When The Enemy’s Voice Taunts

He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us?”   Genesis 37:6-8

Consider the brothers’ outrage when they questioned Joseph. Time answered them with more than a touch of irony. Later on in Israel’s history, the Philistines laughed and posed their own rhetorical questions to Saul about the absurdity of a small boy, unarmed, taking on Goliath.  And many centuries later, chief priests, Pharisees, and Pilate himself posed similar questions to Jesus about His claim to be a King.

All the questions follow a similar theme and are answered by a God who reminds us that He is not predictable and nothing is impossible when He has called and equipped the person of His choosing. He uses the foolish, the uneducated, the weak, the stuttering, the outnumbered, the shamed, the forgotten, the underdog, and the smallest, to glorify His name.

Who is laughing at you? Perhaps you’ve sustained a rhetorical question already today. “Who do you think you are!” When God’s child knows that he is called, loved, blessed, and empowered by the Spirit of God, such confidence offends many. It can even rub against the grain of a few who love Jesus but no one should be threatened.

Each of us is called, loved, empowered, and invited into holy confidence if we are willing to do the hard spiritual work that precedes it.  The challenge is this ~ few love God enough to seek Him on that level. Spiritual laziness characterizes their lives. They desire, and perhaps feel entitled to, the blessing without having to engage in the spiritual disciplines to get it. 

For each who is being taunted today, know you are in good company. Do not let any man steal your confidence. Time will write your story and silence the voice of every accuser. Walk humbly with your God, and that doesn’t mean being apologetic about your call.  Love well, serve humbly, but stand tall.

Do not let accusers undo me. Amen