23. WHY YOU MAY BE ATTRACTING MOCKERY AND RIDICULE

If you are a Christian, in that you genuinely believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead and you have confessed him with your mouth as Lord (as Romans 10:9-10 requires), I can’t claim to know what is going on in your life or what you have been through, the kind of decisions you may or may not have made or how people may have hurt you.

If you are being mocked or ridiculed by someone or feel like you are a laughing stock in the eyes of others though, there are a number of reasons why you may be going through what you are going through and why you are at a point where some person, a set of persons, your enemies or the ungodly are poking fun at you and your situation.

If, as a Christian, you are currently the object of ridicule and you feel that somehow, you have ended up in a place where people are laughing at you, taking immense pleasure in your season of suffering and your enemies seem to be victorious in your pain, I would just like to suggest one possible reason why this may be happening.

If as you read this Note, what I mention does not apply to your situation, then this is okay. Sometimes people mock us because we have taken a stand for Christ and that is commend- worthy. However, if any of what I have written below rings true, then please take note.

Here goes:

DAUGHTER OF GOD, YOU MAY BE A LAUGHING STOCK IN THE EYES OF A PERSON OR PEOPLE (AND ESPECIALLY YOUR ENEMIES), AS A RESULT OF YOUR OWN DESPERATION, FAITHLESSNESS, UNWISE DECISION AND DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD.

Anytime you give the ungodly privileges that they ought not to have had or make unwise, faithless and desperate decisions to serve yourself without waiting on God or to secure the favour of any person but God, the person or people involved usually end up throwing it right back in your face because they know that you sold yourself short, that they acquired access to what they never should have and that your decision was not within God’s will. Hence, out of your foolishness, a spirit of mockery usually arises from those you gave the access to, those who know of your unwise decision and the ungodly in general.

This was seen with Hagar, Sarai’s maid, who Sarai allowed, through faithlessness, impatience and desperation, to be given the title of wife to Sarai’s husband Abram (just like Sarai) and to experience physical intimacy with Sarai’s husband Abram (just like Sarai).

Sarai did this because she was convinced that she would always be barren (having tried all of her marriage to have a child without success and now being old in years). She therefore reasoned, seemingly, that since God told Abram he would make of him a great nation, that this must mean that Abram was to have a child by some other woman other than herself. She therefore took her maid Hagar and gave her to Abram to wife, hoping that she would conceive, so that she could have children through her.

The plan seemed perfect and sure to succeed! However, one main component was missing. God was left out of the equation. He was not sought for counsel on this issue. Sarai doubted that God would give her a child in her old age and so desperate was she for Abram to have offspring, that she and Abram took matters into their own hands.

The result? Sarai found that her actions gave rise to a mocking spirit. She was now a laughing stock in the eyes of Hagar her maid and this she had not bargained for!

Having been given the unmerited privilege of wife to Abram and sexual intimacy with him, it is no wonder, when Hagar eventually conceived for Abram (something that, to Hagar’s mind, put her one step above Sarai who had never been able to do this), that Hagar seemingly got puffed up with pride, considering herself to have arrived. She no longer demonstrated humility and respect to Sarai, her boss but Sarai was now despised or considered to be nothing in her eyes. After all, she was the one that was going to bear Abram her Master, a child and it was her child that would inherit all that Abram had! Or so she thought.

Sarai’s bad decision, based on desperation and not having enough faith in God to wait on him to work a miracle through her own body, gave rise to trouble, as she now had to put up with Hagar’s mocking of her barren situation.

It should be noted, that this mocking, jeering, ridiculing spirit also exists when God’s children sell themselves, their bodies, their secrets, their standards, their integrity (in shady deals and dishonest conduct) to ungodly people and truth, due to desperation or because they place the value of being loved or accepted by someone or acquiring something, above God. Such people end up a laughing stock in the eyes of the person or people to whom they gave access or allowed to lower their standards and when all is said and done, they end up looking utterly foolish in the eyes of those around them.

The same thing happened with Samson. He gave his enemies privileges that they should not have had when he slept with ungodly women, had relationships with them in the name of love and finally aligned himself with Delilah, a Philistine woman, who belonged to the enemies of the Lord’s people.

