Preparing for the kingdom
Commentary
It is not easy passing on the faith. We ourselves may not be sure enough of the faith in us even to know exactly what we are to pass on. Then, we need to have someone who is at least on the playing field with us to catch the faith. Sometimes, even in our own families, it seems like there are different teams in the fray; and to make things more complicated, it seems like some are even playing a totally different game. Just when you think it couldn't get worse, the two-minute warning is sounded and you realize that time is running out. Welcome to the frustrating world of Christian parenting and public witnessing!
1 Samuel 1:4-20
In the last days of the period of the judges, a cry goes up to God. A simple woman, a second-rate wife who is not living up to fertile expectations, comes before the Lord to plead her cause. She's not asking for much, just the natural fulfillment of her created role to mother a child. She's even willing to give the child back to the Lord for service to his glory. When she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, she knows exactly what she will name him. "God has heard" is a perfect name, because that says it all. Samuel is the result of a fervent prayer and a listening God. Could Jesus have been remembering Hannah and his lessons in school with the rabbi, when he said, "Ask and it shall be given you É knock and the door will be open"?
Hannah had been distressed by her barrenness. Yet, at the end of this episode "her countenance was no longer sad." What made the difference? Perhaps her husband's words had some effect. Certainly, she would have had to translate his Martian talk ("Hey, you have me; what more do you want?") into something more appropriate, like "Yes, honey, but I do love you anyway." Let's give Elkanah the benefit of the doubt and say that he really meant to say this; he just didn't know how. Then, there were the priestly words spoken by Eli, after he finally understood her situation. People need to hear a godly benediction spoken over their human condition. When we do not feel much peace, it is important for another person to import a peace from beyond our grasp, a peace from God that will gently wrap itself around us as the words are spoken. Those words of peace contain a promise, spoken by the representative of God. Whenever we believe the promises of God, our countenances are no longer sad.
In the ancient world, as well as today, family is the building block of civilization. Then, perhaps more than today, there was the expectation that the wife's purpose was to give birth to children, especially a son. The strife that can occur when expectations are not met can be clearly seen in how Elkanah's other wife treats Hannah with derision. Peninnah and Hannah present two contrasting ways to be family: the one dysfunctionally enmeshed in the misery of the other and the other devoted to resolving her problems with the Lord through prayer. Which family member do you think presented Samuel with the best model with which to mature into adulthood and fulfill his role in the family of God?
Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25
What an interesting contrast is presented here between the standing priest and the sitting Christ. The priest needs to stand continually to perform his repeated ritual acts that present sacrifices before God, that God may deal with the sinner mercifully. Christ can sit down, because his work is complete and completely effective "for all time." The Trinity is in full action here: Christ seated at the Father's right hand, the place of authority, while the Holy Spirit steps forward to give confirmation that what has been accomplished is nothing less than the forgiveness of sins.
Exhortations follow, for a natural, human follow-up to what God has done. Because of Christ's priestly work, "let us" draw near, hold fast, and stir up! This is an encouraging directive to live out the righteousness that God commands from us. We are to draw near to the Lord, as James also reminds us (James 4:8), holding fast to the hope that has been passed down to us, even in troubling times (remember, this letter was written to a persecuted church); and we are to be engaged in good works daily, an exhortation that Paul repeated in his letters (Titus 3:8; Ephesians 2:10) and amplified in his catalog of righteous living (Colossians 3:12-17) and his details of daily Christian living in church, family, and community (Galatians 5-6; Ephesians 4-6). Confidence, faithfulness, mutual discipling, and Christian community (fellowship and worship presumably) are to be earmarks of those who are served by the true High Priest.
The consciousness of "the Day drawing near" should not be overlooked. It will appear in the Gospel text for today also. The Christian sense of the coming again of our Lord Jesus has been a great motivator for evangelism and for good works. Although also motivated by the desire for personal wealth and political ambition (to provide funding for the crusades), Christopher Columbus believed that Christ's coming would occur in 1656, just beyond his lifetime. But, taking Isaiah 60:9 very personally, he saw how he could help prepare the way through his voyages by opening up the world for Christian missionaries. Rather than being so heavenly minded that Christians are no earthly good, the opposite has proven to be the case over and over again throughout our history. When the expectation for Christ's return is strong in the believer's faith perspective, there has also been strong attention to the concerns of this life, especially educational, medical, and spiritual.
