King Saul's Vengeance on the Borg

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 14:13-30 or 1 Samuel 14 (the whole story)

In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard comes face to face with the Borg, the enemy who had enslaved him, taken control of his body and subjugated his mind, bending it to their control. At one point, the rest of his command crew recommend abandoning the Enterprise and setting the self-destruct, both because the ship has been infested by the Borg and because destroying the ship will eliminate the current Borg threat to Earth. Picard gives a fiery speech about drawing a line and refusing to allow the Borg to go any further. Picard advocates taking the fight to the Borg and refusing to allow the ship to be destroyed.  Only after a relative stranger intervenes does Picard realize that he isn't focused on defeating the Borg or keeping them from harming Earth but on hurting them, on taking revenge for the hurt they caused him. Upon making this realization, Picard grudgingly  abandons his quest for revenge and finally decides to do what is best for his crew.

There is a similar revenge-motivated story in 1 Samuel where the main character doesn't learn his lesson. Saul has led the Israelites into battle against the Philistines. Saul is so intent on destroying the Philistines that he 'bound the people under an oath, saying, “Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!” So none of the troops tasted food' (1 Samuel 14:24, NIV). Saul's son, Jonathan, unaware of the oath his father has placed on the people takes a small taste of honey after going on his own covert mission in which he routed the Philistines in their own camp. Saul finds out about Jonathan's taste of honey when God refuses to answer whether or not they should pursue the Philistines and finish the slaughter. Even upon discovering that the offender is his own son, Saul insists on carrying out the curse and killing Jonathan. Only the intervention of the people saves Jonathan from his father's oath.

As you read the story, you discover that Jonathan (even though he agreed to let his father kill him) thought that Saul's oath was reckless and that it prevented the soldiers from being at their best, and Jonathan was right. Saul didn't place the people under that oath because it would help them defeat their enemies but because he hoped it would motivate them to slaughter the Philistines faster. Why? Read Saul's words again, “Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!”  Saul was only concerned about having revenge on his enemies, not the oppressors of his people, not the people who had enslaved his fellow Israelites, not even the people who had mocked God. Saul put the people into a harmful situation because he thought it served his own selfish purposes. Saul was focused only on himself and revenge against his enemies and cared nothing for his people.

How often do we do the same thing? As leaders, teachers, supervisors, employers, parents? How often do we put the people for whom we are responsible in impossible situations to fit our own selfish desires? How often are we so focused on what we want that we destroy any chance at healthy relationships because the people around us can tell that we are making rash, selfish decisions?

The irony is, as in both cases above, if the leaders had focused as much on what was good for their people as their own desires, they would have gotten what they wanted. Picard would have defeated the Borg faster. Saul's people would have had enough strength to pursue the Philistines, and they wouldn't have been held up, trying to figure out who had violated the vow.

Ultimately, focusing on ourselves and what we want to the detriment of everything else leaves us in a position where the people who depend on us get hurt, and we rarely get what we want.  If you are responsible for someone, or even if you only exert a small amount of influence, take care of your people and do what is right for them. It will go better for you as well.

Cain's Battle With the Borg

Suggested Reading: Genesis 4:1-16

There is a pivotal scene in Star Trek: First Contact where Captain Picard has issued orders for the crew to stand their ground and fight a hopeless battle against the Borg, a group of cybernetically enhanced aliens who are over-running his ship. At the time his judgment seems to be clouded by his own experience with the Borg, an experience in which he himself had been kidnapped, his body implanted with Borg devices, and his mind controlled as he was forced to kill and destroy people for whom he cared. Though he had buried his anger and desire for revenge, when the Borg attacked his ship once again he allowed those feelings to take over. Only when a stranger quoted Moby Dick to him, comparing him to Captain Ahab who allowed his thirst for revenge to destroy him, did Captain Picard realize what he was doing and decide to let go of his anger in order to save his crew.

Unfortunately for Cain in Genesis 4, Moby Dick hadn't been written yet, but Cain did have someone point out the danger of holding onto his anger. After his offering had been rejected, Cain was visited by God himself who warned him, "Why are you so angry? Why is your face so downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:6-7, NIV). God himself warned Cain about his anger, and told him that he had a choice to make: deal with his anger and do what was right by mastering his sin, or allow his anger to continue unchecked and allow sin to master him instead.

Another path along the road to committing horrible deeds we never could have imagined is the choice to stay angry. God warned Cain that he had a choice to make, but Cain chose to stay angry. Cain chose to ignore the warning that God himself had issued about the dangers of allowing anger to rule him and he ended up murdering his brother. Even when we are truly injured and wronged, we have a choice to make about the role anger will play in our decisions. We can continue to be angry, justified or not, or we can choose to forgive so that we don't give sin a chance to master us. At times, it simply feels good to be angry. It feels good to be consumed with something that energizes and motivates us. But we cannot allow anger to be our driving force. 

Paul said in Ephesians 4:26-27, "'In your anger do not sin': Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold" (NIV). Allowing anger to motivate us and dictate our actions is a very dangerous game, one that offers Satan a foothold in our lives. Cain didn't pay attention to the warning he received. Will we?