Monday 4th March 2019 - Daily Reading:
1 Samuel 1 - Every Blessing by Becky White
The combined books of 1 and 2 Samuel cover a 150-year period of history from the time of Samuel’s birth until the end of King David’s reign. This is an action-packed sweep of the history of God’s people, but these books focus mainly on kingship – should Israel even have a king and, if so, who should it be?
Yet despite the epic nature of what is to come, 1 Samuel begins with pinpoint focus on an obscure family in Ephraim, and one woman’s heartache.
Hannah is bereft. Her husband loves her, and treats her as his favourite, but she has no children, and her husband’s other wife taunts her mercilessly about it. She cries out to God, and he grants her request. She, in her turn, keeps her vow, and brings her young son to the house of the Lord.
Elkanah, though a loving husband, seems only to pay lip service to the Law. He is a Levite but he does not live in a Levitical town. He obeys the annual sacrifice, but he has married two women. In this relationship, it is Hannah’s faith that is outstanding, and yet many of her friends and relatives would have been suspicious that her barrenness was some sort of divine punishment for sin.
Yet this was not so – it was not a divine punishment, but a divine purpose. Hannah’s story is a story of transformation: from barrenness to birth; from complaint to thanksgiving; from helplessness to hope. In some ways, Hannah’s story mirrors Israel’s.
Her prayer at the temple reveals the depth of her relationship with God. She not only wants a child to heal her own hurting heart, but she also wishes to give something back to God, to his glory. Her promise that her son would never have a razor used on his head signifies that Hannah intended him to be a Nazirite – wholly set apart for God’s service.
What hurts your heart today? What do you cry out to God for? If the Lord grants your request, are you willing to give his blessing back to him? Every good thing we have comes from the Lord. May we be as ready to dedicate our gifts back to him as Hannah was.