Revelation 10:1-7 “I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head; his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. (2) He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, (3) and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. (4) Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." (5) The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven (6) and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, (7) but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.”
The bible refers to our Lord Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), and the bible also refers to our Lord as roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10). So do these passages mean that Jesus literally takes on the form of a lion and then walks about roaring as a lion? The answer to both those questions is no. Just as Satan does not take on the form of a lion and walk about roaring as he goes through the earth, even though the scripture refers to him as such (1 Peter 5:8). The passages of scripture that refer to both our Lord Jesus and Satan as lions are symbolic in nature and not literal. The above passage of scripture sheds some light on what the bible means when it states that the Lord roars like a lion. In this passage John relates to us what it was like when he heard this mighty angel crying out to God in a loud voice. Obviously the angel’s voice was that powerful and loud that John compared it to a lion’s roar. We know that the angel didn’t literally roar at God, because John recorded for us what the angel said, even though he was prohibited by God from recording what the seven thunders said in reply. Make no mistake; heaven can be quite loud at times, for it is inhabited by some very powerful beings, created by an all powerful God. And so when the scripture refers to our Lord Jesus as roaring like a lion, it is emphasizing the power and majesty of His voice, not the fact that He literally roars like an animal.
Michael E.B. Maher
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