What is the ideal life?
One lived without heartache, difficulty, and a variety of personal
defeats? If so, who has lived such a
life? And were such possible where would
come those graces that attach themselves to those who bow before life’s
reverses? Even Jesus, who by virtue of
lack of personal sin, became one acquainted with sorrow and grief (Isaiah 52:3)
and “though He was a Son, yet He learned
obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
The issue then is not that we don’t have difficulties, but what
do we do with them. Let me tell you of
an Old Testament woman, Hannah, one of two wives of Elkanah, desperately
longing for a “male child”, and was anguished by the fact that to a certain
point she was childless and was ridiculed by her “fellow wife” for her
barrenness. This condition persisted for
any number of years. At one point while
praying in the Tabernacle, with bitterness and anguish of soul, she made a vow,
“O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look
on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your
maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him
to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head” (I
Samuel 1:11).
As she prayed she moved her lips but made no sound. Observing her, Eli the chief priest wondered
if she were not “drunk”. She assured him
she was not and told him of her plight. “Then Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace,
and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him’” (I
Samuel 1:17).
In time God gave her a son whom she named Samuel, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord”
(I Samuel 1:20b).
After Hannah weaned Samuel she took him to the Tabernacle
and presented him to Eli for the Lord’s service. Before long the Lord spoke to Samuel,
speaking a word of judgment God was going to bring on Eli and his
household. That was a “heavy word” for a
little boy and Eli forced Samuel to divulge it.
Eli acquiesced to the harsh word.
Later we have this account of Samuel. “So
Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall (fail) to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to
Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord” (I
Samuel 3:19, 20).
That Samuel should come on the scene at this point was
critical in Israel’s history because the judgment of the Lord fell upon Eli,
the Chief Priest and his sons, cutting them off from ministry, and the Ark of
the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines in battle. Samuel was left alone to judge Israel.
Through Samuel the monarchy would be established, raising up
first Saul as King, and, because of Saul’s rebellion, then David.
This whole sequence of events followed from the anguished
prayer of a mother, fitting in with the purposes of God.
Are you troubled, even anguished in soul, because of some
circumstance? Give it to the Lord and
see what He will do with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment