A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION

SERMON 23

A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION

A Sermon Preached on 07/02/2016

There is hope for the living. As they say, “It is better to be a living dog than a dead lion"--Ecclesiastes 9:4 NLT

I worship you O God! Let us be on our feet, praise his holy name, magnify him, he is the Lord Almighty, the Creator of the universe, the preserver of our lives, our great provider, Abraham called him Jehovah Jire. Let us worship him, he is the king of kings, The Lord of lords. The only God and there is none like him. Haliluah!

Brethren, I want to remind you today that there are many people whose condition of living is extremely terrible. They wish to die rather than to live and face their excruciating condition. Some people are in harsh conditions and looking for help, while some live comfortably with everything they need in life. They eat three square meals in a day. Their lives are characterized by merriment and luxury but they may be contracted with sickness and perhaps die in the process and yet, the less privileged individuals keep living in their afflictions. As long as there is life, there is hope.

We see from the Ecclesiastes 9:4 that the preacher, Solomon who is the wisest man, explores the mystery in the things that relate to both the righteous and the wicked. The righteous face some disasters as if they are sinners. Both good and evil happen to both the righteous and the wicked. But in all, the actions and the afflictions of the godly are in the God's hands.

Lion is the noblest of animals, an animal that is very strong, full of strength and energy while dog is the vilest of animals. Therefore, in the context of this sermon, "lion" is used metaphorically as the giants, the mighty men, those the men of the world eulogize because they are born in purple spoon while "dog" symbolically is the afflicted ones, those who are condemned and despised (see 1 Samuel 24:14). Those who are seen presumptuously as the worst sinners are better than the dead lions, (those mighty men who died in sin and have no time to repent) . There is hope for the living dogs because they have the time to repent and spare their lives from destruction. This justifies the assertion that there is no repentance in the grave where the dead lion lay and they have no future.

Brethren, there is hope for you and never allow your present condition to delude you to conclude that God has abandoned you. Perhaps, in the life history of Mephibosheth, he might think that he had been abandoned by friends and relations. He might think that in this kind of his condition that is the end of his life. He lost his father, Jonathan, his grandfather, Saul and his health. This hideous incident completely darkened his life and he became a living dog. He became helpless and hopeless. There is no how he would live without thinking of what kept him in such a mess condition. He would remember how he became crippled when his nurse was carrying him, trying to hide him when she heard the sad news of the death of the great heroes, Jonathan and Saul. He would guess upon how he fell from his nurse that caused him to be crippled and the idea of hiding away from David. He possibly might think that David could take revenge against the family of Saul, and so, all his hope became obscure and dim. Tell me if there was a time Mephibosheth breathed good air. In fact his life was deteriorating; the only thing that was left for him was he was breathing as a living dog. He had concluded in life that he is a living dog. When King David Echoed out, "Is there anyone still remaining in the family of Saul that he may show Kindness?, Mephibosheth was brought to David, he bowed respectfully and exclaimed, "Who is your servant, that you should show kindness to a dead dog?--2 Samuel 9:8. We see here that Mephibosheth was living under the mercy of God. A sinner lives by God's mercy, we all live by his mercy. Mephibosheth saw himself as unworthy to come under the roof of a King, and was also afraid to appear before David because of the vile things his grandfather, Saul did to David. But the kindness of Jonathan called for a reward to his son. I want to tell you. If you have seen yourself as a living dog, your kindness will reward you and all your efforts in life will not be in vain.

There are four living dogs who are at the gate of Israel during a hash famine that struck the land. These four living dogs are the lepers who are kept away from the world of human beings because they are lepers. They became isolated from people until they made a decision, "If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die" 2 Kings 7:4. The lepers were rejected and dumped at the entrance gate. They were seen as living-dead entities. As they face the problem of dilemma, going back to their brethren or surrendering to their enemy nation, Syria, their hypothetical results yielded death and with a ray of hope, under condition, if Syrian soldiers would spare their lives. When these living dogs determined to surrender to the Syrians, behold, there was no man there, for the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us (2 King 7:5-6). This Syrian army, the lions left their food for the living dogs. God has a way to feed his children. He at times causes confusion to those who threaten the life of his children. Therefore, brethren never lose hope, look for the future, tomorrow will be better than today. Keep on trusting him, he is with you.