For some unknown (to me) reason, I woke up this morning thinking about a confrontation from 36 years ago. It was the summer after my junior year in high school. The school district always hired several high school and college students as summer employees to help with the extra groundskeeping and maintenance that went into preparing all the campuses for the new school year.
On this particular day, a loud mouthed bully (one of the college students) was offering to beat me up (his language was more colorful) because I looked at him wrong. He actually held a grudge against me for something that is not relevant to this story, but the excuse that he used that day was that I looked at him wrong. He had been a major football stud during his high school days and was a couple of years older than me.
At age 17 at 6’1″ and about 140 pounds (the approximate current weight of my right leg at age 53), I was not the picture of macho man strength. The truth of the matter was that he probably could have snapped me like a twig. Since he was looking for an excuse, any excuse, to give me a fat lip, I chose to keep quiet and let him rant. I don’t know whatever became of that guy, but I know what became of me.
Sometimes the best way to handle a blowhard is to just let him bluster.
Sometimes the best way to handle a blowhard is to just let him bluster. Click To Tweet
That’s how the king (Hezekiah) of Judah told his representatives to respond to the representative of the king of Assyria (Sennacherib), who was trying to intimidate them into surrender in 701 B.C.
Isaiah 36:21 records this interesting response: “But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, ‘Do not answer him.’”
When our children were small, we tried to teach them to use words, rather than hitting, to resolve disagreements. It would really be nice if we could get people to learn that lesson.
However, words are not always the best solution. Sometimes the war of words is what escalates into violent behavior. Even if violence does not ensue, much damage can be done through the attempt to get in the last word. And sometimes, we justify our ungracious words and smug attitudes with the incredibly mature response of “They started it!”
It is unfortunate that we often think our battles must be fought with words, rather than trust in God and prayer.
Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Our lives matter so much to God that He wants us to use our words to build up both those to whom we speak and those who simply hear us speak.
What situations are you dealing with now that might best be addressed by silence?
