1 Peter 5:8

‘Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour,'

And this is especially so because of the one who is rampaging around with his eye on the flock. The likening of the Devil to a lion waiting to attack the sheep may well have arisen from the abundance of lions in the region to which he was writing, given substance as an illustration by David's defeat of a lion when protecting his sheep (1 Samuel 17:34). Now the servants of the greater David will face a greater lion. That there is a fear of them being ‘mauled' comes in the reference to sufferings that follows. It is an apt picture so that in spite of 2 Timothy 4:17 there is no good reason for connecting it with Roman persecution. At that time lions regularly prowled around roaring and at the same time looking for sheep. And to Christians the hostile shouting of anti-Christian crowds must often have seemed like roaring, especially in the light of Psalms 22:13.

‘Be sober, be watchful.' Shepherds would often be half drunk and careless. But Christ's under-shepherds were not to be like that. They must be sober and ever vigilant, as must the flock. Compare 1 Peter 4:2; 1 Peter 4:7, and see Luke 12:22; Luke 12:37.

‘Your adversary the Devil.' Ho antidikos -- diabolos.' Both words mean ‘adversary', the duality emphasising the idea, and could be used to translate the Hebrew Satanas (Satan). Compare LXX of 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1-2; Zechariah 3:1, which are the first references to the Devil in Scripture. Job 1-2 pictures the Devil as ‘walking around' looking to cause trouble in a similar way to here, and in the end inflicting suffering on one of God's people (Job 1:7; Job 1:12). And Jesus Himself indicates that Satan holds in thrall the rest of mankind, plucks God's word from men's hearts and is the great deceiver and murderer (Matthew 12:29; Matthew 13:19; John 8:44). Indeed, as Peter had himself been told, ‘Satan has desired to have you' (Luke 22:31). There is no need therefore to look for any further background to the idea.

That the reference is to persecution is brought out in 1 Peter 5:9, a persecution instigated by Satan. And he is pictured as being like a lion, roaring and searching for victims, constantly ready to arouse public feeling against God's people as he comes across different sections of the flock of God. The baying of persecuting crowds (see Acts 19:28) must often have seemed to be like a lion roaring. Compare Psalms 22:13.