Bullying
The word in the Bible that best describes bullying is persecution. There are many examples in the Bible that are very clearly incidents of bullying, including the treatment of Jesus Christ and all of the apostles. An example of bullying that I believe we can learn a great amount from takes place in the Old Testament with David before he became the king of Israel. The incident takes place when Saul was king, and David was one of his leaders. The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 18 that Saul became very envious of David because of the popularity that David had with the people. In verse 8-9 of that chapter it says, “And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.”
Soon after this, Saul began looking for ways to hurt David. Several times Saul even threw a spear at David, trying to kill him. He tried to hurt him emotionally by driving a wedge between David and his friends, and even forcing David to run away and leading his former friends to hunt him and try to kill him. This is obviously a very severe form of bullying, going far beyond what most people would experience. Studying David’s response can provide so much help because there are several things that we can see in his response that are important.
First, the initial response to bullying is not something that you might want to hear, but it is important for your immediate safety. David got away from Saul when the bullying started. I know that we want to say stand up and fight, and there is a time for that, as we will learn later, but it is not the first thing we should do. The first thing that should be done is to get out of harm’s way. Bullying is usually a repeated action. It could be that the first incident is just an isolated situation from which there can be restoration. Everyone has a bad day or responds wrong sometimes. I am not excusing bad behavior, but one incident is not necessarily bullying.
Secondly, we must learn not to overreact to incidents. If we are not careful, we become too reactionary to the point that every cross look is an occasion for retaliation. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 18:14-16, “And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him. Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.” This wise behavior is something that parents should teach their children about how to react when someone does a wrong to you. Preparing your children to know how to respond in a wise fashion will not only help the immediate problem, but it may also ward off future problems. The wise way in which David conducted himself caused Saul to be afraid to mess with him. Often a bully is simply looking for a reaction. Once they receive the desired reaction, they know that they can push the same button over and over to hurt you. Behaving wisely includes not reacting in such a way that causes them to believe that you are vulnerable.
