For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (Psalm 44:22)
Like you, I am grateful for the wonderful benefits that are provided to those who serve the Most High. And like you, I am keenly aware of the responsibility and suffering that goes along with following the One whom the world hates. Taking up our cross to follow the Messiah is not just some poetic statement — it is an acknowledgement that we are called to live a life of self denial and hardships. Except for the Messiah Himself, very few could claim to know better about this less preferred element of service than Paul. It was he who quoted this verse from Psalm 44 in his letter to the Romans:
As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:36-37)
To feel like the helpless lamb being led to its death was a sentiment the apostle was well acquainted with. He had been beaten with whips and rods, thrown into countless prison cells and threatened with death on many occasions. He survived three different shipwrecks and was threatened by foreigners and countrymen alike. Yet it was his conclusion that, in spite of these things, Messiah has empowered us to overcome the world and, like Him, be conquerors and not just hapless victims. Obviously, to consider ourselves to be over comers while being subjected to the world’s ire and oppression flies in the face of human logic — yet this is the standard established by the One we follow.
It is good to remember why Paul quoted this verse; it was his follow up to the rhetorical question he had posed: “Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah?” He was convinced that nothing in this universe, whether man or any other force, could separate us from the love of God. And so, even when it seems that we are as sheep being led to slaughter, that should not be misconstrued as God’s rejection — those God has elected will not be rejected by Him. If the world rejects us, then we should wear that as a badge of honor and continue submitting to the will of our Master. So as Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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