By Jim Cole

I bet you have heard this saying. The truth is, that saying is absolutely FALSE. The tongue can be one of the most vicious, harmful, hateful, powerful and even deadly weapons in anyones arsenal. You could punch me in the face and give me a black eye, guess what, it will heal, you could break my leg and it would heal. In other words, you could hurt someone physically and our bodies have a way of healing itself. But when you say something to someone and it hurts them emotionally, you can never UNSAY those words, how do you heal an invisible wound? How do you find emotional Scars? How do you FORGET when someone says something to you that hurts? The fact is you don’t. You just live with it. You could physically hurt someone that would cause permanent damage and they would learn to live with that too. Words are so very powerful. I would like to prove this to you by examining Genesis Chapter 27. Isaac told his son Esau to go out and hunt game and then prepare a savory meal for him so that he could give him his blessing. Isaac was old and his sight wasn’t very good but HE KNEW who his sons were. Esau being the oldest was entitled to the blessing of the first-born son. Isaac, not knowing when he was going to die, felt that he needed to go ahead and give the Blessing to his oldest son and that’s why he told him to hunt some game and prepare the savory meal for him. Rebekah (their mother) heard Isaac instructing Esau and called her younger son Jacob. She told him to go out to the flock and gather two choice kids (sheep or goats) so that she could prepare a savory meal for Isaac and have Jacob take it to him and receive the blessing instead of Esau. Jacob was concerned about this because even though his father Isaac had very poor eyesight, his brother Esau was a hairy man and Jacob was smooth. Jacob was worried that his father Isaac might feel him and discover him to be a deceiver and then bring a curse upon himself instead of a blessing. His mother Rebekah told him that his curse would be on her and to just do as she told him. Jacob did as Rebekah instructed and Rebekah prepared a meal just as Isaac loved. She then took the best garments of Esau her oldest son which were in the house and put them on Jacob. She also put the skins of the kids/goats on Jacob’s hands and his neck so that if Isaac DID feel Jacob, he would feel hairy just as Esau was hairy. Rebekah then gave the meal and the bread to Jacob and Jacob went in to his father Isaac and said "My Father" Isaac replied by asking who he was and Jacob responded " I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me." Isaac asked how he was able to hunt and prepare it so quickly and Jacob told him that "the Lord your God caused it to happen to me". Then Isaac asked Jacob to come closer to him so that he could feel him to determine if he was really Esau or not. After feeling Jacob, Isaac said " the voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau. Isaac, feeling the hairy hands, believed that Jacob was Esau so he blessed him. Isaac then asked, "are you really my son Esau?" and Jacob said "I am." Then Isaac said "Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you." After Isaac had finished the meal he told his son "please come close and kiss me my son." When Jacob came close to Isaac and kissed him, Isaac smelled the clothes of Esau which Jacob was wearing and blessed him. Isaac said. "See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed; Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine; May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you." After this had happened, Jacob left his father and hadn’t been gone very long before Esau showed up. Esau prepared a meal from the game he had hunted and took it in to his father Isaac. When Esau told his father that he had prepared the meal for him and was ready to receive his blessing, Isaac told him " Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed." Esau cried out to his father saying "bless me, Even me also, O my father!" and Isaac said, "Your brother came deceitfully, and has taken away your blessing." Esau was let’s just say, not a very happy camper at this point. Jacob had taken Esau’s birthright and also Esau’s blessing. Esau asked his father "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." And he said "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" but Isaac answered by saying "Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?" And Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept. Then Isaac said to him, "Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above. And by your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you shall break his yoke from your neck." A yoke is the wooden board placed around an oxe neck so that he can pull a plow to cultivate the ground for planting. In the human aspect, a yoke could be considered the WAY that we handle the burdens in our lives. For example, someone who was born rich, would have an easy yoke around their neck when it comes to paying their bills, someone who is jobless and has no money has a very hard yoke to carry around their neck! An oxe pulling a plow through soft soil would have a much easier time than an oxe pulling a plow through hard soil with rocks in it. The yoke needs to be "well fitting" as well. Esau held a grudge against Jacob and planned to kill him. Rebekah heard of this and sent Jacob away for a while, just until Esau cools off and forgets what you did to him! Isaac blessed Jacob even more before Jacob left. Sticks and Stones may break my Bones but words can never hurt me? This Whole story is about nothing but words. Words spoken over a son by his father. How can you steal someones words? Why would Esau want to kill his own brother over words? It’s not like Isaac was writing his will and said, "to my first-born son Esau I leave my house, my BMW, my rolex and all of my land, and to Jacob, I leave, two sheep, three goats, a donkey and four dollars" then Jacob deceived everyone and stole Esau’s inheritance. WORDS are more powerful than most of us can possibly imagine. Once Isaac spoke those words over Jacob, even though he learned that Jacob had deceived him. He could NOT UNSPEAK those words. And today. Those words, are still coming true!

Most of us have heard the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" but haven’t you also heard "If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything" ? I know I have. I also know that throughout my life there have been many times when I should have done just that! I think ALL of us have said things that we probably shouldn’t have. After All, they’re just words right? I know that after studying the power that words have, I certainly want to be more mindful and alert about what I say, when I say it, and who I say it to. If the blessing of a father can be so great that the entire world is affected by it, I believe that you can have a seriously bad impact on someones life by speaking negative words over them. Let’s speak blessings over each other and just watch what God will do!

Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but a Blessing, can change your life !

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21.