Tuesday Devo
Scripture:
1 Samuel 2:1-11
Hannah’s Prayer of Praise
2 Then Hannah prayed:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord!
The Lord has made me strong.[a]
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
I rejoice because you rescued me.
2 No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 “Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
he will judge your actions.
4 The bow of the mighty is now broken,
and those who stumbled are now strong.
5 Those who were well fed are now starving,
and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
and the woman with many children wastes away.
6 The Lord gives both death and life;
he brings some down to the grave[b] but raises others up.
7 The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
he brings some down and lifts others up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
and he has set the world in order.
9 “He will protect his faithful ones,
but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
he increases the strength[c] of his anointed one.”
11 Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the Lord by assisting Eli the priest.
Hannah’s Prayer of Praise
2 Then Hannah prayed:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord!
The Lord has made me strong.[a]
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
I rejoice because you rescued me.
2 No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 “Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
he will judge your actions.
4 The bow of the mighty is now broken,
and those who stumbled are now strong.
5 Those who were well fed are now starving,
and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
and the woman with many children wastes away.
6 The Lord gives both death and life;
he brings some down to the grave[b] but raises others up.
7 The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
he brings some down and lifts others up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
and he has set the world in order.
9 “He will protect his faithful ones,
but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
he increases the strength[c] of his anointed one.”
11 Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the Lord by assisting Eli the priest.
Commentary:
2:3 by him actions are weighed. The ESV follows the “spoken” (Qere) Hebrew tradition, and means that God’s knowledge extends even to the motives behind human actions. The “written” (Ketib) tradition, “actions are not weighed,” would not make sense unless one added “his actions are not weighed,” i.e., God is not subject to human judgment.
2:5 seven. Hannah herself actually bore only six children, including Samuel (v. 21), but this is a general statement, and seven is a poetic number for perfection. is forlorn. The Hebrew usually means “becomes a widow,” but here it means “becomes childless.”
2:6–7 The Lord has total authority over life and death, including material and social life. Verses 4–5 give examples of how the Lord reverses human fortunes; vv. 6–7 state it more generally. kills … brings to life, brings down … raises up, makes poor … makes rich, brings low … exalts. These are merisms, expressions in which two words on the extreme ends of a scale are used to express everything on the whole scale. The Lord controls not only birth and death, but also the whole of life in between.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 493.
2:5 seven. Hannah herself actually bore only six children, including Samuel (v. 21), but this is a general statement, and seven is a poetic number for perfection. is forlorn. The Hebrew usually means “becomes a widow,” but here it means “becomes childless.”
2:6–7 The Lord has total authority over life and death, including material and social life. Verses 4–5 give examples of how the Lord reverses human fortunes; vv. 6–7 state it more generally. kills … brings to life, brings down … raises up, makes poor … makes rich, brings low … exalts. These are merisms, expressions in which two words on the extreme ends of a scale are used to express everything on the whole scale. The Lord controls not only birth and death, but also the whole of life in between.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 493.
Questions:
Hannah's song takes a turn in verse 3. She has just spent the opening verses praising God for who He is, and now she begins talking about people who think they have everything figured out.
"Do not keep talking so proudly," she says. "For the LORD is a God who knows." God sees what we don't see. He doesn't just hear our words. He know our motives. He sees the pride we hide, the things we don't want anyone to know, the ways we make ourselves look better than we really are. We may be able to fool other people, and sometimes we can even convince ourselves that we're doing fine. But we never fool God.
"He brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low, and He exalts." God doesn't measure people the way we do. The strong aren't always the ones who win. The wealthy aren't always the ones who have enough. The people who seem to have everything together aren't necessarily the people who are closest to God. Hannah reminds us that God's kingdom doesn't work that way. The people who know they need Him are the ones who have discovered where true strength is found.
Jesus repeatedly welcomed the humble, the needy, and the people who knew they couldn't save themselves. He confronted the proud who thought they had no need for Him. At the cross, He showed us the greatest reversal of all: the One who truly had all power willingly humbled Himself to save people who had none.
The God who sees everything is also the God who gives grace to those who come to Him empty-handed, so we don't have to pretend to be stronger than we are, God already knows the truth.
"Do not keep talking so proudly," she says. "For the LORD is a God who knows." God sees what we don't see. He doesn't just hear our words. He know our motives. He sees the pride we hide, the things we don't want anyone to know, the ways we make ourselves look better than we really are. We may be able to fool other people, and sometimes we can even convince ourselves that we're doing fine. But we never fool God.
"He brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low, and He exalts." God doesn't measure people the way we do. The strong aren't always the ones who win. The wealthy aren't always the ones who have enough. The people who seem to have everything together aren't necessarily the people who are closest to God. Hannah reminds us that God's kingdom doesn't work that way. The people who know they need Him are the ones who have discovered where true strength is found.
Jesus repeatedly welcomed the humble, the needy, and the people who knew they couldn't save themselves. He confronted the proud who thought they had no need for Him. At the cross, He showed us the greatest reversal of all: the One who truly had all power willingly humbled Himself to save people who had none.
The God who sees everything is also the God who gives grace to those who come to Him empty-handed, so we don't have to pretend to be stronger than we are, God already knows the truth.
- What is something about your heart that you are much more willing to excuse than confront? What does Hannah's reminder that "the LORD is a God who knows" change about the way you should deal with it?
- Why is it actually good news that God knows everything about us, including the things we would rather hide? How does the good news of the gospel change the way you respond to the God who sees you completely?
- Hannah celebrates a God who brings down the proud and powerful and lifts up those who are weak and needy. Where are you tempted to believe that being successful, impressive, strong, popular, or comfortable means you are doing well in God's eyes? How would your priorities change if you measured your life by what God values: humility, faithfulness, dependence on Him, and obedience, instead of by what gets you recognition or makes you look successful?
Prayer Topics:
- Confess the ways you have tried to appear stronger, better, or more put-together than you really are.
- Thank God that He knows you completely and that His knowledge of you is not a threat to those who belong to Christ, but a reason to rest in His grace.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to expose pride and comparison in your heart and teach you to find your worth in Christ rather than in your abilities, achievements, or position.
This Week's City 7:
Try to commit to memory!
3. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Since “all have sinned” and the “wages of sin is death,” Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the fine for my sin so I could be right with God.
(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)
(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)
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