Job, “How can you question Me? Were you there at the foundation of the world?” Then God gives this beautiful speech describing the glory of His creation. In Job 38:39, He comes to His description of the glory and the beauty of the animal world. He describes twelve animals, and He begins with the lion. He praises the lion for its provision for its own, the way it cares for its own, the way it provides for its young.
Zoologists tell us that in the entire cat world, from the household kitten to the Bengal tiger, there is no cat more social than the lion. Of course, lions live in a community called a pride. They consist of 15 to 20 lions or as many as 30 lions. Those communities are very social, very affectionate, very loving. Within the pride, when one lion greets another, they rub faces as they express affection for each other. God wants you to understand Jesus has a pride and it’s called the church and He loves them, all of those who are in His pride, with royal love. He cares for them and protects them and provides for them.
C.S. Lewis, in his book “The Chronicles of Narnia” sought to describe Jesus as the lion. He tried to convey not only royal wrath but royal love, the love that Jesus has for His own, for His church. Royal love.
In the year 361 AD, Flavius Claudius Julianus ascended the throne of the Roman Empire and became the Emperor of Rome. Church historians refer to him as Julian the Apostate. They call him Julian the Apostate because he was reared in a Christian family and attended a Christian school that had been founded by his uncle, Constantine the Great. His family and his friends all tried to get Julian to become a Christian, but he never did. Finally, in 361 AD, when he ascended the throne of Rome, he reinstituted the Roman Pantheon. He began the persecution of the church of Jesus Christ once again. He was the last Emperor of Rome to persecute the Christian church.
Julian had one Christian friend, historians tell us. His name was Agaton. He was Julian’s friend because they had grown up together and had both gone to that same Christian school together. Old Julian, even though Julian was persecuting the church and stripping Christians of jobs and incarcerating them and persecuting the church throughout the Empire, still had this friendship with Agaton, and he appointed this Christian friend of his to the Royal Court. But he would always tease him in front of the Royal Court. He would say, “Agaton, Agaton, how is the Carpenter of Nazareth? Is He finding work to do?” Other members of the Royal Court would laugh, and they would mock Agaton and Agaton just smiled.
One day Agaton heard that two families who were friends of his, close to him, had been stripped of their homes and their jobs by Julian and they had been put in prison because of their Christian faith. Agaton was enraged. That very day when Flavius Claudius Julianus came into the Royal Court and he saw Agaton and he said, “Agaton, Agaton, how is the Carpenter of Nazareth? Is He finding any work to do?” Agaton didn’t smile this time. He said, “Well, maybe He’s taking a break from building mansions for the faithful and He’s using this opportunity to build a casket for your empire.”
Julian was enraged. He had Agaton imprisoned. He thought of beheading him but he did not. And yet it was only one year later, June 26, 363, when Julian, the Emperor of Rome, lay dying on a Mesopotamian battlefield. He had tried to conquer the Persians and he had failed. He had announced to the Empire that he would have victory in the name of the Roman gods, and that he would elevate the Roman Pantheon above this new faith of Christianity. Of course, he failed. They lost that battle and he lost his life. Those who surrounded him said that his final words were the Latin equivalent of the English, “You have conquered, Galilean,” referring to Christ.
Of course, the Roman Empire is no more. Long ago it faded from the earth, but the empire of the Carpenter remains. The empire of the Carpenter remains—2,100,000,000 people, nominally. One-third of the earth’s population. But, of course, only the Lion of Judah knows the number of people in His pride. Only Christ knows those who are truly saved, those who have made the commitment to follow Him as Lord and trust Him as Savior. Only Christ knows, but this we know. All who are in His pride have His love, His protection, and His care.
I know life seems crazy, but you’re in the pride of Christ. When you think of the lion biblically, think of Jesus. Don’t think of the devil. There’s no reason to fear him. There’s a bigger lion in the jungle and it’s Jesus Christ. If you’re in His pride, you have every reason for confidence and joy even in the midst of the chaos of life because Jesus is with you, and He loves you and He is protecting you. He has power to protect you physically, power to protect you relationally and emotionally, and sometimes he does these things. But remember, most of all He wants to protect your soul and He will. He promises to protect your soul.
Today in the Red Sea there is a flounder, a fish, that the Jewish people call “the Moses sole.” Just recently scientists from National Geographic Magazine went over to do research on the Moses sole because the Moses sole, strangely enough, is never attacked by the sharks and the great white sharks that are there in their underwater community. These scientists found out why. They discovered that the Moses sole emits from beneath its dorsal fin, when it’s being attacked by great white sharks, a milky kind of substance that is poisonous to the great white shark. This milky substance kind of forms a halo around the Moses sole and when the shark approaches with its jaws open, suddenly his jaws are paralyzed. They’re just frozen in place and the shark turns away writhing in pain. The Moses sole. It’s kind of illustrative of what Jesus, the Lion of Judah, does for His pride, because He protects our souls. He puts a kind of halo around your soul and mine and the evil one cannot touch us.
You see those kinds of passages in 1 John and in 1 Peter where we’re basically told that the evil one cannot touch us, and it’s not talking about the body. It’s talking about your soul, because the Lion of Judah is guarding your soul. Jesus is called the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls. That’s how He’s described and titled in the Bible.
