Consider the King
- Jeff Setzer
- Jun 5, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 10
When we hear "cat," what comes to mind? Most think of the common housecat, like this 22 pound "Lux" (below)! After clawing a baby, the owner kicked it and the cat went into a rampage. It ended up having the entire family (complete with dog) hiding in another room of the house and they called 911!
Or a kitty that might do something heroic like save a child from a vicious dog!
What about big cats? How awesome is the strength of a lion or the cunning and power of a jaguar?
Or check out this cat fight between two leopards!
Are cats evidence of "millions of years" of long, slow, gradual processes that produced such variety, stealth, and magnificence, or do they point to a magnificent Creator with creative ability incomprehensible to our minds? How could a lioness know that her paw "pads" are a liability as she silently sneaks up on her prey, so that she turns her paws sideways to make her stealthy approach even more silent?
question: Would a lion give a big ROAR when sneaking up on its prey? NO! So, WHY does a lion roar? (more on this later)
Did you KNOW...
Big Cat Facts!
Lion
Life span: 10 years
Weight: 550 lbs
Length: 9 ft
1. They are called “King of the Jungle” or “King of the Beasts.”
2. Males watch the cubs while females hunt. A group is a called a “Pride.”
3. The Lion roar can be heard up to 5 miles.
4. In hunting, a lion can run short distances at 40 mph, leap 40 feet, and jump 12
feet high!
Lion vs. Croc--who wins??
Leopard
Life span: 12 years
Weight: 80-100 lbs
Length: 8 ft
1. Leopards are the smallest member of the great cats.
2. They are the only large predator of the rainforest in its size range.
3. They can drag prey three times its size into a tree.
4. They can hear twice as well as humans and see six times better in low light.
5. A black panther is the melanistic (excess of black pigment in their skin and fur)
color variant of the leopard, and the jaguar.
6. Leopards have spots similar to a cheetah but their spots have a black ring around,
where as the cheetah has just a solid dot for spots. See the pictures below for
reference.
Tiger
Life Span: 25 years
Weight: 400-500 lbs
Length: 9 ft
Height: 3 feet
Tigers live in thick forests with tall grass--not in open grasslands.
They live and hunt mostly alone (as compared to lions that hunt and live together).
They can drag prey that would take 12 men to move!
With smaller prey, they bite the neck. For larger prey, they bite the throat and hold for up to 10 minutes!
Cheetah
Life Span: 12 years
Weight: 120-128 lbs
Length: 5ft
Height: 2.8 feet
1. Cheetahs are the fastest land animal in the world, reaching speeds up to 70 mph.
2. Unlike other large cats cheetahs cannot retract their claws.
3. Cheetahs also have the smallest babies with the shortest time to carry them.
Notice the repeated phrase, "after it's kind" (or similar) like in Genesis . With animals reproducing after their kind, all of the "cat kind" technically could reproduce...so what about...
"After their kind" is perfectly illustrated in the "liger" (father is a lion, mother is a tiger) as an example of the biblical "kind." Check out Sinbad the liger! (below)
Why does a lion ROARRR?
It certainly isn't going to make such a great noise when it's sneaking up on its prey!
As the video above shared, two main reasons why the lion roars is to:
Hmmm...!
SATAN walking about "as a ROARING LION..." The emphasis isn't on the lion (Satan) "sneaking up on its prey" as Scripture tells us that he has "wiles." Rather, the use of the lion indicates Satan's brazen announcement that this world is his "territory" (so he thinks), as Scripture says he's the "god of this world." Yet, the true King of Creation, the LORD JESUS CHRIST "rules and reigns in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:17)
In 2002, a duck allegedly flew into a lion pen in a zoo in Norfolk (Va Beach area), causing conflict between two lions with one (sadly) being killed in a big "cat fight" and it made FRONT PAGE! Why would two cats fighting over a bird make such headlines?
Well, the Virginia Beach area is the home of PETA...
To PETA and their adherents, human life is no more or less important than a rat, a pig, or a dog, so ill treatment of a lion or a giraffe or a baboon is equivalent to mistreating a human. This idea is directly related to the evolutionary worldview!
QUESTION:
Sadly and tragically, animals are sometimes treated like humans. Such as this post on Facebook...
Scripture clearly tells us that the Creator gave humans a specific and special role in creation concerning the animal kingdom...
However, our "mother" isn't the Earth. The God-Who-Is, the Creator of the Earth made us ... and the cat kind! And while He made everything "very good" in the beginning, our sin "messed up" everything!
Romans 3:23 "For the wages of sin is death..."
YET... though our violation (beginning with Adam) brought about the just and righteous punishment of death, there is coming a "RIGHTING" of ALL wrong--true "peace on earth" like we sing about at Christmas! God's Word tells that even the animal kingdom, predator and prey, will be at peace!
We even see indications of this peace now...
COME to the Lion of the Tribe of Juda who became your sacrificial lamb for all of your violations (sins)! Believe on Him!
Commentaires