My sister has a Chihuahua /Dachshund mix dog and we recently tried to unsuccessfully trim her nails - under the quarantine, veterinary clinics unfortunately deemed this a non-essential service, so we had to attempt it ourselves. We got 2 nails clipped and then that was*** IT***, nail trimming time was OVER. She was 100% done with us trying to do anything to her! It's pretty amazing how strong a 5-pound dog can be when you're trying to restrain it and make it hold still !!! Even my sister's husband couldn't hang on to her. I sighed as I watched her running around, wondering if she noticed she was only running on 14 long claws instead of 16...and I thought to myself, "it would be really great if she would just roll over on her back and hold up her paws and say "I'm ready for you to clip my nails, I just want to be a good doggy and do whatever you want me to do!" Is she a bad doggy??? No, of course not, she's just being true to her nature. According to canna-pet.com, Chihuahuas and Dachshunds are both ranked in the top 10 dog breeds (#2 and #4, respectively) known for their stubbornness: as in, they are not known for being the kind of breeds that live to please their masters. Weary from defeat, I went home and tried to think of a kind of contraption that might work. I know I had seen a TV show where people were shearing sheep - and sheep act in the same way when it's time to shear their wool off. Did they use cloth restraints around each leg?...or maybe I was remembering a zoo show where they had the animals in a chute...nonetheless, it was such a stark difference in the way the Messiah, our lamb acted. I know he was a good lamb, obedient and willing to do whatever it took to save mankind, even if it meant giving up his own life. I was particularly thinking about Acts chapter 8:32-36, where Philip uses Isaiah 53:7 to explain to the Ethiopian Eunuch that he was reading a prophesy about Jesus, Isaiah describing Him as "a sheep that is silent before it's shearers" I wanted to understand more about what Philip might have said about Isaiah's words, and I came across this account from Philo of Alexandria (also known as Philo Judaeus, a Jew and philosopher born in Egypt in 25 B.C.). He wrote a description in his work entitled "On the Creation of the World" of how shepherds and sheep interacted in his region of the Middle East :
"woolly lambs laden with thick fleeces, in Spring season, being ordered by their shepherd, stand without moving, and silently stooping a little, put themselves into his hand to have their wool shorn; being accustomed, as cities are, to pay their yearly tribute to man"
These sheep weren't struggling with every fiber of their being to get away - they submitted to the process, they did the will of their shepherd. As our lamb, Jesus willingly gave his life like these sheep willingly gave their wool! In John chapter 10:11-18 he describes himself as the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep - no one takes it from him, he lays it down willingly.
Humans beings certainly have the ability to be just as stubborn as sheep (and dogs) in doing our own wills: to do what we want, when we want, whenever we please - with no one to tell us otherwise. Many people have "minds that are set on the flesh", they are hostile to God and "they do not submit to God's law" (Romans 8:7-9).
In Hebrews 10:7, Jesus says about himself - not that he has come to do his own will - but that "I have come to do Your will, O God".
Jesus is a great example for us on how to be living sacrifices - doing God's will with our lives instead of our wills by seeking to do what pleases God: "arming ourselves with the same mind of Christ" as Peter says in 1 Peter 4:1-2, by "living in the flesh no longer for the desires of men, but for the will of God". Jesus certainly didn't act like my sister's dog when the time came to submit to what needed to be done - He knew what was going to happen - and he willingly did it anyways!
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