I have always wondered why Apostle Peter said that the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. In my mind, I thought if a lion is going to roar and announce its presence, all the preys would be alerted and run! This “stupid lion” would catch nothing, obvious. So did Peter make a mistake there?
This mystery was solved when I read the book “The Battle” by Thomas E.Trask & Wayde I. Goodall. On page 14 it says:
It is interesting that Peter compared the devil to a lion. Lions prey on the weak, the wounded, the naive, and the innocent. When they are hungry, whatever flesh is easiest to get becomes their dinner. Mike Taliaferro, a pastor in South Africa, writes in his book The Lion Never Sleeps:
I have seen lions hunting. They are territorial and will not follow the migrating herds. Rather, they hunt a specific area. When a herd moves near their region, they will approach slowly. They are keenly aware of wind direction and know how to stay downwind from their prey. But often they don’t care if the herd is alerted — such is their confidence.
Frequently the lion will run at a herd. Not sprinting but just jogging, the lion will frighten the herd. His aim is to get them to move. He wants to see them run. To the human eye, the herd’s retreat seems normal enough. To the lion’s sharp eye, dinner becomes very obvious. He notices who is old, who is tired or who is injured. A slight limp or any mannerism imperceptible to the human eye is obvious to the lion. He frightens the herd in order to spot the weak ones. Once he decides on his target, he will run past the others to get to his chosen prey.
So Apostle Peter was right. The devil is going after the weak and vulnerable. So let us therefore resist the devil, standing firm in the faith, as Peter exhorted.