The Power of the Faithfulness of Women
Having
just finished Ruth, it really strikes me that the first true demonstration of
following God that we find in 1 Samuel is Hannah. {Yes, I
acknowledge that I am neglecting the faithfulness of Elkanah’s routine worship
year after year, and that may be unfair.}
It really hit me this morning at what two great female models we find in
the faith in such close proximity to one another.
What makes
Hannah’s testimony so great? Well, look
at what happened to her. She was barren
and other people knew it. Suddenly, she
finds herself not only with child but able to bring the baby to term and to
bear the child. The child is healthy and
survives long enough to be given to Eli for the service of the Lord. This is nothing less than a substantial
working of the hand of God. And she
gives God the credit. Read through her
prayer. How often does she praise God
and talk about God? In comparison, how
often does she praise herself and talk about her own greatness? She’s no self-monger, I’ll say that much!
I look at
today’s society, especially in terms of our social media. How many times do I get online and see people
swooning over their significant other without giving any credit whatsoever to
God? How many times do I hear good
Christian people post about some great thing that happened in their life
without giving credit to God? How many
times do I read people’s status updates about how great they are?
Let’s look
at media stars. How many times do you
see a football player point to God in the end zone but when the microphone
draws near to them they get a 2 second “thanks God” followed by a 30 second
audio clip of how great they are and how great their team is? How often do we see celebrity after celebrity
go on and on about how great they are and how great their movies or television
shows are?
What makes
Hannah’s response here so inspirational is that she displays a true response to
God. God works His hand in her life and
she can’t stop giving credit to God. She
can’t stop talking about how great God is.
She doesn’t give God a “cursory thank-you” and then proceed to talk
about herself. Nearly her entire speech
as quoted in this chapter is about the greatness of God.
Furthermore,
do you notice how her talking about God really becomes evangelism? Because she focuses on God’s nature, she is
telling others about God. Because she
focuses on God’s action, she is telling others about God. Had she shifted to how great her life is now
that the label of barrenness has been taken away, she would have missed out on
opportunity for evangelism. But she
nails it here. She focuses on God and
her evangelism is remembered for over 3,000 years and counting. How many self-monger quotes are remembered
that long?
Eli’s Household
Moving on
to Eli, we are told that Eli’s own sons are worthless. My first take on Eli is that he was a father
of faith to two troubled sons. However,
after reading the text more deeply I do not think this to be true – at least in
chapter 2. Yes, Eli does chastise his sons about their improper behavior as
priests. However, as a priest Eli should
be aware of Deuteronomy 17:12 and Deuteronomy 21:18-21. He should know that rebellious children are
not a blessing from the Lord. Eli lifts
up a vocal objection to their action but allows them to continue in their
practice. I don’t think Eli is the man
of faith I want him to be.
Furthermore,
God is clear in 1 Samuel 2:31-34 that God does not intend to save Eli’s
house. Now, how many times so far in the
Hebrew Scriptures has God provided for an offspring when it looks hopeless? One of the main points of the Hebrew
Scriptures is that God is powerful enough to continue the presence of the
faithful in spite of how bleak the generational outlook is. Yet here we see God telling Eli that his
house is coming to an end. If Eli was truly
a faithful servant, certainly God could have found a way to continue his
household.
One might
argue that Samuel is God’s way of continuing the household. For those who want to take the argument that
far, read ahead to 1 Samuel 3:13 first.
And then go back and read 1 Samuel 2:29.
Clearly God is angry with Eli because he is honoring his sons above God.
I find Eli
a sad character – perhaps because I occasionally have something in common with
him. Perhaps we all have something in
common with him. He knows the right
thing to do, but he doesn’t have the inner courage to make some people angry
and stick up for the truth. Sticking up
for God’s truth is difficult at times, but it is the right thing to do. I need to learn from Eli and make sure that I
don’t fold when I should stand. I need
to learn that I don’t put my relationships with other people above my
relationship with God. May I be more
like Hannah and less like Eli!
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