Have you ever been to the place where it seems like you are at your wit’s end? One trial after another, one difficult place after another. ‘What’s going on’, you think? The Apostle spoke of these kinds of days as he experienced several periods of time in his own walk. In Romans 8:36, he talks about what it’s like to have a really bad day.  He lays all of this out in verses thirty-five and thirty-six in Romans eight. There’s hope for sure. Great ready to shout.

[Tweet “Even if the trial is long, God’s grace, strength, and power will show up seven-fold to rescue you.”]

Romans 8:36 (NKJV) 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

• “As it is written”, is Paul’s scriptural proof that trials and difficulties sent from the enemy to separate you from God are part and parcel of everyday life.
• The direct verse Paul quotes here in Romans 8:36 is from Psalm 44:22.

Psalm 44:22 (NKJV) 22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

• Psalm 44 was penned by one of the sons of Korah, who was a Levitical priest.
• The psalm, as indicated in the heading, is a ‘maskil’, or a teaching psalm.
• In the teaching, the psalmist instructs us on how God was the source of Israel’s deliverance (vs. 1-8).
• But now, something else on the surface seems to have happened.
• They are being defeated by their enemies.
• Affliction and oppression are the way of things now.
• It seems to Israel that they have been reduced to sheep being led to slaughter.
• They have become cast-offs among the nations.
• It seems to Israel that the same God who had delivered them in the past has now forsaken them.
• The psalmist is perplexed over this.
• He encourages the Lord to rise up from sleep and once again deliver His people.

Background on Psalm 44

• To what events does Psalm forty-four refer?
• Rabbinic tradition links Psalm 44 to the time of the persecutions of the Greek Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled Palestine between 168 and 164 B.C.E.
• Antiochus was so hateful to the Jews, he was commonly thought by the Jews to be Anti-Christ material.
• He was nicknamed the madman. ¹
• He sacrificed a pig on the altars of the Jewish Temple to the Greek god Zeus.
• He outlawed Judaism.
• He banned circumcision, observance of the Sabbath and holy days, and the reading of the Torah. ²
• Psalm forty-four can be read in the light of this unholy mess of a ruler.

Been There – Done That – Have the T-Shirt

• Paul was no stranger to unholy rulers both political and religious.
• He understood the difficulties they could present.
• So much so that Paul agrees with the psalmist who declared for your sake we are killed all the day long.
• This is the ‘cross’ part of taking up your cross and following Jesus.

Matthew 16:24 (NKJV) 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

• What we endure in this life, we endure for God and the gospel.
• We endure all for His sake.
• Last week’s blog addressed some of what these components are which try and separate us from God.
• Building the Kingdom of God is not without its challenges.

We endure persecutions for His sake.

Matthew 5:11–12 (NKJV) 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

John 16:1–2 (NKJV) 1 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

2 Corinthians 4:11 (NKJV) 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

We endure sufferings for His sake.

Philippians 3:10 (NKJV) 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

We do not endure sickness for His sake.

• Among the things we don’t have to endure is sickness.
• These sufferings are persecution related and not sickness related.
• Sickness is a curse, not a cross.
• You never have to endure disease for Jesus sake.
• Paul goes on and says ‘we are killed all the day long’
• The theme of Psalm 44 applies to the Roman Christians particularly and believers in general in the infancy of Christianity.
• Early New Testament times were much about persecution and trial.
• Believers of the first century were enduring tribulation, distress, and hard times.
• They experienced hunger, nakedness, and violence.
• They were tempted to think that maybe God had forsaken them.
• Except that now they understand what Paul tried to get over to them in verse thirty-one.

Romans 8:31 (NKJV) 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

• Even if the trial is of long continuance, even if it’s like Paul says, ‘All day long’ that we are killed, there’s victory promised to you.
• God will make your end twice as good as your beginning.
• Paul lived through this ‘all day long’, never seemed like it would end, trials.

2 Corinthians 11:22–29 (NKJV) 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

• Paul struggled with such a boat load of difficulties that it seems to us who read his list of struggles as if it’s almost unreal.
• ‘Accounted as sheep for the slaughter’ certainly describes it well.
• The word ‘accounted’, in the Greek, means to reckon, consider, calculate, place to one’s account, or evaluate.
• ‘We are accounted’ is an outside opinion.
• It’s the world’s point of view as they look at what you are going through.
• It’s not how a child of God should view themselves.
• ‘Slaughtered sheep’ may be how other people estimate you.
• Others may do the math and shake their head at you and say, “I am glad it’s you and not me, brother.’
• Listen to the mighty Apostle writing a letter to yet another church.

2 Corinthians 12:8–10 (NKJV) 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

• Paul laid his ‘feel like a sheep being slaughtered’ case before the Lord.
• What did the Lord tell him?
• He told him to quit focusing on the difficulty and get ready for grace.
• He told him grace was on its way to rescue him.
• It’s coming to rescue you too.
• Look for it.
• Make room for it and it’s friends because grace is not coming alone.
• Recently, one of our children needed police assistance because of a burglary and seven squad cars showed up to try and apprehend one man.
• God’s grace, God’s strength, and God’s power will show up seven-fold to rescue you.
• At your lowest point, God’s grace, God’s strength, and God’s power will crash the shore like a tsunami flood energizing your inner being and raising you above your enemies.

Isaiah 59:19 (NKJV) 19 So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.

Call to Action:

Victory is promised to you if you will not cast away your confidence in God. Hold your head up high. Heaven is watching. Your deliverance is drawing near.

Question: How have you experienced a bad day like Paul describes here in Romans 8:36? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

________
References: