How to Handle Ridicule

Ridicule is the devil's weapon. And listen, we all are guilty of making fun of people at some point in our lives. But what do you do when it really starts to affect your ministry and your leadership? How do we handle it? How do we help others handle it?

Let's find out today on the Theory Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.

Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We got another great conversation on the books for you guys today with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time, we want to say welcome. We're glad God has brought you to our show for whatever reason, and we're going to help you find out why He's done that today.

I want to let you know who's talking to you. Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah.

Man, sometimes people just be making fun of you, man. People just be ridiculing you. You know what Shakespeare called it? What did he call it? Paper Bullets of the Brain.

I love it. That's a great. I feel like that's a t-shirt. I feel like that's a t-shirt. We need some kind of like brain with paper bullets coming out.

I'd like that design. That's a punk rock album. Paper bullets of the brain. 100%. I can see that Pascal pink background, the little paper hearts shooting through somebody.

Dropping today on Spotify. That's a no FX album. Yeah, that's a NoFX album. I agree. I agree.

We've been talking about Nehemiah, the rebuilding project that he's been under, of course, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and the opposition that he's encountered in the form of Sam Ballot, Tobiah, and Gesham. These three kind of incredible opposing military forces that have come against him. And I mean, you said on yesterday's episode, they were really dictators. They were these tyrants that came against Nehemiah and his rebuilding forces. But they were using such.

basic tactics. You know, they were not sending in spies and all that stuff. At this point at least, they were simply mocking them, ridiculing them. Like mid middle school tactics. They were trying to get to their hearts.

Because if your heart fails, I'm talking about not in a medical way, but but just your emotions become discouraged, disheartened. You will quit. You'll walk away. He will launch into self pity And that's exactly what they wanted. What I want to do today, because yesterday's episode we sort of focused on how terrible ridicule can be and how people can just go after you, attack you, and I give some personal examples.

Today I want to just examine what Sand Ballads said.

So Sandballet fired off five rhetorical questions. Question number one. What are these feeble Jews doing? Feeble. Yeah.

Feeble. That word choice feels. The word is milal, which means frail. miserable Or powerless. The word milal is related to the Hebrew word mulah, which means feverish or sickly.

Oh.

So these little, like, just feverish, anemic, like little spindly, gaunt-looking. Yeah. Like the little orphans in Christmas Carol coming out. Hey, sir. I want some cheese.

I'd like to rebuild the walls, please. A little Oliver twist over here. Right. I mean, that's terrible. I don't know what this man was doing.

So I can see like political commentators of our day doing this because it's way more about asking rhetorical questions, which are really just insults. And I used to genuinely think, I used to think that rhetorical questions are a good way to make your point and to get people to think and not attack you. But man, the older I've gotten, it's just really super immature. Oh, it's such a tactic now. Because it's just question after question.

What? I can't ask questions. I'm not allowed to ask questions. I'm just asking questions. I really get to the truth.

I'm so sorry. I thought this was America. If I'm not allowed to ask questions. If my questioning has offended you, I mean, I do apologize. I genuinely, I used to think that was the best way to make a point, and I don't anymore because I've seen it misused, and I've seen here how it gets used against the people of God.

It's just so disingenuous. I've seen maybe rhetorical questions be used really, really. Effectively, maybe once or twice in my life. Right. Maybe once or twice.

Yeah, this is just mean. Yeah. Like, look at them. Look look at them. They look so pale.

They look so ashy. They just look like they are sick. Are they are you sick? Are you sad? I haven't asked you.

That's okay. I haven't asked you this yet, but who is San Ballot talking to? Is he talking to Nehemiah? Is he talking to the people who were rebuilding? Is he talking to a gaggle of his own people?

He is talking, it says, right, he has spoke before his brethren, means his people, and the army of Samaria. Remember, he was San Ballet the Horonite. He is the ruler of the northern part where the northern kingdom used to be.

Now it is Samaria because of the Asterian exile.

So. These are people who are from somewhere else that they're Assyrians. kind of planted here to to take away any opportunity for nationalism or land related pride or any heritage. They just wanted to do away with that.

So they made them transplants. All the people were transplanted. And so these are the Sumerians. Maybe they brought the Sumerian army to intimidate the people working on the walls. Let's get all the army, all of them, like lined in formation on the hills.

