How to Handle Criticism
Key Passage: Numbers 5:11-28
Date: June 7, 2024
Numbers chapter five in God’s word tonight. Numbers chapter five. And I’ve told us on Wednesday night, I believe, years ago, years and years ago, but I felt like to cover this again tonight.
How to handle criticism. How to handle criticism. If you live very long, you’re going to be criticized. And whether you live for the Lord or not live for the Lord, you’re going to be criticized. And it’s just part of life. And it’s very important how you handle criticism. It’s going to come, and don’t be shocked when it comes.
We want to talk tonight about this thing about how to handle criticism. I mean, you could be a good man in the church, a deacon in the church, and then pastor starts criticizing you on Sunday morning, saying that you’re hugging the shadow and not the wife and all those things, you know, and criticizing you. And I’m joking, of course.
But how to handle criticism. We’re going to look at this over Numbers chapter five. It’s an Old Testament practice that God gave the children of Israel to do. We learn so much from it. Numbers five. We’re going to start in verse number 11. We’re going to read more than usual. So stick with me as we read. Don’t lose thought. Think about it. Focus on what we’re reading. We’re going to be in chapter 5, verse number 11, okay? As we go through this ritual, I want you to kind of focus on what’s happening in our passage, all right?
Let’s stand if you would, please, as we read God’s word together. And Numbers 5, verse number 11, if you’re there, would you say, amen? Here we go.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, and a man lie with her carnally, and they be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:
Then shall the man bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon: for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take.
And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is a jealousy offering. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse. And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, now if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse.
But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thy husband: then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing. And the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord shall make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bow to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot. And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
Verse number 23, we’ll just keep going. And the priest shall write these curses, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse. And the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.
Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar. And afterwards shall the priest cause the woman to drink the water.
When he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman will be a curse among her people. It’s a descriptive, most say, of a disease and whatnot.
Verse number 28, and if the woman be not defiled, but be clean: then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. Shall have a baby.
Now, just this ritual, we’re going to kind of go through it and apply it to when you’re criticized. All right. How to handle criticism.
But if a husband has a spirit of jealousy and he thinks maybe his wife has been unfaithful, whether she is or isn’t, then God gave him a ritual to do. He’s to bring his wife to the priest to the tabernacle there. He’s to tell them what’s going on, and to bring an offering. It’s a bitter offering, a memorial offering.
And then the priest is supposed to get some holy water. He’s to take some dust, maybe a broom or something from in the tabernacle there. He’s to sweep it together, get some of this dust, put it in the water. It’s all for the memorial up, and then he’s to give this bitter water to the lady to drink. Now, if she’s guilty, then this bitter water turns to disease in her, right?
If she’s not guilty, and this is the approach of just talking about tonight, if she’s not guilty, at the end, she has a baby. Now, in Bible times, a lady having a baby was a great, great honor. Every lady, most ever wanted a child. Several times about speaks of a lady that she just wept bitterly. Remember Hannah over there? She couldn’t have a child and she wept bitterly. Remember Eli, he thought she was drunk. She wasn’t. She was just crying, “God, you got to give me a child.” And that was the burden of a lady. She wanted a child.
Now, a couple things about this. So when this lady—and I want you to apply this to you, even you men, all right? Brother Frank already did like this. So, man, you got to put yourself in there too, all right? But when you’re criticized—now if you’re guilty, learn from it, confess it, and get it right. But so often you’re going to be criticized and you’re not guilty.
How do you handle this? And we can learn from this. And just a couple of things about this same. Number one, when you’re criticized, remember it’s an opportunity to be blessed. And this lady, when she was accused and she was not guilty, it was a special opportunity for her. I mean, if she wasn’t guilty, she’s about to get a great, great, one of the greatest blessings she could have.
And when you’re criticized falsely, you’re criticized maybe because you’re simply living for the Lord—you’re going to get, young people, it happens. Can I say this, young people? Don’t get dramatic and don’t blow up. You’re going to be criticized. Same thing for us older people. Don’t lose it. Don’t get mad. You’re going to be criticized sometimes. Nobody likes it. I never like it, but it’s part of life. But remember when you are criticized, you have a special opportunity, a special moment that God can bless you, maybe in some ways like he never can before.