This resulted in Delilah making an utter fool out of him, as she traded him for money and therefore capitalized on his foolishness. While he thought he was in love with her, she was in love with the opportunity to benefit herself, monetarily.

Due to this bad decision, which led to Samson giving Delilah access to what she ought not to have had (which was his heart, his body, his trust and eventually the secret of his source of strength), he was then made a laughing stock, as this enabled his enemies the Philistines to capture him, put out his eyes and set him up as an object to be publicly jeered at and humiliated by them, in the house of their false god, dagon.

IF YOU HAVE GIVEN THE ENEMY A FOOTHOLD BY YOUR OWN ACTIONS TO RIDICULE YOU, YOU MUST REPENT AND GO TO GOD AND CONFESS YOUR WRONG AND ASK FOR MERCY.

When you have given the enemy privileges the enemy ought not to have had and like Sarai and Samson, caused them to see or to have access to things that they ought not to have had, (like Hezekiah, who allowed the messengers of the son of the King of Babylon to see the precious things he had in his house, which later resulted in a Babylonian invasion where all the treasures were taken and many of the people, including his descendant who was on the throne were taken away captive as prisoners to Babylon), when your decision backfires and you are made a laughing stock as a result and realize that your foolishness has given rise to a mocking, troublesome spirit, you must accept responsibility for your actions.

You must repent, confess your sins to God, let him know honestly that you are responsible for where you have found yourself, that it is because of your sin that the enemy was able to get a foothold and it was your sin that resulted in you being made what you have been made in the eyes of others. You must ask for forgiveness, genuinely being sorry for your wrong and resolved to never act in faithlessness, desperation, foolishly or unwisely again.

When you come to God, you should let him know that you have nothing with which to bargain. For, you cannot place reliance on any good works that you may have done. You come empty before his throne of grace with nothing in your hands but regret but yet you humbly ask for MERCY. For, you cannot fix the mess that you created.

You ask him for MERCY to change your season, to deliver you from being stuck and to help you to no longer be a laughing stock. You ask God, even as David and Samson did, when they found that their sin had resulted in them being made a public jeering spectacle, to help you recover strength, so that your enemies would not prevail against you.

As much as you have acted to your own self-detriment, God, in his MERCY, can still step in to sort out the mess that you found yourself in. He did so with Sarai and Abram by intervening to clean up the mess that their desperation caused. He also helped Samson to recover strength and to have the last laugh over his enemies, although he lost his life in the process.

In Psalm 39:8-11 and 13, David, having been made a laughing stock because of his sin, prayed:

• “Deliver me from all my transgressions: MAKE ME NOT THE REPROACH OF THE FOOLISH. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth…Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears…O spare me, THAT I MAY RECOVER STRENGTH, before I go hence and be no more.”

In Psalm 13:1-4, he also prayed:

• “How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? HOW LONG SHALL MINE ENEMY BE EXALTED OVER ME? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; LEST MINE ENEMY SAY, I HAVE PREVAILED AGAINST HIM; AND THOSE THAT TROUBLE ME REJOICE WHEN I AM MOVED.”

In Psalm 40:11-15, he cried out for MERCY, something that he often did when he had sinned and knew that he needed God’s help to deliver him from the chords of those sins and the ridicule, attacks and oppression from his enemies that came with it.

The scripture reads:

• “Withhold not thou thy tender MERCIES from me, O Lord: Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.”

GOD HAS A TENDENCY, AFTER HIS CHILDREN HAVE BEEN CHASTENED FOR THEIR WRONG AND LEARNED THEIR LESSON AND REPENTED, TO RETURN TO REPAY THE PEOPLE WHO MOCKED THEM AND REJOICED IN THEIR SUFFERING.

In Romans 12:19, it reminds God’s children:“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Proverbs 17:5 states: “…he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.”

God has a tendency, after his children have messed up, been humiliated, made a complete laughing stock of themselves in the eyes of their enemies and the ungodly, to step in, once they have learned their lesson and genuinely repented, to deal with their enemies. He did that time and time again with the Israelites. When he was finished chastening them, he went after those who had rejoiced when they were down. I believe he does the same today.

This is why it is dangerous for any person, whether saved or not saved, to mock at, jeer, ridicule and rejoice in the humiliation, pain and adversity of any of God’s people, whether or not this is due to them having sinned or not. For, if the suffering came through sin, usually, after God chastens, he requites those who enjoyed, ridiculed and added to the pain of his children and he is no no respecter of persons (Colossians 3:25).

