Being Foolish

 DEVOTION

2^ND SAMUEL

BEING FOOLISH

2 Sam 6:12-23

12 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. 16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart. 17 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes. 20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" 21 David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel — I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." 23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

NIV

There is only one lesson we see in this portion of Scripture, and it is about the humbling of himself that David did before the Ark of the Lord. His own wife thought he was acting like a fool, dancing in only a linen Ephod, simple and plain piece of cloth that barely covered his body. He humbled himself before the LORD, and that is where our story breaks into this narrative. Yes, this is all about bringing the ark of the LORD into the City of David, Jerusalem, and that is where it will remain and be placed in the Holy of Holies, in the temple that Solomon will build. But our truth is about making a fool of ourselves before the Lord. We do not understand how we have become so sophisticated that we do not look foolish in front of others. No, Lord, we will dance before you, raise our hearts and our hands in worship of you and your Holy Name. We know that we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual act of worship. When we think of how you offered yourself, Jesus, on that cross as a sacrifice for our sins, and how you were humiliated, stripped bare of all covering, naked, and bloodied from the whipping you endured, it makes us wonder if we worship in the holy way we should. If we are sacrificing ourselves before you as worship, then we think we should humble ourselves, even make a fool of ourselves. We should strip off all that hinders us from true worship. We need to throw off anything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us.  Then we can run that race that is marked out for us, and we can worship the Lord God Almighty in a way that He so rightly deserves, even if we look foolish, as Michal thought David was. Let us be foolish, Lord, if that is what it takes to fully worship you.