We need a Hero

This weekend is all about heroes – American men and women who sacrificed their lives to protect the vulnerable.  We love heroes.  We write stories about them, and we sing about them.

Hannah was a woman in need of a hero.  Her story is found in 1 Samuel.  If you read verses 1-20, you’ll see that she’s a godly woman who is in a vulnerable position, in need of a hero.  As a woman without a son, she was in a dangerous position in her culture.  If her husband, Elkanah, died, she would have no one to care for her.  This was especially true in a time period where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

So, who might step up to the challenge of being the hero in Hannah’s story?  Well, there was a woman in Hannah’s life…

Peninnah – The Thanksgiving Trasher

Peninnah was the rival wife of Elkanah.  You see, v. 2 tells us of the troubling situation – Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.  Hannah was most likely the first wife of Elkanah, but the Lord closed her womb, and so Elkanah set about finding a child-bearing wife.  This puts Peninnah in an awful spot.  Hannah obviously gets all the love and attention, while Peninnah gets to deliver children.  So, she naturally takes out her pain on Hannah.  She irritates and provokes her non-stop, especially at the annual holiday trip to Shiloh.  She is so good at her poking and prodding that she ruins Hannah’s appetite every year.

An interesting statement is made in v. 6.  It says that Peninnah would provoke Hannah because the Lord had closed her womb.  Be careful what you mock and belittle in someone else’s life.  You might find yourself mocking the very work of God in their life.

Well, Peninnah certainly isn’t going to stand up for Hannah, but there was a man in Hannah’s life…

Elkanah – The Huxtable Dad

You remember The Cosby Show right?  If not, here.  You’re welcome.  Dr. Huxtable was a great husband and father who occasionally put his foot in his mouth.  This is Elkanah.  He’s a godly dad who takes his family to worship God and learn about Him.  He keeps the Old Testament sacrifices.  He provides for his family.  He obviously loves Hannah, and even is in tune somewhat with her emotions.  He see she’s upset, and asks her, “Hannah, why are you crying? Why won’t you eat? Why are you troubled?”

Good man, Elkanah!  Way to look out for your wife.  You’ve taken an interest in her well-being and you’re seeking her comfort!  Should have stopped there!

He goes on, “Am I not better to you than 10 sons?”  Ya know, maybe he was even right, but it was the wrong time to be right!  Thankfully, there was a spiritual leader in Hannah’s life…

Eli – The Short-sighted Priest

Hannah’s had a rough day.  She’s pouring her heart out to God, in God’s temple, and here comes the priest, Eli, to save the day.  Wait, what did he say?  Sorry Hannah!  He thinks you’re sloppy drunk!  Instead of reaching out in love and concern for this obviously broken woman, Eli jumps to conclusions and condemns her instead.  Commentator Robert Bergen says Eli “was a man who watched lips instead of perceiving hearts.”

Folks, we have to be careful how we treat people.  You never know, you might be seeing someone on the worst day of their life.  Instead of sizing up someone’s appearance, putting them into one of our preconceived boxes, and declaring ourselves better, we can reach out in love and concern.

Thankfully, Hannah went straight to the only one who could truly help her in her time of need…

The Lord – The True Hero

God heard her prayer!  Hannah knew this, because she got up from that intense time of pouring out her soul to God and she was no longer sad.  The next day, she got up and worshiped the Lord, before the answer to the prayer came!  She found her comfort in God’s presence and listening ear, not just in getting what she asked for.  Hannah knew by the end of her prayer that God was her Hero and would provide for and protect her.

Today, in life after the Cross, Jesus is our True Hero.  He steps up to defend us.  In our natural state, we are absolutely vulnerable.  We are dead in our sin.  We are completely unable to help ourselves, and yet Jesus came and sacrificed Himself for us.  He defends the vulnerable, He protects the weak, He is our Hero!

