The Serpent and the Donkey
A Metaparable of Sorts
Not Many of You Were Wise…
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.1
A common teaching in the Bible is that God can and will use whomever he wishes to accomplish his ends. In contradistinction to the Ancient Near East exaltation of the first born son, God often chose the second born son to be the recipient of his covenant blessings. For instance, whereas Cain was the firstborn, it was Abel who was the object of God’s love. Similarly, whereas Ishmael was the firstborn son of Abraham, it was Isaac who received the covenant blessings. Esau was the firstborn, but God hated him and love Jacob. David was the youngest of all of his brothers, and yet God chose him to be the king of Israel. Even the Son of God, we are told, “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”2 As the Lord of Glory himself declared:
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”3
Since we know that austerity is not equivalent to godliness, and that ascetic practices “are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh,”4 we are left asking: Why has God used the second born sons, the weak, the unlearned, and the poor to accomplish his ends?
Well, I think Paul summarizes the situation pretty clearly when he writes —