These ladies, now look, if they were not guilty, they have a child. Some of you may be praying, “Lord, I’d like for you to give me some extra empowering of the Holy Spirit.” Maybe when you are criticized is a good opportunity for that. Many men praying for so-and-so, God to work in their life, somebody gets saved. Maybe when you get criticized is the best opportunity for God to hear that prayer. By the way, for a child of God to have a child, if you would, is very similar to seeing someone saved. But I’m saying, look, don’t lose it. Don’t get frustrated. Don’t get mad. Don’t get bitter when you’re criticized. You’ve got a special opportunity. It may be one of the greatest moments for God to work in your life.
This ritual didn’t happen boom like that, and usually it doesn’t happen overnight. And be patient with God working. Can I say this? They were to bring this lady and bring her to the tabernacle. I’m not sure exactly where the Bible is exactly where I picture in my mind there, to set her right in front of the inner court there, and the holy place, the most holy inside there. And there, I’m not sure, but in the tabernacle, there’s the center there. Now, inside is the holy place and the most holy place, and that’s where God’s presence dwelt very, very real.
So when you get criticized, and you will, when you get criticized, you have a special time to be close to the Lord. This lady, she got very close to the presence of God during this time. And she was right there in front of God. And when you get criticized, and you will get criticized, when you get criticized, hey, that’s a special moment in your life. And you have the opportunity to be in the presence of God during that time.
I mention it so often, and I don’t want to belabor some of my personal illustrations, though typically people have personal illustrations. But as a teenager, my eighth-grade year, there was a party. And I said, “No, I’m not going to go.” There was going to be drinking and all the kind of music and things. And I said, “No, I’m not going to go.” And boy, I got criticized over that. And I remember, boy, that really hurt me. But I told him, I didn’t read my Bible every night. I’ll be honest with you. Probably didn’t do it near like I ought to do it, but that night I decided to read my Bible, and I never have read the Bible, maybe not even since then. I don’t know, but I just felt like God was there with me as I was reading the Bible that night. Felt like God was there verbally talking to me. Why? Because I was being criticized.
And when you get criticized, don’t lose it. “Well, I can fight fire with fire,” you know? No, no, no. Somebody says, comes up and says, “Well, you know, so-and-so saying such and such about you.” Don’t lose it. You got a special opportunity to be blessed. You have a special opportunity maybe to be closer to God than like never before.
You know, the Bible does say, “Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” In America, right now, at least for the most part, we don’t have persecution as far as someone being whipped or beat up or tortured for Christ. But we do have a lot of criticism. And maybe the most prevalent persecution we have is criticism. And when that happens, don’t get shook up. It’s a special opportunity.
You know the great Christians in the past, they were criticized. We often so hear of C.H. Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers. He was kicked out of the Baptist Association. D.L. Moody, they called him Crazy Moody. They didn’t have buses back in that day and time. They had horses and carriages and wagons, and he would bring kids and boys and girls in on those wagons. And that Crazy Moody, he’ll do anything to get a bunch of kids to come to church. They called him Crazy Moody? And all you guys are a bunch of kids coming to your little Sunday things and whatnot. That’s how he got going in the ministry, by the way. And I’m just saying, the great Christians nowadays we look up to them, they were criticized in their day and time. Apostle Paul was criticized. Joseph was criticized. Jesus—Jesus, the perfect one—was criticized.
And so don’t get too shook up when you get criticized. It’s going to happen. Can I say this? Sometimes the hardest is when it’s somewhat true.
Look, if you will, over in Psalms 55 real quickly here, and this is not unusual. But look over in Psalms 55. And God here speaking through David. And I want you to see what David experienced, a great Christian in the Bible, not perfect, but a great Christian. Let’s look and see what David says in Psalms, first 55, Psalm 55.
David’s been criticized. And let’s see what David says. Psalm 55, verse number 12: “For it was not an enemy that reproached me”—criticized me, if you will—“then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou: a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance, took sweet counsel together, and walked into the house of God in company.”
