Bulls of Bashan

Bulls of Bashan had once surrounded Mount Hermon in the days of Jesus. The meaning of the name Bashan in Hebrew is “serpent.” Looking at its beautiful snowcapped mountains today, you would not have guessed its name. It was the home of demons and devils of Genesis 6:1-4. It birthed priestess who prostituted themselves with bulls of Bashan, demons invading bulls of gold made into idols (Amos 4). It played a role at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13-20).

Jesus had provoked the bulls of Bashan who stood behind the gates of hell into a fight. This fight carried on at Mount Hermon, the mountain of Bashan, the mount of transfiguration (Mk. 9:2-8) and it culminated in the cross (Matt. 27).

Why is the mountain of Bashan so special? Psalm 22 bring this out. Bulls of Bashan in the Bible represent evil Elohim, evil spirits of Bashan belonging to the spirit world. They had rebelled against God on Mount Hermon and carried their rebellion forward with producing Nephilim (Gen. 6:1-4; Deut. 2-3). This led to Babel in Genesis 11 and the divorce of God with humans in Deuteronomy 32:8-9.

Bashan in the Bible for the ancient Israelites was the realm of nightmares. It was the land of shadow. Fearsome and demonic monsters lived and ruled there. If the Hebrews were Gondor, Bashan was Mordor. And I’m being more literal than you might suppose. Bulls of Bashan were the outcrop of evil.

Yahweh brought Israel into freedom from slavery in Egypt. He led them to the land of giants. He wanted Israel to wipe them out. Many had already been wiped out by descendants of Abraham. But the nation of Israel needed completing the job.

They failed God’s mission and were sent into the wilderness for forty years. Once the old generation died out, the new generation picked up where the old left off.

The Israelites made their way into the region of Bashan. The place had a terrible reputation. In cultures outside the Bible, it was known as “the place of serpents.” It was the region of the Rephaim, the giant clan, the shadow people (Gen. 14:5, Deut. 2:20-21; Num. 13:27, 23, 33). The Rephaim would eventually die out and their spirits would be confined to the desert. This would become the same desert Jesus would later exorcise demons.

Two of the major cities, Ashtaroth and Edrei (Deut. 1:4; Josh. 13:12) were considered gateways to the underworld realm of the dead (the gates of hell; Job. 37:18; Ps. 9:15; Ps. 107:8; Isa. 38:10; Matt. 16:18).

In Jesus’ day, the highest mountain of Bashan, Mount Hermon, had numerous occult temples and sacrificial sites for demonic worship. Jesus took his disciples into the heart of darkness, to Mount Doom, the gates of hell. Jesus challenged the powers of darkness to kill him. Little did the evil spirits know that Jesus’ death would become their undoing.

Then the Old Testament representatives of the Law and the Prophets had appeared. Until Jesus, you could only know God through the Law and the Prophets. But then God speaks and says to stop looking to the Law and the Prophets. He tells people to look only to Jesus. God then took away the Law and the Prophets. This left Jesus. God confirmed it with a king’s title, “beloved,” marking Jesus as the heir of the David throne, the kingdom of God on earth.

When Jesus was crucified, he hung on the cross much of the day. Then he said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me. This is a quote from Psalm 22. Psalm 22:12-16 add a important point. The strong bulls of Bashan were responsible for Messiah’s death. Some translations use fierce bulls of Bashan. These were the demonic powers of darkness mention in Amos 4:1-3.

The sinister part of this description is the fierce bulls ...