Saturday, March 2, 2013

Psalm 22:12


Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Psalm 22:12

12 Many [rab] bulls [par] have compassed [cabab] me: strong ['abbiyr] bulls of Bashan [Bashan] have beset me round. [kathar] KJV-Interlinear

12 Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. NASB


Bulls, is a term used to describe mighty adversaries.

Bashan, is a region that is noted for raising some of the mightiest of animals in size, strength and aggressiveness, Ezek. 39:18, and the fiercest of enemies, Amos 4:1, Deut 32:14, Isa 2:13, Zech 11:2.

Bashan was a pasture country north of Gilead and a part of Manasseh, which is a part of Samaria, Gen 14:5, Josh 12:4-6.

The enemies of Christ are described as, and compared to, mighty bulls.  Note that bulls are animals, and in this case, animals that are bent on aggressive behavior.  They are otherwise dumb, unthinking animals, with nothing more than animal instincts for hostile, belligerent, destructive behavior.

And so Christ was surrounded on all sides, from every point of view, from every opinion, from every attitude, with brute and antagonistic people.  And they hated Him for what reason?

When bulls surround their prey, the how’s and why’s are irrelevant.  There is no logic or justifiable purpose to their actions.  They just hate and want to kill, for no other reason than to do just that.

So, fierce and cruel people simply wanted Jesus dead.  And there was no rhyme or reason for their deeply ingrained animalistic agenda.

One might say that the priests were threatened by Jesus and his growing popularity, but their power insecurities were not their motives.  They thought little more than on the level of fierce animals.

They saw themselves as strong, powerful, political and well able to dismiss anyone they saw as unfit.  And while the priests abused their authority, there were many in the crowd that were not priests, but made up a common mob mentality that was not led by reason, but only by criminal and self-righteous loathing against Jesus.

They lacked truth in their souls, and therefore, lacked the ability to discern life and history around them.  And that left a vacuum in their souls into which evil and all manner of evil thought came flooding into them.

When you lack truth, then you are left with only untruth.  And there is only one way to gain truth, and that is to be taught.  Refuse teaching, and you will be no better than those who crucified Jesus.  You will not be able to understand or discern or interpret history, or life for that matter, even in hindsight. 

And your thoughts and actions will amount to nothing more than emotional knee jerk reflexes.

And, again, why is that?