Psalm 22:12-13 Raging Bulls and Pouncing Lions

Psalm 22:12-13

12 Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. 13 They open their mouths wide at me, as a ravening and roaring lion.

When I was a young boy I remember one cold day, me, my siblings and cousins were waiting for the morning school bus. A stray cat had wandered onto our property and it was very skinny and weak, and my grandpa and uncle’s dog didn’t like stray cats. This morning both dogs were barking at the cat and we were on the front porch, one dog on one corner and one on the other. It was easy to see the cat was very frightened and didn’t know where to go. So all at once it jumped and one of the dogs caught in it’s mouth and the other got the other end and then the cat meowed for the last time and it was in two parts. My family was in shock and the whole screen was so gross, the dogs didn’t eat the cat, they just wanted to kill it. In this prophetic song of Psalm 22:12-13, the Messiah is comparing  the insults, mocking, taunting and violence he has gone  through since being arrested, trialed, flogged and nailed to the cross to wild hungry lions , and raging bulls. Watching shows like big cats chase prey and take them down and eat a weak animal might be entertaining, but being the victim to be it’s meal of big cat it’s anyone wants to be. Bulls are normally calm, but when provoked a bull will charge at you until it pushes  you out the way or you are gone. Two of  type people are there  with  Jesus while He is being punished for crimes He never did. One type was the Jewish priest, and the other Romans soldiers. It was the Romans  job to punish a convicted felon as their governor told them to.

John 19:1 So Pilate then took Jesus and had Him flogged. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and put a purple cloak on Him; 3 and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again.

The Jewish priests were supposed to be peaceful of God so how they provoke to taunt or do violence, but the holy gospels has several recordings of these acts of taunting.

Mark 14:65  And some began to spit on Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists and say to Him, “Prophesy!” Then the officers took custody of Him and slapped Him in the face.

Just because I talk about religious leaders and Roman officials who taunted Jesus, let not forget the third party who was really great in numbers. To avoid a riot the governing official agrees to put Jesus to death and have Him executed  as the normal people of Israel repeatedly demand.

Matthew 27:22  Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all *said, “Crucify Him!” 23 But he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” Yet they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!” 24 Now when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; you shall see.”

Unlike the prey of hungry lions after it’s been killed and eaten , or after something a provoked bull has removed out of its presence, if you or I carry the words of Jesus, that the world hates, we will be taunted and receive suffering also. Jesus gave His followers this promise to you and me, and if you aren’t receiving such, then you prepare yourself, by getting your daily bread and staying near God the Father. God bless you all, the Lamb of God loves you and so do I. Samuel J Head .

John 15:18  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.