Good Thursday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In these weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year does it seem to you that our social calendars are filled to overflowing, our emotions rise and fall, sometimes by the hour, and our relationships are both enhanced and strained at the same time?
Yesterday I left you standing in Bethlehem, about 1100bc, watching a remarkable scene. Old widow Naomi was holding infant Obed, born to Ruth, Naomi’s Moabite daughter-in-law widow and her God provided ‘kinsman redeemer’ husband Boaz. For the past week or so we were on the wonderful journey of tracing the Biblical story of Ruth. It is a remarkable story of God healing broken hearts and providing when all hope had been lost.
Today, let’s travel north about 20 miles from Bethlehem into the hill country of Ephraim to the town of Ramathaim or Ramah for short. At almost exactly the same time that we’ve been tracing the story of Naomi and Ruth, two widows in Bethlehem, another similar story has been unfolding in Ramah. It is found on the next page in your Bible, 1 Samuel 1 and begins with these words: “There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah… He had two wives; one was Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD.”
Shiloh was a town about 15 miles east of Ramah and was the place the Tabernacle of God has been set up by Joshua about 300 years before. Unlike today, each town did not have a church or Synagogue of worship in those days. Instead, the people would come whenever they wanted, but at least once per year, from all over Israel to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, where they would offer their sacrifices to God and worship Him. The Jewish High Priest Eli and his two priestly sons Hophni and Phinehas, along with other priests, lived in Shiloh and received the people as they came each day, assisting them in their worship of the God of Israel. The people, of course, expected these priestly men were living sacred, God honoring lives in close, daily contact with God.
Please don’t be alarmed that Mr. Elkanah had two wives. There could be several explanations for this. As we saw in the story of Naomi and Ruth, it could be that Mr. Elkanah was a ‘kinsman redeemer’ for a relative who had died and left a widow, and perhaps Elkanah took in that widow as his wife in fulfillment of the law as given by God to His people. It could be Hannah was Elkanah’s first wife but because she was unable to bear children, Elkanah took another wife who was bearing children for them. You’ll remember Jacob had done that and ended up with 12 sons and 1 daughter! (Gen. 29,30)
Elkanah’s story continues with these words: “Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, Elkanah gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb! And because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival, Peninnah kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat…” (1 Sam. 1:4-7) We feel the pain, the shame, the broken-hearted rivalry between these two women, don’t we?
My friends, do you remember we considered Naomi’s anger at God because her husband and both sons had died in Moab? (Ruth 1:20,21) Do you notice the description of Hannah’s infertility, her barrenness? ‘the LORD had closed her womb‘ is a powerful statement, isn’t it? It seems clear this phrase is intended to lead us to the conclusion that Hannah’s infertility was a work of God, that God was intentionally preventing Hannah from experiencing the joy of pregnancy, even though she desperately wanted to be a mother. WHY?
Why would God do such a heartbreaking thing? If God is all powerful and God loves creating babies, and God commands husbands and wives to reproduce and raise the next generation of God loving people, then WHY would God prevent this dear couple from having children? Surely God was not finding delight in their sorrow, or delight in the feud between these two women?
My friends, did we learn the lesson of respecting God’s Sovereignty with the story of Naomi and Ruth? Psalm 33:11 gives us this assurance: “The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.” So, what are the unchanging plans and purposes of God? I find this only 3 verses earlier in that same Psalm 33: “Let all the earth fear the LORD, let all the people of the world revere Him.” (Ps. 33:8)
Yes, God’s unchanging desire is that every person on earth, in every generation would know God, revere God and honor God with their lives. That is story of the entire Bible and the purpose of Jesus, God the Son, coming to earth as our Savior! But in this case of dear, broken-hearted Hannah, it seems God is intentionally preventing her from experiencing the joy of pregnancy and the privilege of raising children to love and know God!?
But my friends, just as Naomi and Ruth had no idea the plans and purposes of God which He was working for His glory so neither Hannah nor Elkanah know that their pain is providing the platform for God to accomplish His plans and purposes in an amazing way!
Over the next few days, as we walk the journey with these two special, but brokenhearted people, we’ll see God do something just as amazing as He did for Naomi and Ruth, and it will be even more significant in the story of Israel, even pointing forward to the present day and current events happening in Israel!
For today let’s pause and reflect. It’s possible you or someone you know is in a heartbreaking situation even though we are at the most joyful time of the year, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Are you willing to consider that God is working His larger plan and purpose, and that may include a difficult season for you or someone you know? Are you willing to trust God in the waiting, the difficult time, believing God is always loving, always sovereign, always working His larger purposes even though our world is filled with rebellion against God? Tomorrow we’ll return to Shiloh to see what God did in the middle of this painful situation for Hannah and Elkanah.
For today here’s a song to remind us of God’s majesty, His power, His grace poured out to you and me in the difficult times of our life journey, and I urge you to seek God’s perspective on the difficult situations you may be facing.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Samuel 1:1-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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