With their swords, with their spears. They're standing there watching. These feeble Jews. These sickly fevers got to start with the physical first, huh? Yeah.

That was something that always drilled into me is like, cause I was, I teased a lot and I picked a lot as a kid, but I remember I used to make fun of people for like their physical features. And my mom always drilled into me: if they can't change it, If it's something with their body, it's off limits. Because I remember once time someone made fun of my teeth. And that was it for me. I was done.

I never made fun of nobody for being overweight, for being too tall, too short, because that person who made fun of my teeth to this day, I still remember it. That hurts. I mean, when it's a physical intimidation or a physical insult, it sticks with you. Oh, yeah, it sticks with you for life. But it doesn't stop there.

It says in the next line is another question: will they fortify themselves? Hmm. Means You are not wall builders. Isn't that guy over there like a jeweler there? They got the perfume maker over here rebuilding the wall.

What are you going to do? Like spray perfume on the wall? Is that what you're going to use? Perfume to put the bricks together? At least they'll smell good when we knock it back down.

Y'all know what a city wall looks like? I'm genuinely asking. I'm not even being ugly. I'm just trying to ask questions. Could somebody use a level and see if it's.

I can just eyeball it and tell you it's not even level. What are you doing? Yeah. Our kids in Samaria are better craftsmen than these jokers. Have you seen what a real city wall looks like?

And you can almost hear the Samaritan army laughing. Mm-hmm. You know, there's a snickering, they're laughing. How did Nehemiah know that this is what was being said? Maybe there was a spy there.

From the Jewish people's side who was listening in, maybe somebody later on. Changed their allegiance and supported God's people, and they told me this is what they were saying. But I would say More than likely all the people heard who were on the walls was laughter. Maybe they heard what they were saying, but I would say more than likely laughter. Because for them to to overhear so care so clearly what these people are saying, what Sand Ballard was saying.

I mean, those Samaritan soldiers would have had to be right there. Right, I mean, like 10 feet away. These weren't whispered insults into someone's ear, secretively. Or maybe they were. Maybe they came all the way down there to go.

What are y'all doing? Nothing. We're just watching. I mean, is it a clam to watch? Are we not allowed to stand here now?

I'm sorry. I thought this was Jerusalem. Yeah. And then question number three: will they offer sacrifices?

Now, back in those days before starting a building project, Where there was a wall or a bridge, they would offer a sacrifice.

Sometimes even an innocent child offer sacrifice. You know, among the Celtic people, that was also a practice. You know, they find the bog man, you know, they find these people who are buried in the bog and and the j and the Liquid, the the juices from the trees and all that kind of become oily and they preserve the bodies. But when you examine those those bodies, many of them are like stark naked, there is no sign of struggle because they were sacrificing themselves for some purpose. Maybe it was the crops.

Maybe it was famine, maybe it was rain. We don't know what the reason was. But many times you don't see any struggle because this person probably, probably volunteered himself for the sacrifice.

So their question here Are you planning on sacrificing? to please some god so that the wall could last and the bridge would stand? You don't have enough sacrifices to get this project going. How many people are going to kill here? Yeah.

How many of y'all are trying to die? You know, please. You don't have a prayer. And that statement was not just mocking the Jewish people. It was actually mocking the living, true God, mocking Yahweh.

You still see that today. You still see that today. I see that all the time online. It's sad. One of the worst ones I ever saw was when that church was shot up in Texas.

I don't know if you guys remember that a few years back. I saw so many people online just. Mockingly, thoughts and prayers. The Christians need our prayers. And they would send that stuff.

It was a way to mock. Christians and mock God. I remember seeing that. That left an impression on me. It's puzzling to, I mean, those of us who have grown up in or around church, it's puzzling for us to think about people who would mock God or mock Christianity, but it's so prevalent.

I mean, spend some time online, spend some time out in the world, and you will find people who not only are non-Christian, but they are anti-Christian. Oh, it's out there. They're against Christianity and against the Bible.

So that's Question number three. Saying, who are you going to sacrifice now? How many do you all need? And then comes question number four. Will they complete it in a day?

That seems odd. I mean, how can we do that in a day? This is a big project. I'll take. At least a couple of months, at least, and by the way, it ends up being less than that, but at this point, probably.

