01.02.01.10. GOD AS A LEOPARD
GOD AS A LEOPARD "And as a Leopard will I observe them" Hosea 13:7.
SIMILE
I. THE Leopard is a great enemy to man, and so fierce, that he immediately flies into the face of him, and pulls out his very eyes.
PARALLEL
I. WICKED men fly in the face of God; they are said to fight against him, Acts 5:39, and Acts 7:51, and now saith God, "I will be like a Leopard," I will as it were fly in your faces, I will come furiously upon you in the way of my judgments: I will not only as a lion, tear the caul of your hearts: but as a Leopard, I will pull out your eyes, and ye shall wander in darkness.
SIMILE II. The Leopard is a very swift beast: "Their horses are swifter than the Leopards," Habakkuk 1:8.
PARALLEL
II. God says, he will be a "swift witness" against the wicked: "Swiftly will I (saith God, speaking to the enemies of his people) return your recompence upon your own heads," Joel 3:4.
SIMILE
III. The Leopard in watching his prey is very subtil; he observes fit times and seasons when to come upon them. Pliny shows us,
PARALLEL
III. In this scripture chiefly God compares himself to a Leopard, in respect of watching the ungodly:"As a Leopard will I observe them." This sets out the fearful wrath of God against wicked men. God sets his infinite wisdom on work, to find out fit times and opportunities to let out his wrath and fury upon them; "I will watch over them for evil," Jeremiah 44:27. The Lord watches over his own people for good; But woe to them, that he like a Leopard, observes, and watches over to destroy. It is marvellous to consider, how long the patient God bears with an ungodly soul, people, or nation, ere he brings his sweeping judgments in upon them. The wicked think God will never strike, because he defers the execution of his wrath, and hence they are hardened in an evil work. When, alas poor souls! they are greatly mistaken; God is watching for a fitter time, wherein he will get himself a greater name, and more glory in their destruction, Psalms 50:21, and Psalms 10:11, Psalms 10:13-14. We have a plain proof of this in Pharaoh king of Egypt; God, like a Leopard, observed him, and watched over him for evil; and at last, though it was not presently, got hold of him, and broke his bones, and destroyed his power, and all his mighty host. God’s time of executing his judgments and wrath upon the ungodly, is the most amazing and terrible: "in due time shall the feet of the wicked slip."
SIMILE IV. Naturalists observe, that when a Leopard comes upon his prey, he leaps upon it suddenly.
PARALLEL
IV. God, though he seems to tarry long before he comes upon the ungodly, yet when he doth come, he leaps (as it were) upon them, comes on a sudden: "I will come upon thee as a thief," Revelation 3:3. The wicked will be surprised when vengeance comes to be executed upon them.
SIMILE
V. It is observed of the Leopard, that he will sleep long, even three days together; but after he awakes, he is more fierce.
PARALLEL
V. God, though he may seem to be asleep, and to hold his peace, and let sinners alone; yet will he at last awake out of the sleep, and then let sinners look to it, Isaiah 42:14.