1 Samuel 2
1 Samuel 2, 1 John 2: 1-6
This chapter is split into two parts, one of Hannah’s praise to God and Eli’s curse on His family. So with that in mind, I have split this devotional into two sections, each processing something a little different. We see God in His fullness as gentle and compassionate, while also seeing his justice and law. You can’t have one without the other…
Have you ever really wanted something AND received it? Something that you couldn’t buy or earn but was given to you as a gift? Usually when it comes, it settles a turbulence in our soul. A deep yearning and wanting that can only be satisfied through graciousness. For Hannah, her son Samuel was exactly that. I can understand the suffering that comes from desiring something so deep and not having it. I can also feel the emotion and joy that comes from that thing being given - it feels almost like freedom.
So Hannah’s poem is not just out of “excitement” but a deep and earnest desire being met. She couldn’t have done anything to have her son, but God in His graciousness gives her Samuel.
God makes, creates, and works EVERYTHING within sovereignty. His power is on display simply through the conception of Samuel. But she doesn't just praise Him because she got what she had desired. This gift reinforced the very things about His character. She proclaims that God is JUST (V9-10), He sustains (V5), and He is steady (V2). How can you have a posture like Hannah’s in the midst of waiting? How is God calling you to lean more into Him and His truth while waiting?
We also see His sovereignty displayed as he confronts the sins of Eli and his sons. In the midst of sexual immorality and corrupt behavior, we get a picture of God’s law and his justice. He not only displays this upon the sons of Eli, but on Eli himself as being accountable. Throughout the confrontation between God and Eli, he sees how God moves and makes all things to be right and just, even if it may not look like that to us in the beginning. You may think that Eli should not be at fault for the sin’s of His children, but that very statement should remind us of another story…
How a people who were created under God’s sovereignty chose their own way. So God sent His son in flesh, fully God and fully man, to pay the ultimate price. God did not owe us anything, but sent us an offering to intercede on our behalf.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1
So how quick are we to choose our own way? How does this passage increase the weight of the cross?