An average contractor would say, Yeah, give me three months for that or six months for that. When they say, well, they completed in a day, what they're saying is, y'all are all so fired up about this wall. I know, yeah. Today, because maybe it's nice weather and everybody's excited, and the families have brought sandwiches, and the kids are playing on the hillside there, and y'all are building the walls. And it's a great thing.

What are you going to do tomorrow? What are you going to do tomorrow when you are your back's hurting? You sore. Or you sore, or you broke an ankle, or something has happened. What are you going to do tomorrow when you have to actually go back to your real job?

When you have to go back to jewelry making or selling perfumes or back to your cushy job in the city council, what are you going to do then? Who's gonna finish this? Because you cannot finish just in a day. Yeah. Right now, y'all are all excited about this, but how about A week from now.

How about when the money runs out? How y'all gonna keep affording to do this? Y'all got to work, right? The project takes longer than you thought, and you feel like you've been building the same section of the wall for weeks and months. And I mean, you put a brick up, and it feels like you have to put three more to make any kind of progress.

Do you have enough vision, determination, and resources to finish this project? Because we can go and tell you. You don't. That's a great point. A lot of times the mocking doesn't sound like laughter, doesn't sound like insults.

It can be disguised as wisdom or advice or not even that. Just, hey, I'm just being real. Yeah, I'm just trying to keep it. I'm being nice and if you want me to stop, I'll stop. But let me just tell you something.

It ain't gonna work like that. Ain't gonna work like that. I've had people talk to me like that and I'm like Yeah, you're probably right. I don't I don't know. And thank God it hasn't happened in some time.

We have some awesome, awesome, awesome God-sent leaders at Clearview who have more sense about building and architecture and money management and future planning.

So we're doing great. But in the early days, there were people who would just look at me and go, You don't understand all these things. Yeah, I know there's one more question, but what if someone's listening to this right now and they just had that conversation with someone 10 minutes ago? And they're down right now. Yeah, they're struggling.

I would just like hear. Nehemiah strengthened himself in the Lord. He, just like David, He knew that he cannot allow ridicule to stop him. And he didn't. By the way, one more statement we need to examine.

It's a question. will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish? Stones that are burned?

So Okay. You know, these gates had been burned with fire, so many of the stones had been damaged. Mm.

Well Sandball is saying that these stones that are made out of limestone The limestones have cracked and disintegrated. How are you going to do this? Who's gonna go out there and buy them? Do y'all know the quarry? By the way, I own the Corey.

You cannot have him. I'm not sure if Sand Ballard owns some Coreys. But I'm sure that's what he was implying. Yeah, it's not outside the realm of possibility. Where are you going to get the stones from?

Are you going to use the same ones? Yeah, you're not getting them from me. Because they're crumbling.

So you don't have What it takes, you don't have the resources, you don't have the right intention, and you do not have the motivation or the resources to do it. As Sand Ballad is just launching ridicule after ridicule against Nehemiah and the people of God. Tobiah joins in. Oh boy. Of course, of course.

Remember, this is an axis of evil: three: Sanbala, Tobiah, Geshem. And He is about to launch into them. It always is bad when you've got one person, one person criticizing you, and you're like, well, that's just one person. Then others start to join, especially online. Start piling on.

People start coming, those comments start compiling. Then you start really being like, oh man, this stinks. Yeah, because then not only are you subject to ridicule, but you're outnumbered. Yeah, because then you're like, well, if one person says it, I can just put it away as he's jealous, he's envious, he doesn't know what he's talking about. But now it's three or four people.

Yeah. Well What happens here now is Like Chuck Swindahl says, critics run with critics. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Yeah. Tobiah joins in. And He was standing right next to Sand Ballot and he said, Whatever they build, if even a Fox goes up on it, He will break down their stone wall. You don't need an army. You don't need all our Samarians to cross over and walk over those stones.

Even a fox now, if you know. A fox is he is always very, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, like limber, like nimble, nimble, nimble, nimble is a better word. You know, he can just kind of tiptoe right through it and just kind of. Loop, loop, loop, jump out here and he's gone.

He said, Even if that fox decides to to kind of jump. From one rock or stone to the other and slip through the cracks and run off into the hills, yeah, right behind him, all the walls will just go. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy how people can use such a blatant like everybody knows, even the people who say in that knows that that's not true. Like, the fox is not going to break that wall down, but it's so funny how something so blatantly untrue can still discourage you, yeah, still tear you down using absurdity as a weapon, yeah, yeah.

