We are being asked to believe things that are the equivalent of a crock of…well, you know what I mean. To be a bit more proper and not employ the most colloquial conclusion of the phrase, we are being asked to believe a crock of lies regarding a whole host of issues. Like the odor that emanates from such a crock, it is disgusting to those familiar with the fragrance of truth.

I don’t normally read from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, but on occasion, it says it in a way that is both graphic and straightforward. More contemporary translations have sanitized the language to appeal to sensitive ears. I wanted to know the content of these crocks of lies and deceptions, so I began to scroll through a variety of translations. I found a few examples and more hidden meanings revealed within the old language of the KJV.

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paul had position, power, and the promise of a secure future within his religious order. Once the Lord revealed Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus, his values changed. What he once held so proudly was now considered dung.

“And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel“ (II Kings 9:37). Jezebel, the evil person who stood against all that was good, a person who mocked God’s prophet, would be reduced to a decaying pile of flesh resembling the dung of animals.

“Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone” (I Kings 14:10). Jeroboam was an evil king. He sent his wife to deceive the blind prophet Ahijah. Her deception was confronted along with the evil her husband Jeroboam had done. The prophet told Jeroboam’s wife her husband’s dynasty would be removed like dung taken out to a dung heap. 

In the last verse mentioned, I Kings 14:10, “pisseth” means to urinate. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon details what the word means, and I quote, “The phrase seems to be used contemptuously to denote a boy, because adults in the East regard decency in doing this sitting down [covered with their garments], nor would they do it in the sight of others.” In other words, it describes a person who has lost all sense of decency.

Today, our world is flaunting in public what is inappropriate even in private. These demonstrations of indecency are taking place within the walls of the cities of our nation compromising the integrity and moral strength of our nation. Even some within the Church are lending their naive support to such things.

Like the person that “pisseth” against the walls of a city in plain view or leaving the uncollected dung of animals to pile up in the city square, the decay, and disease these acts cause will eventually infect the inhabitants of the city. It is in this situation we are called to speak the truth in love to reveal a better way of life – a way that honors God and our fellow citizens.

It’s not a stretch of one’s imagination to see a modern-day parallel to some of our cities being ruled by leaders whose worldview is not based on God’s truth but on human reasoning. Eventually, its citizens will follow the examples of contempt their leaders have for God by removing the barriers of decency and social order pissing away a potential only found in God. This will leave behind a legacy of stench and decay that comes when the crock of their record of leadership is filled with the excrement of rebellion against the Lord and His Church.

We are to pursue a higher calling. “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing” (II Corinthians 2:15).