“And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.” (1 Samuel 17:34-35). I'm not sure I could have been as good of a shepherd as David was. If I tracked down my sheep and saw it in the mouth of a very much alive and hungry lion, I'd probably call that the end of the search and run away as quickly as possible. But not David. He ran right up to it, grabbed it by the beard, as he says, and killed the thing, all while somehow keeping the sheep alive. As good of a shepherd as David was, Jesus Christ is even better. We may have gotten ourselves so deep into a pattern of sin or addiction or unforgivable betrayal that we may very well feel that we have been half devoured by an angry lion and thus are utterly beyond hope. No one would be brave or stupid enough or love us enough to try and pry us out of the jaws of Hell once they've clanged shut over our necks. Christ does love us that much and He is that brave and although He is wise beyond understanding, that wisdom often appears foolish to us. Whether the lion has us in his paws or in his jaws or whether Christ has to plunge His arm down the thing’s gullet to pull us out and deliver us from the mouth of the lion, Christ will not hesitate. Christ is not afraid of the lion and He's not afraid of whatever hell we've managed to get ourselves swallowed up by. Lions and tigers and bears and all the fiery circles of Hell should be afraid of Jesus Christ. Nothing will come between Jesus and saving us. So if we find ourselves once again in the lion's mouth, let us not lose hope. Our Savior is coming and nothing as small or insignificant as a lion is going to stop Him.
