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.

Being Replaced By the Summer Temp

Suggested Reading: 3 John 5-10

During the summers when I went home from college, I tended to work at temp agencies a lot. There was one particular assignment that I will never forget. I was filling in for two weeks so that one of the company’s salesman could go on vacation. The first week I spent training with the lady I would replace, who, in turn, would fill in for the salesman. I thought it was overkill, but they were paying so I didn’t complain. But two days in I had a firm grasp on the duties I would be performing for the next two weeks and the lady I was filling in for went a little nuts. She was convinced that the company was bringing me in to replace her and so she went out of her way to prevent me from doing my job. She sabotaged my projects, prevented me from fixing a paper jam in the copier, yanked things out of my hand like I was a child, and generally made it impossible for me to do my job effectively because she was scared I would look good, which would make her look bad. She was so afraid that I would steal her position with the company (even though I was going back to school in a month) that she prevented me from actually doing the company any good. I don’t think she did a very good job filling in for the salesman, either, because she was always watching over my shoulder making certain I couldn’t do my job.

In the book of 3 John, the apostle wrote about a similar situation that had developed in the church to which he was writing. The apostle wrote, I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrophes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us…Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church (3 John 1:9-10, NLT). Diotrophes was a man who liked being in charge and so he refused to allow anyone to have any influence who might actually help his particular church. When other people did well or provided something of value, Diotrophes felt threatened, and so he stopped them from even showing up.

Diotrophes’ attitude, sadly, is not uncommon. Quite often we feel insecure and threatened when other people do well or provide valuable assistance. We fear becoming obsolete or dispensable. Divorced parents feel this keenly when their children begin to like their ex’s new spouse. Teachers and preachers can experience it when the person that fills in for them gets rave reviews. When we see someone else who is just as good (if not better) at that one thing that we used to do best for the PTA or the church, we can get jealous and begin to guard our territory, becoming very defensive about the duties or positions that we feel belong to us.

Discovering others who can serve the people and organizations that we love should never threaten us. And living in constant fear and insecurity will eventually exhaust us, alienate the people we are trying to serve, and backfire in our faces dramatically. Rather than getting insecure, we should be glad that someone else is working alongside us, that we might have someone from whom we can learn to improve ourselves, or that we have someone who can help carry the load when things get tough.  But refusing to let others help because we are worried about losing our prominence, position, prestige, or control is selfish and hurtful to the people we claim to serve. If someone else can do something better than we can, letting them do it and learning from them is the essence of wisdom, and it demonstrates that the people we serve are more important than our own feelings of importance.

If you find yourself worrying more about preserving your position than about doing what's best for the people you serve, take a step back. Intentionally set aside your insecurity and self-doubt. Doing so will probably scare you to death, but doing the right thing often counts far more than we know.