Mocking God Brings Destruction
I want to share a true story about someone I employed in the past. This man mocked God, had no fear of Him, and refused to listen to a warning.
In 1979, I purchased a new home from a builder, and then hired a contractor to install the hardscape. The contracted work was going to cost $25,000. The contractor came over with the agreement and I signed it. I asked him what happened to his foot because it was bandaged, and he was on crutches. He said he was in a motorcycle accident, and his foot was crushed and would never function again. I began to tell him about the Lord, and explained that God could heal his foot if he believed.
He mentioned he was not a Christian but I asked if he would come to church with me, and allow the Pastor to pray for him. He agreed. We went and he did receive prayer, and immediately his foot was healed on the spot. He was able to throw away his crutches! He was thrilled to say the least, but he still wasn’t willing to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior. I was shocked as to why not. Why would anyone reject Jesus after receiving an absolute miraculous healing? He could now walk perfectly. It made no sense to me but I thought I would be patient. I learned he was a married man with a nice home, two children, and the owner of a construction business.
A few days later, he came by the house and left some tools, including a saw and some bricks to start my job. He said if I could pay him the full amount up front, it would really help him because he needed to pay for some new tools. Being young and foolish, I paid him the entire $25,000 up front. You should never do this but I was trusting and foolish.
Several weeks went by and he never showed up to start the work. I phoned him and he said, “Bill, you were a fool to pay me all the money up front. I am not coming back.” I asked, “How can you do this? This is stealing.” I tried to reason with him, but he refused to listen. I then told him I would report him to the authorities but he simply laughed.
I did call the authorities and they said I would have to go to court, and they would not do anything about it. I couldn’t believe my ears! Why wouldn’t the contractor’s labor board get involved? The police would not get involved either. I thought I would at least keep his saw but he then sent the police to my house and they said I would have to return it. I said, “How is it that you can’t make him return my $25,000, but you can make me return a saw?” They said, “He showed us the bill of sale for the saw.”
I replied, “I can easily prove I paid him the entire contracted amount with my bank statement showing the cashed check.” They still didn’t want to get involved. They took the saw and gave it to him. He gloated over this and laughed at me. My flesh wanted to beat him silly. However, God’s word says, “If they take your coat, give them your cloak also (Luke 6:29). Well he took much more than my coat and cloak.
I decided to write him a letter and hand deliver it to his house. He answered the door and I handed him the letter and asked him to read it right then. I had demanded he return the money. He laughed in my face and tore up the letter. I said, “God healed your permanently crippled foot. How can you not know He is watching your actions right now?” He then began to mock the idea of God, and even began to curse. How can someone receive such an outright miracle and slap God in the face? He again laughed at me and said he would not return the money.
Suddenly, the awesome fear of God came over me. I trembled, as a holy reverence for God shook me to the core. I told him, “Please do not do this. I fear for your life. God will not let you get away with this.” He cursed at me and slammed the door in my face.
Later that night, about 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, the Lord awakened me to pray for him. The Lord impressed upon me that Psalm 109 was happening to him, and to pray for his life to be spared. I didn’t know what Psalm 109 said, so I read it. I then prayed for him to live. Here is part of the Psalm:
“For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me; and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, thus they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Let his days be few, and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg: Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy to him, nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Because he did not remember to show mercy, as he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, And like oil into his bones.”
It was serious what was happening to him at that moment! I prayed for him to live, as the Lord instructed.
A few days later, I found out that he went out to a nightclub the very same night that I handed him the letter. He got drunk, left the nightclub in the middle of the night, was walking across the street, and was hit by a drunk driver. The driver didn’t even know he hit him and his body was dragged underneath the car. When the driver finally stopped, he saw the body stuck under the car. He was all busted up and in really bad shape. He was taken to the hospital, and only by a miracle lived. I know it was only because the Lord had me pray for his life to be spared. This was God’s mercy in keeping him alive in order for him to repent and get saved. Even though he mocked God, he was given more time to turn his life over to the Lord. That is God’s long-suffering.
He was now a cripple the rest of his life, and far worse than when only his foot was damaged. He lost his business, his wife left him, and he couldn’t even feed his children. It is interesting that at the church, God healed his foot. And yet afterward, he mocked God, and now his whole body was destroyed. A person will reap what they sow. I don’t know if he ever repented and received Jesus Christ or not.
From this account, we understand that you don’t want to mock God, but we also see God’s great mercy extended to him.
Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise…but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
I forgave this man right from the beginning because we have been forgiven much by God, so we are also commanded to forgive others. This event created in me a greater reverence for the Lord God Almighty, a deeper commitment to obey Him, and awareness to take God’s word more literally.
As Christians, developing a healthy fear of God will cause each of us to walk circumspect and live as a godly example to a lost and dying world.
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By Bill Wiese, author of 23 Minutes in Hell