Mark 13:1-8
It was not idle chatter that the disciples were engaging in as they came out of the Temple. They were noticing something that was truly amazing. Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) was an avid builder. He had taken upon himself the rebuilding of the Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians at the beginning of the sixth century B.C. He doubled the size of the Temple Mount to 145 acres, making it the largest man-made platform in the ancient world. Some of the huge stone blocks in the wall weighed up to fifty tons or more. They were truly "wonderful stones." The structures that were erected on the perimeter, as well as the newly constituted Temple, would impress the eye of even the well-traveled pilgrim, let alone the average citizen, who may never have traveled more than a few miles from the city in a lifetime. What a reference point for Jesus to speak about the events that were to come. Anything that could topple such a magnificent edifice must truly be significant. The disciples could not help but inquire.
In the words that are to follow, it is difficult to know just what Jesus is referring to -- his death, the destruction of Jerusalem, or an actual return of the Son of man. As it turned out, Jesus did in fact die and the history of the Jewish people and even their relationship with Christians changed with the destruction of the Holy City and its Temple in 70 A.D. As for the second coming, that is yet to be realized. Just how and when it will be realized remains a mystery, known only to God the Father (Matthew 24:36). The nature of apocalyptic language is that it is cloaked in mystery; the images are not necessarily to be taken literally, though they are to be taken seriously.
What can be said, however, is that the tumult coming is a sign of something greater on the horizon, namely the coming of the Kingdom of God, the rule of God over all things. The believer is not to be distracted or discouraged by the signs. They are to be treated, at best, as birth pangs, delivering -- painfully, it is true -- that which is worth it all in the end. The Greek word for "birth pangs" is found as a noun only three times in the New Testament. Two of those three times are in reference to the Day of the Lord (parallel Matthew 24:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). Birth pangs is quite a down-to-earth metaphor with which to speak of something so heavenly.
Application
"Let's not ask God for anything small." So writes Marva Dawn in Is It a Lost Cause? Eli and Samuel might have thought it was when they looked at their children, who were "worthless men" (Eli's), who "turned aside after gain É took bribes and perverted justice" (Samuel's). How many parents today despair over their children, as they try to pass on the faith to a generation that is described as "violent, unfocused, uninterested in learning, bored with or alienated from the world, profoundly angry, or suffering from the abuse or negligence of one parent or two or four"? (Dawn). Hannah shows us the way into the ever-challenging minefield of parenting. She enters it with prayer and dares to ask God for the big stuff. God uses her prayer and her sacrificial devotion to raise up a servant for the times. (Note how God shatters any sense of religious right [successor to Eli] or political right [successor to Saul] through the ministry of Samuel. God will work out his purposes in life with or without our best or worst efforts!)
Since Jesus fulfills the priestly role, in his person building the bridge that connects us with God, we are all the more free to direct our energies into caring for the world that is so fragile and the world's community that is so broken. With growing government cutbacks and increasing costs in every area of care-giving and service-providing, the church remains a local source of nurture that will be called upon to step forward to shine like a city set upon a hill in this post-modern, post-Christian world. The congregation cannot afford to adopt the cultural attitude of "R & R" whenever and wherever it can find it, especially on the weekends and usually off someplace secluded by oneself or with a self-defined small tribal unit. No, we must not neglect to meet together. Our Lord has promised to return. Although he has not done so yet, our expectation should motivate us to be about his purposes. Our efforts may indeed be birth pangs, too, that can signal the coming of his Day. May he find us faithful in prayer and godly living when he comes.
FIRST LESSON FOCUSBy Elizabeth Achtemeier
1 Samuel 1:4-20
Our text forms the introduction to the story of Samuel, the last great leader of Israel in the time of the Judges. So it is an ancient story about the last two-thirds of the eleventh century B.C., and it exhibits many differences from our time and culture. For one thing, Elkanah, the father of Samuel has two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, a common practice in the Old Testament, despite the fact that it does not reflect the original intention of God for marriage (cf. Genesis 2:18-5; 4:19).
