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| "With might of ours can nought be done, soon were our loss effected; but for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Ask ye, Who is this? Jesus Christ it is, of Sabbath Lord, and there's no other God; he holds the field forever." Christ as The Lion of Judah by Rudolf Koch. |
"The most powerful daring and impressive of all carnivorous animals, the most magnificent in aspect and awful in voice." At present lions do not exist in Palestine; but they must in ancient of times have been numerous. The lion of Palestine was in all probability the Asiatic variety, described by Aristotle and Pliny as distinguished by its short curly mane, and by being shorter and rounder in shape, like the sculptured lion found in Arban. It was less daring than the longer named species, but when driven by hunger it not only ventured to attack the flocks in the desert in presence of the shepherd, but laid waste towns and villages and devoured men.
- "And David said to Saul, Your servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:" 1 Samuel 17:34
- "For thus has the LORD spoken to 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." Isaiah 31: 4
- "And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them. Why they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you have removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he has sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land." 2 Kings 17:25,26
- "The slothful man said, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." Proverbs 22: 13
- "And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass." 1 Kings 13: 24
Among the Hebrews, and throughout the Old Testament, the lion was the achievement of the princely tribe of Judah, while in the closing book of the canon it received a deeper significance as the emblem of him who "prevailed to open the book and loose the seven seals thereof."
- "And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." Revelations 5:5
One the other hand its fierceness and cruelty rendered it an appropriate metaphor for a fierce and malignant enemy and hence for the archfiend himself.
- "Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." Psalms 7:2
- "Save me from the lion's mouth: for you have heard me from the horns of the unicorns." Psalms 22:21
- "My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." Psalms 57:4
- "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." 2 Timothy 4:17
- "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:" 1 Peter 5:8
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| Jesus Is The Victor, with the dragon beneath him. by Rudolf Koch |