Lamentations 3:31-32 makes it clear that God’s chastening hand upon his children does not last forever. Contrary to what some may think, it has an expiry date. The scripture reads: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever; But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his MERCIES.”

In chapter 4:22, God’s Prophet stated to the Israelites, otherwise known as Zion and then to Edom, one of their enemies:

• “The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: HE WILL VISIT THINE INIQUITY, O DAUGHTER OF EDOM, he will discover thy sins.”

In Jeremiah 50:6-13, God spoke through his Prophet about his people the Israelites and their enemies the Babylonians who had rejoiced when they (the Israelites) were reaping the fruits of their disobedience. God said:

• “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place. ALL THAT FOUND THEM HAVE DEVOURED THEM: AND THEIR ADVERSARIES SAID, WE OFFEND NOT, BECAUSE THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE LORD, THE HABITATION OF JUSTICE, EVEN THE LORD, HE HOPE OF THEIR FATHERS.

• Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. FOR, LO, I WILL RAISE AND CAUSE TO COME UP AGAINST BABYLON an assembly of great nations from the north country and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; NONE shall return in vain…BECAUSE YE WERE GLAD, BECAUSE YE REJOICED, O YE DESTROYERS OF MINE HERITAGE, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow the bulls.

• Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. BECAUSE OF THE WRATH OF THE LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues.”

Babylon had mistakenly believed that because the Israelites were suffering to the extent that they were suffering, that God had turned against them forever and that they were therefore justified in jeering at them, making fun of them, oppressing them, speaking evil of them and making a laughing stock of them, thereby intensifying their pain. The people of Babylon therefore capitalized on this opportunity and did their very worst.

However, they were wrong. They were only able to oppress the Israelites who God had chastened because God had allowed them to be the laughing stock of all their enemies round about them, due to their sins. However, God still loved his people, although he hated their sin and so he took the attacks on them while they were down, as personal. He took note of all who oppressed them, kept a perfect record and had every intention of exercising vengeance afterwards.

For example, he stated through his Prophet in Jeremiah 50: 25,27-29,33-34;51:5:

• “The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans…woe unto them! For their day is come, the time of their visitation. The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, TO DECLARE IN ZION THE VENGEANCE OF THE LORD OUR GOD, THE VENGEANCE OF HIS TEMPLE…

• Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: RECOMPENSE HER ACCORDING TO HER WORK; ACCORDING TO ALL THAT SHE HATH DONE, DO UNTO HER: FOR SHE HATH BEEN PROUD AGAINST THE LORD, AGAINST THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL…

• Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

• THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG; THE LORD OF HOSTS IS HIS NAME: HE SHALL THOROUGHLY PLEAD THEIR CAUSE, THAT HE MAY GIVE REST TO THE LAND, AND DISQUIET THE INHABITANT OF BABYLON…For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

On another occasion, in Isaiah 51:21-23, God stated to his children through another Prophet, after they had suffered tremendously due to their sin and had been made the laughing stock of the heathen:

• “Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunk, but not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I HAVE TAKEN OUT OF THINE HAND THE CUP OF TREMBLING, EVEN THE DREGS OF THE CUP OF MY FURY; thou shalt no more drink it again: BUT I WILL PUT IT INTO THE HAND OF THEM THAT AFFLICT THEE; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.”

AFTER REPENTANCE, GOD IS ABLE TO BRING RESTORATION AND A NEW SEASON

Once you have seen the error of your ways, your faithlessness, your foolishness and you repent before God, he has the ability to so change your season, that the naysayers and the mockers and those who enjoyed your being a laughing stock, will be silenced.

Isaiah 52 describes perfectly how God can, in his MERCY, bring you out of that place where you are a spectacle and mocked at by those around you and cause them to take note that God is fighting for you and he is a mighty God of salvation.

The scripture reads:

• “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

• For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

• How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

• Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: FOR THEY SHALL SEE EYE TO EYE, WHEN THE LORD SHALL BRING AGAIN ZION. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH SHALL SEE THE SALVATION OF OUR GOD.”

(Written on 16th September, 2020)