The custom of Elkanah and his wives to go up yearly to Shiloh to offer sacrifices reflects the time of the Judges (1220-1020 B.C.), when Israel was united only by a loose federation of the twelve tribes. That unity was partly preserved by the tribes' common worship at the central sanctuary, where was kept the Ark of the Covenant. There the tribes entered into a covenant renewal ceremony and avowed anew their loyalty to the one God, the Lord.
The sacrifice that Elkanah offers is a communion-meal sacrifice, in which members of a family met together at table, the food being divided according to the number present. Despite the fact that such a communion-meal's focus was on peace and community, Penninah uses the occasion to taunt the barren Hannah with her lack of offspring.
Such taunts are exceedingly painful for Hannah, because every wife in Israel was expected to give birth to a son and heir, who would carry on the family name. Only in his name, which continued to contain his essence and personality, was a Hebrew man considered to live on after death. If a wife could not give such an heir to her husband, she was shamed (cf. Genesis 30:1), and he had no lasting existence -- one of the reasons the males often turned to other wives or slaves to bear them offspring. Despite Elkanah's love for her (v. 5), and despite his reassurance of her (v. 8), Hannah was in great distress because of her barrenness.
Children were always considered in Israel to be a gift from God (cf. Psalm 127:3-5). If a woman bore no children, she was therefore considered to be unfavored in God's sight. The Lord alone opened or closed the womb, and so it is to the Lord that Hannah must pray. In her prayers, she calls herself the Lord's "maidservant," and she begs God to look on her affliction, to remember her, and not to forget her (v. 11). Further, if God will grant her a son, she vows or makes the promise that she will dedicate the child to God as a Nazarite, to be raised at the holy shrine of Shiloh by the priest Eli. One of the marks of Nazarites was that they did not shave their beards or hair (v. 11; cf. Samson). They also were forbidden to drink wine or to go near a dead body that would defile them (Numbers 6:1-8). They were "consecrated" or "holy" to the Lord, that is, separated from normal practice, and while the period of consecration could be temporary, the vows were to be specifically kept during the time of separateness.
This story telling of Hannah's distress is expertly shot through with emotion and the interplay of the characters. Hannah's silent, desperate prayer for a child is mistaken by Eli as the murmurings of a drunken whore. But when corrected, Eli assures Hannah that her petition will be granted by a God of mercy, who always sees the affliction of his people (cf. Exodus 3:7). Eli does not know for what Hannah has been praying, but he does know God's merciful character. And with just that verbal assurance, Hannah leaves the shrine contented (v. 18). A great deal of faith in the character of God is in evidence!
That all grates on our sensibilities somewhat, doesn't it, because we know couples in our time who desperately want children and yet who seem unable to have them? When such couples are those of faith, they pray and pray and God does not grant their petitions. Some go to fertility clinics or go through multiple surgical procedures, spending thousands of dollars in the process. Some turn to the alternative and often blessed route of adoption and give loving homes to children who otherwise would have none. But to say that conception and childbirth are solely given or withheld by God is out-of-date, to our way of thinking. There is a great gap between our time and that in the story of Hannah. And those who have no children should never think, as did Hannah, that they somehow are not favored by the Lord. All of us deserve no favor from God. All of us are sinners. But God has shown his love to each one of us in his Son Jesus Christ, whose resurrection has now assured that our immortality depends not on perpetuating our family name in a child, but rather on our trust in the Lord to give us eternal life.
Having said that, however, we must also affirm that God is the Lord of life who grants us the blessing of offspring. What loving parents have not gazed upon their newborn child and known that the infant is a gift of God, praising God for the tiny one's birth? It seems a miracle that that squirming, soft, pink person has been given to them to love and to nurture. In the Christian faith, we affirm that God is the Author of all human life, that he is our Creator, and that he has willed the existence and personhood of each one of us. We are planned by the Lord. He has a purpose for the birth and life of each one of us. And when a child is born to us, we properly thank God for the wondrous gift that he has given us. Parents or not, barren or fertile, the birth of a new life should call forth from us an overwhelming awe before the miracle of human life. And included in that awe surely should be the vow, like Hannah's vow, to protect and to bring up in the knowledge of the Lord every child on this planet. Our children -- all people's children -- are no longer made Nazarites. But they have come from God, and God expects us to guard them and to bring them up with love, according to his will. That is not an easy task. Children demand of us time, energy, money, often sacrifice. They cause us worries and anxieties and sometimes heartaches. But they are God's children, as Samuel was God's child, and the Lord expects us to take care of them.