I know that all of you are aware of the fact that this past week former President Ronald Reagan had a series of funeral services, one in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C,. and his body was in the casket there. Dignitaries from all over the world came. Throughout the week his body was paraded and exhibited. It lay in state underneath the great dome of the Capitol Rotunda for a number of days and over one hundred thousand Americans came to pay their respects to his body.
Friday, late in the day, his body was flown to Simi Valley in California to the Reagan Library. Another funeral service was held there and then finally his body was put to rest. But remember, it’s just a body. “Don’t fear him who can destroy the body.” What really counts is the soul. Ronald Reagan’s soul left that body the moment he drew his last breath, and his soul went to be with the Lord. The Lord is the Lion of Judah, the Guardian and Shepherd of our souls, and He guards and protects us. As you go through life, and as I go through life, we have this kind of confidence, even in the midst of disease, even in the midst of disaster, even in the midst of suffering, because our soul is secure because of Christ.
I want us to conclude with a little story. The story concerns Samuel Porter Jones, one of my favorite people in Christian history. Samuel Porter Jones was born in 1847 in Chambers County, Alabama. When he was 9 years old, his family moved to Cartersville, Georgia, and Samuel Porter Jones grew up in Georgia with his family. His father was a deeply committed Christian who truly believed in Jesus Christ. His father was also a lawyer.
Samuel Jones grew up and he never embraced Jesus. He never embraced the Christian faith, but he did have an affection for the law and for the practice of the law. He went to law school, and at the age of 21 Samuel Porter Jones graduated and began to practice as an attorney. He had a wife and a child, and he must have thought the world was at his fingertips. He was talented, and yet his life was destroyed by alcoholism. Within two years, by the time he was 23, he had lost his wife because of alcoholism, his child because of alcoholism, and his job because of alcoholism. At the age of 23, Samuel Jones became a street person, a tragic alcoholic, just wandering the streets. He remained that way for two years.
At the age of 25, word came to him that his father was dying and wanted to see him. Samuel Porter Jones went to see his dad. His dad said, “Son, I want to see you someday in heaven. Promise me that you will repent. Promise me that you will ask Jesus to be your Savior and that you’ll give your life to Him as Lord. Promise me.” Samuel Jones said, “Okay,” but he didn’t mean it. As soon as his father died, he went down the street and he found the closest bar and he ordered a drink. He was standing there in the bar and he looked in the big mirror behind the counter and he was stunned. It was like he saw himself for the first time and he saw that his hair was grungy and matted. He saw vomit on his clothes because he had thrown up all over himself just the day before. Right there in that bar, Samuel Porter Jones fell down to his knees and he honored the commitment he had made to his dad and he asked Jesus to be His Savior and his Lord and he made the commitment to follow Him all the days of his life.
A miracle happened in his life. It’s not exactly the same in every Christian’s life but he never had another drop of alcohol. He was delivered in one day. I know for most of us as Christians, victory is a process, and many alcoholics have to go through AA and counseling. I understand that, but he was delivered in one day, and he went to prepare himself for the ministry in theological education, and Samuel Porter Jones became, next to D.L. Moody, the most famous evangelist in America in the 19th century. Church historians tell us that Samuel Jones spoke in cities all over this nation, and more than 500,000 people asked Jesus into their heart and became Christians through his ministry. Incredible.
I think my favorite little story about him took place in 1899 on March 5 of 1899 when Samuel Jones went to the city of Toledo, Ohio, to conduct a revival. The amazing thing was that the Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, was also named Samuel Jones. He wasn’t a Christian. In fact, he was a very immoral man, but he thought it would be kind of cool if Samuel Jones, the Mayor, introduced Samuel Jones, the evangelist, so he asked permission to be able to do the opening introduction at the crusade. He was granted that permission.
The Mayor got up there and he introduced Samuel Jones and he said, “Isn’t it neat that we share the same name?” He introduced Samuel Jones as “the greatest evangelist in America.” The Mayor sat down. Samuel Porter Jones, the evangelist, stood up. He looked right at the Mayor and he said, “You have a tragic city here. You have 700 saloons in the city of Toledo, and most of them serve people until they’re falling down drunk. You have 150 gambling houses in the city of Toledo, greedy men getting rich off the tragic addiction of the masses. You have thousands of street people, homeless people just living on the streets, and you have thousands of additional people living in abject poverty. You have very little compassion in this city and very little love.” Then he looked the Mayor in the eye and he said, “You know, if the devil were the Mayor of this city, he wouldn’t change a single thing.”
Then he began to talk about Jesus Christ and he invited people to embrace the love of Christ through the gospel. Samuel Jones, the Mayor, left that meeting enraged. One month later he was re-elected by a population that did not care about the immorality of the city or its mayor. But, you see, on that March 5, 1899, when Samuel Porter Jones, the evangelist, spoke, that very night more than 1,000 men and women asked Jesus into their heart. More than a thousand people became Christians that night. It’s always that way. People make choices. I mean, they choose royal wrath or they choose royal love. It’s always that way. It will always be that way until Jesus comes again. We have a choice to make.
In C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia,” where he portrays Christ as Aslan the Lion in the last battle and the final scene, you see Aslan the Lion standing and the creatures of Narnia all come before him. Some pass by on one side and some pass by on the other. Some choose royal wrath. Some choose royal love. The choice is ours. We want to give you a chance this morning as we’re closing, to come into the pride of the Lion of Judah and begin to experience his royal love. We want to caution you by the authority of the Word of God that royal wrath is real and these are the images of the lion in scripture. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.