How does an onion cry?

This past weekend in church, we talked about loving one another. What a yucky subject to talk about. Pastor Ray gave us a list of about 30 verses that had the words one another in them. Things like love one another - forgive one another - encourage one another. Some friends, after pointing out the ones I needed work on, decided to challenge me to blog about one of the verses. I picked Galatians 5:26 which talks about not provoking one another. Simple enough right??

I did a little research on my new buddy, provoke. In the NIV translation, provoke is found 42 times in the Old Testament. Most of those 42 times, the verses are talking about the Israelites provoking the Lord to anger. Here are just a couple examples:

Psalm 106:29 - They provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

2 Kings 17:11 - At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger.

Jeremiah 25:6 - Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."

Ezekiel 8:17 - He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose!

As you can see, they were always provoking the Lord to anger.

As I said earlier, I did some research on provoke. Provoke has 2 different meanings. One of them is to anger, which I just talked about.
Some common other uses of that meaning:
annoy
bother
bug
enrage
incite
infuriate
irritate
madden
nag
offend
upset.
The use of this word, provoke, leads to very violent emotions. Typically when you infuriate someone or offend someone, it doesn’t lead to good things.

However, the other meaning of the word, provoke, is completely different from the first - to start. To start? Hmm. What does that mean?
awaken
begin
challenge
electrify
elicit
evoke
excite
generate
inspire
kindle
motivate
pique
promote
rally
rouse
stimulate
stir.
All things that will make you think. Here are some Biblical examples:

Hebrews 10:24 - And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.

Luke 11:53 - And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things.

How could one word have such different meanings? One is to stir up anger and the other is to get people to start thinking. Let’s look at one more word – provocation. Provocation means an act that causes a response. This is truly what provoke means. Whether is stirs up a feeling or gets someone to think, it still leads to a response. One way or another, if you provoke someone, you will get a reaction.

-provoke (or incite) a fight
-provoke (or evoke) laughter

Whichever way you look at the word, provoke, it will lead to something. The Bible talks about the word in the context of anger. You definitely don’t want to provoke someone to anger but rather provoke someone to start thinking and be different.

Jokes are a good example of provoking someone. We can go overboard with our jokes -
Yo mama's so fat she makes Free Willy look like a goldfish.
If someone told me that joke and actually meant it, I would be mad. I would get angry and probably follow up with a joke myself. One that goes like this -
Yo mama's so fat she fell in love and broke it
- or -
Yo mama's so ugly she made an onion cry!
You get the point. Yo mama is fat and ugly. Just kidding. If you say those things and mean them, you provoke the person to anger.

Point being – first, watch what you say – second, whats the attitude of your heart? – third, if you think you messed up, ask for forgiveness – fourth, have fun and live – finally, provoke people to think rather than anger.