Day 3 – God is deserving of
honor.
Today we open to a passage
of Scripture that deals with real people. All of Scripture is real stories, but
these people- they are Technicolor real, like, "keeping it real" kind of real.
I
think as Christians, these passages are extremely helpful for us, because we
feel a little less alone in the walk. We tend to picture so many others around
us with their Christian act completely together, while we doggie paddle through
the Christian walk, unsightly and disheveled. Or we think we’ve got it so much
more together than everyone else around us. Either way we take our eyes off the
one who is truly worthy of honor – God.
Let’s read 2 Samuel 6:16-23:
"As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal
the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and
dancing before the Lord, and she
despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that
David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the
peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts…
And David returned to bless
his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said,
“How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the
eyes of his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers
himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint
me as prince[f] over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be
abased in your[g] eyes. But by the female servants of
whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her
death."
In this passage, David and
his men have just returned the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of God
among His people at this time, back to Israel. I’m not sure we have anything in
our current time to compare this to. We have the presence of God at all times
through the Holy Spirit (praise the Lord!), but for the people then, God’s
presence resided in His house, through the Ark. They needed it, like they
needed water to survive. You better believe David was dancing in the streets!
Michal, struggling with
bitterness and a myriad of her own baggage, is appalled and embarrassed, and
accuses David of dishonor. The problem is where she fixed her eyes. She defined
David’s honor by the eyes of those around them, the people of Israel, and more
problematic, by her own definition of what she saw as honorable. David, whoever
fixes his eyes firmly on Christ and instructs his wife that what she sees as
honorable, and what the world defines as honorable is very different than God’s
definition of honor. God’s definition of honor, that’s what matters to David.
I don’t know about you, but
I want to be where David was - contemptible by the world any day, if it means
honorable to God. And the beauty is, that God’s presence doesn’t depend on our
response. When we mess up, when we seek the world’s honor, He still firmly
planted His home in our hearts through the Spirit. We experience forgiveness
and renewal and try again. That, my friends, that is something worth dancing
about.
*my 13 year old calls them my "memory posties" , this one is in the van for when we're on the run :)
Discussion questions: In
what ways do you think we get wrapped up in how the world defines honor (what
is good/right)?
What is your favorite part
of the worship service?
