March 11: God Uses the Foolish & Weak to Confound the Wise
♫ Music:
Day 27 - Monday, March 11
Title: GOD USES THE FOOLISH & WEAK TO CONFOUND THE WISE
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NKJV)
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Poetry & Poet:
“The Man Watching”
by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Robert Bly
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister.
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great.
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlers' sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
DAVID, WEEPING
When David stood before Goliath, his only armor was the word of God and the memory of how God rescued him and his flock from wild animals. In today’s artwork, Caravaggio shows David as a youth, “little more than a boy,” as both Saul and Goliath saw him, holding the sword he used only to cut off the giant’s head. Peter Paul Rubens paints David as we might expect a victorious soldier to look, older, stronger, like he could defeat the menacing Goliath by himself.
Walking with God from his youth, David probably never thought of himself as a nobody like the speaker in today’s song. But as the youngest of eight brothers, he might have related to these lines:
Why You ever chose me
Has always been a mystery
All my life I've been told I belong
At the end of the line
But God did choose the shepherd boy, strengthen him, and anoint him as king. David won many victories against Israel’s enemies, until he turned from God’s word. After his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, God humbled him when his son, Absalom, “stole the hearts of the people of Israel” then set himself up as king.
It’s as if Caravaggio and Rubens painted reverse images of David. David was strong in the Lord when he looked like Caravaggio’s youth and weak in his sin when he looked like Rubens’ strong warrior. There is also a reversal reflected in the words of today’s verse, “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” Even after committing adultery and murder, we see why God still called David a man after His own heart. He shamed the proud and mighty by his humble repentance. We see it as he heads to the Mount of Olives, weeping as he goes. David knows the betrayal is discipline from God as a result of his sin because Nathan the prophet foretold it in painfully clear detail.
Rilke’s poem speaks of the strength of the weak and the weakness of the strong:
What fights with us is so great.
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
There is paradoxically strength in yielding to what is mighty, the tree to the storm, the man to his God. Absalom hurtled after his own will but, our poem says:
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
Absalom was snatched off his horse by the branches of a tree. When David’s men found him, they killed him where he hung, despite David’s command to deal gently with him.
David sinned but yielded to the disciplining hand of the Lord. Rilke’s poem continues:
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
God shames the things that are mighty with things that are weak when good men go weeping over their sins.
Prayer
Lord, we are sinners. Help us draw close to You in humble repentance knowing You suffered, died, and rose again for the love of us. Help us hide Your word in our hearts so we may not sin against You. Give us wisdom to know our weaknesses, and by the power of Your Holy Spirit, conquer them for Your glory. We love You, Lord, and praise You for Your faithfulness to make us people after Your own heart..
Jayne English
Essayist
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art #1:
David Slaying Goliath
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1616
Oil on canvas
122.9 x 99.1 cm.
Norton Simon Museum
Pasadena, California
The Norton Simon Foundation
Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens chose to depict the moment when David, having felled Goliath and taken possession of his sword, is about to sever the head of his mighty adversary. The two monumental figures occupy nearly the entire painting, with only a fragment of the battle in the background. A strong circular motion (which will be completed with the impending swing of the sword) animates the composition and increases the tension of the drama. The attacking form of David and the prone Goliath are balanced against one another in a carefully calculated equilibrium. The background landscape extends into the vast distance, which is emphasized by the low line of the horizon, resulting in the focus of the dramatic foreground action.
About the Artist #1:
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was a prolific Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular baroque style emphasized movement, color, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens produced altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. In addition to running a large workshop in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. Rubens was an avid art collector and dealer and had one of the largest collections of art and books in Antwerp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens
About the Art #2:
David with the Head of Goliath
Caravaggio
c. 1610
Oil on canvas
125 x 101 cm
Galleria Borghese
Rome, Italy
Physically, Goliath had every advantage for battle—strength, training, tremendous size, and combat experience. Spiritually, David had the advantage because he placed his faith entirely in God. Caravaggio captures the drama of David beheading the giant Goliath effectively by showing the Philistine warrior’s head dangling from David's hand. The artist painted the sword in David's hand with the abbreviated inscription H-AS OS, which has been interpreted as an abbreviation of the Latin phrase humilitas occidit superbiam (humility kills pride).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_with_the_Head_of_Goliath_(Caravaggio,_Rome)
About the Artist #2:
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known simply as Caravaggio (1571–1610), was an Italian baroque painter whose influence and fame spanned far beyond his short career. He was trained in Milan and joined the art scene in Rome with his first two commissions in 1600, after which he never lacked patronage. Despite his wild personal life and death at the age of thirty-eight, the influence of his work can be seen in the works of other important artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Bernini, and Rembrandt. His distinctive style is characterized by a realistic observation of the human state, realistic depictions of emotional responses, and the use of chiaroscuro or intensely dramatic lighting. Conversion on the Way to Damascus, which depicts the apostle Paul's miraculous vision of Christ, is one of his masterpieces. It was done for the Cerasi Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, where it still resides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crvg/hd_crvg.htm
About the Music:
“Nobody” from the album Only Jesus
Lyrics:
Why You ever chose me
Has always been a mystery.
