Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – 1 Samuel 1:1-18
Set – 1 Samuel 1; Psalms 66
Go! – 1 Samuel 1-2; Psalms 66; 2 Corinthians 7
1 Samuel 1:1-18
1 When the judges ruled over Israel, there was a man from Ramathaim-zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim. He was Elkanah, who descended from Jeroham, Elihu, Tohu, and Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives: Peninnah, who bore him sons and daughters, and Hannah, who remained childless.3 Elkanah used to go up every year from his city to worship and offer sacrifices at the altar of the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, at Shiloh, where the priests of the Eternal were Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. 4 On the days he made a sacrifice, Elkanah would share a portion of his offering with his wife Peninnah and all her children, 5 but he offered a double portion of sacrificial meat for Hannah because he loved her even though the Eternal One had not given her children. 6 Peninnah used to infuriate Hannah until Hannah trembled with irritation because the Eternal had not given Hannah children. 7 This went on year after year; and every time Hannah went up to the house of the Eternal, Peninnah would infuriate her. So, as she often did, Hannah wept and refused to eat.
Elkanah (seeing Hannah’s despair): 8 Why are you crying and not eating? Why are you so sad, Hannah? Don’t I love you more than any 10 sons could?
9-10 One day after they ate and drank at Shiloh, Hannah got up and presented herself before the Lord. It so happened that the priest Eli was sitting in a place of honor beside the doorpost of the Eternal’s congregation tent as Hannah entered. She was heartbroken, and she began to pray to the Eternal One, weeping uncontrollably as she did.
Hannah: 11 Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, if only You will look down at the misery of Your servant and remember me—oh, don’t forget me!—and give Your servant a son, then I promise I will devote the boy to Your service as a Nazirite all the days of his life. [He will never touch wine or other strong drink,][a] and no razor will ever cut his hair.
12 As she prayed silently before the Eternal One, the priest Eli watched her mouth: 13 Hannah’s lips were moving, but since she was praying silently, he could not hear her words. So Eli thought she was drunk.
Eli: 14 How long are you going to continue drinking, making a spectacle of yourself? Stop drinking wine, and sober up!
Hannah: 15 My lord, I am not drunk on wine or any strong drink; I am just a woman with a wounded spirit. I have been pouring out the pain in my soul before the Eternal One. 16 Please don’t consider your servant some worthless woman just because I have been speaking for so long out of worry and exasperation.
Eli: 17 Go, don’t worry about this anymore, and may the True God of Israel fulfill the petition you have made to Him.
Hannah: 18 May your servant be favored in your sight.
Then Hannah rose and went back to where she was staying. The sadness lifted from her, so she was able to eat.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
The story of Hannah and her prayer in the congregation tent at Shiloh provides an example of the ease with which people jump to conclusions about the behavior of others. Eli assumed Hannah came the altar drunk because of her behavior in front of Me. He couldn’t distinguish between the external signs of deep despair and a woman who approached a with a little too much wine as she kneeled at the altar.
Both stagger under the load the carry, one with a heavy emotional burden, the other with the extra ethanol. He thought one a sad drunk when really she was crying with the burden of her childlessness. Eli though Hannah mumbled to herself unable to articulate words in her drunken state when if he could know her heart, he would know she was crying out to Me in her soundless state.
Humankind often misreads the behavior of others around them. Discernment is a gift I give to very few of My children. You cannot know the heart of those you see. And sometimes the behavior is not what you think. Sometimes it is, but only I really know the truth about a person’s heart. Just like Eli, it’s easy to make snap decisions about people and come out with wrong opinions.
Stop to find out the real story. Wait to hear the whole truth before taking actions you might regret later. Understand that unless I have given you the gift of discernment, and few have it, you cannot know the reason behind the behavior of others until they tell you. Even with the gift of discernment, you may be wrong. Only I really know the hearts of My children.
Think about Eli and Hannah the next time you are about to jump to conclusions about someone’s behavior – what they said or what they did you thought out of bounds. Perhaps, like Hannah, they are silently pleading in their way for My help or to bring glory to Me.
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