Sometimes I make the same mistake Eli made. I see with my eyes and hear with my hears
when a person is speaking from the heart.
Hannah was sorely vexed by not only her rival but by God who had not
allowed her to conceive a child during her marriage. Jewish law at the time allowed a man to take
another wife if the first had not born children within a certain time after
their marriage in order that he fulfill the primary commandment of being
fruitful and multiplying. The only
reason there was this second wife was a long period of barrenness for
Hannah. Her struggle had been going on
for some time and this woman's fruitfulness only served to prove that it was
Hannah who was the problem. The fact
that the other wife rubbed Hannah's nose in her situation was intolerable. Barrenness was thought to reveal not only a
physical defect but a spiritual one, God had commanded fruitfulness and the
absence of it would indicate God's disfavor on the woman or the couple. Hannah is praying here for her honor. Eli sees Hannah and comes to a wrong
conclusion about her. Little could he
imagine that he will be the mentor for her child.
Joseph has the opposite problem from Elkanah and
Hannah. His wife to be is already,
suddenly, and without any action on his part, pregnant. He knows enough biology and the way of the
world to know that he isn't responsible and someone must be. He could have publicly shamed Mary but he was
choosing to put her away privately, quietly, without defending his own
honor. Joseph was a good man who loved
Mary but he clearly didn't believe her to be chaste or truthful in this
particular matter. He was going to move
on when he got his own visit from an angel who "explained" to him
"that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." Unlike Zechariah he didn't ask for a sign and
even unlike Mary he didn't ask how such things could be, he took the word as
truth and married the girl.
Can you imagine the broken heart of a father watching his
son being scourged with a cat-of-nine tails with glass embedded in it? Can you also imagine watching him being
beaten bloody and mocked and taunted by soldiers who were spitting in his son's
face? Can you see that bloody mess that
is his child with a crown of thorns pressed into that head he had kissed and
held so often, the thorns digging trenches into his scalp as it bore down on
him? Can you feel his pain as his son
struggles to carry a heavy cross out to Golgotha while the crowds jeer and mock
him? Can you imagine his pain as the son
dies with those same crowds calling him to come down and save himself when he
is perfectly able to do so? That is the
pain of the Father, the One who sent His only Son to save us. He sent Him into a world of suffering as a
fellow sufferer who knew more physical and emotional pain than most of us will
ever face, to let us know that He feels that same pain when we suffer, and that
this is only for a while. He sacrificed
His honor to give it to us.
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