He was hurt and punished. But he never protested. He said nothing—like a sheep being taken to be killed. He was like a lamb that makes no sound when someone cuts off its wool. He never opened his mouth \{to defend himself\}.
Before the Lord showed me that the people were against me, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not understand that they were against me. They were saying these things about me: “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit! Let us kill him! Then people will forget him.”
But you know my heart, Lord.\par You see me and test my mind.\par Drag those evil people away\par like sheep to be butchered.\par Choose them for the day of slaughter.\par
People will make you leave their synagogues. {\cf2\super [222]} Yes, a time is coming when people will think that killing you would be doing service for God.
I don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I finish my work. I want to finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace (kindness).
But it seems to me that God has given me and the other apostles {\cf2\super [25]} the last place. We are like men condemned to die \{with all the people watching\}. We are like a show for the whole world to see—angels and people.
Truly in our own hearts we believed that we would die. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves. It happened so that we would trust in God, who raises people from death.
Are those people serving Christ? I am serving him more. (I am crazy to talk like this.) I have worked much harder than those people. I have been in prison more often. I have been hurt more in beatings. I have been near death many times.
To some people we are not known (not important), but we are well known. We seem to be dying, but look! We continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed.