All my life I’ve been told
I belong at the end of the line,
With all the other Not-Quites,
With all the Never-Get-It-Rights.
But it turns out we’re the ones
You’ve been looking for all this time.
‘Cause I’m just a nobody.
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody who saved my soul.
Ever since You rescued me,
You gave my heart a song to sing
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
I’m living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus.
Moses had stage fright,
And David brought a rock to a sword fight,
You picked twelve outsiders nobody would’ve chosen,
And You changed the world.
Well, the moral of the story is
Everybody’s got a purpose.
So when I hear that devil start talking to me, saying
“Who do you think you are?”
I say… I’m just a nobody,
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody who saved my soul.
Ever since You rescued me,
You gave my heart a song to sing.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
So let me go down down down in history,
As another blood-bought faithful member of the family.
And if they all forget my name, well, that’s fine with me.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
So let me go down down down in history,
As another blood-bought faithful member of the family.
And if they all forget my name, well, that’s fine with me,
I’m living for the world to see Nobody but Jesus.
‘Cause I’m just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody who saved my soul,
Ever since You rescued me,
You gave my heart a song to sing.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
I’m living for the world to see,
Nobody but Jesus.
About the Composers:
Mark Hall, Bernie Herms, and Matthew West
Mark Hall (b. 1969) is an American musician and the lead vocalist for the Georgia-based contemporary Christian music group Casting Crowns, a seven-member group composed of worship leaders. He is also youth pastor at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough. Diagnosed with learning disabilities as a child, Hall defines himself as "a broken person made whole.” He talks about his trials in his book Lifestories. Hall served as youth pastor to the First Baptist Church of Samson, Alabama, and other churches while pursuing a music degree at the Baptist College of Florida. Upon earning his degree, Mark and his wife, Melanie, moved to Loganville, Georgia, where he served as the minister of music at Center Hill Baptist Church. In each church he started a youth band as a way to involve students in a ministry that would allow them to use their musical talents and interests. In 2008, Hall received five GMA Dove Awards.
https://www.castingcrowns.com/
Bernie Herms is an award-winning composer, producer, and songwriter who has worked with artists such as Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Selena Gomez, Kelly Clarkson, David Foster, Casting Crowns, Hillary Scott (of Lady Antebellum), Barbra Streisand, Brad Paisley, Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, and many more. His production and songwriting career includes thirty number-one hits in the US and many multinational number-one hits. He has multiple Grammy nominations and won the 2017 Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for Hillary Scott’s “Thy Will.”
https://www.bernieherms.com/home
About the Performer:
Sung by Matthew West and Casting Crowns
Matthew West (b. 1977) started as an independent musician in the late 1990s. He wrote most of his first songs in the sanctuary of his father's church while he was at home during college breaks. Matthew West is a four-time Grammy nominee, a multiple ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter/Artist of the Year winner, Dove Award recipient, and was awarded an American Music Award (2013) and a Billboard Music Award (Top Christian Artist, 2014). West has more than one hundred thirty songwriting credits to his name, including cuts by Rascal Flatts, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Danny Gokey, and others, along with back-to-back number-one songs by Casting Crowns, including their single “Nobody,” in which West is featured. West has written six books to date. He is also passionate about providing hope and healing through the power of prayer and story. Along with his father, Pastor Joe West, he founded popwe, a nonprofit ministry helping others to craft, share, and live a more meaningful life.
https://matthewwest.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_West
popwe.org
Casting Crowns is a contemporary Christian and Christian rock band started in 1999 by youth pastor Mark Hall, the band's lead vocalist, as part of a youth group at First Baptist Church in downtown Daytona Beach, Florida. They later moved to Stockbridge, Georgia, where more band members joined. Some members of the band currently work as ministers for Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. The band has won a Grammy and a Dove Award. In 2023, the band announced their The Healer Tour, which included artists Ben Fuller and We Are Messengers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_Crowns
https://www.castingcrowns.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets,” writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. Several critics have described Rilke's work as inherently "mystical.” His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rainer-maria-rilke
About the Devotion Writer:
Jayne English
Essayist
Jayne English is an essayist. She has a B.A. in Humanities from Florida Southern College. She has published devotional articles in various publications and articles on art and faith for Relief Journal’s blog. She is thankful daily for the beauty God brings her way in nature, poetry, and amazing family and friends. She lives in Central Florida, where she enjoys reading, writing, and latte drives on country roads under a summer-blue sky.
You can find more of her writing at jayneenglish.substack.com