"Mad" Messengers

Often those who are don’t know how to handle righteous men sent from God—usually with a message of repentance—they simple resort to name calling.  One of the common names that the chosen of the Lord are called in the scriptures is simply “mad."  Elisha sent “one of the children of the prophets” to anoint Jehu as the next king of Israel, and the encounter was so bizarre for Jehu and his household that Jehu’s servant simply called the prophet a “mad fellow” (2 Kings 9:11).  After the Savior taught about being the Good Shepherd, many of the Jews said, “He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear he him?” (John 10:20)  They didn’t know how to respond to him and so they simply called him names.  A similar thing happened to Abinadi.  After he prophesied of the troubles that awaited King Noah’s people because of their wickedness, the king, rather than defending his actions (which of course he couldn’t because he was guilty as charged), simply said, “Away with this fellow, and slay him; for what have we to do with him, for he is mad” (Mosiah 13:1).  When Paul prophesied boldly of Christ to Festus and King Agrippa, Festus finally said, “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad” (Acts 26:24).  Paul responded how any of the righteous servants of God could respond to such an accusation: “I am not mad… but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.”  When prophets speak the words of truth, then inevitably it is repentance that is required of the hearer, and the easy way to avoid it is simply to denounce the messenger as being crazy.  Of course, such recourse to name calling will only work temporarily in this life, and ultimately when we stand before the Savior on Judgment Day the only accusations that we will be able make will be to ourselves.