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I have been looking at the story of Saul and
David in 1 Samuel. You will remember that Saul's jealousy of David is
sparked by the jubilant cries of the women who came from all the towns
of Israel:
Singing and dancing, with joyful songs
and with tambourine and lutes. As they danced, they sang: 'Saul has
slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands' Saul was very
angry; this refrain galled him. 'They have credited David with tens
of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can
he get but the kingdom?" (1 Samuel 18:6-8)
After a victory, a king would make a triumphant progress through the
cities that lay nearby, to receive the congratulations of the country.
And, when he made his public entry into any place, the women came to
the fore to show him respect, and sing his praises with some song that
had been composed for such occasions. The problem here was that they
magnified David more than they did Saul.
The numbers in this song, "thousands" and "tens of thousands" are more
in tune with the conventions of Hebrew poetry than with strict accuracy.
It is a kind of poetic licence in which exaggeration is used to express
the idea that this man is great. The message to an already insecure
Saul was that his popularity had slipped in the King of Israel ratings
and David was to blame. The result was a kingdom divided between the
ambitious Saul and God's anointed king, David.
That is the trouble with popularity, it tends to exaggerate, promotes
jealousy, divides allies, is transient, and your time in the sun will
always be clouded by the shadow of another.
Milton, in one of his early poems Lycidas grieves the death of a learned
friend drowned in the Irish Sea in 1637:
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth
raise
(that last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights and live laborious days;
But the fair [reward] when we hope to find,
and think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorrèd shears'
and slits the thin-spun life.
Fame spurs us on to make great sacrifices and work hard and long then,
just as the thing for which we worked and sacrificed seems in sight,
our life can be ended. No wonder Milton calls it "that last infirmity
of noble mind". In the end, fame disappoints us and fails to fill that
place in our hearts that yearns for it.
Fame seemed the spur in this week's passage as Paul addresses Christians
in Corinth:
My brothers, some from Chloe's household
have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this:
One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another,
'I follow Cephas (Peter)'; still another, 'I follow Christ.'
Name-dropping in the early church! Isn't it so true of people that,
if we cannot enjoy fame ourselves, we will do anything to bask in the
reflected glory of others? If anyone wants to be a hero they will find
more than enough people looking for a hero to worship.
Paul's answer to all this strutting and posing was simple:
Brothers, think of what you were when
you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many
were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish
things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of
the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world
and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the
things that are, that no one may boast before him.
Now that has to be one of the best put downs I have ever seen. And just
in case anyone feels they do have something to boast about, Paul goes
on:
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for
us wisdom from God - that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Therefore it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord' (1 Cor.126-31)
From the women singing the praises of Saul and David to early Christians
in Corinth seeking a little kudos by association the trouble was always
that it caused division and took people's eyes off the only one deserving
of their loyalty and devotion and the building of his kingdom.
May we walk this week in a way that seeks his fame and some day we will
hear the approbation of heaven, "Well done good and faithful servant"
a fame that lasts eternity as we bask in the glory of the Son.
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