Lutheran Option -- Daniel 12:1-3
These verses form the conclusion of the long vision of Daniel that begins in chapter 10. Preceding our text, Daniel details the rise and fall of the empires that have ruled in the ancient Near East. And most important for the readers of Daniel, he tells of the rule of Antioches IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler from 175 to 163 B.C., who persecuted the Jews and who desecrated their Temple and erected a pagan altar in it in 167 B.C. Antioches' death in 163 B.C. is not recorded, nor is the restoration of the Temple in 164 B.C. The Book of Daniel therefore dates sometime between 167 and 164 B.C., and its whole intention is to assure its readers that the end of history is coming, when there will be the final judgment, with the rulers of this world destroyed and God's kingdom come on earth. The faithful therefore are to stand firm, knowing that their final vindication and salvation are coming.
At that final end of history, says our text, Michael, the patron angel of Israel on behalf of God, will play the decisive part. Before the end, there will be a great tribulation, but all those faithful in Israel whose names are written in the book of life (cf. Exodus 32:32; Psalm 69:28; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5) will escape. Then, says our text, "many" -- the number is not specified -- will be resurrected. Along with Isaiah 26:19, this is the only other mention of the resurrection in the Old Testament. Some will be raised to eternal life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. This is by no means a developed doctrine of heaven and hell, however. Rather, Daniel simply envisions some retribution for evil and some reward for righteousness.
The "wise" mentioned in verse 3 probably refers to the wisdom writers and dream interpreters, of whom Daniel was considered a member. They will share a glory like that of heaven, but the future realm envisioned is one on earth.
While these verses in Daniel do not mirror the developed views in the New Testament of the Day of the Lord, or end of human history, when Christ returns to render the final judgment of all resurrected flesh, they nevertheless are the forerunners of Christian belief in the Second Coming and resurrection, with its final judgment and eternal salvation for those who trust in Jesus Christ. God rules human history, and he will bring it to its end, defeating all his foes, establishing his kingdom on the earth, and granting eternal salvation to those who trust his work in his Son. That forms the Christian's sure hope in the midst of this world's suffering and wrong.
1 Samuel 1:4-20
In the last days of the period of the judges, a cry goes up to God. A simple woman, a second-rate wife who is not living up to fertile expectations, comes before the Lord to plead her cause. She's not asking for much, just the natural fulfillment of her created role to mother a child. She's even willing to give the child back to the Lord for service to his glory. When she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, she knows exactly what she will name him. "God has heard" is a perfect name, because that says it all. Samuel is the result of a fervent prayer and a listening God. Could Jesus have been remembering Hannah and his lessons in school with the rabbi, when he said, "Ask and it shall be given you É knock and the door will be open"?
Hannah had been distressed by her barrenness. Yet, at the end of this episode "her countenance was no longer sad." What made the difference? Perhaps her husband's words had some effect. Certainly, she would have had to translate his Martian talk ("Hey, you have me; what more do you want?") into something more appropriate, like "Yes, honey, but I do love you anyway." Let's give Elkanah the benefit of the doubt and say that he really meant to say this; he just didn't know how. Then, there were the priestly words spoken by Eli, after he finally understood her situation. People need to hear a godly benediction spoken over their human condition. When we do not feel much peace, it is important for another person to import a peace from beyond our grasp, a peace from God that will gently wrap itself around us as the words are spoken. Those words of peace contain a promise, spoken by the representative of God. Whenever we believe the promises of God, our countenances are no longer sad.
In the ancient world, as well as today, family is the building block of civilization. Then, perhaps more than today, there was the expectation that the wife's purpose was to give birth to children, especially a son. The strife that can occur when expectations are not met can be clearly seen in how Elkanah's other wife treats Hannah with derision. Peninnah and Hannah present two contrasting ways to be family: the one dysfunctionally enmeshed in the misery of the other and the other devoted to resolving her problems with the Lord through prayer. Which family member do you think presented Samuel with the best model with which to mature into adulthood and fulfill his role in the family of God?
Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25
What an interesting contrast is presented here between the standing priest and the sitting Christ. The priest needs to stand continually to perform his repeated ritual acts that present sacrifices before God, that God may deal with the sinner mercifully. Christ can sit down, because his work is complete and completely effective "for all time." The Trinity is in full action here: Christ seated at the Father's right hand, the place of authority, while the Holy Spirit steps forward to give confirmation that what has been accomplished is nothing less than the forgiveness of sins.
Exhortations follow, for a natural, human follow-up to what God has done. Because of Christ's priestly work, "let us" draw near, hold fast, and stir up! This is an encouraging directive to live out the righteousness that God commands from us. We are to draw near to the Lord, as James also reminds us (James 4:8), holding fast to the hope that has been passed down to us, even in troubling times (remember, this letter was written to a persecuted church); and we are to be engaged in good works daily, an exhortation that Paul repeated in his letters (Titus 3:8; Ephesians 2:10) and amplified in his catalog of righteous living (Colossians 3:12-17) and his details of daily Christian living in church, family, and community (Galatians 5-6; Ephesians 4-6). Confidence, faithfulness, mutual discipling, and Christian community (fellowship and worship presumably) are to be earmarks of those who are served by the true High Priest.
The consciousness of "the Day drawing near" should not be overlooked. It will appear in the Gospel text for today also. The Christian sense of the coming again of our Lord Jesus has been a great motivator for evangelism and for good works. Although also motivated by the desire for personal wealth and political ambition (to provide funding for the crusades), Christopher Columbus believed that Christ's coming would occur in 1656, just beyond his lifetime. But, taking Isaiah 60:9 very personally, he saw how he could help prepare the way through his voyages by opening up the world for Christian missionaries. Rather than being so heavenly minded that Christians are no earthly good, the opposite has proven to be the case over and over again throughout our history. When the expectation for Christ's return is strong in the believer's faith perspective, there has also been strong attention to the concerns of this life, especially educational, medical, and spiritual.
Mark 13:1-8
It was not idle chatter that the disciples were engaging in as they came out of the Temple. They were noticing something that was truly amazing. Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) was an avid builder. He had taken upon himself the rebuilding of the Temple, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians at the beginning of the sixth century B.C. He doubled the size of the Temple Mount to 145 acres, making it the largest man-made platform in the ancient world. Some of the huge stone blocks in the wall weighed up to fifty tons or more. They were truly "wonderful stones." The structures that were erected on the perimeter, as well as the newly constituted Temple, would impress the eye of even the well-traveled pilgrim, let alone the average citizen, who may never have traveled more than a few miles from the city in a lifetime. What a reference point for Jesus to speak about the events that were to come. Anything that could topple such a magnificent edifice must truly be significant. The disciples could not help but inquire.
In the words that are to follow, it is difficult to know just what Jesus is referring to -- his death, the destruction of Jerusalem, or an actual return of the Son of man. As it turned out, Jesus did in fact die and the history of the Jewish people and even their relationship with Christians changed with the destruction of the Holy City and its Temple in 70 A.D. As for the second coming, that is yet to be realized. Just how and when it will be realized remains a mystery, known only to God the Father (Matthew 24:36). The nature of apocalyptic language is that it is cloaked in mystery; the images are not necessarily to be taken literally, though they are to be taken seriously.
What can be said, however, is that the tumult coming is a sign of something greater on the horizon, namely the coming of the Kingdom of God, the rule of God over all things. The believer is not to be distracted or discouraged by the signs. They are to be treated, at best, as birth pangs, delivering -- painfully, it is true -- that which is worth it all in the end. The Greek word for "birth pangs" is found as a noun only three times in the New Testament. Two of those three times are in reference to the Day of the Lord (parallel Matthew 24:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). Birth pangs is quite a down-to-earth metaphor with which to speak of something so heavenly.
