“…and Yahweh remembered her.” 1 Samuel 1:19
I have been more forgetful lately. I might blame it on the worst cold I’ve ever had which kept me down for three weeks. Or maybe the fact that it followed on the heels of one of the worst flu bugs I’ve ever had. Or it could be that this has been just an insanely busy time in life and ministry. But no matter the reasons, I have been struggling with forgetfulness more often than usual—and it’s more than a little frustrating. It’s part of the human condition, is it not? And it’s ironic because we have all of these wonderful means of reminding ourselves. We have phones that buzz and chirp, computer calendars with pop-ups, not to mention phone call and email reminders. But still things slip through the cracks. If you’re like me, you also deploy old school methods in tandem with our new-fangled means. I occasionally put sticky notes on my smart phone screen since it is too easy to ignore the buzzes and chirps. And though I keep lists on my phone, I also feel compelled to keep lists on my desk, all in a desperate attempt to keep from forgetting. But as we struggle to keep our mundane things in line, here is a wonderful piece of news…our God is not forgetful. Our God is the God who remembers. We see this communicated as a theological principle in various places in God’s Word, like Psalm 98:3, “He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” We also see this theological principle in Isaiah 40 where Israel complains, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, my cause is disregarded by my God” (v. 27). Then God answers, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom” (v. 28). Our God is not forgetful…He knows what we are going through. The theological message we see throughout the Bible is our God is a God who remembers! However, I don’t think there is anything in Scripture that conveys this truth more powerfully than in the way we see God “remembering” individuals. We see it in Rachel who watched her sister and maidservants give birth, but was barren. Then we read in Genesis 30:22, “Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.” Our God is a God who remembers, and longs to bless, His children, not just on the grand scale, but in a personal, intimate way. There is another story involving barrenness where we see that God “remembers” in an even more powerful, personal way…the story of Hannah in the first chapter of First Samuel. Here is this woman of God who, like Rachel, is struggling with barrenness while her rival, Fertile Myrtle, is not. And her rival was not shy about rubbing it in, “And because Yahweh had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat” (1 Samuel 1:6–7). We see, in Hannah, deep sorrow. And yet, this was not a sorrow that Hannah simply kept to herself. Her sadness drove her to pray, “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to Yahweh” (v. 10). So passionate was her prayer that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk. The truth is, there are times in life when our anguish feels unbearable. There are times when we wonder if God even hears our prayers, if He even knows what we are going through. There are two ways we can respond in such times, either by faith or in disbelief. Faith doesn’t mean we put on a happy face as if everything’s ok. But it does mean that we keep turning to God, pouring our heart out to Him, trusting in His provision. This is exactly what we see in the prayer of Hannah, “O Yahweh Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to Yahweh for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head” (v. 11). The promise to never use a razor on his head signifies a vow in which her son would be consecrated to God. But what we see, in Hannah, is that in the midst of deep waters she displayed an even deeper trust in the Lord, that He would “remember” her. Of course, if you remember “the rest of the story,” you know that “Yahweh remembered her” (vs. 19) and provided her with a son. What did she name this boy? Samuel, a name that sounds a lot like “God (el) hears (shema).” Our God is a God who hears the prayers of His people, who knows what we are going through, who remembers! May we learn, more and more, to be a people who, like Hannah, are faithful to turn to Yahweh, to honestly and persistently pour out our hearts to Him, and trust Him to provide as He knows best.
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“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am worst.” 1 Timothy 1:15
When I hear the apostle Paul speak these words, some part of me wants to correct him. “O, Paul, you’re not such a bad guy.” “Come on, Paul, you might feel crummy about yourself sometimes, but you are better than you think.” I wonder if these vague urges are really about Paul. Could it be that I am really seeking to defend myself? Think about it—if Paul, one of the greatest teachers to ever live, whose influence spread across the entire Roman world in the first century, is such a magnificent sinner, then what does that say about me? If this man who sacrificed so much in service to others is worthy of condemnation, where does that leave me? The truth is, Paul’s words here go against the grain of how we like to think of ourselves. I like to think I’m a pretty good guy. Sure, I’m not perfect. But I don’t “cuss, smoke, chew, or go with girls that do.” It’s our natural tendency to derive our sense of self worth by comparing ourselves with others. What we fail to recognize is our inherent bias for ourselves. We naturally judge others more harshly than we do ourselves. Combine this with our amazing powers of self-justification, and the end result is a self-assurance that helps us feel better about ourselves but is not grounded in reality. For there remains this nagging tension that goes unresolved. We know, in our heart of hearts, that the image we seek to portray, even to ourselves, simply isn’t reality. When we seek to deal with our sin by cover-ups and clichés, we do nothing to address the real issue. We can repeat mantra’s like, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it…people like me,” until we are blue in the face, but even if we are somehow able to conceal the truth from others, deep down we know better. So, you might ask, how does Paul’s self-deprecating statement above help? If I just say and think bad things about myself, won’t that only make it worse? Well, you must read his statement in context, for the very next verse states, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16). Paul’s point is a simple one—in spite of the sinful life he led BC (Before Christ), which included blasphemy against Christ and persecution of Christ’s people (v.13), Jesus poured out His grace and love on Paul (v.14), saving Paul from himself. Through Christ, Paul was able to give up the charade, to stop pretending that everything was ok, and to admit his sin and need for a Savior. When we are able to admit that we are included in the “all” of Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” then we are on our way to the gift of Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Gospel is the great unmasker of the lies we tell ourselves. The Gospel declares that there is no one righteous, not a one, except the righteous Savior who died on the cross to pay for our sins. It is the very opposite of the world’s response to the reality of brokenness. The world says, “Believe in yourself!” The Word says, “Believe in Jesus!” For many of you who are reading this, you may feel like I am simply preaching to the choir. This is Christianity 101. True. But if Paul felt the need to repeat this truth for the benefit of a young pastor by the name of Timothy, then I think we could probably use the reminder as well. The Gospel, the Good News of salvation in Christ, is not something we need to hear just once, it is a sermon we must preach to ourselves over and over again. The world tells us to repeat false mantras of our own, inherent goodness, based on wishful thinking. God’s Word tells us to embrace the wonderful truth of righteousness in Christ, based on His sin-conquering death and resurrection. This Easter, may we learn not to put any confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3), that is, in our goodness, but to daily place our confidence in what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. For in Christ we are forgiven of our sin, which frees us from sin’s penalty, and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who frees us from sin’s power. Let us trade in our cover-ups and clichés for a life of faith in the one who has conquered the power of sin once and for all! “Heavenly Father, you have led me singing to the cross where I fling down all my burdens and see them vanish, where my mountains of guilt are leveled to a plain, where my sins disappear, though they are the greatest that exist, and are more in number than the grains of fine sands. For there is power in the blood of Calvary to destroy sins!” Valley of Vision |
Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
June 2022
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