Sometimes those are the ones that hurt most. We have a wonderful church. We really do. But you’re going to have some criticism sometimes within the church. I don’t like it at all. If it’s going to happen, as long as you’ve got people, a couple people together, it’s going to happen. When it’s family, it hurts often. They said if it was my enemy, I could have handled it. But he said, “We went in the house of God together. We took sweet counsel. We used to talk together and now being criticized.”
It happened. It happened to great Christians and people in the Bible, and even your friends. Young people, I want our young people to get it tonight, but you’re going to be criticized. Somebody at school is going to talk about you. And your cousin’s sometimes going to do it, or whoever may be. I don’t know what’s going to happen. And Satan will love to get you bent out of shape over that.
And it’s a special moment where you can have God seen. It’s a special moment where you can enter into the presence of God. It’s going to happen. Can I say this? Satan is all about that. And don’t shoot back at that person who’s working behind the scene in Satan. Then I’d say this: You don’t want to be the one that Satan’s using. You don’t want to be on the side that’s shooting at others. That’s so often what happens. We get criticized, and so we criticize back. And still I’m a critic. Remember someone years ago preached, “Don’t become a critic of the critic.” You don’t want to fall into that. You’re still a critic.
You know, when hunting, these hunters, they never talk about shooting Bambi. Now, they might do it if they need meat, you know. But they’re not going to go around and brag on it, you know. The big thing they want to shoot is that buck. Boy, that eight-point, that ten or twelve-point, you know, whatever it may be. And so many inches and all this, you know, they scale it different ways and measure it different ways. And so look, when Satan’s shooting at you and he’s using someone to shoot at you, that’s all right. The Lord must consider me worthy of this. Satan, he likes to shoot at the bucks, if you will. Say I’ve got a special opportunity to be blessed, to be close to God. Someone said it this way, “If they’re always near at your heels, you’re still in front.” And I don’t say that to be—it’s not a competition between you and them—but Satan’s shooting at you for a reason. And so when you’re criticized, realize this lady had a special opportunity. She handled the same right. She can have a baby. That’s one of the greatest ways a lady could have in that time.
Number one, realize I can be blessed. Now, I can get close to God right down in a special way. Number two, number two, when you’re criticized, how to handle criticism, look over in Psalm 75. Psalm 75. Psalm chapter number 75. Psalm 75. Look down verse number six, if you would, please, Psalm 75. What did you look in verse number six? The Bible says, “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.” Did you notice it’s got the east and west, south? Didn’t say anything about the north? Look at the next thing. Verse number seven, “But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”
When you’re criticized, right? When someone comes along and they start talking about Allie. Allie says, “Well, why me?” I’m just picking some young people because I love for our young people to get Ben or Emily or Alexis, whoever, you know, Brother Chris, all right, Brother Chris, they’re talking about you, Brother Chris, whoever may be. Look, here’s the thing: that person, that person, they do not have the ability to promote you or demote you. God does that. Promotion doesn’t come from the east or the west or the south. It comes from the Lord.
There may be a temporary you think, “Man, they’re really hurting me.” But they’re not. This is a good principle to learn. God is in control of even your reputation. So many people are so apt about protecting their reputation. Friend, if you’re not careful, you’re going to go crazy trying to protect your reputation. You do right. God’s in control. Promotion comes from the Lord.
Notice when that husband, when he brought his wife in there—oh, that’s in verse number 15—that husband’s not mentioned again until verse number 29 is brought up again. The focus is not on the one criticized, and the focus is on God looking at that lady. If that lady is doing right, handling it right, God will bless it again. That husband might go around town and say, “I know she’s guilty,” and everybody might talk about it around town. But at the end of the day, when she goes around town and she’s expecting, God took care of her reputation.
There’s a whole lot of people that just worry themselves to death about what everybody else thinks about them. But friend, friend, hey, God, not everybody else. God is the one that brings true promotion. You get impressed, that’s all. You do that through Jesus, by the way. This woman, she’s so close right in front of the Lord. And it’s a good thing to say. She’s not guilty. God does.
