Silencing the Mocking Tongue
“Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust?” (Isaiah 36:4)
April 16
Enemies will perpetually seek to erode our confidence in God’s faithfulness. Job was assaulted even by those closest to him with accusations of his sinfulness and God’s abandonment. Job’s wife pleaded with him to curse God and die, yet he would still not refrain from placing his faith in God’s goodness toward him. Provocations of the enemy such as these are not unexpected and therefore must be fortified against. Hezekiah’s response to the intimidations of the Assyrians is a clear example to us of how to respond when the enemy is pressing in like a flood. Present your case before the Lord, lay your life down at His feet and plead for His intervention. The Holy Spirit will not permit us to compromise to our enemies taunting, for He lifts up a standard of prayer against them. We must stand upon the truth of God’s word come what may. As the mocking tongue gets louder the Lord’s anger is being aroused against them. What a vivid example the Assyrian armies are to the world, as thousands of corpses were the vindication they received for their mockery. Ignore the sceptics and never feel compelled to respond to their beguiling. Those who mocked Christ for not using His power to come down from the cross were soon shaken by an earthquake and the deep darkness that covered the sky and were confounded by an empty grave. Mocking tongues will all one day be silenced and will declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ, for “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:11) Our confidence is settled upon this immutable promise of God. If we are utterly despised by the perverted generations in which we live, we trust that history will honor our testimony of truth. The history of the Tokugawa dynasty in Japan was haunted by a cursed association with the notorious swords of Muramasa. They were said to be cursed with demonic powers, and many of the dynasty of Tokugawa were injured or killed by these blades. A fear of these cursed items became prevalent. If these blades were unsheathed it was believed they must draw blood before being sheathed again, causing some to even cut themselves before sheathing these blades out of fear. The accuser of the brethren, like the Muramasa blades, seeks to assault our conscience with violence. The cursed Serpent’s tongue thirsts to draw the life blood of vitality from your faith. Plead the blood of the Lamb that was already shed on your behalf. In Christ the curse of sin has been dispelled and forever satisfied through the cross. Condemnation has been sheathed by Jesus Christ who alone is able to squelch all the cursed tongues that speak against us, for He is our confidence in which we trust.
Daily Prayer
Suppressor of the revilers,
fortify my faith against all devices of intimidation.
My greatest enemy is my own conscience which assails me
with condemning demands for my deserved bloodshed.
Raise the banner of salvation before all the invading hordes of hell.
Send the Lion of Judah to slay and behead the giants who
accuse the brethren and blaspheme your name.
Restore my confidence in the sufficiency of the bloodshed
on the cross for me that I may stand confidently
against all my opposing forces of condemnation.