| “Be sober, be vigilant? [on guard]; because your adversary [enemy] the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). |
| Perhaps you have never heard the roar of a lion. I have heard it only once, and the lion who was roaring was in a zoo. It was almost deafening, and would be very frightening if that lion were after you. We do not have lions in most western countries, but we have other animals that can be quite frightening, although most of them rarely attack humans. |
| We have one animal in our area called a fisher. It is not very big, and is a member of the weasel family. It is extremely ferocious, however, and will kill and eat animals larger than itself. It has been known to attack foxes, and even small deer. It can even attack and kill a porcupine, and almost no other animal can do this. The porcupine normally puts its nose against something like a tree, and then thrashes its tail if anything comes to attack it. Most animals who dared to attack it would get only a noseful of sharp quills. But the fisher knows how to climb the tree, then come down face-first and bite the porcupine on the face. It is very nimble, and eventually outwits the porcupine and gets at its belly, where there are no quills. It is also small enough to go down holes that animals like ground hogs usually make, and where they go for protection. |
| Satan is like that. He is very clever, and is watching you and me, ready to attack us. He knows that he cannot take away our salvation, but he can outwit us if we are not walking with the Lord. If Satan tries to get us to sin, what are we to do? In the wilderness, if you are attacked by some animals (like a grizzly bear!), it is better to “play dead” than to fight. You will never win a fight with a grizzly bear, unless you have a gun. But with other animals (like a mountain lion), it is better to fight hard — throw stones, use a heavy stick, etc. With Satan, we are to resist him, although we cannot fight him in our own strength. But Satan knows that he has been defeated at the cross, when the Lord Jesus died. If we resist him, he will “flee from us,” as a mountain lion will sometimes do, if we resist him. |
| The important thing is to be on our guard. Avoiding an attack is the best, and we are safe when we are walking with the Lord. |