I remember years ago, someone criticized me, and that’s just part of being a preacher and a part of being a Christian. You get criticized too, but maybe a little bit more as far as a preacher, not that I’m some special preacher, just part of the business. Someone’s talking about me a little bit, and I’d heard a little bit about it, and one of the men of the church said, “Pastor, what are you going to do?” And God’s been so good to me. He gave me a verse. I’m not usually like it, but man, I had a verse. It was just there. God had given it to me. And I tried to memorize it. I don’t have it memorized now, but I had it memorized that time because God gave me that verse. “What are you going to do about it, preacher?” And I said, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” And I quoted the verse, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.” God gave me such a peace.
Now, I’m not always there. I don’t always pass the test like all that. But I’m saying, friend, at the end of the day, God’s the one that brings promotion. Not those people. Everybody in your school can be talking about you. If God wants to promote you, they’re not going to stop God from promoting you. God’s the one that brings promotion. The Lord does that. And God’s looking at you and finding out where you’re at.
Can I say this? Don’t get bitter. It seems like, if anybody had the right to get bitter, of course, Jesus Christ, he did not. But then I think about Joseph. His family, his brothers came after him. They hated him. Joseph, he may have been a little unwise about telling his dreams. I don’t know. There’ll be a great debate over that, whatnot. But Joseph had not done anything wrong. Maybe talked a little more than he should. I don’t know. But these brothers, man, they came at him and they almost killed him. And then they sold him into slavery over in Egypt there. And then Potiphar’s wife lies about him. Imagine how you’d feel if this person lies about you. Says, “Well, they were trying to come on to me in a sexual way.” It’s not at all true. And judged for all this. Family tried to be loyal to Potiphar, then Potiphar’s wife turns against him, and Potiphar—whether he believed or not, we’ll debate about that. I don’t think Potter actually believed the whole thing. I believe a Potter believed the whole thing that he killed Joseph. But either way, Joseph ends up in prison, a political prison. And they put fetters on his legs. Psalms 105 gives us a little insight. Verse number 18 says, “Whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron.” Can you imagine this guy, man, people have been talking about him, criticized him all his life, it feels like. And he’s in prison, he’s got some kind of fetters, maybe some kind of metal things around his ankles, and it hurt his legs, and he’s just sitting there. And everybody’s been talking about him—not everybody, but I’m sure he felt like that, like we do sometimes. They’re not exactly accurate, but I’m sure he felt like that.
Well, the Bible says the Lord was with him. More than once the Bible says that. Now, the Lord doesn’t dwell closely with people that are bitter. I’m saying Joseph didn’t get bitter. And at the end of the day, those people could criticize Joseph, but God decided to promote Joseph. When God—nobody can stop him. And God said, “I’m going to take this guy from prison, got these irons, these fetters on his legs, at some point,” and they maybe had scars on his leg from it, “and God said, ‘I’m going to take that man from that level down there, and I’m going to raise him to Prime Minister of the land.’” It would be like America is the world power. And basically they didn’t have like a president and vice president. They had almost like England; they had a king or a queen, you know, but really the one that’s really doing the work is the prime minister. He’s got a lot of power doing the work. Joseph was promoted to the prime minister of the land. And God said, “I’m going to raise you from way down there.” Everybody’s been trying to put Joseph down, but when I want to promote you, nobody can stop it. And God says, “I’ll raise you up to the top.” Friend, don’t get too shook up when people talk about you. People criticize you. God’s the one that brings true promotion. And when you get criticized, you have a special opportunity for God to bless in a special way.
When you’re criticized, can I just sneak in a couple of questions? Don’t talk about it all the time. Don’t go around talking to everybody. If you need to deal with it, deal with it. If you need to talk to the Lord about it, talk to the Lord about it. And you might need to share with someone and get counsel and get it out. No, I’m not saying that, but don’t spend all your time talking about it. Don’t do that. Just make it on your mind all the time. Keep your mind on the Lord. Wise preacher said years ago, he said, “Look, when I’m criticized and I’m kind of in a battle,” he said, “I try to spend twice as much time as I usually spend with the Lord.” Wow. Stay focused. Stay focused on the Lord. We won’t talk about it all the time. Don’t have your mind—keep busy. Keep busy for the Lord.
And then let me say this. Number one, we said when you’re criticized, it’s an opportunity to be blessed. Number two, realize people don’t have the ability to promote you. That’s God that does that. Number three, let God answer the critic. Let God answer the critic. Let God answer the critic. Let God’s blessing be the answer.
