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Word from Nairnshire
by Sandy Shaw
How did the prophet Samuel come on the scene and exercise years of faithful ministry? How does any man of God come on the scene?
Law and order had broken down. Lawlessness had taken over the nation, and God overcomes all this, through a crying, weeping, praying woman.
Why is Hannah in tears?
Her husband, Elkanah, had two wives, concurrently! Today, many men have them consecutively.
Elkanah suffered the consequences of that folly. No man can have two wives and become one flesh.
The other wife, Peninnah, had sons and daughters, but Hannah’s womb was closed and barren.
The nation was experiencing moral chaos and confusion.
People had become spiritually careless and complacent, dishonouring God’s law and breaking His covenant.
The nation had lost her sense of God, an awareness of her destiny, and she had exhausted her spiritual capital. Israel was spiritually demoralised.
God had allowed the situation to slip and slide and deteriorate. It was a dark gloomy time.
Peninnah provoked and irritated Hannah. Hannah is taunted and teased.
We would say ‘bullied’.
Peninnah was hostile, hateful and spiteful, gloating over Hannah’s predicament.
All this drove Hannah to prayer, even though she had to suffer these frequent verbal stabbing stakes from Peninnah’s mouth.
She petitioned the living God, praying with a specific purpose.
Hannah bargained with God. That can be exceedingly dangerous at times, but the situation was desperate, and some time later Samuel was born.
God was at work.
God needed a Samuel, as much as Hannah needed a son.
This was a fresh work, with a fresh life, as God by-passed the religious death of that age.
It all appears quite complex, but then life is complex!
A thousand years later, Almighty God repeated all this, through Jesus Christ.
Sandy Shaw
Nairn Christian Fellowship
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Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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