His Roar Is Worse Than His Bite

(Proverbs 19:12 KJV)  The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

Both “roaring” (5099) and “dew” (2919) are temporary things which in moderation do not change anything.

Think about the roaring lion.  It is scary if he is not in a cage.  I would not want to meet one even if it is not roaring.  On the plus side the chances of me meeting a lion face to face are about the same as sitting down to lunch with a king.  So what do I take away from this today?

Think back to your nature lessons.  Lions hunt in packs.  Generally speaking, the lion that roars is not the lion that takes you down.  This could all be my creative imagination but I picture the female lions spread out in a crescent, hiding in the tall grass, out of sight.  I picture the one male lion walking out into the open and giving out with his best Tarzan roar.  The food panics and runs in the opposite direction right into the waiting jaws of death.

So?  Don’t panic when you hear the roar.  You know who it is.

(1 Peter 5:8 KJV)  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

But keep in mind the other side of the promise.  Let me switch translations because I like the term “highway of holiness.”

(Isaiah 35:8-9 NASB)  A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.  No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,

Let them roar.  Stay on the highway.  You don’t want to become lunch.