I’ve already mentioned it, but can you imagine this lady that’s been criticized? Everybody around town said, “Hey, you know her husband took her in there.” And I wonder, I wonder if she had, you know, she’s been friendly with so-and-so, what—all this just, you know what happened, people’s people. And yet can you imagine when that lady, you know when a lady is about ten months pregnant, and she’s doing the waddle, you know, Brother Anthony? It’s a wrong time, brother. And she doesn’t—she doesn’t walk normal. I got to change the subject because now I feel like I’m talking about Miss Gatorre. I’m in trouble now, you know. But can you imagine as this lady walked through town? Well, I guess her husband didn’t know what in the world he’s talking about. It looked like she’s pretty blessed to me. She might even have twins, you know. We always say that, you know. It looks like she’s doing something right.
What about those people that criticize Joseph? Can you imagine when Potiphar’s wife lied about him? Wonder what that boy had on his mind, you know, all this talk going on. But can you imagine when Joseph was moved to the prime minister of the land? Let God’s blessing answer the critic. Don’t seek for you to be the answer. You’d answer. Let God answer the critic. He can handle that. The doors that God opens, no man closes, and the doors that God closes, no man opens. I want to bless you, nobody can close it. Don’t fight back.
I am—is a good day for me. One of my heroes, and some of my heroes I’ve never got to talk to personally in the whole of my life, but very few, very deep conversation. But I remember I was talking to one of my heroes, Bobby Robertson, over here at Cracker Barrel, amen. And I can’t remember what all we had, but I remember we had black-eyed peas, pinto beans in there. That’s a good thing, pinto beans, you know. And Brother Bobby, he said, “You don’t call this relish, you call this chow-chow,” you know, he’s just a country preacher. And Brother Bobby over there at Cracker Barrel in Smyrna, he told me about Exodus 14:14. And I always remember that. And Exodus 14 is what it says: “The Lord shall fight for you; and ye shall hold your peace.” It’s good for me, a younger preacher, to hear that. Let the Lord do your fight. We get so wrapped up in fighting for ourselves. And God says, “All right, I’ll let you do it.” And we spend the rest of our days fighting. God would fight a whole lot better than you.
The Lord shall fight for you. We want to take everything in our hands. And God says, “All right, let me take my hands off of you on it.” I’d rather God’s hands be on it than my hands on it. The Lord shall fight for you. When you fight the critic, you give validity to his criticism. Well, they must have hit a chord.
I’ve already said it, but God, God is in control of you. Look over here in Isaiah 54:17, a great verse, especially if you’re being criticized or maybe you have a tough time with it. A great verse over here, Isaiah 54. Years ago we had a preacher come through, a good guy. He’s in heaven now, and he was being criticized. And he said, “Brother Paul, have you heard such and such?” He said, “No, really? Honestly, I haven’t.” And he said, “Well, don’t believe it.” So I haven’t heard anything. And I can tell you’ve been criticized. I don’t even know all the deal, what all was going on. I just say, “Hey, brother, go home and look up Isaiah 54:17.” Great verse, great verse, great verse. And a good verse to memorize.
Notice what God says: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” That’s pretty broad. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” And every tongue that—it doesn’t matter if it’s a family member or not, every tongue. That doesn’t matter, even if it’s a church member. He says every tongue. “Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.” This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
That last part I used to think, “Well, God put that in.” Their righteousness is of me because you’re not perfect. I’m not perfect, but praise the Lord, my righteousness is of Jesus, not of myself. That gives me the ability to claim that promise. Every tongue that’s arising against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. By the way, I don’t believe that means you condemn that by going out and fighting with them. I believe that means by God blessing you, your life shows them the truth of the matter. That lady carrying that baby, the water walk, if you will, condemns him. Well, he sure didn’t know what he’s talking about. There’s no weapon. God is in control of your reputation. You don’t have to stand around in some corner talking about so-and-so that’s been talking about you. You’re falling to that level. Don’t become a critic of the critic.
