There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing. 

Proverbs 12:18

These past few days we have moved from Solomon’s plea to his sons, mainly on the subject of wisdom, to a division of this amazing book full of comparisons and contrasts, which still includes much to say about wisdom! This long portion of Proverbs includes many word pictures that spring out at us and deliver vivid imagery of the principles given.

Such is the case with today’s key verse.

Most of us are unfamiliar with actual sword play or fighting battles with swords or defending ourselves with swords. What we know about such things is garnered from watching such movies as  the Lord of the Rings Trilogy or the series Game of Thrones or old Civil War movies.

We did have a sword in our household growing up (not shown here). It was from Vietnam, I think, and was given by a relative who lived there for a while. It was very old and, of course, I was forbidden to even touch it. But, I remember my dad getting it out now and then to wipe off its bamboo sheath and clean the sword itself. It was skinny by western sword standards, quite long and curved slightly in the middle. Even as an antique, I remember being warned that it was still very sharp. Wisely, I never tested my father’s claim to this fact.

Even though, I have never personally seen anyone thrust with a sword, and hope I never encounter such a thing, I can well imagine the damage such a thrust would cause, the long and painful recovery from such a wound (if the victim survived) and the ugly scarring that would ensue. But I have, and I am sure you have too, been the victim of words spoken rashly to me and about me. And I can testify that the thrust of those words did pierce like a sword.

Obviously, I did not die physically from such words, but in a few cases, I did ‘die’ emotionally and mentally with deep damage to my spirit. I can share that the process of healing was slow and painful and that there were ugly and sadly noticeable scars. I know each and every one of you reading this can testify to the same. Whoever said, and it was not God, that ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ either outright lied or they were delusional about their own emotional and mental hurts.

But, God! Only by God’s amazing mercy and grace and unconditional love have I truly recovered from the worst of these sword thrusts, even the scars are gone. Of course, the memory of them are still with me. Those will not be wiped out in this lifetime. But, my scars don’t show anymore, they’ve been hidden beneath Jesus’ death and resurrection life for me! I don’t wear my hurts on ‘my sleeve’ as we used to say. But, I couldn’t even begin to accomplish all that on my own. God’s precious Word and many prayers and counsels of those wiser than me, walked me through those valleys.

I pray that if you are currently wounded by the thrust of rash words, that you will allow God to lead you through complete recovery. He can heal you completely but only if you let Him.

And I pray for myself and for you that we will commit from this day forward to never be the person who uses the sword of rash words to cause deadly wounds in others. May we be the person of the 2^nd half of Proverbs 12:18! 

But the tongue of the wise brings healing.