Today’s reading is 1 Samuel 5:1-7:17, John 6:1-21, Psalm 106:13-31, Proverbs 14:32-33, however, today I am playing catch-up.  I am back in 1 Samuel 1.

Longing … it is a feeling with which we can all relate.  For all of us there has been a season of life  filled with that desperate, empty feeling in the pit of our stomachs.  We go on about life, but there are very few moments we find rest from the longing.  We must learn to reach up to God in the midst of our longing.  In today’s reading we find a woman who dealt with feelings of desperate longing year after year.  Her name was Hannah.

Now, we can label our longings with different names, but the feelings are usually the same.  The name of Hannah’s longing was Children.  The source of her longing stemmed from an ugly word that was far-reaching in its repercussions. In those days, it was called “barrenness”.  Today, we refer to it as infertility.  Many of you may relate to that source of longing.  Honestly, I have not, but I have walked beside friends who have, and have partnered in their burden.  As I studied the story of Hannah, I realized that it matters not what the source of longing is, the Source of Fulfillment is the same … life in Christ.  So, as we study the story of one particular woman’s longing, I want you to fill in your own blank.  My longing is ____.  What is it?  What has it been?  It matters not how you fill in the blank, because the lessons we can learn from Hannah’s story will still apply.  Let’s look at it together…

There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.  He had two wives; one was called 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.  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 he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb.  (1 Samuel 1:1-5)

     Year after year he went to worship and sacrifice to God.  Year after year…this was not just a short-term problem.  This was something that haunted her.  And it affected her relationship with God.  Each year they went to worship and sacrifice.  This was a huge part of their lives.  This was their chance to be close to God.  You see, this was before Jesus died.  And sacrifices were still necessary for a relationship with God.  So Elkanah would give his wives and children each a portion to sacrifice.  Peninnah had children, so there were several portions on her side of the family score card.  Elkanah loved Hannah, and felt sorry for her, so he gave her a double portion.  But she still had less.  She had less to offer to her God.  In her mind, she was unacceptable to God, and because the system based the allotment of sacrifices according to the number of children you had, she probably felt that she could never measure up.

And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival 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. Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

                                                                               1Samuel 1:6-8

Hannah could not heal or even accept her lot because there was a constant source of irritation, rubbing salt in her womb.  And she could not escape it.  The source of irritation came from her own household.  And many, many tears were shed.

Let me stop right now and tell you about tears…In Revelations we learn that one day God Himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes.  Psalm 56:8 tells us that He saves our tears in a bottle.  Our tears are precious to the Lord.  He sees and feels every one of them.  And He has already done something about them.  In Isaiah, as well as in 1Peter, we learn that “by His wounds we are healed”.  He wants to heal whatever hurts you have.  And He can, praise the Lord!

Often, the source of our longing or difficulties stem from our own households.  Year after year we long for change in someone or something in our lives.  Year after year it seems as if God is silent.  My husband’s brother, Lee Hunter, was one of the kindest young men you could ever meet.  He was loving and easy to talk to.  But he always seemed drawn to trouble.  He always wanted to push the limits.  In college, he pushed further than he could handle, and ended up with a severe drug addiction.  Year after year we all prayed.  Year after year we attended family sessions for yet another rehab center.  Year after year he made promises that he was unable to keep.  We all longed for change, for the miracle of deliverance.  The process of deliverance was disguised in tragedy.  Lee Hunter had a terrible automobile accident which nearly killed him, and which left him crippled and forever changed.  He had had diabetes since he was a child, and his unhealthy lifestyle over the years had contributed to complications in that area.  While in rehab for physical therapy after his wreck, my father-in-law had the opportunity to share once again the truth of God’s amazing grace.  Lee Hunter accepted Christ that day, and in the months following described his new life in the following way:  “I feel like there is a river flowing inside of me.”  What a beautiful description of what it feels like to be filled with the Spirit of the Living God.  Three months later, Lee Hunter died from complications of diabetes.  His funeral was a celebration that God had won!  Year after year we had prayed.  Year after year we had longed for change.  And God had heard every prayer and seen every tear.  And He answered.  Lee Hunter is finally free!

In verse 8, we see that Elkanah, her husband, would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping?  Why don’t you eat?  Why are you downhearted?  Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”  Now, Elkanah sounds like a sweet man, and we are told that he did love Hannah very much, but he just didn’t get it.  This did not have anything to do with him.  This was about a longing that Elkanah couldn’t fill.  Not just because he wasn’t a child, but because this was about her and God.  Hannah felt abandoned by God.  Hannah felt that this longing kept her away from God.  And it broke her heart.