So that, and by the way, that was not true. Archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. By the way, Kathleen Kenyon was Frederick. Kenyon's daughter. Frederick Kenyon was a scholar, a New Testament.

Textual critic. He was Sir Frederick Kenyon. His daughter became an archaeologist, and she said. that Nehemiah's walls were nine Foot thick. That's some thick walls.

Nine foot thick. And And You cannot just have a fox Jump on it and turn them down. There's no way. Yeah. But At the moment when you hear someone say, it's not going to last, it's not going to work.

Y'all can't do that? And we've had that happen even recently. Y'all can't do that. It's not possible. And then It happens, they go, Yeah, but it's still not good enough.

It's not good enough. Yeah, it's all wrong, it's all wrong. The process was wrong. The product is wrong. It's all wrong.

But y'all enjoy. Yeah, even they won't even say that. Like it's wrong. You need to stop right now. Stop.

Seize. Right now, cease and desist, cease, discontinue, yeah, and And what I like is that Nehemiah remembered every one of those statements of ridicule, whether it was given to him in real time or later on, we don't know, but he heard all of that. And and he did not He did not forget. Yeah. Dr.

Shaw, you since since coming here as the pastor of our church, you've walked through several building projects. You know, we're kind of in the building phase right now. Have you ever encountered opposition to this level and if so how did you handle it Yes, I've had to face that over the years and it's not just building projects, it's about other things as well. We feel like God is leading us in this direction or or to embark on this project or that project. You always have people who have ulterior motives.

Or they feel like, man, I feel disenfranchised. I need to be the one consulted. I need to be the one deciding on this. Or you have people who feel like this is going to sort of cut into their profit margin. And they come with ridicule.

And they'll try to get people around them. They always, and by the way, anytime you start doing that to mock somebody, if you start gathering people in support so you can mock somebody, just know that you. May not be on the right side as you think. Because Truth does not need to be brought up with ridicule. Truth is truth.

Truth is enough to say this is right, this is wrong, here are the reasons. If you begin to add ridicule it is because truth is not on your side. You're trying to compensate, you're trying to spice it up. And when that is not enough, you begin to look at someone else and say, Are you going to join me? Are you going to step in with me?

You all ready? Let's do it together because Frankly, you know and I know we don't have the truth on our side. Ridicule is not really making a difference, but if we have multiple people ridiculing, It can appear as truth. It can appear as truth because, hey, I may be wrong, but how are you going to answer for these three people behind me? And I think online communities are a breeding ground for that kind of thing.

It happens so naturally and so fast. You know, as you were saying that, Dr. Shaw, it makes me think of the tactics of the devil throughout the story of the Bible. You know, he openly mocking and ridiculing God and being against him. And he's called what, the father of lies?

Because the truth is not on his side.

So he got a third of the angels on his side. He tried to sway Adam and Eve, and they ended up disobeying God. He's always been trying to get people on his side. He knows that he's losing. He knows that he's on the wrong side, but he's always trying to get people on his side because he knows that he doesn't have the truth.

That's right. That's right. Well. That's his tactic. Thank God the Bible also tells us how to handle those kinds of ridicule.

So, when Nehemiah heard this, listen to what he did. He responded by praying. Verse 4. Here, O our God, we are despised. There have been many times that I have gone to God in prayer.

But there also have been times when I didn't. I've allowed that problem, that person, that group, To to to live rent-free in my in my head. I have allowed their words to remain in me. I've allowed what they said. to bother me.

I've allowed what they did to discourage me. But when I Came to myself, and it happens.

Sometimes I would say, I would say most of the time it happens in the middle of the night when I. I'm tired, I lay down, go to sleep, and then three o'clock in the morning, I'm wide awake. And the first thing my thought, my mind goes to is that person, that situation, that problem, those people. And then I will sit there or lie there and just kind of. Toss and turn and roll that scenario or that person or that situation in my head again and again.

Y'all know what I'm talking about. It just goes round and round like a record. It just on and on and on. And then I'm like, oh, I got a long day tomorrow. I can't afford to be doing this right now.

I need to be sleeping. I need good three, four more hours of sleep. Yeah. And then the Holy Spirit will say. Pray.

