The Black Sheep

The Black Sheep
 
© 2021 Dr. Samaria M Colbert
 
Are you the spiritual leper/ black sheep?
 
Have you ever been blacklisted or been considered the black sheep of the family? If you have this blog is for you.  If you haven’t still read, the information will help you to help someone else. We live in world of cancel culture. Anyone at any time can “cancel” you without notice all because of what you have done or what offense they perceived you have done. Cancel culture doesn’t take into consideration perception versus reality not being the same thing. Anyone can imply something about you, put it on the internet and then the assassinations to your character and your brand begin.
 
Even if you have never been canceled, get successful long enough your day is coming. Even the most innocent of thespians have been victim to the cancel culture bullies. Yes, I said bullies. Most mature people when we don’t like you or your stance about something do a mature thing and agree to disagree. No love lost. Cancel culture seeks your demise.
 
What I love about God is that when you have a relationship with him, he doesn’t cancel you. If God put you in a position, you can’t be canceled, you can be down for a minute, but you will never be out. When God has a work for you to do, you will accomplish it, it doesn’t matter who doesn’t like you.
 
I want to bring your attention to what it means to be the black sheep. When relating to modern day human behavior we must consider the Bible’s take on something. Remember because the Bible was written so many years ago, the behavior or the spirit is the same as today but the terminology or culture maybe different. I want us to interchange the word black sheep to a spiritual leper.
 
Let me explain it will make sense. A black sheep today is in essence a Biblical leper in the Bible. A leper in the Bible was someone to be avoided and was rejected by others for moral and social reasons. If you encountered them, you were considered ceremonial unclean. A leper had a contagious skin disease such as leprosy, similar to eczema of today. However, leprosy was so severe it would eventually lead to death.
 
A leper was an outcast, untouchable, and exiled person. Once a person had leprosy they would be cast out, they had to live outside away from everyone else. Therefore, lepers would often create a subculture. In scripture we see lepers going in packs together with other rejected lepers.
 
Leviticus 13:45-46 New Living Translation

45 “Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed.[a] They must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 As long as the serious disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean. They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp.

Lepers would suffer public humiliation, rejection, isolation, and being shunned by the same community they were once apart of. The sad thing is they were shunned because of something that was beyond their control. Now we will see the sameness of a leper to the modern-day vernacular, the black sheep. When you are the black sheep of the family you are disregarded or considered a disgrace to the family. You are intentionally uninvited, isolated, disregarded, and shunned. The family or community that once embraced you has now regarded you as bad or worthless.

It gets better and there are reasons to rejoice, I am setting the foundations to bring you into healing just hang with me.

Let’s talk about signs a person is the black sheep of the family.

• You don’t fit it. You are different. Different in their eyes means wrong.
• You are uninvited. (No Christmas, no thanksgiving gatherings for you, no random calls.)
• They hate you and you know it.
• You are blamed or held responsible for other peoples’ actions.
• You are lied on.
• They are secretly jealous of you.
• You are so different you probably wouldn’t hang out with them if you weren’t related.
• You have been ostracized.
• You are ridiculed.
• You are accused of being a snob, bougie “you think you better than us.”
• Words (lies) are put in your mouth that you never said.
• Like the leper you are the outcast.

Now we will discuss why you are blacklisted from the family.

• You are no longer codependent.
• You broke the family rule of “what goes on in this family stays in this family.” This often happens when there is abuse going on within the family that can be generational. You are blacklisted when you do the right thing by telling the appropriate authorities to get the abuse to stop.
• They think they are punishing you by shunning you. When a person is shunned, they ignore you, no longer communicate and avoid you. It’s as if you never existed.
• You no longer participate in their power and control dynamic.
• They have a negative opinion about how you live your life, as an individual. For example, if you decide not to marry the spouse, they want you to or when you stand up for yourself.
• You are no longer trauma bonded to the people who caused the trauma.

Now let’s explore Biblical pillars who were the black sheep of the family.

• Read Genesis 37. Joseph became the black sheep of the family all because of his dream and the favor of God on his life.
• Moses the chosen deliver was rejected by the people he was sent to help deliver.
• Jesus was rejected and blacklisted. Reference Isaiah 53, Mark 6:4. Something I find ironic Mark 3:20-35.

 
Mark 3:20-21 (NLT)
20 One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. 21 When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.
Are you seeing that? Jesus own family accused him of being mentally unstable.
Mark 6:2-4 New Living Translation

2 The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?” 3 Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary[a] and the brother of James, Joseph,[b] Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

4 Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family.”
If you have been blacklisted by your family. Take heart you’re in good company if it happened to Jesus, it can happen to you.

When an individual doesn’t have a righteous view of their rejection, they can become sad, depressed, full of self-doubt, grief, low confidence, bitter and resentful. Don’t allow it beloved, when you do, they win. You’ve come to far to give up.

Let’s talk about how to heal.

First, I want you to take a different look at what it is to be the black sheep from heaven’s perspective. You must see yourself in the light of how God sees you. Know that God has not canceled you.

Finally look at the blessing that God is going to usher you into.

Let’s read 2 Kings 7:3-20.

2 Kings 7:3-8 New Living Translation
3 Now there were four men with leprosy[a] sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. 4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”
5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians[b] to attack us!” they cried to one another. 7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.
8 When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.
​
Your being blacklisted is a set up.

Notice in the text in 2 Kings God caused the Arameans to hear the clatter of chariots. God orchestrated that, so we can rightfully imply that he orchestrated the blacklisted, black sheep, ostracized and rejected to come into massive blessings. God didn’t select who was accepted to find the blessing. God could have chosen the king, or the prophet who prophesied the blessing, no he chose those considered nothing at all.

1 Corinthians 1:28 New Living Translation
28 God chose things despised by the world,[a] things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
The point is God has intention on blessing you. He can and will bless you without anyone’s knowledge, or opinion. God doesn’t take advice from anyone when he chooses to bless you. Just like he orchestrated the lepers to find the treasure God is going to cause you to come into massive blessings without your haters. They don’t dictate God. If God has determined to bless you no man can stop, you.
Don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, stay focused.

Numbers 23:20 New Living Translation
​20 Listen, I received a command to bless;
    God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it!

© 2021 Dr. Samaria M Colbert