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Were They Wrong?

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel 2 Listen: (6:09) Read: Hebrews 13 Listen: (3:31)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 2.1-2

1 Then Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.

Luke 1.46-49

46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.

Reflection: Were They Wrong?

By John Tillman

Hannah and Mary’s poems share themes. The hungry are fed. (1 Samuel 2.5; Luke 1.53) The poor are elevated. (1 Samuel 2.8; Luke 1.52-54) Wicked rulers are thrown down. (1 Samuel 2.9; Luke 1.51-52)

Hannah celebrated God fulfilling promises to her, including additional children to follow Samuel.

Mary celebrated confirmation from Elizabeth that God would fulfill promises to her and about Jesus.

Hannah and Mary understood better than most the need for salvation.

Those never experiencing darkness are less thankful for light. Those never having empty stomachs are less thankful when filled. Those never having parched throats are less thankful for drink. Those never wearing patched, damaged, or dirty clothes because they had no others, are less thankful for a closet full of choices. (Luke 7.40-48)

The salvation these prophetic women pictured was not metaphysical, formless, esoteric salvation from invisible things. There were tangible dangers, struggles, losses, and injustices they and their communities experienced. They expected and celebrated salvation in tangible terms.

Were they wrong?

Samuel, much less Hannah, would not live long enough to see Israel “inherit a throne of honor” (v. 8) or God “give strength to his king,” (v. 10) under David’s rule. Jesus, son of David, explicitly refused to bring down Herod or Caesar from their thrones and was executed under their authority. (John 18.36-37; Acts 1.6-8)

Did God fail to fulfill his promises in the way that these prophetic women understood them? Were they “tricked” into anticipating tangible salvation when God only meant “spiritual” salvation?

In short, no. But there is a fuller answer. First, both spiritual and tangible promises come true in time. But perhaps not the timing we or these women expect or prefer. Second, spiritual victories always precede tangible victories. Christ conquers and frees hearts before touching the world. But he will touch it. Third, God’s kingdom is both instantaneously available and incrementally inevitable. The victories prophesied are already true and not yet fully realized.

There is reason to believe that Hannah and Mary understood this ambiguity in their poems. They trusted in faith that spiritual and tangible kingdoms would one day unite and they celebrated every incremental step toward more just and righteous hearts that would work toward a more just and righteous world.

Human effort will not bring about God’s kingdom on Earth, no matter how hard we work. Jesus will bring it. However, let us celebrate the inevitable and imminent victory that is coming in ways small and slow or seismic and sudden.

How long, oh Lord? Come Lord Jesus!

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim. — Psalm 80.1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Organizing Against Corruption

Any organization is vulnerable to corruption, even ones instituted by God. Priests, prophets, kings—none of them are invulnerable.

Organizing Against Corruption
Read more: Offal Leaders

Malachi describes a de-commissioning…feces from the animal would be smeared on their faces, representing impurity and death.

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God Starts In The Dark

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel 1 Listen: (4:13) Read: Hebrews 12 Listen: (4:36)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 1.15-20

15 “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. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” 17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” 18 She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. 19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,  saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

Reflection: God Starts In The Dark

By John Tillman

God always seems to begin things in the dark.

In the beginning, God’s Spirit hovered over chaotic darkness and brought light. Narratively, God does this over and over. God keeps showing up in the dark saying, “Let there be light.”

We see many biblical people experience darkness of one kind or another. They once were “walking in darkness” before God entered their lives and they saw “a great light.” (Matthew 4.16; Isaiah 9.2)

Hannah’s darkness was being a barren woman in a culture that measured women’s worth by the one thing she lacked: children. (Our culture still does this in subtle ways and if certain cultural forces have their way, may do so in legal and tangible ones.) When God spoke light into Hannah’s darkness, she joined a special group of women. Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Manoah’s wife, Hannah, the Shunammite woman, and Elizabeth all gave birth to children that were miraculous gifts of God.

Infertility is not the only kind of darkness. Are you in the dark? What kind of darkness is in your family, school, community, or nation? Cry out, like Hannah. Don’t hold back. Even if others, like Eli, misunderstand, God won’t. God hears.

Samuel’s name means, “Heard by God.” But God did not just bring light to Hannah. Through Hannah’s light, Samuel shone, making a difference in the lives of Israel. Samuel reminded Israel that God heard them.

Light does different things in different situations. Under certain circumstances, light burns, melts, and destroys. Under the right circumstances, light finds lost things, brings safety, and cleanses, dries, and purifies things left too long in damp or dark.

Samuel’s light that brought judgment and exposed corruption. He brought encouragement and hope, truth and justice. His light banished his mother’s shame but shamed Eli’s wicked sons. His light exposed darkness in Saul, the seemingly ideal warrior king, and exposed righteousness in David, the seemingly unfit shepherd king.

