"The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles,
and they go down into the inmost body."
Proverbs 26:22
The Word of God tells how deeply a person can be hurt by gossip - the words sink down to the inmost heart of a person.
How people love gossip! Stories being spread are like sweet delicacies, but most don't stop to consider that what's being said may not be true or it may be exaggerated. A person's whole reputation can be ruined by a gossiper speaking a false or embellished story.
Why do people love gossip? Isn't it because a story about someone doing wrong makes ME feel better? If so-and-so is stealing, I feel better because I don't steal. If so-and-so is cheating on his/her spouse, it makes me feel better because that's something I'm not doing, so I feel that I'm better than him/her. The lust for juicy stories of people going wrong always makes me feel better about myself if I'm not doing what he/she is reportedly doing.
But this is an illusion. We are all sinners, every one of us, and if hearing stories about someone else's sin comforts me because I don't practice that sin, then I am deceived because I'm convincing myself that I'm a better person who would NEVERRRR do that!
But what if MY sins were being spoken about me? Would I not go into a rage and defend myself? Would I not say that what is being said is a gross exaggeration? And if what is being said is true, would I not make an excuse to diffuse the accusation?
Oh fools that we are! Gossip is like tasty trifles - as long as it is about someone else. What folly!
Those who belong to Christ are called to a higher place, the place from which we truly care about others as much as we would care about ourselves, the place where hearing gossip would offend me as much as would a story about myself.
"And just as you want men to do to you,
you also do to them likewise."
Luke 6:31
There is a principle in the Word of God that tells us that whatever we sow, that we shall also reap.
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."
Galatians 6:7
If I gossip, someone will gossip about me.
The principles of the Kingdom of God are sure and unchangeable. Therefore guard a person's reputation as you would guard your own, lest you reap the same coming upon you.
But how does one do that? It's so very easy to fall into discussion about someone else. The answer is to ask God to put HIS love for people into your heart.
Nothing but love can stop a damaging word about someone. If you find yourself in a situation wherein someone is being gossiped about, say something good about that person. Sometimes that will change the tenor of the conversation. If that is not accepted, then change the subject entirely. Do not allow yourself to become part of tale-bearing ...lest tale-bearing come back upon you.
"Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Galatians 6:2
"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations." Isaiah 60:15 What validates the Bible is its prophecies. God says that he declares the end from the beginning, and so he does!This is a prophecy about Israel's future, her glorious future after she has been fully restored by God in her land. And truly the land was forsaken. The author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) visited the land in the 1860's and wrote:
"Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land?"
"There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent - not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings."
"... There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye that that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem..."
When Israel lost her land in 70 A.D. the Jews were dispersed throughout the earth for a very long time. No one was able to settle her land, because for as long as the Jews weren't there it didn't rain, so the land would not produce. Her land was "forsaken and hated, so that no one went through." (Isaiah 60:15)
But the God of Israel promised that she would be repopulated once again when the time of her dispersion was over, and this time it will be forever as God makes Israel "an eternal excellence."
In the late 19th century, Jews slowly began coming back to the land and in 1948 Israel was once again proclaimed a nation, after 2,000 years! God is in the process of restoring it, and when the Messiah returns, in that glorious day soon to come, all the enemies of Israel will be destroyed, and there will be an end to the "everlasting hatred" which has assailed her from the beginning.
In 1967 Israel took the Temple Mount and it was captured on video:
The Second Restoration Is Permanent
"It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again THE SECOND TIME
to recover the remnant of his people who are left…
He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel
and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
…And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off..."
Isaiah 11:11-13
Thus says the Lord:
"VIOLENCE shall NO LONGER be heard in your land,
neither wasting nor destruction within your borders;
but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise."
Isaiah 60:18
It is in this final restoration of the land of Israel to her rightful owners, that the long-awaited Messiah will come, and he will reveal himself to those who had rejected him. They will come to the shocking revelation of who he is:
"And I will pour on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the Spirit of grace and supplication;
THEN THEY WILL LOOK ON ME WHOM THEY PIERCED."
