Our
scripture reading for today is found in the book of Proverbs chapter 17 and
verse 22. When you find it, say
"amen." Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart
doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."
I want to first look at how some words affected different people in the Bible
and then I want to show you two different experiments about how words affect us.
Our first example will be Abram. Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 15:1-6. "1After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a
vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great
reward. 2And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast
given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 4And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto
him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of
thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5And
he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed
be. 6And he believed in the Lord; and he
counted it to him for righteousness." God told Abram, not to fear and Abram believed God and was
considered righteous. Positive words
bring about a positive result.
Our
next example will be Esau. Turn in your
Bibles forward just a few chapters to Genesis chapter 27 and we will begin in
verse 34. "And when Esau heard the words of his
father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his
father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
35And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy
blessing. 36And he said, Is not he
rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my
birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast
thou not reserved a blessing for me? 37And Isaac answered and said unto Esau,
Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for
servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now
unto thee, my son? 38And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing,
my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice,
and wept." Not receiving
a blessing by his father caused Esau to cry bitterly. I have been witness to the ill effects of a
parents words greatly hurting their children.
Not only do these effects have immediate negative feelings but they can
last a lifetime and affect future generations as well.
The
last example is rather long and is found in the book of 1 Kings chapter 18 and
19 starting with 18:19, it reads, "19And Rab–shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is
this wherein thou trustest? 20Thou
sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war.
Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? 21Now, behold,
thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if
a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of
Egypt unto all that trust on him. 22But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not
that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath
said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? 23Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to
my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if
thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them 24How then wilt thou turn away the face of
one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt
for chariots and for horsemen? 25Am I
now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to
me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto
Rab–shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we
understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the
people that are on the wall. 27But
Rab–shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee,
to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall,
that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? 28Then Rab–shakeh
stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying,
Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: 29Thus saith the
king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out
of his hand: 30Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord,
saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered
into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith
the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to
me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree,
and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: 32Until I come
and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land
of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and
not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The
Lord will deliver us 33Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all
his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34Where are the
gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? 35Who are they
among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of
mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? 36But the people
held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was,
saying, Answer him not. 37Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over
the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder,
to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab–shakeh. 1And it came to pass,
when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with
sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the
prophet the son of Amoz. 3And they said
unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and
blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to
bring forth.
4It may be the Lord thy God will hear all
the words of Rab–shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to
reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath
heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. 5So the servants
of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your
master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard,
with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will
send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own
land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. 8So Rab–shakeh
returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had
heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of
Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers
again unto Hezekiah, saying, 10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying,
Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not
be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, thou
hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them
utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12Have the gods of the nations delivered
them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the
children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king
of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? 14And Hezekiah
received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah
went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15And Hezekiah
prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between
the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the
earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16 Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open,
Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
him to reproach the living God. 17Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed
the nations and their lands, 18And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were
no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have
destroyed them. 19Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save
thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou
art the Lord God, even thou only.
20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to
Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed
to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21This is the
word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion
hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath
shaken her head at thee. 22Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against
whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even
against the Holy One of Israel. 23By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and
hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the
mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees
thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings
of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel 24I have digged
and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the
rivers of besieged places. 25Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of
ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou
shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. 26Therefore their
inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were
as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops,
and as corn blasted before it be grown up. 27But I know thy
abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 28Because thy
rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put
my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by
the way by which thou camest. 29And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this
year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which
springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant
vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30And the remnant that is escaped of the
house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a
remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall do this. 32Therefore thus saith
the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor
shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against
it. 33By
the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this
city, saith the Lord. 34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own
sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35And it came to pass that night, that the
angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred
fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold,
they were all dead corpses. Rab–shakeh thought to
make the people afraid by his words so he spoke them in their own language,
however in so doing he blasphemed the name of God. Hezekiah had warned the people not to answer
Rab-shakeh and then he took the matter to God in prayer. The verse that comes to mind here is found in
Proverbs 26:4 "Answer
not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him." And Matthew 12:36, "But
I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment." God heard Hezekiah's prayer and the whole
camp of the Assyrians died because their leader had blasphemed God and Hezekiah
had trusted God to take care of the situation.
I saw an experiment
done on television the other day where a gentleman had a pulse oximeter put on
his finger. Then another man began
saying things like, "you're dumb, nobody likes you, you're ideas are
stupid." The first guy's pulse
began to rise from about 80 beats a minute to over 100. Then the second guy switched and began saying
nice things like, "you're a good person, people like you, you're
smart". Instantly the man's pulse
began to return to normal. The first man
knew that the second man didn't mean the words that he was saying and yet his
pulse rate climbed. We ought to be very
careful about the words that we speak. There is a popular song Called
"Speak Life" by Toby Mac to remind us to choose our words well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rK6O0YtBRY
In closing I would like us to contemplate on the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moz82i89JAw We all need to be very careful about what we say to ourselves and to each other. After all self talk will negatively influence out outlook on life too. "God has shown how high a value He places upon every human soul, and He
gives to no man liberty to speak contemptuously of another. We shall see
faults and weaknesses in those about us, but God claims every soul as
His property—His by creation, and doubly His as purchased by the
precious blood of Christ. All were created in His image, and even the
most degraded are to be treated with respect and tenderness. God will
hold us accountable for even a word spoken in contempt of one soul for
whom Christ laid down His life." MB 56.3
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