Why We Invent Lions (Proverbs 22:13 / 26:13)
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Proverbs 22:13
The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!”
This verse is another doppelganger, repeated as Proverbs 26:13, and our rule remains the same: “If the Bible says it twice, it would do us good to heed its advice”.
The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!”
Honestly this verse does very well to encapsulate all that a sluggard is, and I wonder if that’s why it's repeated twice. Two things of note with this verse:
1. You can identify a lazy person by the words they say, particularly the excuses they make. Sluggards are fluent in excuse making. And they’ll go to great lengths, such as proclaiming there to be a lion outside, just so they will not have to work.
And that relates to point 2.
2. Sluggards always have something to say. They always seem to have more to say than to do.
But here’s where we must turn the diamond and let it catch the light of Christ. The sluggard sees lions in the street, but the Christian sees the Lion of Judah on the throne. Excuses are the lullabies of the lazy, but obedience is the anthem of the faithful.
Think of Jesus: our Lord did not look for lions as an excuse to stay indoors; He marched into the very den of death. He met the roaring lion of sin head-on, wrestled it to the ground, and broke its jaw at Calvary. The coward stays in bed to avoid an imaginary beast, but the Savior went to the cross to conquer the real one.
And if that’s true of Christ, then it must shape us too. We may not say, “There’s a lion outside,” but don’t we often say, “I’m too busy, too tired, too unworthy, too unready”? Our excuses may wear different and more modern clothes, but they all live on the same street as the sluggard.
So what’s the invitation? Not just to stop making excuses, but to start trusting Jesus enough to step into the street. It’s better to be mauled in the path of obedience than to rot in the bed of excuses. Better to stumble forward with Christ than to sit safely with nothing to show.
But do you believe that? So often we choose comfort over Christ.
Where have you been inventing lions instead of trusting the Lion of Judah?
What excuse has been on your lips that Christ is calling you to lay down today?
Let’s pray.
“Lord Jesus, forgive me for the excuses I’ve clothed in fear. Help me to hear Your call louder than my comfort, and to see Your strength greater than my weakness. Make me bold, not in myself, but in You—the true Lion who has already conquered.”
