Destructive piety (1 Sam 14:24-35)

The film, Return to Me, concludes with the characters gathering for the opening of an animal sanctuary built in honour of a carer who tragically died in an accident. One of the donors at the event, sidles up to the organiser and asks anxiously, ‘Have you received my sizeable anonymous donation?’ In humorous form, the film pokes fun at generous action done for personal vanity. Remembering Jesus’ scathing criticism of the Pharisees’ piety, we may be similarly sceptical of some religious practices such as fasting, but this is a mistake. Jesus assumes as a matter of course that his followers will engage in outward expressions of piety including prayer, giving and fasting (Matt 6:2, 5, 16). What is at issue is motivation. If the incentive that spurs one on is self-centred, the fruit will reflect such self-seeking.

Saul’s story demonstrates this truth. Although it is the Lord who has delivered Israel (1 Sam 14:23), Saul’s pious oath imposes fasting on the people until ‘I avenged myself on my enemies’ (1 Sam 14:24) and shows no acknowledgment of God, but focuses only on self. Normally, fasting is a way of seeking God by putting aside such mundane activities as eating. In effect, the person is saying to God, ‘You matter to me more than even my primary needs’. However, the fast imposed by Saul implicitly enlists God’s help for the king’s own ends (crudely put, ‘I fast for you, if you will help me win’). The troops, however, are weary and do not have the energy to pursue the enemy with vigour (1 Sam 14:30-31). Thus, piety practised for the wrong reasons may end up working against God’s very purposes.

Saul’s enforced fast also has another unexpected consequence. Hunger and weariness remove the usual restraints among the troops, so that, when they finally get to eat, they greedily consume the meat without draining the blood first (1 Sam 14:32). In Hebrew thinking, the blood represented the animal’s life (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:14) and refraining from eating it was a symbolic act to indicate that life belonged to God and it could only be taken with His permission. While Saul quickly steps in to remedy the situation (1 Sam 14:34), it is undeniable that his own foolish oath led to the people’s sin. It is the nature of self-centred piety that it becomes destructive by putting an impossible burden on its practitioners and thereby exposing them to the temptation to sin.

The two principles above have parallels in our own contexts. For evangelical Christians, for instance, devotional Bible reading is important, but we shall not hear God’s word to us, if we follow our own agenda (e.g. read it to confirm what we already think or claim its promises without submitting to Him in obedience). Like the Pharisees, we may believe that reading Scripture is life-giving, but unless our heart is right, we shall miss the heartbeat of the message like they did (John 5:39).

Secondly, when our actions are driven by reasons centred on ourselves (looking good before others, impressing God or fearing His retribution if we do not conform), we tend to take on a yoke we were never meant to carry. Whether we give beyond our means because we fear public shaming, spend all our time in church activities and neglect family or other duties, we end up staggering under an unbearable load. It is not surprising if we are led into hypocrisy and stumble into sin, as a result. On the other hand, when our desire is to honour God and seek Him, there is a lightness and joy in our piety. I’ll never forget the radiant face of an old nun whose testimony I heard in NZ. As a young woman, she was very pretty and men liked her, so others thought that she would never make it as a nun. However, God’s call sustained her and the purity and joy in her whole being was a testimony to her delight in the Lord. This is the kind of piety we are meant to practice.

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