Ensign: Bully!

 

 

 

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3



AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 23 January 2015




Saul was a bully, and he hated anyone who was a Christian.



That's the opening sentence in the story of his conversion told in a children's Bible I'll be using for a first and second grade Sunday school class I'm teaching ... Sunday! I have to admit, I never quite thought of him that way. Arrogant, yes. In your face, yes. But from his blink-and-you-miss-it moment where he's watching over the clothes (more likely their taking off their coats so they had full range of motion) of those stoning Stephen for blasphemy in Acts 7:58, we see a man not easy to convince.




Today the term "bully" seems to encompass anyone who won't let you have your way with anything. At least in a school setting -- when I was growing up, anyway -- this was someone who stuffed you into a locker or shook you down for your lunch money. But I've been looking through my third-grade daughter's planner and see the definition encompass not allowing you to even sit with them. Once that happened to me on a two-hour bus trip and I ended up sitting in the aisle.




"And Saul was consenting unto his death." Hopefully most of the bullies we knew in school or know now or tragically used to be are not just blowing off or causing other's deaths; by and large if someone's able to scare you out of your comfort zone, as Saul did when "he made havoc of the church" (Acts 8:3) by dragging men and women to prison, the bully ends up doing his job, or those who don't get bullied end us doing his or her work for them.




But THIS bullying had an unexpected side effect. Acts 8:4 -- "Therefore they that were scattered [from Jerusalem] abroad went every where preaching the word." Before Saul's next appearance we see Jesus Christ preached in Samaria and in Gaza and through that to Ethiopia, giving what would become Christianity its first African foothold. Now I'm not trying to preach that bullying has a positive effect, but if the individuals bullied become stronger themselves, then maybe it does.




Certainly when Saul himself was -- you could see his being struck down by a blinding light just outside of Damascus and Jesus speaking to him, stopping him from what he was going to do, arrest more Christians and likely scatter the survivors, as bullying -- struck down and struck blind in Acts 10, he at least knew Who He was dealing with! Consider his first response to Jesus in verse six: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" I'd have expected something a bit more defiant.




Certainly Saul's friends helping him into Damascus to visit Ananias and then his own becoming as enthusiastic and fire-breathing FOR Jesus as he had been AGAINST him was something -- hey, this couldn't be made up! -- that didn't happen every day! But if you say this was bullying Saul (who'll later become Paul) to be a Christian, then allow me to dispel that illusion for you. Saul didn't have to come into the war on the side of Christ, and neither do you.




Because it is a war. Past struggling "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (from Ephesians 6:12, one of the letters Saul become Paul -- who got convinced AND convicted -- would write), we struggling with each other -- ultimately, between those who believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord and those who don't. In days to come that will be far less of a gray area ...

　



Some food and drink for thought,




David




P. S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages you too. If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know -- thank you!




Thank You, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even the ones we don't know we have! Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.




Thank You, Lord, for all of us in leadership and service here and abroad, as well as for opportunities we have and the promise of new life! I pray we all seek and have a blessed week. Amen.