Our deepest needs can only be met by God. No one and nothing can fill us in our deepest parts.  And it is really disappointing when we try to place other people or other things in that place of deepest need, because it never really meets the need.  It might give us a temporary relief, but then we are back to where we started.  Only a close relationship with Jesus can fill us up and meet our deepest needs.

“Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s temple. In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.  And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

                                                                               1Samuel 1:9-11

Hannah began to make promises to the Lord.  In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. Have you ever wept ‘in bitterness of soul’?  I have.   And she made a vow saying, ‘O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant…”  Do you see the main problem?  She felt like God had forgotten her.  Have you ever felt that way?  I have.  But then the Holy Spirit will whisper truth once again to me.  God tells us in Isaiah, “Even if they forget, I will not forget you…”  Hannah was most afraid that the Lord had forgotten her.  She promised that if He gave her a son, she would turn around and give him right back.  She was vowing that she would devote her son to be a Nazirite.  As you remember, a Nazirite was a person who was especially devoted and consecrated and set apart for God’s purposes.  A person could become a Nazirite in two ways:  first, if the individual made a vow to become a Nazirite for a specified amount of time; and secondly, as a lifelong devotion following a vow made on their behalf by a parent before their birth.  A Nazirite would typically be recognized not only by their apparent devotion to God, but also physically, as they did not cut their hair, come into contact with the dead, nor partake of any alcoholic products.  This type of vow made by the parent typically followed a revelation from God which announced the birth of the child.  When Hannah spoke this vow, she was speaking in faith.  It had not been announced to her that she would now have a child.  This was her mustard-seed faith in action.

As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her,

“How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”  

“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”     

                                                                             1Samuel 1:12-16 

Misunderstood.  That is what Hannah was.  Even in her ultimate moment of surrender, she was misunderstood by others. Eli saw her in her despair, and he assumed the worse.  He assumed that she was in the temple, drunk with wine, because her emotion was so raw.  He misunderstood in the very area in which she had made a vow to God.  She was vowing to give everything to him, and yet was accused of being a sinful woman.  But what really matters is that God understood, and in time, evidence was revealed of her pure heart and her faithful vow.  God has defended her for thousands of years now as the evidence of His answer is there for all of us to see in His Word.  He will come to our defense!

Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” 

                                                                                 1Samuel 1:17

Why was it that Eli was there to see Hannah’s surrender?  Because he was part of the ultimate plan.  He would need to remember the scene in order to be a player in the next part.  And Eli was used of God to send Hannah a powerful, prophetic word.  The word that God had for Hannah that day was Peace.  Go in Peace.  Totally opposite of what she had been feeling year after year.  Peace that passes understanding.  And that is really what we all long for, isn’t it?  We eventually come to a point that we long for peace more than anything else.

                  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.   (Philippians 4:6-7)

                  Don’t worry about anything.  Did you hear that?  Anything.  So whatever it is that you filled in the blank with a few minutes ago, please realize that even in that, God does not want you to be anxious.

                  But instead, pray about everything.  Nothing is too small to talk to God about.  You would laugh about some of the things that I pray about.  Remember, if you think it, He knows it.  So why not go ahead and talk to Him about it?

                  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. There it is.   What we really need.  Peace in the midst of an impossible situation.  Peace despite the reality.  That does not mean we live in denial, or avoidance of the problem.  It means that we look to Him, because nothing and no one else can help us.  The world offers only momentary distraction.  God offers perfect peace.  “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”  Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)

Eli said Go in peace … Go.  There is action in that word.  It’s as if God wanted Eli to give Hannah the permission to live.  Sometimes our problems and longings are so heavy that they weigh us down, and we can’t move forward.  I have seen people even feel guilty about living, really living, joyfully, in the midst of their problem.  How can we live in the midst of our longing or heartache?  By remembering Who God is… “For He himself is our Peace.”  Ephesians 2:14 Peace is not found in a change of circumstances, or even in an answer to prayer.  Peace is found in a Person, God Himself.

Today’s reading is Judges 21:1-Ruth 1:22, John 4:4-42, Psalm 105:1-15, Proverbs 14:25.

In our passage today, we wrap up the story of the time of the judges, which led to the era with no king—a time when people did as they saw fit.  It was a dark, evil time period.  The book of Judges ends this way:

²⁵ In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

                                                                        Judges 21:25

This anarchical model may appear to be ideal, but in actuality leads to chaos and disorder.  We need a standard, we need boundaries.  We are all tempted to push the limits on those boundaries, but we need them nonetheless.  Psychologists confirm that from the earliest age, children are most content, happy, and secure when there are boundaries in place.  It starts with the swaddling clothes and ends with social, moral, and spiritual boundaries.  These margins give us comfort, rest, peace, and stability and without them, things would tend towards unrest. This sense of disorder defined that time period.