Bible in 90, Day 22: Carried to the Table

1 Samuel 28 – 2 Samuel 12

*video via freezetag12345 at youtube.com

After all the warring between the household of David and the household of Saul (both before and after Saul’s death), you’d think that David would hold nothing but hatred for the whole lot of them.  However, he remembered both his faithfulness to the Lord’s anointed, and his promise to Jonathan (1 Samuel 20:8-17).  In 2 Samuel 9, David has Jonathan’s remaining son brought into his house in order to show him kindness and take care of him all his days.

There is an amazing parallel between the story of David’s treatment of Mephibosheth, and that of God’s treatment of those of us who have come to Him for mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  Mephibosheth, a man who is crippled as a result of a fall early in life, is helpless.  David has every right, culturally speaking, to destroy him for the enmity between their two houses.  Instead, he has him brought to his very table, the place of acceptance and fellowship, and vows to provide for him the rest of his life.

The video above does a great job of illustrating the parallels.  If you were not familiar with the story of Mephibosheth, you would assume the song is merely about Christians and God.  Now, with this background, you can hear echoes of both stories throughout the song.

Let us remember our helpless state.  As Paul reminds us in Galatians 2-3, all that we are in Christ is because of His righteousness and work, not ours.  Let us never forget where we came from, how we got here, and who accomplished it all.  We began with the Spirit, let us continue in Him.

Bible in 90, Day 21: Weapons not of this world

1 Samuel 16-28

*image courtesy of naroasgo at www.sxc.hu

We come to one of the classic stories today – David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17).  David makes an interesting statement that I want to discuss today.  He says in v. 45 “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” David realized, even from a very early age, that ultimately we do not fight against human enemies.  David knew that the Lord fought for him.  He knew that at the heart of every battle the people of God fought was a spiritual conflict of a much larger magnitude.

Interestingly, we saw that ultimate battle dramatized yesterday when Dagon’s idol was found bowing down before the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 5).  It aptly symbolized the conflict between Israel and the Philistines as a spiritual battle being waged by Yahweh, the God of Israel.

The New Testament speaks to this spiritual dynamic as well (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:10-18).  Paul tells us that we do not fight against flesh and blood “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  (Ephesians 6:12)  He also says that our weapons in this battle are not the weapons of this world (2 Corinthians 10:4).  We do not wield swords, spears, and javelins as Goliath did.  Our weapons are divinely powered and do damage on the spiritual level, tearing down the strongholds of the enemy.

We must remember then, that whenever we face a conflict, especially within the body of Christ, that our enemy is not the man or woman before us.  Our enemy is never our brother or sister in Christ.  Our enemy is Satan, that old serpent, the accuser of the children of God.  We must never wage war against brothers or sisters, but against the true enemy.  We must not use the conventions of the world to win our battles, for we do not wage war as the world does.

Let us remember always that the victory belongs to the Lord (Proverbs 21:31)!

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel+5&version=NIV

Bible in 90, Day 20: Traders of the Lost Ark

1 Samuel 2-15

*image courtesy of bluegum at www.sxc.hu

The Philistines knew they were in trouble when they heard the commotion (1 Samuel 4-6).  They had just defeated the Israelites, but now there was a shout of triumph in their camp.  Word reached the Philistines that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp of Israel, and they were terrified.  They remembered the stories that had come to them over the miles and years about all the mighty things that the “gods” of Israel had done in Egypt generations ago.  So, they mustered their strength and defeated them again, this time capturing the ark itself!

Then the real trouble started.

It started with something subtle.  They put the ark in their temple to Dagon, and the next day Dagon’s statue had fallen down before the ark.  “Hmm… that’s funny.  Almost looks like Dagon is worshipping Yahweh.  Oh well, let’s set it back up.”  The next day, Dagon had not only fallen down before the ark, but his head and hands had snapped off!  Then, people began noticing tumors on their bodies.  Soon, there was a plague of tumors.  The Philistines play a game of hot potato with the ark through three of the chief cities, and the Lord fights against each one.

