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?
