Facade or Transparency

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

FAÇADE OR TRANSPARENCY

1 Samuel 21:7-15

7 Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd. 8 David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king's business was urgent." 9 The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one." David said, "There is none like it; give it to me." 10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: "'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?" 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

NIV

The first question concerns the behavior of David. Why would he act like a madman when he came into the presence of Achish, the king of Gath? If Achish’s servants knew who David was, why was he so afraid of being known as the mighty warrior? From what we can garner from our research, we find this was the city of Goliath, the Philistine, and David was wearing Goliath’s sword. Surely, as he was alone and in the presence of the king of the city of Philistines, he must have felt his life was in danger, and the only course of action was to appear as a madman. The Hebrew word is translated as to shine, boast, in the positive sense, but also to make a fool or to act like a madman in the negative sense. This was a pure act on the part of David, changing his behavior so as to appear like he was crazy, so he could make an escape from this dangerous situation. But what can we learn from this that would apply to our lives? Certainly, we would not think it is appropriate to act like a madman. In fact, it is not appropriate to act differently from who we are. The question is whether we put on this front, or façade, depending on whose presence we are in. Do we act differently depending on who we are with? First thing, we must be truthful to ourselves as to who we are. We cannot pretend to be someone we are not. We know we are just sinners saved by grace. We know that God has forgiven our sins, but the fact remains that we still must deal with the sin in our lives. If we act holy and righteous, are we lying to others or ourselves? Although it is true that God had declared us holy and blameless in his sight, as he sees us through the blood of Jesus, we know that in our flesh we are not truly as holy and blameless as God sees us. How can we act any differently than who we truly are? Yes, we are a child of God, yet we still deal with our flesh, or “self”, and our failures, weaknesses, inabilities, and simply put, our sin. Let us not have those facades, those fake fronts, but live transparently before God and people. So the question is, do we live with a façade or with transparency?