Finally, someone gets the brilliant idea to send the ark back home.  Their diviners tell them to send a guilt offering of five golden tumors and five golden rats to represent the five rulers of the Philistines and the two plagues the Lord had sent.  They hoped to trade out the ark and the offering for God’s ending of the plagues.  Then there’s the great scene with the two cows who had just calved and never been yoked (and thus should have immediately returned to their young and had no idea how to work together to pull the cart).  They go straight down the road and all the way to Beth Shemesh in Israel’s territory.

It’s interesting that the fame of the God of Israel had not only spread from Egypt all the way to the land of the Philistines, but that the stories remained for all these years.  People were still talking about the amazing things the Lord had done during the exodus event.  Israel was known for the things their God had done.

What about our lives?  Do people look at us and see the work of God in our lives?  Do people know that our homes are Christian homes?  Are people in our communities still talking about what God did at our church generations ago?  More importantly, are they talking about what God is doing there now?  They should.

We should be living lives that display the mighty works of God.  We should be attempting things so great, only He could possibly get the credit.  We should be living lives so exemplary, people will know it’s the life of Jesus living through us (Galatians 2:20).  So let us live those lives.  Let us do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Bible in 90, Day 19: Right in our own eyes

Judges 15-Ruth-1 Samuel 2

*image courtesy of jeffphoto at www.sxc.hu

So that last part of Judges is pretty rough huh?  Did you find yourself reading and thinking, “How in the world could they do these things?!”  How is it that the people who not long ago were begging Joshua to accept their vow to follow the Lord (Joshua 24:19-22) were now killing, raping, mutilating, and generally running amok?  The answer is found repeatedly throughout Judges (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25) – “There was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Mark Driscoll talked about this in a sermon last year.  In that sermon, he said that without God, we are capable of anything.  He’s right.  The old cliché “But for the grace of God, there go I,” holds true.  If we totally abandoned ourselves to our sinful desires, held no regard for the things of God, and kept ourselves outside of the means of His grace, we might be shocked at what we would be capable of.

Oddly, it is in the midst of this period that the story of Ruth is told (Ruth 1:1).  In the original Hebrew ordering of the books of what we call the Old Testament, Ruth follows right after Proverbs.  Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous woman, and then is followed by an example of such a woman – Ruth.  It is noteworthy, and speaks to Ruth’s character that her story should shine in the midst of the dark, perverse time she lived in.  Interestingly, Ruth is a not a Jewish woman!  The most faithful and noble character in this story is a Gentile!  Ruth has the honor of being one of only two women to have a book of the Bible named for them (Esther is the other), as well as being one of a handful of women who are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (The others are Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary – Matthew 1).

After this story, we are introduced to a new character, Samuel, and a new era in Israel’s history.  The wickedness continues into 1 Samuel, and is found now in the priesthood!  But God has a plan in place to bring Israel back to him.  We see the first peeks of this plan as God honors Hannah’s prayer and brings forth a very special son.  “Samuel” is Hebrew for “God hears/heard” and will be an ironic pun used later when God calls him as a young boy.

There are at least two things we can take from the theme we’ve examined today.  The first is that God is always working out His plan.  No matter how dark and twisted the times may get, God is still on the Throne (see Day 4)!  God kept enough people for Himself to maintain the holy line of the Messiah and bring about a beautiful story such as Ruth’s.

Second, is that we must never allow the culture or our sinful selves to determine our values.  Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes in Israel.  How similar this is to our culture today!  “If it feels good, do it!”  “I’m ok, and you’re ok, and that’s ok!”  “It’s all relative.”  We do not live a day of firm moral conviction and undeniable truth.  We live in a day of lax ethics, uncertainty, pride, and selfishness.  We are not the only society to raise our own views and thoughts above everything and everyone else.  Rome did it, France did it, even Israel did it!

Let us never assume that 50% + 1 equals truth or right.  Let us never assume that our own views, formulated in the selfishness of our own hearts are the best.  Let us look to God and His Word for what is good and just, what is evil and corrupt.  Let us not do merely what is right in our own eyes, but let us walk humbly before our God.