Daily Word: Handling Insults

Proverbs 26:2 says: Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight. (RSV) The JPS Study Bible comments: "So a gratuitous [that is, undeserved] insult will not arrive. It will not reach and hurt the person it is sent against." Do you find this to be true in your life? Do you ever feel like you are wrongfully insulted? I think we all do at some time or another. The issue then becomes how can this verse be true? I think the answer lies in how we handle the insult. We are only insulted if we grant another that power to insult us. If we respond with confidence in who we are in God and agree with what He says about us, an insult will have no place to land. Notice that the emphasis is not on the one giving the insult, but on us to give the insult no place, i.e. give it no place to land.

Thomas Scott explained the verse as follows: "The birds which fly over our heads cannot hurt us, and they will soon return to their nests from which they wandered. In like manner, unmerited anathemas, imprecations, and calumnies, will not eventually harm us, but will slight on those who uttered them." If we can grasp Scott's point that insults really don't hurt us, it will impact how we deal with them. Just like it is unwise for a fish to "take the bait," it is unwise for us to take the bait of an insult. My Dad had an expression; he said let it be like water flowing off a duck's back. Have you ever seen a duck in a rain storm? The rain doesn't bother him at all. The rain just pours down his back. We should treat insults the same way. Let them just pass by and they will have no place to land.

Today, if you find yourself being insulted, just let it pass by. Don't allow the insult to land in your emotions. Resist the temptation to argue back. Be as smart as a duck in a rain storm.