what does self righteous mean

How are the righteous as bold as a lion?

Like a lion, the righteous are unperturbed by their conscience. They’re not judged by their conscience because it’s pure and they have peace of mind. Also read: Significance of Daniel in the den

And believing that God is guiding their footpath. Imagine in your mind a lion, stalking unafraid in the savannah, so courageous and fearless, strong and unfettering, commanding and challenging.

Other animals take stop their heels only by hearing it’s roaring mighty voice. Because they know its indefatigable, fierce, powerful, and unmerciful to all animals.

The Book of Proverbs, this is how powerful and strong a righteous is expected to be. Proverbs 28:1 proclaims, “The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

Yet how is this so? It is the wicked that have been known to be exercising such power, strength, and dominance. While the righteous are seen as mild, kind, and merciful. How then are the righteous as bold as a Lion?

What Does it Mean to Be Righteous?

Literally, righteousness means to be morally right. Living an upright life in Christ Jesus. In the Bible, those who are said to be righteous are those who embrace God and His ways.

Those who follow His commands, who forgone their earthly desires to the everlasting life. Those who strive to live in the way of Jesus Christ. They are called the righteous.

But Jesus hasn’t come when the book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon. In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon must have been referring to an Old Testament concept of righteousness, one rooted in promise-keeping, holy living, and purity.

The word used by the scripture is tsaddiq, which Strong’s Hebrew concordance translates as “just” and “righteous.” It’s the same word used to describe Noah in Genesis 6:9 — the man God found holy amongst all the humans if the earth and worthy to save when the storm destroyed the world.

And God Himself when Nehemiah praised Him during the people’s great confession after the Jerusalem wall was rebuilt (Nehemiah 9:8). The NKJV Open Bible defines this kind of righteousness as “that which is upright.”

What Does it Mean to Be ‘Bold as a Lion’?

According to Strong’s Hebrew concordance, the original Hebrew uses the word yibtah, from the root batach — meaning the state of being bold and trusting, confident — and kephir, meaning a young lion.

By this, the scriptures talks about those who are morally upright and just, those who are “righteous,” have the trusting, secure confidence of a young lion, one who walks assured of his victory.

Elsewhere in Proverbs, King Solomon refers to the lion as “mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing” and moves with “stately bearing” (Proverbs 30:29-30).

Any who is bold as a Lion does not worry. He/she is confident that he or she is protected by the Lord and He has given him or her the power to conquer the world. All they do is blessed, will triumph, and is guaranteed.
What Is the Context Behind This Verse?

The strength and righteousness comes from God

In Proverbs 28, King Solomon was disclosing the sort of leader he wishes his son would become: one who is strong, mighty, courageous, and good, not the sort who’s so unstable, brash, and haunted by his evil deeds that he would flinch at phantom pursuers.

Even though that King Solomon asked God for wisdom, this scripture is just that: nuggets of God-inspired wisdom on how to live and lead well in order to please the Lord and receive His blessing.

Throughout the chapter if this book, King Solomon differentiated the wise from the wicked. And how the wise walks in the Lord and obeyed God’s commandments with a discerning spirit.

The don’t need to be a roaring lion that us after foolish things of life, being a nuisance, and full of wrath. Rather, they roar in the image of God and live by His providence. They may appear young, but are strong in the Lord.

And like young lions going with their mother, they are fearless and full of confidence — that is, boldly, like a lion — because they are unfettered by their conscience. Their conscience is clear and pure. And they have peace knowing they’re guided and will be protected by God Almighty.

Why Does Righteousness Make a Person Bold?

When we turn from our sins and become righteous, we fear God and walk in His ways. We live for Christ and all our doings are to praise His name. The wicked do not fear the Lord neither do they care about His ways.

They’re are concerned with the riches of the earth, and the pleasures in human. But if a righteous fellow have his faith strongly on God and always seek His ways.

They won’t fetter nor worry about the things of life. They’re concerned with the things of God. To please Him and walk in His righteousness.

This puts them in a state of freewill, freedom, and free from shackles of the earth. For they have found peace in the Lord. They can move about without fear or doubt, they’re full of confidence

for they know who is with them. That in His hands, shall He direct them and cover them in time of trouble as hen cover its chick’s.

This is the kind of heavenly security Jesus talked about in the book of John 16:33 when He tells His disciples that in Him, they have peace.

Other Verses That Include the Power of a Lion?

God is the King of kings, and has power over everything on earth and in heaven. He is the creator and He was never created.

Righteousness is living inline with that truth. To remind us if God’s unfailing position and power, here are other Bible verses that refers to God as a lion: Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Edom from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And what shepherd can stand against me? (Jeremiah 49:19).

They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west (Hosea 11:10).

Make use of the wisdom of God

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them ( Hosea 5:14).

The lion has roared — who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken — who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).

This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey — and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor —

so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights” (Isaiah 31:4).
A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass (Proverbs 19:12).

What Does This Mean?

In the verses, there’s no question that lions are perceived as powerful. “King of the jungle” is amongst the title of portrays of lion’s power, yet, Lion does not live in the jungle.

At the sight of a lion, every other animal takes to their heels and run to safety. The lion us powerful, fierce, and fearless.

It’s the same way with God, our Father. Revelation 22:13 calls God “the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

In the Book of Daniel, the mightiest King Nebuchadnezzar had this to say when God brought him to his knees and thus displayed His full authority:

His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.

No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35). God is like a lion, far more powerful than a lion.

And we can become as Him when we walk in His righteousness. We can obtain the courage, boldness, and dominance of a lion when we acknowledge Him.