A Unique Way To Show Devotion

Devotion and humility were key traits of Jesus, which we should exhibit through His power.   ~~~   In the saga of David’s life, as told to us in 1 Samuel 18, we witness Saul offer his oldest daughter, Merab, to David to be his wife. David responds in humility by crying out, “Who am I, and who are my relatives, that I should be a son-in-law to a king.” So it appears that in humility, David refuses Saul’s offer. A little later on, Saul came to understand that Michal, his other daughter, loved David. So he offered her to him. But once again, we see David’s humility when he says, “Does it seem to you a little thing to become the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and have no reputation?” What David means by that is that he nor his father have any money to pay the bride price of a king’s daughter. In those days, when marriage took place, the groom would pay a dowry, which was simply an amount of money that the family of the bride thought she was worth. They were losing a daughter and a valuable worker, so the groom was to pay her value to the bride’s family. So David says, “I don’t have any money to pay the bride price,” which is interesting since the king was supposed to enrich the man who killed Goliath. Perhaps Saul’s check hadn’t cleared the bank yet. But Saul came back to David and said, “No money is necessary, just go and kill 100 philistines. And I will know that you killed them because you will bring me all of their foreskins.” In all of this, Saul is trying to put David in fatal circumstances so Saul will not have to worry about David’s popularity outshining his own. So David accepts the challenge, but brings back 200 foreskins! Why? David does this so that Saul may be avenged of his enemies. The motivating factor for David is to honor the king of Israel, and protecting God’s people Israel. Once again we see humility and devotion on display in David’s life, and we are reminded of Jesus’ even greater display of humility and devotion in the face of others intense hatred. Jesus never wavered from His Father’s will. Jesus didn’t take his assignment of being in the flesh as a demotion from his heavenly glory, but rather all part of God’s providential plan to provide for us a divine King. And as his subjects, we too can live lives of devotion and humility, in the power of His Spirit.