During the time of the judges, there arose a severe famine, symbolic of the spiritual and political famine of those days.  This is the time period of the story of Ruth and Naomi, a story defined by loyalty and redemption.

There was a man named Elimelech from Bethelehem in the land of Judah who left his home because of the famine and went to the country of Moab with his wife Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion.  It was there they settled.

Mahlon and Kilion married Moabite women, Orpah, and Ruth, and all seemed to be going well.  That is, until the waves of tragedy came forcefully upon this family.  First, Elimelech died, then both sons died, leaving three widows to fend for themselves.  In those days, widows and orphans were the absolute bottom of the social ladder.  They were completely destitute.  Hearing that the famine in Israel had ended, Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem, with hopes she could better survive among her own people in her own homeland.  One of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, insisted on going with her, leaving behind her land, her family, and what little security she still had.  She famously said to Naomi, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” 

And so, the destitute widows returned to Bethlehem.  We glimpse their despair in the following passage:

¹⁹ So the two of them continued on their journey. When they came to Bethlehem, the entire town was excited by their arrival. “Is it really Naomi?” the women asked.

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,” she responded. “Instead, call me Mara,^[a] for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer^[b] and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?”

²² So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Ruth, the young Moabite woman. They arrived in Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

                                                                                    Ruth 1:19-22

This verse is the end of today’s passage.  We don’t know what will happen, we don’t know if they will survive.  All we know is that their despair is so great that Naomi wants to change her name to reflect the great changes in her life.  The name Naomi means “sweet, pleasant”.  She can longer fathom a sweet and pleasant life.  Her grief can only see the pain and the despair, and so she declares that her new name is Mara, which means “bitter”.  Her affliction is definitely a bitter pill to swallow, and it has changed everything.  She is no longer sweet and pleasant.  She is no longer who she used to be.  And she sees this bitter change as an endless, eternal lot which she can’t escape.

In the midst of grief, we often feel the same way.  We become bitter and full of despair.  We feel that we may drown in the grief.  Surely there is no way to survive, we think to ourselves.  But Naomi did do one important thing, which was a step toward redemption.  She headed home.  She headed to the place where she could freely worship God and be surrounded by others who worshipped God, unlike the land of the Moabites.  And that step of faith toward home set the stage for a huge redemption that would ultimately affect us, as well.

Are you Mara?  Is your name “Bitterness”?  Has life dealt you such a blow that it is hard to live life fully?  Do you feel abandoned, alone, disappointed, full of despair?  Take heart, my friend!  Take a step home, where Abba Father is waiting to rescue you and redeem your situation.

Today our reading includes Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalm 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-24.

Our reading yesterday set the stage for a disastrous situation.  It is wrought with wrong.  The times were confusing, and wrong seemed right and right seemed wrong.  It was a time of chaos.  The ungodliness continued to grow even more ungodly.  We realize that this is the theme of those times because of one sentence that is repeated over several chapters.  Chapter 18 begins like this:

In those days Israel had no king.

                               Judges 18:1

And then it continues to tell the historical account of idol worship, theft, and threats.  This led to unrighteousness battles, including attacks against a peaceful people who were ill-equipped to fight.  As we move on to Chapter 19, we see the common theme repeated.  Chapter 19 begins like this:

In those days Israel had no king.

                                    Judges 19:1

And the disturbing saga continues and becomes even more disturbing.  The ungodliness continues to grow even more ungodly.  This vile account includes perversion, gang rape, murder, and revenge.  As we end Chapter 19, there seems to be an awakening to the dramatic moral fall the society had experienced.  The chapter ends with this declaration:

²⁹ When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!”

                                                                        Judges 19:29-30

The Lord was pleased that they were finally standing up to evil.  They were finally returning to seek his wisdom.  And the evil had to be eradicated.

¹⁸ The Israelites went up to Bethel^[b] and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us is to go up first to fight against the Benjamites?”

The Lord replied, “Judah shall go first.” 

                                                                                                           Judges 20:18

At the time, Bethel was becoming the worship center of the Promise land.  So, instead of inquiring of the household idols, as Micah did, they went straight to the source and inquired of God.  The Lord replied that Judah, the tribe of the coming Savior should go first.  First things first, right?  Though they found the evil and their enemy to be a difficult foe, they continued to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord continued to guide them through the difficult battle.

²² But the Israelites encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. ²³ The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of the Lord. They said, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites?”

The Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

                                                                                                      Judges 20:22-23

Once again, the battle was difficult.  They appeared to be losing, but it sent them back to humbly seeking the Lord.  For the third time (see that holy number three!), they inquired of the Lord.  This time was marked by intense prayer, fasting, and humility.

