Wrestling with rather than against the Lion of Judah

[Brent Kipfer]

This chapter unsettles me for a few reasons:

1. I need to be reminded that any attempt to domesticate the Lion of Heaven is futile and foolhardy.

2. If faced with a whole community that were utterly corrupt, my intercession for mercy on their behalf would be feeble compared to that of Abraham and Moses. This is one area in which I need to grow in my stubbornness and recklessness!

3. I do not believe that I am called to defend anyone against the Lion of Judah. If we were left with the witness of the Torah and Prophets alone, then I might be persuaded that “the heavenly Lion of Judah…on occasion requires an intercessor to keep his anger at bay� (although even here, it seems like the Lord is pleased that faithful shepherds like Abraham and Moses pled for mercy for their people). In Revelation 5, however, the Lion of Judah is revealed to be the Lamb who was slain. If the Lion himself became the Lamb whose blood “purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation,� then he himself has already “stood in the breach,� bearing his own wrath against sin. While I want to be “always wrestling in prayer� for my flock (like Epaphras) I do not believe that I am wrestling against the Lion of Heaven but with him for the sake of the people for whom he died.