Pray. And I'm like, yeah, that's what I should have been doing all along. I don't know why I didn't. And so I will then start praying. And I can tell you 10 out of 10 times.

In a matter of five, seven minutes, I'm out. Yeah. And the next thing you know, I'm waking up. Wow. I've done that.

It's early morning or it's late morning or whatever. Yeah. It's the best. It's always the best response. And I really appreciate you that it's, at least from what I've seen, it usually is your first response.

Yeah. And it's, and it's your. Answer to what our first response ought to be. Because, you know, I think about what Nehemiah could have done. He could have just gotten angry.

You know, he could have fired back. He could have tried to do what I would do and just buddy up to them and like, hey, I'm smart enough and I'm clever enough and silver-tongued enough to get these guys on my side. Let's sit down and talk. He didn't do that at all. And as we'll see, as we'll see later, he.

That's not even an option for him. He didn't give up either. He didn't just abandon ship and be like, you know what? I guess maybe they're right. Maybe this isn't going to work.

Maybe a fox can knock this wall down. Maybe we shouldn't have had goldsmiths and perfumers building the wall. Maybe we'll just pack it up and I'll go back to Shushan and then we'll call it a day. Yeah. But he didn't do that.

He actually prayed. And listen to his prayer one more time. I know we read this earlier. Hear, O our God. For we are despised.

He went right to it. I know some of our team members know that. Don't. Use filler words in prayer. Don't need to do that.

not only are you fooling around, but you're also teaching your people Whether it's in a Sunday school classroom or student ministry or Sunday morning church, you're teaching them to just lala gag around instead of getting right to the point and saying, God, Please. Help. Listen to how he begins. He didn't say, Here, O our God, it's been a great day. Thank you for the day.

Thank you for bringing us all together to enough with the thank yous. Yes, you heard that here.

Now, if you're genuinely thanking God, please do it. But if it's because you're not that grateful of a person. All of a sudden, well, it was because that's the thing you do. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day today, and thank you so much for all your. Many blessings in our lives.

You can pretty much tell exactly how the prayer is going to start. Yeah, what many blessings. Yeah. Right. What, what.

What day are we talking about? Yeah. Why are you praying? What was the purpose, the motivation to sit down and actually pray? Was it so that you could thank God, or was it because you needed something?

Prayer is asking and receiving. Listen to his prayer. Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads right to the point. I don't think you're allowed to do that.

You can't talk to God that way. There is no thank you for all thank you for your many, many, many, many blessings. He's like. Turn the reproach on their head. and give them as plunder to a land of captivity.

Now keep in mind He and his people had been taken to the land of captivity, Babylon, Yeah. But Earlier, the Assyrians had taken the northern kingdom into captivity. What he's saying is: Lord, what they're doing to us needs to happen to them. This is not just some imprecatory prayer, Lord, just pour your vengeance on them and break their teeth and all that stuff. This is about God, they don't understand who we are, what we're going through.

Maybe they need that.

So this is not something that started with the New Testament. But in the New Testament, we realized we have to do this even more. Because many of the followers of the Messiah, the Son of God, were now living in cultures that were completely contrary to the things of God, and they were being persecuted.

So unlike The children of Israel in Egypt. Unlike the Israelites Under the Philistines. Unlike the Assyrians, unlike the Babylonians, God's people were constantly under attack by their enemies.

So, The prayer became God. As they're persecuting us, please use our lives to turn their hearts around.

Okay, so Is it wrong to pray in pregnancy prayers? No. But we who are on this side of the cross. should consider saying Forgive them are. Our trespass passes as you forgive those who trespass against us.

That's so great. And it continues that thinking of Jesus not doing away with the Old Testament, but fulfilling it, bringing it to completion and adding to what was already there, adding to our understanding of how our prayers can shape and impact the world around us. I know we're out of time, Dr. Shaw, but just a quick 30 seconds.

Someone is being ridiculed in their ministry right now, and they're saying, I'm ready to go to God in prayer. What should I pray? Bear your heart to God. Don't think that you have to act super spiritual and all full of grace and mercy. Just talk to God and God will give you the grace and mercy that you need.

That's right. And you will respond the way he wants you to respond. That's right. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow as we continue our discussion with Nehemiah and how he brings this project to completion. Thanks for following us on all of our social media platforms.

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