The Lion in the Governor's Chair Text: Proverbs 20:2
Introduction: The Necessity of Fear
We live in an age that has forgotten how to fear. Or rather, we have simply redirected our fears downward. We fear cholesterol, but not damnation. We fear social awkwardness, but not the wrath of God. We fear the disapproval of men in skinny jeans, but not the displeasure of the King of kings. Our society has become a padded room, designed to protect us from every sharp corner of reality, and the sharpest corner of all is legitimate, delegated authority. We have been taught that all authority is suspect, all power is corrupt, and that the only righteous posture is one of perpetual, cynical rebellion.
But the Bible will not have it. The Scriptures teach us that God has established various governments in the world for our good. He has established the government of the family, the government of the church, and the government of the state. And He has invested these governments with real, tangible authority. This authority is not a suggestion. It is not a polite request. When it is exercised righteously, it carries with it a terror. And this is a good thing. A ruler who is not a terror to evil works is no ruler at all; he is a court jester with a scepter.
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It does not deal in ethereal abstractions but in the concrete realities of daily life. And one of those realities is that God has appointed magistrates, rulers, and kings to keep the peace. He has given them the sword, as Paul tells us in Romans 13, and they do not bear it in vain. This proverb, then, is a bucket of cold water in the face of our effeminate, anti-authoritarian age. It reminds us that there are certain lines you do not cross, certain men you do not provoke, and certain consequences that are as fixed and unyielding as the law of gravity.
We will see that this proverb teaches us about the nature of delegated power, the foolishness of rebellion, and the ultimate self-destructive nature of sin. It is a lesson in political science, personal wisdom, and practical theology, all packed into one potent couplet.
The Text
The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion;
He who provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.
(Proverbs 20:2 LSB)
The Roar of Delegated Authority (v. 2a)
The first clause sets the scene with a powerful and visceral image:
"The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion..." (Proverbs 20:2a)
The proverb does not say that a king is a lion. It says his terror is like the roar of a lion. This is a crucial distinction. The king is a man, but the authority he wields is something else entirely. It is a delegated authority, an authority that comes down from God. Paul is crystal clear: "For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God" (Romans 13:1). The king, the governor, the president, the policeman on the corner, all of them are ministers of God, whether they know it or not. The terror they inspire in evildoers is a function of the office God has given them.
The image of a lion's roar is not accidental. A lion's roar is not a debate point. It is not an invitation to dialogue. It is a declaration of overwhelming, lethal power. It paralyzes its prey. It communicates, in no uncertain terms, that a lethal threat is present and that your options have suddenly become very, very limited. This is what righteous civil authority is meant to do to the lawless. The purpose of the sword, the prison, the fine, is to put the fear of God into those who would otherwise disrupt the civil peace with their wickedness.
Our modern sensibilities recoil at this. We want our leaders to be therapists-in-chief, not terrors. We want them to feel our pain, not inflict it. But a government that is not a terror to evil is a government that has abdicated its primary responsibility. When criminals no longer fear the police, when murderers do not fear the executioner, when rioters do not fear the National Guard, you do not have a compassionate society. You have a society on the fast track to chaos and ruin. The roar has been replaced by a meow, and the sheep are scattered.
This terror is a gift of God's common grace. It restrains evil. It allows ordinary people to go about their lives, to build homes, to raise families, and to worship God in peace. A healthy fear of the magistrate is the foundation of a stable society. When that fear is lost, everything is lost.
The Foolishness of Provocation (v. 2b)
The second clause draws out the practical, personal application of this principle.
"He who provokes him to anger sins against his own soul." (Proverbs 20:2b LSB)
Given the reality of the lion's roar, what is the wise course of action? It is to not poke the lion. It is to not tug on his tail. It is to not throw pebbles at him while he's eating. The fool, however, does just that. To provoke the king is to deliberately incite his wrath. It is to test the limits, to push the boundaries, to see what you can get away with. It is the spirit of the insolent teenager, the revolutionary, the anarchist.
And the Bible diagnoses this action with theological precision. It is not merely a tactical error or a political miscalculation. It is a sin. And it is a peculiar kind of sin, it is a sin "against his own soul." This phrase means you are forfeiting your own life, you are harming your own being. It is a form of spiritual and physical suicide.
Think of it this way. When you defy the legitimate authority of the state, you are not just defying a man in a suit. You are defying the ordinance of God. You are picking a fight with the institutional arrangement that God Himself has established for the ordering of the world. Paul says that "whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment" (Romans 13:2). The king's wrath is simply the earthly, temporal manifestation of a much greater, divine wrath.
This is not to say that civil authority is absolute. Of course not. When the state commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). But that is the rare exception, not the rule for our daily attitude. The default posture of the Christian is one of submission and honor, not defiance and provocation. The man who goes out of his way to pick a fight with the government is not a hero; he is a fool who is sinning against his own life. He is standing on the railroad tracks, shaking his fist at the oncoming locomotive, and congratulating himself on his courage. But courage and stupidity are two different things.
Conclusion: Fearing the Right Lion
This proverb forces us to reckon with the reality of power and the wisdom of submission. But like all proverbs, it points beyond itself to a greater reality. If the terror of a human king, a mere man who will die and turn to dust, is like the roar of a lion, what then is the terror of the King of Heaven? If it is suicidal to provoke a governor, what is it to provoke the Almighty God?
The author of Hebrews warns us, "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). All the power and terror of every earthly king is but a faint echo, a dim shadow, of the power and terror of God. The earthly king can take your life. God can cast both body and soul into hell. That is the fear we have forgotten.
The man who provokes the earthly king sins against his own soul, forfeiting his temporal life. But the man who provokes the heavenly King sins against his own soul in an ultimate, eternal sense. Every sin is a provocation. Every act of rebellion against His law is a tug on the tail of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
And here is the glorious twist of the gospel. That same Lion, whose roar ought to strike terror in our hearts, is also the Lamb who was slain. Jesus Christ, the King of kings, absorbed the full measure of God's wrath against sin on the cross. He took the judgment that we provoked. He faced the terror that we deserved.
Therefore, the application for us is twofold. First, we are to be wise citizens of our earthly kingdom. We are to honor the king, pray for our leaders, and live quiet and peaceable lives. We should not be known as provocateurs, rebels, or malcontents. We do not poke the lion. We render to Caesar what is Caesar's.
But second, and more importantly, we must ensure we are at peace with the ultimate King. Have you bowed the knee to King Jesus? Have you ceased your foolish provocations against Him? The only way to be safe from the roar of the Lion of Judgment is to take refuge in the wounds of the Lamb of God. For those who are in Christ, the roar of the lion is no longer a terror for us, but it is a terror for our enemies. He is our King, and in His wrath, He defends His people. To provoke Him is to sin against your own soul, but to bow to Him is to find life for your soul, now and forever.