Zechariah 12:10
The shock of recognition:
"And one will say to him,
‘WHAT ARE THESE WOUNDS IN YOUR HANDS?’
Then he will answer,
‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'"
Zechariah 13:6
The Bible's story of Jacob's son Joseph who was banished by his brothers is a "type" of the Messiah being banished by his brothers, the Jewish people. In the end, in one of the most heart-wrenching passages in the Bible, Joseph reveals to his brothers who he is. You can read the story in Genesis 45. The Messiah, like Joseph, will make known his identity to his brothers, and when they recognize him they will go into deep mourning, they will mourn greatly what was done to him when Israel rejected him.
"Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son,
and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.
In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem..."
Zechariah 12:10-11
But he, the Messiah, the King of Israel, will forgive them, and restore them fully. He will raise up Israel and the newly-repentant Jewish people as he promised so long ago.
"Also your people shall all be righteous;
they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting,
the work of my hands, that I may be glorified."
Isaiah 60:21
Israel has a bright future ahead, says the God who proclaims the end from the beginning.
But before he comes, there will be a terrible time, a 7-year period of horrific suffering as Satan is allowed his last hour on this earth. The Scriptures tell us that those who belong to Jesus will be taken from the earth before that terrible time begins. Bow before Jesus Christ even now and be saved, for he is your Creator and he holds his nail-scarred hands out to you that you might escape the severe tribulation that is about to take over the earth as God judges the Christ-rejecting world and prepares his people Israel to receive her Messiah. Turn to him now and be saved lest you be left behind to endure that terrible time.
More:
Israel's Covenant
"Then Peter answered and said to him,
'Explain this parable to us.'"
Matthew 15:15
Many people know that Jesus spoke in parables. But what many miss is that the truths contained in the parables were not for public consumption. After dismissing the crowds, the disciples of the Lord would gather around him and ask him to show them the truths contained in his stories.
"And the disciples came and said to him,
'Why do you speak to them in parables?'
He answered and said to them,
'Because it has been given to YOU
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
but to them it has not been given.'"
Matthew 13:10-11
Is Jesus partial? Yes. He is partial to those who desire to walk closely with him. For the masses, even for many believers among them, these truths will be hidden. When they read the Word of God, they will learn the basics of the faith and that is sufficient for them.
Jesus drew the multitudes of people by the miracles he did. Who wouldn't run after someone who was able to heal sick bodies and set people free from demonic oppression? And so they flocked to him. He didn't deny them, he healed all who came. But Jesus is not looking for people who will flock to him to get what they can out of him. He is looking for those who are willing to surrender their lives to him. Out of the multitudes, he chose twelve to follow him. They were the inner circle, they walked with him exclusively for the three years of his ministry. And they would be the ones who would later take the Gospel to the world.
But then, there was an even smaller group among the apostles who wanted to be as close to him as possible, regardless of what it might cost them. Peter, James, and John were the three who loved him in such depth that he was willing to receive them into the depths of his heart and teach them on a far more personal level than the others. These three you will see going alone with Jesus whenever he went aside, or whenever something special was happening. He favored them and kept them close to him in all that he did.
Friends, you can choose how close you want to be to the Lord. If all you want is to take whatever he's willing to give, then it's ok, he will allow that – he paid dearly for that. But if you want to walk more closely than others, first you must count the cost. There is a cost to discipleship, and it can be severe at times. You don't have to make this depth of commitment if you don't want to, salvation is a free gift with no strings attached. But if you desire to walk intimately with the Lord, that will demand total surrender. However once you have walked in this depth with the Lord, you will wonder why anyone would even dream of not wanting this.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid;
and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."
Matthew 13:44
That treasure is hidden. It is available to all, but not all will be willing to surrender all in order to have it. Few have that kind of heart, but for those who do, the joy of walking with the Master can be compared to nothing else in life - and also, in eternity.
