God Calls Out Bullies - In Advance
They can make life miserable. Bullies. Although the bully has always been part of human life, in our time, there has been a heightened awareness of the damage caused by oppressors.
Even the kid stuff is unacceptable and seems to be rampant. Unfortunately, it’s not limited to children. Some in our world derive a perverse joy from pushing around the weak.
There are many ideas available concerning the means of stopping this evil. I want to draw your attention to the Bible Book – Leviticus. There, we find our God’s preemptive commands to block bullying before it starts.
“‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:14
Who would dream of doing this? A bully, that’s who. Think with me a moment; videos of mishaps go viral, don’t they? We find it amusing, up to a limit. Many enjoy slapstick comedy. Why not create your own? Why not “lay into” someone verbally when they can’t hear a word? Their responses won’t fit the dialogue, will they? Comic relief for the heartless.
Carefully look at the Lord’s command. What reason does God give to abstain from picking on these very helpless people? Himself. “Fear your God.” Our Creator says, “When you take Me seriously, you won’t bully, period.”
Three times in chapter 25, the Lord lays out a scenario in business life when it could be profitable to take advantage of someone who was down on their luck, to leverage a situation to your personal benefit without considering the needs of others. (17, 36, 43 – by the way, scholars are not in agreement as to whether charging interest meant zero interest or a caution against exorbitant interest – we definitely need to avoid becoming a loan shark).
Are there business bullies? Life is full of them. For example, those currently being ushered across our borders are paying astronomical fees to their guides. All sorts of unscrupulous power people use their positions and possessions to make even more, at the expense of the well-being of their “clients.”
Once more, the Lord of Hosts signals for us to slow down and think, think about the presence of God in our daily lives – we will have to deal with him. The yield signs carry the admonition “… but fear your God.”
Read the book of Proverbs and it will become crystal clear to you that the Lord cares a great deal about our business dealings; he expects them to be upright and honest. God insists that we care about others while we are working to make a living or a profit.
There’s one other word of both warning and instruction tagged with, “fear your God.” When you read it, I imagine that you’ll be thinking, “That has nothing to do with bullying!” I ask you to push through your first impressions and give it some real thought, because this becomes, in my opinion, a woefully sad commentary on our current culture.
“‘Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” 19:32 (Hebrew – “fear” your God)
This practice and its sentiment have fallen off the radar by and large here in our American culture, and Christ’s church has done little to nothing to correct it.
We could have a long conversation about all the factors that were involved in how we’ve come to this place, and perhaps we ought to; still, it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing. God wants elderly people to be respected – deeply respected – and, as a people, we’re ignoring our Creator!
How is that bullying? Hang with me here: have you ever observed or participated in a spontaneous game of “keep away?” One where someone grabs a valuable belonging to another and a handful proceed to throw it back and forth, just out of the reach of its owner? Sometimes it’s just a little bit of fun, but there are other times when this game becomes pure torment for the victim. Been there? My mind turns to the concept of bullying when a game of keep away gets out of hand.
Withholding respect, genuine respect, from the elderly ends up an unintended game of keep away. Our society warehouses senior citizens who are weak, ignores the aged, and tends only to give kudos to older folk who act like young people (for example – running a marathon). In this way, we unwittingly playing “keep away” with the honor that our God insists the elderly deserve.
(I am even aware of churches that have intentionally marginalized older members within a strategy to reach younger generations.)
Do yourself and others a favor, dig into the scriptures and discover how much our Heavenly Father addresses the subject of honoring parents. I think you’ll be surprised, and then dismayed at how far our culture has strayed from God’s ideal.
An immediate thought to all these passages that I’ve shown you could be:
“Why not take advantage of them? It won’t really hurt anything!” “We’re not really taking advantage.”
“Why not have a little fun with a blind or deaf person? They’ll be ok!’
“Why not marginalize the older people among us? What do they have to offer anyway? Have you ever seen them try to text? Ha!”
Do not mistreat the down and out. Honor the elderly. Because God said so, that’s why!
You and I will not only face the living God in judgment, we also must live and operate in his world. Those of us who truly take God seriously long to please him, to act on his directives.
Please don’t dismiss this with a mere “like;” please invest some real introspection on the full spectrum my blog. Please consider practical ways to obey the Lord in this. Perhaps God is calling his people to real, lasting change.