During my early teenage years, the local bully, who was older and much taller than me, punched me seven times, knocking me down each time. But each time I got back on my feet. A crowd gathered and many said, “Stay down”. The bully said, “Let’s finish this somewhere else!” We walked away and faced each other on a vacant block.
Before he knew it I punched him as hard as I could in the solar plexus and he doubled up, gasping for breath. He then knocked me down again. That was that. But after that he never punched me again. He probably found others who would “stay down” after one punch.
I am not recommending that any of my readers should do likewise. I’m saying that when verbally abused or accused, we who are Christians should not just “lie down” and admit defeat, but should rather face the bully with God-inspired words.
I “faced down” a drugged and agressive soldier in the Philippines who tried to intimidate me with a knife. Then followed a tactical two-way word battle that God enabled me to win. I was glad that I didn’t know till later that he had slashed the kitchen curtains where we sat with a bayonet a few weeks before and had threatened to dynamite the building.
There are times when ignorance can be a blessing. Bottom line: stand up for your civil and legal rights! But parry your enemy’s word thrusts with all the skill you can muster. The Apostle Paul did and achieved a lot for the Lord, not least when he declared his Pharisee belief in the Resurrection, which put him onside with that faction and in opposition to the Sadducees who were with them but denied it. (Julius Caesar’s Divide and Rule maxim.)
The biblical significance of the numeral 8 is resurrection, which is what I did by facing up to that bully many years ago and getting in that important first punch. Not that there’s any comparison, just that in the end the goal should be to win.