“The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” (Proverbs 28:1, NIV)

God calls us to be bold. The righteous are said to be “bold as a lion” in Proverbs 28. I recently had cause to contemplate this Proverb, and the biblical concept of boldness, and I came up with what I thought were two important questions:

“How can I be bold?”

“Why are the righteous bold?” And its complement, “Why do the wicked flee?”

I think that in answering these two simple questions, we will see the Gospel message play out, and it will help us see some issues in our own lives for which this proverb rings true.

Why do the wicked flee?

Have you ever said you would do something, by a certain time, and not done it? Have you ever not done your homework? Most people are familiar with the metaphorical weight on our shoulders, the anxiety we feel, when we aren’t keeping our word, or fulfilling our duties. Then there are times that we’ve wilfully infringed on others’ rights. Times we’ve broken God’s moral law. Times we’ve lied and had to keep lying to cover up the initial lie. Times we’ve stolen and later realised the harm our theft caused. Times we’ve neglected to do the good we know we should have done, or times we’ve instead done the bad we knew we shouldn’t have done. All these times where we feel like we’ve fallen short? Proverbs 28:1 rings true in all these situations. We feel like we need to run away, to get out of the bad situation, to justify ourselves. Deep down we know we put ourselves in this situation, but that realisation often only makes the pain worse. So, when Proverbs 28 tells us that the “wicked flee though no one pursues”, all these sorts of things and more come to mind. That’s the “Why?” answered.

When these feelings set in, the impulse to flee, the anxieties of life, the general feeling that something isn’t RIGHT, they can feel overwhelming. This all seems to add up to an impossibility; If every human has fallen short in some way, and feels the “impulse to flee” caused by “wickedness”, how can the second half of the proverb be true? How can anyone be as “bold as a lion” if nobody meets this idealistic “righteous requirement”? Who could say they are in the group of people that are described by the second clause of Proverbs 28:1? Who could these mysterious ‘bold’ and ‘righteous’ people be?

How can I be Bold?

The bible has transformative answers to these questions. If you hear and internalise what the bible is offering, being bold is just one of many transformations you will undergo as you follow in Jesus’ footsteps. In fact, there is a kind of boldness that only Christians can have, that comes from God alone. Next week we will consider some more verses and what they mean about our relationship with God, and how we ought to live our lives.

(to be concluded next week God willing)