1 Samuel
1 – 5
Hannah was childless and was in turmoil about not having
children. Interesting how they start this story focusing on her despair, but as
you will see like everything God does it has a purpose.
Verse 2:7 has her praying:
The Eternal One
makes both poor and rich;
some He humbles, and others He honors.
When you think about it we often place God
as being in total control of the world, when I think He is more hands off. More
like a director of a crazy free form orchestra. Only when things get way out of
hand does He jump in. Also, when the sting section needs some guidance he may
nudge them from time to time. But I don’t think God makes the poor, He just
gives us the environment to be either way. I know that many say being born poor
is so much more difficult to pull yourself out, but that is more generational
in problems than God making people poor.
Anyway as we see with Hannah, God may have
made her barren for a season to get His end result. Hannah made a promise to
give this child to the church and after she did verse 2:21 shows God’s
response:
The Eternal One
showed his favor toward Hannah again, and she conceived and gave birth
to three sons and two daughters, and her son Samuel grew up in the presence of
the Eternal One.
This is a key point, never once did God
promise this nor did Hannah expect it. She was made a promise and kept it. This
is a trap with tithing, since most pastors’ promise a blessing or that
Malachi’s “testing” will show God’s blessing on you if you tithe. Hannah is the
example of how life should be done, in pure obedience without expectations.
Sure it would be nice to have a ton of money, but don’t expect it dropping that
10% in the plate. We not only do things out of obedience, but joy. Why should
we expect something on the “flip-side”?
The rest of the reading focuses on Eli’s
sons, who are taking advantage of their positions and end up paying the
ultimate price. I find it interesting how Eli dies shortly after his sons and
often wonder was he paying the price for their sins? One of the problems was
they lost the “covenant chest” which caused problems for those who had it.
Verse 5:12 shows why it was a “hot potato”:
and those He did
not kill, He struck with swollen, painful tumors. Their suffering was
so intense their cries could be heard in the heavens.
City after city the chest gets moved and
they fall into the same despair. It will be interesting to see what becomes of
this chest. Stay tuned and in 7 days (or readings) we will find out!
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