Go Ahead! Poke Me!

The other day I saw a rather corpulent young man wearing a tee shirt bearing the image of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the slogan, "Go Ahead!  Poke Me!"  The Doughboy is an advertising icon for the Pillsbury Company, a company which sells pastries, rolls, bread, etc.  In commercials featuring him, a finger pokes him in his round belly and he giggles.

That's not what the young man I saw had in mind.  From the scowl on his face it was obvious that he was daring someone, anyone, to say something about his size.   He looked as if he were carrying around a cloud of hostility, a  pervasive dark attitude, simmering belligerence.

The Bible doesn't deny the emotion of anger, Jesus became angry; His anger was Holy and justified.  The Bible does have something to say about unreasoning generalized bile and about true ill-wishing directed at another person.

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew 5:21-22.


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Concerning "Raca ," the word means "empty head," something like "idiot" or "stupid."