No matter how chaotic or dark life seems, whether you are experiencing personal darkness, like Hannah, or national darkness like Israel, light is coming.

Sometimes God shines light for you—to comfort, encourage, heal, help, or guide you. Sometimes God shines light through you—to teach truth, expose sin, confront wickedness, or find lost things. God never brings light to you, that he doesn’t expect to shine through you.

The light has shone and will shine in the darkness. The darkness cannot and will not overcome it.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim. — Psalm 80.1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Room For Hannah

We need to clear out some space for people in emotional distress — theological space, physical space, and liturgical space.

Room For Hannah
Read more: New Days Begin in the Dark

God does hover, caringly over our dark chaos. He does cause his light to shine on us.

New Days Begin in the Dark
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Faith Through The Famine

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ruth 1 Listen: (3:33) Read: Hebrews 9 Listen: (4:40)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Ruth 2 Listen: (3:56) Read: Hebrews 10 Listen: (5:33)
Read: Ruth 3-4 Listen: (6:24) Read: Hebrews 11 Listen: (6:22)

Scripture Focus: Ruth 1.20-22

20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” 22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

From John: After the tough-to-read stories of Judges, I hope you enjoy Ruth this weekend. Take some time to soak in this story, remembering that it happened right in the midst of the chaos of Judges.

Reflection: Faith Through The Famine

By John Tillman

Ruth’s tale cuts through despairing clouds of Israel’s chaos and civil war with hope-tinged sunlight. After Judges, Ruth is a much-needed palate cleanser. Chapter one starts with a famine and ends with a harvest.

The famine forced Elimelek and Naomi’s family to immigrate to the hostile nation of Moab. Moab was one of the first oppressors Israel suffered under in Judges. The famine must have been severe for them to flee to Moab.

While in Moab, things got worse. Elimelek died. Then Naomi’s sons died. Having nowhere else to go, Naomi prepared to return to Bethlehem. She told Ruth and Orpah to return to their families because God’s hand was against her. But Ruth stayed.

Despite Naomi’s dark bitterness, Ruth must have seen glimmers of hope in Naomi’s God. She uprooted herself from Moab, cutting herself out of Esau’s vine.

Ruth didn’t yet know that she could be grafted into Jacob’s vine. (Romans 11.17-24) She didn’t yet know that she would bear fruit that would bless the entire world through Jesus. She just knew that this God Naomi worshiped would be her God too.

There’s a common simplistic teaching that tells sufferers to celebrate because, “God is using it” or “God sent this for a reason.” These well-meaning people have no idea if their unpalatable platitudes are true.

First of all, truly evil things are not from God’s hand. (1 John 1.5; James 1.13-17; Psalm 92.15) Second, though God may discipline or test us with suffering, he doesn’t expect “happy-clappy” celebrations in the midst of it. God didn’t demand Job to throw a party or berate Naomi for her bitterness.

God is not the author of evil, but he does take evil and write a better ending than evil intends. (Genesis 50.20) Naomi’s story has a similarity to Israel’s.

Famine drove Israel to immigrate to Egypt and Naomi to Moab. As refugees, Israel reunited with Joseph and Ruth was united to Naomi. Through Joseph, Israel, Egypt, and surrounding nations were saved. Through Ruth, Naomi, Israel, and all nations were blessed, first through David, who saved them from political instability and oppression and ultimately through Jesus, who saves us from sin and death.

Have faith, even through famines. Don’t try to force feelings you don’t have, but recognize that the story’s end is known. We are moving from famine to harvest. No matter where you are in the story, God is with you.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Ruth’s Story

She, like Rahab, heard the stories of God in her foreign land…decided by faith for “your God” to become “my God.”

Ruth’s Story — Love of Advent
Read more: Ruth, the Immigrant

Ruth shows us how God’s grace helps us immigrate from our own selfish kingdoms to the kingdom of God.

Ruth, the Immigrant

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War Machines Have No Brakes

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 21 Listen: (3:47) Read: Hebrews 8 Listen: (2:22)

Scripture Focus: Judges 21.2-7

1 The men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.” 2 The people went to Bethel, where they sat before God until evening, raising their voices and weeping bitterly. 3 “Lord, God of Israel,” they cried, “why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?” 4 Early the next day the people built an altar and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. 5 Then the Israelites asked, “Who from all the tribes of Israel has failed to assemble before the Lord?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to assemble before the Lord at Mizpah was to be put to death. 6 Now the Israelites grieved for the tribe of Benjamin, their fellow Israelites. “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel,” they said. 7 “How can we provide wives for those who are left, since we have taken an oath by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good.” — Jimmy Carter

Reflection: War Machines Have No Brakes

By John Tillman

Just reasons to fight a war don’t always translate to fighting a just war.

