“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21)
“Sticks can break bones but a lashing tongue can break hearts”, “Beware! The tongue is in a wet place, it can slip easily” are some of the quotable quotes about the human tongue, but the Scriptural quote, which touches the heart deeply, is the one which I have quoted above. To bring in an element of seriousness, let’s look at the translation of the said Scripture in The Living Bible:
“Those who love to talk will suffer the consequences. Men have died for saying the wrong thing.”
In this Series of three parts, I am inspired to look at both the negative and positive aspects of the words emanating from the tongue. Let’s get the negative part over with first…
Slaughter…
Consider this Scripture…
“…So forty-two thousand people of Ephraim died there at that time.” (Judges 12:6)
The last thing the Nation of Israel wanted after warding off the External Ammonite aggression(Judges 11) was a civil war but it was unfortunately triggered by the rude, crude words of the Ephramites against the God-appointed leader Jephthah (Judges 12:4). The temperamental Ephramites (perhaps priding in the fact that Joshua, the great leader who conquered the Promised Land belonged to their tribe) had gotten away with the similar proud demeanour with one of the God-ordained previous Judges (Gideon- Judges 8:1) but not so with Jephthah. Did not somebody say “Do not let your tongue cut-off your head”!!!
Stampede…
“…for the people trampled him to death at the gate!” (2 Kings 7:20)
Who was the person who was trampled at the gate? Let’s hit the re-wind button and visit Prophet Elisha’s home, which had an angry visitor (the troubled Israeli King who was at his wits end as a consequence of a terrible famine caused by the Syrian forces besieging his Capital city of Samaria).
Look at the Prophet Elisha’s positive outlook borne out of his unshakeable faith in the God of miracles:
“The Lord says that by this time tomorrow two gallons of flour or four gallons of barley grain will be sold in the markets of Samaria for a dollar!” (2 Kings 7:1).
In stark contrast to the words of the Prophet, emanated words of scorn from the King’s assistant belying his lack of faith…
“That couldn’t happen if the Lord made windows in the sky!” (2 Kings 7:2)
The result? The curse of the Prophet came to pass as the guilty one was in no mood to humbly confess of his contemptuous words… “You will see it happen, but you won’t be able to buy any of it!”
After focusing on the two negative examples of wrong words which caused doom and gloom let’s reflect on some positive cases of words spoken with positive faith which are worth emulating in the next part…
Prayer: Father, we surrender every part and area of our lives including our tongue and speech. Enable us to speak only those words which bring you joy and glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Suresh Manoharan
J and SM Ministries
(To access the rest of this mini-series, please click here.)