Application
"Let's not ask God for anything small." So writes Marva Dawn in Is It a Lost Cause? Eli and Samuel might have thought it was when they looked at their children, who were "worthless men" (Eli's), who "turned aside after gain É took bribes and perverted justice" (Samuel's). How many parents today despair over their children, as they try to pass on the faith to a generation that is described as "violent, unfocused, uninterested in learning, bored with or alienated from the world, profoundly angry, or suffering from the abuse or negligence of one parent or two or four"? (Dawn). Hannah shows us the way into the ever-challenging minefield of parenting. She enters it with prayer and dares to ask God for the big stuff. God uses her prayer and her sacrificial devotion to raise up a servant for the times. (Note how God shatters any sense of religious right [successor to Eli] or political right [successor to Saul] through the ministry of Samuel. God will work out his purposes in life with or without our best or worst efforts!)
Since Jesus fulfills the priestly role, in his person building the bridge that connects us with God, we are all the more free to direct our energies into caring for the world that is so fragile and the world's community that is so broken. With growing government cutbacks and increasing costs in every area of care-giving and service-providing, the church remains a local source of nurture that will be called upon to step forward to shine like a city set upon a hill in this post-modern, post-Christian world. The congregation cannot afford to adopt the cultural attitude of "R & R" whenever and wherever it can find it, especially on the weekends and usually off someplace secluded by oneself or with a self-defined small tribal unit. No, we must not neglect to meet together. Our Lord has promised to return. Although he has not done so yet, our expectation should motivate us to be about his purposes. Our efforts may indeed be birth pangs, too, that can signal the coming of his Day. May he find us faithful in prayer and godly living when he comes.
FIRST LESSON FOCUSBy Elizabeth Achtemeier
1 Samuel 1:4-20
Our text forms the introduction to the story of Samuel, the last great leader of Israel in the time of the Judges. So it is an ancient story about the last two-thirds of the eleventh century B.C., and it exhibits many differences from our time and culture. For one thing, Elkanah, the father of Samuel has two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, a common practice in the Old Testament, despite the fact that it does not reflect the original intention of God for marriage (cf. Genesis 2:18-5; 4:19).
The custom of Elkanah and his wives to go up yearly to Shiloh to offer sacrifices reflects the time of the Judges (1220-1020 B.C.), when Israel was united only by a loose federation of the twelve tribes. That unity was partly preserved by the tribes' common worship at the central sanctuary, where was kept the Ark of the Covenant. There the tribes entered into a covenant renewal ceremony and avowed anew their loyalty to the one God, the Lord.
The sacrifice that Elkanah offers is a communion-meal sacrifice, in which members of a family met together at table, the food being divided according to the number present. Despite the fact that such a communion-meal's focus was on peace and community, Penninah uses the occasion to taunt the barren Hannah with her lack of offspring.
Such taunts are exceedingly painful for Hannah, because every wife in Israel was expected to give birth to a son and heir, who would carry on the family name. Only in his name, which continued to contain his essence and personality, was a Hebrew man considered to live on after death. If a wife could not give such an heir to her husband, she was shamed (cf. Genesis 30:1), and he had no lasting existence -- one of the reasons the males often turned to other wives or slaves to bear them offspring. Despite Elkanah's love for her (v. 5), and despite his reassurance of her (v. 8), Hannah was in great distress because of her barrenness.
Children were always considered in Israel to be a gift from God (cf. Psalm 127:3-5). If a woman bore no children, she was therefore considered to be unfavored in God's sight. The Lord alone opened or closed the womb, and so it is to the Lord that Hannah must pray. In her prayers, she calls herself the Lord's "maidservant," and she begs God to look on her affliction, to remember her, and not to forget her (v. 11). Further, if God will grant her a son, she vows or makes the promise that she will dedicate the child to God as a Nazarite, to be raised at the holy shrine of Shiloh by the priest Eli. One of the marks of Nazarites was that they did not shave their beards or hair (v. 11; cf. Samson). They also were forbidden to drink wine or to go near a dead body that would defile them (Numbers 6:1-8). They were "consecrated" or "holy" to the Lord, that is, separated from normal practice, and while the period of consecration could be temporary, the vows were to be specifically kept during the time of separateness.
This story telling of Hannah's distress is expertly shot through with emotion and the interplay of the characters. Hannah's silent, desperate prayer for a child is mistaken by Eli as the murmurings of a drunken whore. But when corrected, Eli assures Hannah that her petition will be granted by a God of mercy, who always sees the affliction of his people (cf. Exodus 3:7). Eli does not know for what Hannah has been praying, but he does know God's merciful character. And with just that verbal assurance, Hannah leaves the shrine contented (v. 18). A great deal of faith in the character of God is in evidence!