The brutal civil war against the tribe of Benjamin began for morally just reasons. The death of the Levite’s concubine was a wake-up call to wickedness that had become normal. Israel did not leap to war—they began reluctantly. They wanted justice, not war. Benjamin’s tribalistic protection of the wrongdoers forced a war.

However, once at war, they didn’t stop until it was almost too late. The “just war” became a massacre and the massacre a near genocide. Israel realized in victory that they had lost, even though they won.

War should always be entered reluctantly, with good moral reasons, and a clear end in mind. However, once war begins, everyone goes too far—yes, everyone. (In biblical and world history, I see no real exceptions to this.) In the Bible, war is personified as “the sword” and is not a passive tool but a corrupting influence. When we live by the sword, we will die by it, but before we die by it, we will think like it. (Matthew 26.52)

Among the frequent casualties of war are principles and moral character. The longer we stay in a warlike mode, the likelier it is we will conduct that conflict in increasingly sinful ways. The machine of war has no brakes. Even if you step on the gas for good reason, unintended casualties are guaranteed. The old saying about sin could be paraphrased about war: War will take you farther than you want to go, last longer than you have to give, and cost more than you can afford to lose.

Most of us will never choose whether our nation goes to war, even if we chose the leader who does. However, shooting wars are not the only kind. A corrupted, warlike mindset often pops up on the news, in social media comments, in political speeches, and even in some pulpits.

War-related metaphors in scripture about “the armor of God” and “tearing down strongholds” are metaphors. Beware when someone starts implying we should consider them more than that. Beware calls to war.

Be careful in your advocacy and teaching. It is good to call for justice, to oppose evil, to demand and speak the truth. Silence is not an option in the face of evil. (Judges 19.30) However, guard your heart and don’t set out for or be sent to war.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Be exalted, O Lord, in your might; we will sing and praise your power. — Psalm 21.14

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Of Pride and The Sword

In scripture the sword is not inanimate. The sword is hungry, with an appetite to devour…

Of Pride and The Sword
Read more: The Sword Versus The Cross

The only way back is to repent and take up the cross instead of the sword.

The Sword Versus The Cross

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Tribe Over Truth

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 20 Listen: (7:13) Read: Hebrews 7 Listen: (4:01)

Scripture Focus: Judges 20: 12-13, 35-36

12 The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What about this awful crime that was committed among you? 13 Now turn those wicked men of Gibeah over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.”

But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.

35 The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. 36 Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten.

Reflection: Tribe Over Truth

By Erin Newton

I have stood in that precarious place, watching and waiting to see how people—people I trusted with my story—would respond. Would they believe me? What about the perpetrator’s friends? Whose side would they pick?

The burden of proof for a victim of abuse is almost unbearable. Not only has one endured abuse, but it often falls on the victim to convince others that a wrong has been committed. Sadly, some people choose friendships over accepting the grim reality that a person in their circle has harmed another human being.

When those who should purge such wickedness instead grant it safe harbor, they too become complicit.

After the heinous acts were committed against the woman in Judges 19, a glimmer of hope arises as Israel responds. Envoys were sent to Benjamin to make them aware of what happened “and give them the opportunity to acknowledge the crime, to distance themselves from Gibeah and to ensure that justice was done” (Mary Evans, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary: Judges and Ruth). Now was the community’s chance to stand for what was right, but they chose their tribe over the truth.

War ensued after Benjamin defiantly refused to support the victim. (Some see the Levite’s description of the event as an attempt to cover his own complicit nature and an attempt to make himself the victim of “lost/damaged property.” The woman was clearly the victim here and Israel was right to respond in outrage.)

Let us not forget: The Levite sent proof! Even in this scenario, it is not a question of evidence, but of morality. It is a battle between allegiance to other humans and the justice God demands.  

Through Benjamin’s refusal to listen to the envoys and to react in a way that enacted justice, they were choosing either their own collective self-image or choosing to ignore faults for the sake of some past glory they had as a tribe. The motive in Judges 20 is not stated.

What is clear in this story is this: Evil should never be allowed a foothold within the community. This goes beyond abuse. Evil of all kinds cannot be tolerated; God hates unjust scales. This means that God not only hates it when evil is tolerated, but when people discriminate against which kind of evil is punished and which kind is pardoned.

We are called to be a voice for the voiceless. Don’t choose tribe over truth.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Show your goodness, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are true of heart. — Psalm 125.4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Facing Ugly Truths

When ugly truths that should shock us come to light today, how do we face them?

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/facing-ugly-truths

Read more: Allowing Injustice to Save Face

Jephthah’s vow was to his pride, not God. He saved face rather than his daughter.

Allowing Injustice to Save Face