You know they say in basketball, very rarely does the first elbow get called for the foul. Almost always, once they watch the film, almost always, it’s the second guy. Somebody pushed him a time or two before, up or down in the court or elbow, and he’s going to get back. Almost always it’s the second guy who say, is true Christianity. God can handle it. The Lord shall fight for you.
Old Nehemiah was doing a great work for God, building the wall. God is what I want you to do, Nehemiah, build the wall. And Nehemiah’s up there building the wall. And you know what happened? Sanballat and Tobiah, and many others began to criticize and begin to make fun of them. “Well, a little bitty old animal, a fox or something can come over there, and that wall’s going to fall down. That’s a piece of junk wall.” And they just began to criticize it. And even after that, they said, “Well, won’t you come down and meet with us?” And Nehemiah wisely just kept building. He said, “Should a man as I come down? God’s told me what to do. I’m just going to keep building.”
And you know what? You know the story. The wall was built in, what, 52 days? By the way, look at that. There’s plan and mystery. The 52 years, 52 days, you know. And everybody, even the enemies of Nehemiah and the children of Israel said, “That right there is a work wrought of God.” Even the enemies had that. Just keep obeying. Just keep trusting. Just keep serving. Just keep following his will. In God’s time, God can say, “Hey, the work speaks for itself.” Even the enemies, I’d say, that’s God right there. When God promotes, they’ll say, “Hey, that’s God.”
I have some people that I was praying for for a while, one’s saved, one’s not, a married couple known for years. And they’ve been to university, graduated, both college graduates and whatnot, and they had a little bit of philosophy, just a little bit. You could just kind of feel a little bit, got it all under control type thing. They’ve been married for a while, and they couldn’t have any children. They went to the doctors, both of them. Fertility pills, all the rest, they did all the things. And finally the doctors came and said, “Look, there’s nothing we can do. It’s out of our control. We can’t help you. We did all our stuff. We’re sorry. It’s beyond our ability.” And all the two down the road, she got pregnant. The one that’s not saved has even told me, “I know God”—this is her exact word—“that was a divine thing.” Mother attitude began to change. It’s not man will have all the answers, because God, when God decided she’d have a baby, she had a baby.
Now look, friend, this lady here, she was criticized by someone close to her. That hurts. I mean, the person in the world that’s the closest to your mate, when they criticize you, that hurts. It happens. But even when those that are very, very close to you are criticizing you, you’re hurt over it—the church member, people that you love, they love you. By the way, when you’re close to someone, you’re vulnerable to them. They can hurt you like nobody else. And she’s criticized by the one that’s supposed to be there for her. And yet God Almighty, he looked down. He’s there. He dwelt. You know why they built the tabernacle? Because God said, “I want to dwell among them.” And God had this lady placed right in front, if you will, of the eyes of the Lord. And God looked down and you saw that hurt in that lady. She had to drink the bitter water. It’s bitter, hurts, painful. Yet she did it right. And God said, “I’ll bless you like no man can ever bless you.”
Oh, friend, you’ll be criticized and it’ll hurt. People, sometimes people, they’ll never understand. They’ll never know. I met with someone, it’s been a while back, and I said, “Look, stop trying to explain it to everybody. They’ll never understand it.” Some people just aren’t going to get it. But God gets it. He understands it all. He sees it all. This little lady had a special opportunity to be blessed by God. That lady had a child. Maybe, maybe, if not the greatest, one of the greatest blessings a lady can ever have. She’s right in front of God, and God’s seen her. God said, “That bitter water? Yeah, it tastes bitter. It’s got dirt in there, dust. I’ll turn that bitter water into a great blessing.” That’s because the cross turns bitter water into the sweet tree.
If you’re being criticized, don’t get bent out of shape. Don’t get mad and angry and bitter over it. Don’t fight back. Hey, I’ve got an opportunity to get blessed by God, to be close to God. Those people, they don’t bring true promotion. God does that. And I say, “I’m going to let God handle this thing.” God sees every bit of it. He knows it all. If anyone understands being criticized when it’s not right, Jesus understands it. Jesus understands. Yet in Jesus, going to the bitter cross was the greatest blessing that mankind can ever have. So hang on when you’re criticized. God might just be getting ready for a great, great blessing.
Original File: How To Handle Criticism - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday PM 5-2-19