True to her word, Hannah took the boy back to God’s house as soon as he was weaned and there presented him to Eli the priest for service to the Lord God. “I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD. And he worshiped the LORD there” (1 Samuel 1:27–28).
Samuel, of course, became one of Israel’s greatest prophets.
Some of us have prayed for many years for some dream to come to pass or for someone near and dear to us to be touched by God. God still answers prayer.
A Superior Woman
(Part Two)
February 07
Continuing yesterday’s devotion about Hannah, let us notice her song of triumph (really a prayer) found in the second chapter of the first book of Samuel. The song and prayer of Mary, the mother of Jesus, following His birth a thousand years later, has similarities indicating that Mary obviously knew of Hannah’s Song.
In that song, Hannah prayed for those who stumble and for the hungry; she thanked God for supplying food and for His help, as she sang, “And lifts the needy from the ash heap.”
Every year during Samuel’s growing period, Hannah made him a coat or a robe to fit the office Samuel gradually assumed in God’s sanctuary. Hannah was a practical, loving, caring, prayerful mother. After Samuel, Hannah had five more children, three sons and two daughters.
Many of us were fortunate to have had practical, loving, caring, and prayerful mothers— mothers worthy of praise. We may be doubly fortunate to have had these praiseworthy women as wives and also as mothers to our own children.
The book of Proverbs has an epilogue to end the final, the thirty–first chapter. It is made up of 22 verses and is titled “The Wife of Noble Character,” one of the finest tributes to womanhood in all of literature. The last few lines go like this:
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
But a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,
And let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Fortunately, those fine qualities that fitted Hannah are still present in many of the women of today.
Spiritual Signs
February 08
Signs are very prevalent in our lives. They are all around us. In all sizes and colors. They tell us where to eat, what to buy, where to buy it, how to proceed in our cars, and so on. Then there are less tangible signs, like the signs of nature that show us spring is coming or the worry lines on someone’s face.
There are also spiritual signs. The Pharisees approached Jesus on one occasion and asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. Matthew, the Gospel writer, intimated that the Pharisees, who had made themselves Jesus’ enemies, asked for this sign to test Him.
In any event, Jesus turned their request into a very ordinary statement of amateur weather forecasting and signs that were very familiar day after day. He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘it will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky,” He went on to say, “but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Then He added this terrible condemnation: “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:2–4a). He left them puzzled.
They should not have been so puzzled. Earlier Jesus had said to another group of Pharisees who sought a sign: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). He was making explicit reference, of course, to the very death that even then His enemies were planning for Him—death on the cross. But after His death, He arose, marking that first Easter and the defeat of death. A sign of wonder, grace, and glory . . . a sign of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
The signs in our world direct us on our way in the world. God’s signs direct us on our way to eternal life
The Bible . . . God’s Word
February 09
Over the years, many interesting and perceptive comments have been made about the Bible. Here are a couple of examples.
Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton University and later twenty–eighth President of the United States, made this comment:
“The Bible is the Word of life. I beg you will read it and find out for yourself. . . . You will not only find it full of real men and women, but also of things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, . . . and the more you read, the more it will become plain to you what things are worthwhile and what are not.”2
Henry Ward Beecher, nineteenth century American Preacher and Writer said this:
“The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars.”3
Writing to his co–worker Timothy about the Word of God, the Apostle Paul says: You have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture, Paul says further, is God–breathed. (2Timothy 3:15–16a).
Many years earlier the Psalmist had written, All your words are true (Psalm 119:160a).
Also wrote the Psalmist: Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105).
The final, underlying thought about God’s Word is that of Jesus: “Blessed . . . are those that hear the Word of God, and obey it” (Luke 11:28).
Time and Eternity
February 10
A little word about time and one’s aging caught my attention and is significant for those in their senior years. William Dean Howells wrote: “You’ll find as you grow older that you weren’t born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up.”
When we think about time . . . the time we have and do not have . . . our thoughts can be aided by the verses of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1–8).
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. (Ecclesiastes 3:11b).
These verses from God’s Word have a dual focus—they are about time and eternity. Time has many definitions. One definition I read calls time “a definite portion of duration” . . . about as simple as you can get.