The Lion and the Leaf Text: Proverbs 28:1
Introduction: The World's Great Divide
Our world is divided, but not in the way the talking heads on cable news would have you believe. The fundamental division is not between right and left, rich and poor, or any other horizontal, man-made category. The ultimate chasm, the great continental divide of the human race, is between two kinds of conscience: the guilty and the clean. This proverb sets that division before us with stark, pictorial clarity. It is a proverb about internal realities that manifest themselves in external postures. On the one side, you have the wicked, perpetually haunted, jumping at shadows, fleeing from phantoms. On the other, you have the righteous, standing their ground with the settled, unshakable security of a lion.
We live in an age that has inverted this reality. Our culture celebrates the bold-faced sinner as courageous and authentic, while it mocks the righteous man as timid, repressed, and fearful. But God's Word tells us the exact opposite. Sin, at its root, is cowardice. Righteousness, at its root, is courage. This is because the wicked man is at war with reality itself. He is a fugitive from the God who made him, and so he spends his life looking over his shoulder, hearing footsteps that are not there, startled by the rustling of a leaf. The righteous man, by contrast, is at peace with the One who defines all reality. He has been reconciled to God through the blood of the Son, and therefore he has nothing left to fear. He can face down armies, tyrants, and devils, not because of some native grit, but because his conscience is clear and his standing is secure.
This proverb is not just a pithy observation about human psychology. It is a diagnostic tool. It reveals the true spiritual state of a man, a church, or a nation. Do we find ourselves constantly in retreat, compromising, making excuses, and flinching before the empty threats of a hollowed-out culture? Or do we stand fast, with a deep-chested confidence that comes not from ourselves, but from the Lion of the tribe of Judah? The answer to that question reveals everything.
The Text
The wicked flee when there is no one pursuing,
But the righteous are secure as a lion.
(Proverbs 28:1 LSB)
The Haunted Conscience
The first half of the proverb describes the inner world of the ungodly.
"The wicked flee when there is no one pursuing..." (Proverbs 28:1a)
The wicked man is a man on the run. But notice from what he is running. He is not fleeing from a tangible threat, a real enemy with a sword. He is fleeing when "no one" is pursuing. His torment is internal. He is pursued by his own guilt. His conscience is the hound of heaven, nipping at his heels, giving him no rest. He is his own ghost, his own accuser. A tap on the shoulder makes him jump. The sound of a falling leaf sends him into a panic.
This is not poetic license; it is a direct fulfillment of God's covenant curse upon disobedience. In the law, God warns Israel what will happen if they forsake Him: "And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth" (Lev. 26:36). The wicked man's paranoia is a divine judgment. God Himself puts a "faintness" into his heart. His external world may be peaceful, but his soul is a war zone.
We see this played out across our culture. Why is our society so frantic, so loud, so perpetually distracted? It is the flight of the wicked. They are running from silence, because in the silence, the accusations of their own conscience might catch up to them. Why are they so eager to redefine sin, to call evil good and good evil? They are trying to outrun the fixed moral standard that is written on their hearts. Why are they so enraged by the public proclamation of the gospel or the quiet confidence of a Christian who will not bow? Because it reminds them of the very pursuer they are trying to pretend does not exist.
A guilty conscience makes a man a slave. As the writer to the Hebrews says, men are held in bondage their whole lives by the fear of death (Heb. 2:15). The sting of death is sin (1 Cor. 15:56). The wicked man fears death not just because it is an end, but because it is a reckoning. He knows, deep down, that he has an appointment with the God he has been fleeing, and this knowledge turns him into a profound coward. Scripture is clear that cowardice is an aspect of wickedness. The list of those who are thrown into the lake of fire begins not with murderers or idolaters, but with the cowardly (Rev. 21:8). The flight of the wicked is ultimately a flight from God, and it is a race they are guaranteed to lose.
The Secure Righteousness
In glorious contrast, the second half of the proverb presents us with the state of the righteous.
"But the righteous are secure as a lion." (Proverbs 28:1b LSB)
The image is one of absolute fearlessness and serene confidence. The lion is the king of the beasts. He does not startle easily. He is not spooked by rustling leaves. He walks with a calm, regal authority. He is not looking over his shoulder. He is secure. This is the posture of the righteous man.
But we must immediately ask, who is this righteous man? If we are honest, we know that this description does not naturally fit us. We are often fearful, anxious, and anything but bold. This is because there has only ever been one man who was righteous all the way through, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). He faced down His enemies, both human and demonic, with flint-faced resolution. He spoke truth to power without flinching. He walked into Jerusalem, into the very teeth of the conspiracy to murder Him, with sovereign calm. He was, and is, as bold as a lion.
So how can this boldness become ours? It is not by trying to imitate a lion. It is by being united to the Lion. The righteousness that makes us bold is not our own. It is an alien righteousness, a righteousness from God that is received by faith (Phil. 3:9). When Christ died on the cross, He took our guilt, our sin, and our cowardice upon Himself. He absorbed the wrath that we deserved. And through His resurrection, He destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and in so doing, He delivered us from the lifelong bondage of the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15).
This is the secret to Christian courage. Our boldness is a function of our justification. Because our sin has been dealt with, our conscience has been cleansed. Because we are declared righteous in Christ, we are no longer fugitives. We are sons. We have been liberated from the true terror, the wrath of God, and so we are consequently liberated from all false terrors. If we have faced the roaring lion of hell in the person of our substitute, and have come out victorious, why should we then be afraid of the yapping dogs of this world? If God is for us, who can be against us? This is not arrogance. It is the logic of the gospel. The righteous are not bold because of what they are in themselves, but because of who they are in Christ.
Living as Lions
This proverb, then, is a call to inhabit our justification. It is a summons to act like who we are. We are in Christ, and therefore we are secure. This has massive implications for how we engage our collapsing culture.
The church in the West has been largely characterized by the flight of the wicked. We have been running from confrontation, terrified of being called names, and willing to compromise the truth in order to buy a little temporary peace from a world that hates our King. We have been spooked by the rustling leaves of media outrage and academic scorn. But this is a profound denial of the gospel we claim to believe. If we have been set free from the fear of death, we have been set free from the fear of man.
The times we live in demand lion-hearted courage. And God has given us everything we need for it. He has given us a clean conscience through the blood of His Son. He has given us His Holy Spirit, who is a Spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). He has given us His infallible Word, which is a sword. Our task is to stand our ground. To speak the truth in love. To refuse to comply with godless orders. To build robust Christian households, churches, and schools that are citadels of courage in a world of cowards.
Obedience is ours, and the results are God's. We are not called to be successful; we are called to be faithful. And faithfulness in our day looks like the placid security of a lion. It looks like refusing to be chased by the sound of a shaken leaf. When the world threatens, when the culture rages, when the mob shrieks, the righteous man, secure in the righteousness of Christ, can calmly hold his ground, look the opposition in the eye, and refuse to budge. For he serves the Lion, and he has forgotten how to flee.