1 Chronicles 12:2 TLB
All of them were expert archers and slingers, and they could use their left hands as readily as their right! Like King Saul, they were all of the tribe of Benjamin.
If you’ve ever played with mud, you’ll know how hard it is to get it off, once mud sticks, it’s stuck, and it certainly will do some damage.
There are people whose passion is to sling mud at anyone and every situation regardless of if they know you or not.
Mudslingers, rumour mongers, whatever name you want to call it, specialise in creating stories, whether true or false that do not miss their goal, the goal of tarnishing one’s name.
Of such did Judges 20:16 say that “Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at a hair breadth, and not miss”.
Mudslingers don’t have to have accurate stories; they only need to whisper their story into the accurate ear for maximum damage.
In the Old Testament times, slingers were regular components of an army and were often together with the archers during a siege in warfare their role was to pick off the enemy from the besieged city’s ramparts. Such slingers could hurl a projectile at over one hundred miles an hour and their effective range was well more than one hundred yards and never missed their target.
Mudslingers are very adept at using careless words to cause injury and doubt while presenting a compassionate interest in wanting to help or support their victims but Matthew 12:36 says we will give an account of every careless word. Be careful of what you say about others and how you say it, even as you’re careful of those who are quick to dish out their opinions about others without consideration of the effect.
Proverbs 10:18 calls a slanderer or mud slingers a fool, for all they know to do is accuse others falsely. David’s lament in Psalm seven tells us how much damage and pain are caused by wrongful accusations and slander.
Some of us need to learn to think before we speak, we open our mouths without realising the damage we’re doing to someone’s character, name, and image. According to James 4:11, we essentially speak evil against a child of God and stand in judgment over them.
Senseless mudslinging and evil speaking are unbecomingly for a child of God.
Perfect courtesy is what Titus 3:2 recommends that we show each other.
“Thus, they destroyed the cities; and each one threw a stone on every piece of good land and filled it. So, they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees, until in Kir-hareseth only they left its stones; however, the slingers went about it and struck it.
A closer look at our text shows us how much damage a mudslinger can create with a careless action.
Beware of mud slingers!
They don’t have any good intentions toward you! Mudd slingers will throw rumours around about you, and lying accusations at you, they will create situations that will become barriers to your progressive improvement and success and will often stick you where it would hurt the most. Beware of mud slingers according to Proverbs 20:19.
As David discovered, be assured that your vindication is of God according to Romans 12:19, you do not have to engage mudslingers in the bid to right the story, clear your name or stop them, understand that God will act righteously for you. Beware of mudslingers.
Shalom