²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷ And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, ²⁸ with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites, or not?”

The Lord responded, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

                                                           Judges 20:26-28

And so He did.  This tragic story continues tomorrow, but let’s look ahead to how this timeframe is summed up.  For the third time, we see the common theme of those days summarized.  Chapter 21 ends in this way:

²⁵ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

                                                            Judges 21:25

In the midst of the terrible details of that time period, we find the reason for the decline of society.  The reason was, they had no king.  All through their years of wandering through the desert, as difficult as those days were, they had a “king”.  Was it Moses?  No, it was the Lord, who led them by a cloud and a pillar of fire.  And when Joshua was the leader and they conquered the Promise land, they had a “king”.  Was it Joshua?  No, it was the Lord, as indicated by the piles of stones of remembrance throughout the land.  But the decline in this time period is marked by these simple words.

²⁵ In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

                                                            Judges 21:25

What is the practical application for us?  We need a king.  Not a monarch in the political realm, but a King who sets up His kingdom in our hearts.  But in order for us to submit to the King of Kings, we have to put to death all other kings in our hearts.  Jesus taught us to pray saying,

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

                                                                 Matthew 6:10

But for His kingdom to come in our hearts, our kingdom has to go.  If we submit to the King of kings, He will rule our life with love, justice, peace, and protection.

Today’s reading includes Judges 15:1-16:31, John 2:1-25, Psalm 103:1-22, Proverbs 14:17-19.

Our reading today wraps up the dramatic story of Samson.  What a character he was!  I am a rule- follower by nature.  Samson was not.  He was set apart to do great things for God before he was even born.  As we learned yesterday, part of his purpose was to “begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”  Yet, as we read through his story, it appears at times that he didn’t get the memo.  He not only associated with the Philistines, he even married one of them.  That turned out very badly.  In anger, he left for a while and when he returned, his wife had been given to his best man.  And this was only one of the episodes of drama in the life of Samson.  He often appears arrogant, boastful, prideful, and wild.  There are times in the story where he flies off the handle and starts killing in revenge.  These are the times he got himself into great messes.  At one point, even his brothers, the men of Judah, turned him in to the Philistines.  But he escaped, and arrogantly boasted of his triumph with the jawbone of a donkey.

There are also times in the story we see that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he had great strength to defeat his enemies.  But even then, he seemed to take credit for his victory.  He actually said to God, “You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant…”  (Judges 15:18)  As if God needed Samson’s strength to accomplish anything!

And yet, don’t we do the same?  We may not use boastful words, but our hearts believe the lie that God needs us.  He doesn’t need us.  He wants us.  He wants relationship with us, and He wants to use us.  But He doesn’t need to use us.  Why is this important to realize?  Because when we realize this, we don’t take credit for what He does through us.  Instead, we humbly point to the One who is the source of all strength and victory, and we give Him all the credit and glory.

We see that until the end of his life, Samson lived wildly.  His relationship with the Delilah was once again a disaster.  After she tricked and enticed him, he finally told her the secret of his strength.  Only his words to her were not totally accurate.

¹⁷ Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”

                                                                                    Judges 16:17

What was inaccurate about his statement?  He believed his strength was in his hair, but his strength was from God.  His long hair was merely a symbol of God’s strength and power upon him.  His strength left him, not because his hair was cut, but because when the symbol of his dedication to the Lord was removed, God’s strength left him. This subtle difference of words, made all the difference in the situation.  There are other examples of Nazarites in the Bible, but none other are remembered for their long hair, though they too did not cut theirs.

When Samson was finally weak, then he became strong.  When Samson lost his physical sight, then his spiritual eyes were opened.  At last, he saw the truth about his strength.  It was from God and it was to be used for the glory of God.

²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time….

                                                                        Judges 16:28

This time, Samson acknowledged from where his strength came, and asked God to give him strength one last time.  And with the strength from God, Samson was able to defeat more of his enemies in his death, than he ever did in his life.  And now, he truly reflected the mighty One to come—the One who would defeat our great enemy through His death and resurrection.

In the end, this wild and reckless judge, did indeed begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.  And in this final act of trusting in the strength of God and not his own, he made a godly name for himself.  In fact, he is listed in the faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11.

³² How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. ³³ By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions,³⁴ quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.

                                                            Hebrews 11:32-34

Yes, finally in death, Samson’s weakness was turned to strength.

On a practical note, where does your strength lie?  Do you trust in yourself, your abilities, your charm, your own strength?  Or do you trust in the One who gives you the abilities, charm, and strength.  Do you trust in God or you?  Let’s learn a lesson from Samson, and let God turn our weakness to strength—His strength, not ours.