GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 6:22
Dancing
I’ll admit that I’m not much of a dancer. Alice and I have danced a few times—the emphasis is on “few.” On one anniversary trip to Honolulu, we took a dinner boat cruise, and, following dinner, the band began playing slow dance music. Couples began dancing, so I stood and extended my hand. Alice looked surprised, but she joined me. It was a lovely dance.
There are many dances recorded in Scripture. After the Israelites left Egypt and made the trip through the Red Sea, there was a time of rejoicing. Moses composed a song for the occasion. “Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.” (Ex. 15:20) On another occasion, David successfully recovered the Ark of the Covenant and brought it back to Jerusalem. “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might.” (2 Sam. 6:14) The writer of Ecclesiastes said that there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” (Eccl. 3:4)
There are also infamous dances described in Scripture, such as the dance before the Golden Calf. (Ex. 32:19) Perhaps Mark described the most infamous dance. “When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those reclining with him. The king said to the girl, ‘Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.’” (Mark 6:22) First, at this banquet, it seems that the wine flowed freely, and the male guests may have become drunk, as represented in Herod’s foolish promise to the girl. Second, this girl was of the nobility. Her mother was, after all, the wife of the Tetrarch. It stretches credulity to think that a noble mother would allow her daughter to submit to such public lewdness—any mother besides Herodias. Third, such dances at the time were usually vulgar, licentious pantomimes performed by professional prostitutes.
Dancing before the Lord, yes. Dancing before a bunch of drunken revelers, no.
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