The Lion Was the Lamb

Your gentleness made me great.
(Psa 18:35)

As you know, these words were penned by David and reveals a true understanding of God’s nature. I think you would agree that David was truly a great man of the Old Testament. I would go as far to say he was great even in the whole world. He stands among the heroes of humanity. Yet in any period of David's life there seems to be an abundance of variation. At times he was hunted like a deer in the field or found running from God after the Bathsheba incident. He suffered from the hands of treacherous friends and grieved heavily in the death of his son Absalom. After all that, he penned the verse mentioned above. I think he wrote this verse after looking back over his life and what stood out as the brightest points in his life was the unfailing gentleness of God and not the inflictions of heavenly punishment. By the way, God had chastised him and sometimes heavily.

The amazing thing about this, to me, if you stop and consider, is that what struck David was the GENTLENESS of God. And with all sincerity and fullness of heart he says “Thy Gentleness hath made me great”

Can we relate to this as David did?

I think we would feel, down in your toes kind of feeling, the wonder of the gentleness of God when we remember his gentleness is joined with real POWER. I mean at the back of God’s gentleness is INFINITE power. On the other hand there is a type of gentleness that is pathetically weak and coward. I see this kind of gentleness in people who avoid offending in an attempt to remain in good standing with everyone. But the wonder of God’s gentleness is not from interior weakness, but rests upon a heart of Omnipotence.

You may recall Revelation 5. Where the elder was telling the apostle John about the Lion of the tribe of Judah. This of course was symbolic of Jesus. But when John looked trying to see the Lion on the throne, instead there was a lamb. Power was compassion, Dominance was tenderness, Strength was gentleness—THE LION WAS THE LAMB.

It is the wonder of the gentleness of God.

A Modern Parable

I heard the below story years ago and have since re-read it in The Art of Personal Evangelism by Will McRaney. It is a Christmas story of sorts and a wonderful analogy of why God became a man!

There was a man who was married to a good Christian. He, however, was a non-believer. He never went to church. One Christmas Eve, his wife took the children to church, while the man stayed home. He lit a fire in the fireplace, filled his pipe, pulled a good book from the shelf, and settled into his favorite chair, a steaming cup of coffee beside him. Boy, could I see myself doing that!

After a while, there came a tapping at his window. The man looked up, and saw a sparrow on the sill, outside. He figured the bird would leave, so he went back to his reading. Tap, tap, tap. He looked up, and saw two sparrows, and the first snow flurries. Still, no cause for concern. They’ll go away soon.

Tap, tap, tap. This time, there were several birds, and the snow was coming down heavier. The man was starting to get concerned. The birds were in danger of freezing. Well, not his problem. He went back to his book.

Tap, tap, tap. Now, there was a whole flock of sparrows, and a blizzard was howling outside. This would not do. These birds needed shelter, and quickly. The man struggled into his boots, shrugged on his coat and headed out to the barn. He opened the barn doors wide, turned on the lights, and thought “This will save them. They will see the light, and fly to the safety of the barn.” He went back inside.

Soon, another tap, tap, tap. More sparrows. More snow. The temperature was dropping. “This won’t do at all.” the man thought to himself “I will leave a trail of food to the barn. They will follow the path to the light, and be saved.” So, once again, he put on his coat and trudged outside.

Back in the house, the man watched the sparrows huddled on his sill. They just didn’t get it. He thought: “If only I could be one of them, I could lead them toward the light and salvation.” At that moment, the man suddenly understood why God sent His son to us.