Only Servants Have Moral Superiority

S

(1 Samuel 25:32) And David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!"

O

Abigail was threatened by two quasi-kings. She quietly and actively defied her "worthless" husband Nabal to rescue their family from his dangerous misuse of prosperity and authority. In contrast, she openly confronted David in order to rescue her family from his cruel misuse of power and control. Her own repentance for "not seeing the servants David sent" (verses 24-28) seems mind-bogglingly trivial in contrast, but her repentance was the suspenseful event that finally opened their prison walls so they could escape from disaster into safety and wisdom.

A (Personal)

In this story, only the servants do right and see accurately. I see that only by taking on that role and those responsibilities do people make good choices. Abigail offered herself to David's service (and became a true queen). David, when he acted as God's servant, recognized that he needed to submit to and obey Abigail's request. And this story begins with a surprise guest of even greater importance. In this notice of Samuel's death, readers are reminded of the life of the greatest servant that David and Abigail's generations had ever seen. Samuel's life, from start to finish, was an unblemished example of honorable, honest service, even though he served in the shadow of greatly inferior kings. Hmmm ... whom do I relate to most in this story?

A (Psychological)

Yalom, in his book, The Gift of Therapy, advises a new generation of therapists to cherish their patients as actually mattering greatly to them. He says, "Let them enter your mind, influence you, change you--and [do] not to conceal this from them" (p. 27). Larson explains that "our empathy and helping usually begin with a perception of a social bond with people needing assistance," and our bonds of "we-ness" help us resist the barriers and destructive blindnesses of "they-ness" (The Helper's Journey, p. 16). This shift is very difficult. The conflicting values of Nabal's, Abigail's, David's, and their servants would have been impossible to sort out (except by sheer violence) had it not been for the respect given to the higher authority--God's kingdom. Both Abigail's and David's decisions to repent are not unlike an addict's challenge to disengage from neurotic paradoxical behaviors--the addict's constant choice to continue in self-defeating behaviors even while recognizing the counterproductive nature of those actions (Larson, p. 72). Our answer as well lies in valuing the long-term gains that are achieved by sacrificing one's short-term, immediate comfort and safety. David and Abigail's encounter demonstrates the reasonableness of the psyche of Christ's kingdom, where servants are given the greater honor and authority (Luke 22:24-27; John 13:1-17).

P

Lord, I long to serve You. I dislike serving my Nabal-like tendencies of inflating of my own importance. For too long, I've served my David-the-Controller tendencies to push my own agenda. How long have I indulged in Abigail-like blindness and avoided recognizing the importance of the people you've sent to influence me? Instead of being stone-hearted, I want to repent like David and Abigail did. I want to be constant and faithful, like Samuel was. May I always keep Your service--never my own sense of entitlement--as my sole objective.

Warning: Mature Moral Themes

S
(Deuteronomy 21:18-21) ... Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him ... and say to the elders of the city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the city what stone him to death ... so shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

O
What happens in the privacy of homes--the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of private disciplines--can disfigure individuals, families, and an entire nation's personality. In Hebrew, stubborn [5627] is the state of defecting from and resisting a healthy relationship. Rebellion [4784] is overt defiance, a callous and bitter offensiveness. Gluttony [2151] is a flighty, frivolous inability to value morals or appreciate the gravity of larger consequences. Drunkenness [5435] is a dependence on being inebriated (hiding reality). God holds people corporately and individually responsible for identifying and purging the both presence and practice of such evils. This perfect storm, however, of rejecting correction (stubbornness), disregarding or even denying others' pain (rebellion), defending moral delusions (gluttony) while defying truth (drunkenness), is best summarized as a rejection of Jesus Christ--the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

A (Personal)
Herod and various Hebrew kings (including David) demonstrate the terrifying and subtle ease with which these deceptive patterns can take root in one's heart. In history, we learn of destructiveness of the Milosevics, Stalins, Hitlers, and Chairman Maos, and we lament not having stopped them from gaining such power. The question begs to be answered: "What am I doing to resist the seeds of such harm in my own soul and in the souls of people I love and live near?"

A (Psychological)
In her book, Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend (2007), Barbara Oakley has brilliantly set the problem of evil in the intersection of history, psychology, and genome-based research. The collision is spectacular. She defines this Machiavellian personality in a way that, from my view, matches the successfully sinister evil that Moses proscribed: "a person who is charming on the surface, a genius at sucking up to power but capable of mind-boggling acts of deceit for control or personal gain... [a person who is] unscrupulous and self-serving and therefore capable of deeply malign behavior... a person whose narcissism combines with subtle cognitive and emotional disturbances in such a fashion as to make him believe that achieving his own desires, and his alone, is a genuinely beneficial--even altruistic--activity. Since the Machiavellian gives more emotional weight to his own importance than to that of anyone or anything else, achieving the growth of his preeminence by any means possible is always justified in his own mind. [These disturbances mean Machiavellians] can make judgments that dispassionate observers would regard as unfair or irrational. At the same time, however, the Machiavellians' unusual ability to charm, manipulate, and threaten can coerce others into ignoring their conscience and treading a darker path" (pp. 280-281).

P
Lord, I echo David's prayer: "Who rises up for me against the wicked? If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would have lived in the land of silence" (Psalm 94:16,17). I commit myself to stand against--first of all--the evil that seeks safety and welcome in my own thoughts. Lord, I cry out for Your insight so I could discern rightly between good and evil, and so I'd have courage to follow You even when it seems difficult (1 Kings 3:5-13). Lord, save us from ourselves.

Our Valuable Voices

S

(Leviticus 5:1) If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and through he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity.

O

God holds people morally, spiritually, and socially responsible for what they witness and learn. In the process of healing communities (collective individuals), He expects people to contribute their own stories and understandings so the pool of common knowledge is made richer and broader.

A (Personal)

I often think my story or personal perspective is insignificant--sometimes because it's so different from other views, sometimes because it's so similar. Yes, seeing differently can also mean opportunity for growth, and seeing similarly can also mean opportunity for reinforcing truth and encouraging people. Through Wisdom's careful and constant tutoring, I can learn to discern (by faith) when my voice helps and when it hurts the building up of others. Sometimes, too, my contribution to the community might be in the initial voice that calls for this public adjuration.

A (Psychological)

Miller, Miller, Nunnally, and Wackman have created the popular "Awareness Wheel," which is a therapeutic intervention that helps couples skillfully invite their partners to communicate their thoughts with greater specificity (http://www.couplecommunication.com/). The couples learn to express themselves in five dimensions: Sensory Data (sight, hearing, felt sensations, smell, taste); Thoughts, Feelings (emotions); Wants (goals and motives); and Actions (specific behaviors). I think it also helps individuals better understand their own views of an issue. Although this tool uses a wheel metaphor, I've seen others effectively adapt it to a barrel or cylinder metaphor to indicate the depth issues have below the surface. I prefer yet another adaptation of that--the bank safety deposit box metaphor. I believe that buried in our brains are valuable insights that, like safety deposit boxes, contain perspectives that, if shared with others, can make both the owners and the community much richer. Sometimes we need other people's help in understanding just how valuable our insights are.

P

Lord, I know so little about how to measure the social value of the contributions of my story, my hypotheses, my observations. I am thankful, regardless of my maturity or accurate perceptions, that You love hearing my voice as I honestly and humbly talk to You and seek Your wisdom. So I submit my thoughts wholly to You and Your purposes: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength (my Rock) and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).