That all grates on our sensibilities somewhat, doesn't it, because we know couples in our time who desperately want children and yet who seem unable to have them? When such couples are those of faith, they pray and pray and God does not grant their petitions. Some go to fertility clinics or go through multiple surgical procedures, spending thousands of dollars in the process. Some turn to the alternative and often blessed route of adoption and give loving homes to children who otherwise would have none. But to say that conception and childbirth are solely given or withheld by God is out-of-date, to our way of thinking. There is a great gap between our time and that in the story of Hannah. And those who have no children should never think, as did Hannah, that they somehow are not favored by the Lord. All of us deserve no favor from God. All of us are sinners. But God has shown his love to each one of us in his Son Jesus Christ, whose resurrection has now assured that our immortality depends not on perpetuating our family name in a child, but rather on our trust in the Lord to give us eternal life.
Having said that, however, we must also affirm that God is the Lord of life who grants us the blessing of offspring. What loving parents have not gazed upon their newborn child and known that the infant is a gift of God, praising God for the tiny one's birth? It seems a miracle that that squirming, soft, pink person has been given to them to love and to nurture. In the Christian faith, we affirm that God is the Author of all human life, that he is our Creator, and that he has willed the existence and personhood of each one of us. We are planned by the Lord. He has a purpose for the birth and life of each one of us. And when a child is born to us, we properly thank God for the wondrous gift that he has given us. Parents or not, barren or fertile, the birth of a new life should call forth from us an overwhelming awe before the miracle of human life. And included in that awe surely should be the vow, like Hannah's vow, to protect and to bring up in the knowledge of the Lord every child on this planet. Our children -- all people's children -- are no longer made Nazarites. But they have come from God, and God expects us to guard them and to bring them up with love, according to his will. That is not an easy task. Children demand of us time, energy, money, often sacrifice. They cause us worries and anxieties and sometimes heartaches. But they are God's children, as Samuel was God's child, and the Lord expects us to take care of them.
Lutheran Option -- Daniel 12:1-3
These verses form the conclusion of the long vision of Daniel that begins in chapter 10. Preceding our text, Daniel details the rise and fall of the empires that have ruled in the ancient Near East. And most important for the readers of Daniel, he tells of the rule of Antioches IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler from 175 to 163 B.C., who persecuted the Jews and who desecrated their Temple and erected a pagan altar in it in 167 B.C. Antioches' death in 163 B.C. is not recorded, nor is the restoration of the Temple in 164 B.C. The Book of Daniel therefore dates sometime between 167 and 164 B.C., and its whole intention is to assure its readers that the end of history is coming, when there will be the final judgment, with the rulers of this world destroyed and God's kingdom come on earth. The faithful therefore are to stand firm, knowing that their final vindication and salvation are coming.
At that final end of history, says our text, Michael, the patron angel of Israel on behalf of God, will play the decisive part. Before the end, there will be a great tribulation, but all those faithful in Israel whose names are written in the book of life (cf. Exodus 32:32; Psalm 69:28; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5) will escape. Then, says our text, "many" -- the number is not specified -- will be resurrected. Along with Isaiah 26:19, this is the only other mention of the resurrection in the Old Testament. Some will be raised to eternal life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. This is by no means a developed doctrine of heaven and hell, however. Rather, Daniel simply envisions some retribution for evil and some reward for righteousness.
The "wise" mentioned in verse 3 probably refers to the wisdom writers and dream interpreters, of whom Daniel was considered a member. They will share a glory like that of heaven, but the future realm envisioned is one on earth.
While these verses in Daniel do not mirror the developed views in the New Testament of the Day of the Lord, or end of human history, when Christ returns to render the final judgment of all resurrected flesh, they nevertheless are the forerunners of Christian belief in the Second Coming and resurrection, with its final judgment and eternal salvation for those who trust in Jesus Christ. God rules human history, and he will bring it to its end, defeating all his foes, establishing his kingdom on the earth, and granting eternal salvation to those who trust his work in his Son. That forms the Christian's sure hope in the midst of this world's suffering and wrong.
