Bullies

July 22, 2018

Bullying is a hot topic these days. Educators do the research, put together programs, and devise all sorts of ways to handle bullies. Used to be, these matters were handled by the kids themselves after school, as the bully and the bullied squared off. Today, adults do their best to mediate, with mixed results from sensitivity training and “see it, say it” kinds of programs. 

But how do we handle the real bullies of life—the man who decides he no longer wishes to be married, the child struggling with cancer, the factory worker who learns his job is moving to Mexico? What enables some to weather life’s storms while others sink beneath its waves?

Isaiah 36 and 37 tell of the Assyrian bully Sennacherib, who invaded little Israel in his quest for world domination. He had already overrun most of the land, and was knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, issuing an ultimatum for surrender. By all measures, it was a hopeless situation, but when King Hezekiah sent word to the prophet Isaiah, the latter told him not to worry; Jerusalem would not fall, and Sennacherib would retreat without firing a shot. Isaiah could see that Sennacherib was overextended, and that the least little problem elsewhere would turn his attention from Jerusalem and cause him to withdraw back home where he would be assassinated.

How much of this was direct revelation from God, and how much was Isaiah’s ability to read the signs of the times better than others we may never know, but that very night, a plague hit the Assyrian army, killing 185,000 of them on the spot, Sennacherib withdrew, and was soon murdered by two of his own sons.

Sometimes we find ourselves in hopeless situations. Life has bullied us, driving us to despair. This isn’t just an ancient history lesson; it is in the Bible to encourage us to turn to God rather than to despair when faced with impossibilities. I am thankful tonight for this story, and for the hope it gives me for those impossible situations where no matter how I scheme and maneuver, I cannot figure a way out. The Assyrian bullies of today’s life are no match for the Lord, who in response to the prayers of his faithful ones, will send even life’s cruelest bully scurrying back home in defeat.