An Evil Speaker
“Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil
shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.” (Psalm 140:11)
The phrase, “Let not an evil speaker” is transliterated from
the Hebrew, “'iysh lashown”
The Hebrew word for speaker is, “'iysh”. It means a man, a
mortal man to be specific, that is endued with certain qualities and attributes.
In this case the qualities are that of evil. The Hebrew word, “lashown” means
tongue. This is an evil man gifted with the power of speech. A wordsmith that
uses his speech better than any sword.
Many times, the Bible will use the tongue or the mouth to
represent the sword and vice versa. This is done in part to highlight the power
of the spoken word. Here are some examples.
“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he
should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
(Revelations 19:15)
“Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:16)
“My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are
set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp sword.” (Psalm 57:4)
The Psalmist says that we should not allow or permit this
evil speaker to be established, and for due cause. The most powerful force
there is, is the spoken word. Our most powerful weapon to counter the evil word
is the spoken word of God. It’s how Jesus defeated the devil during the great
temptation. All Jesus did was recite scripture.
You can’t recognize evil if you don’t know the good. That
was one of the functions of the Ten Commandments. Man couldn’t know sin
otherwise.
The best defense against an evil speaker is to know God’s
word, in spirit and in truth. Know the written word and as it was made manifest
in Jesus Christ. Nothing can prevail against it. Nothing!
Bill Hitchcock
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