A Word in Season: The Lion Outside (Proverbs 22:6-13)

There's a lion outside, there's a lion in the way, there's a lion in the street. Not an excuse perhaps that most of us are accustomed to hearing as to why we shouldn't go outside right now. Maybe there are places in the world where there's at least a possibility that there could be some truth to such an assertion.

That would have been the case in the days and in the place where these excuses were first recorded in Proverbs 22 and verse 13 and Proverbs 26 and verse 13. Very similar, if not identical. But the reason why I call them excuses is that they are all found in the mouth of the lazy man, the slothful one, the man who's just not interested in getting on with something.

He's a man who perhaps has a job of work to do. Maybe he's got to go and labour in the field, maybe there are tasks that he needs to accomplish around his house, maybe there's some other business in which he needs to be engaged, perhaps there are family members who are dependent upon him, but no, he can't do what he should or could be doing because there's a lion outside and he's going to be killed in the streets.

Now, while that might not be the precise excuse we make, the lazy man is still inclined to make those kinds of excuses about the work that he could or should be doing. A reason not to do it now, or perhaps not to do it at all.

Perhaps it soothes his own conscience to make him think that there's a good reason why he shouldn't be getting on with this particular thing right now. Perhaps he thinks it makes him look better in the eyes of others when he spins another line.

The tragedy is that he's actually being quite inventive and diligent with regard to the excuses that he dreams up. If he showed half the inventiveness and diligence about overcoming obstacles and doing his job as he did about avoiding the work in the first place, he'd probably be an outstanding worker.

But the work that lies before him for some reason is not palatable. And perhaps we know what that's like. We live in a fallen world. From the days after Adam's sin, there were thorns and thistles to contend with.

No work is always pleasant. It is hard work in a fallen world, and there are obstacles and there are difficulties. There may be seasons of long and seemingly pointless graft where we're just getting on with what we need to do, and there's no immediate or obvious return on our investment, or we don't find the pleasure in something that we'd like to find in doing the work.

There may be bright spots, certainly, and some of us are blessed with employment that we really enjoy and that often delights us and rewards us. But there are still seasons where there are challenges and difficulties, and often those rewards and pleasures come after long seasons of real investment and labour.

But the problem is, when the difficulty is there, and when the grind is there, and when the pressure is there, we can be very prone to make excuses as to why we shouldn't do it now, or perhaps not at all.

The same is true not just with regard to our ordinary employments, but also with regard to spiritual endeavour. Too often as Christians, there's a lion outside, there's a lion in the way. Perhaps it's an individual duty that we need to undertake, or an opportunity that comes to us as a Christian man or woman.

Perhaps it's something that we have to deal with with another believer. Perhaps it's an evangelistic opportunity, but no, it's too dangerous, it's too difficult. The danger or the difficulty, the obstacle in the way is so great that it's just not a risk that we ought to take, and so we persuade ourselves to step back.

Perhaps it's a challenge or an opportunity as a church, as a whole, but there's a lion outside. We can't make that investment, we can't undertake that effort, we can't pursue that kingdom good because there's just too many difficulties and dangers.

We're better off staying inside in our safe little bubble. But that's the voice of laziness. Even where there are difficulties and dangers, the diligent man labours hard. He goes about his business with determination, independence upon the Lord God, to overcome those things with inventiveness and with hard work in order that he might obtain the blessing.

So let's not be the excuse makers with lazy spirits, but the diligent men and women who labour with faith.