Conflict and Pain

 DEVOTION

1 SAMUEL

CONFLICT AND PAIN

1 Sam 1:1-8

1:1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 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. 8 Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?"

NIV

Although we are familiar with the story and much of Samuel's life, we have never worked through it as a devotion. It is always beneficial when examining the life of a prophet to begin with his mother. Once again, we do not judge Elkanah for having two wives, as this was very normal in those days. However, as in many cases where there has been more than one wife, there always seems to be some kind of conflict. Jealousy or pride may well play a major role in the relationship of the multiple wives. We cannot even imagine what went on in Solomon's home with hundreds of wives. Here we have Peninnah having many sons and daughters, but Hannan was barren. Of course, the reason was that the Lord closed her womb. It wasn’t as though she was not trying, as we know her husband loved her. But this provoking of Peninnah is our lesson. She must have been proud of the fact that she could bear Elkanah so many sons, heirs to his land and possessions, while Hannan bore him not even one son. Here is where we come into the story. In life, each of us is born into a family, not of our choice, but of God’s choice. We each have varied personalities that can be formed by our family environment, but at the same time mostly formed by the hand of God, as he is the one who knits us together in our mother’s womb. Nevertheless, as we reach our age of independence, we have such varied areas of interest that we become very different in our lives. Some become highly educated, others become very wealthy, and others learn skills or develop talents in the arts. To enumerate all aspects of how different each life is would take books, not just a thought to ponder. These varied levels of life invade the church because we all found the Lord and have that one common thread in life. Over the years, we have witnessed multiple responses to the different levels of success in the world and in the church. Even in ministry, we have found pastors who have large, even mega churches, while some have churches with less than a hundred. We have seen some denominations distinguish between levels or titles, such as priest, bishop, cardinal, and pope in the catholic faith. Others save the title of ordained for those who have higher educational levels. But the point is what goes on in each local church. We believe no one provokes another in any area of church life. The fact is, we are all coming together from wide life experiences and successes. Hannan felt inferior because she could not bear children while Peninnah was fertile and successfully produced heirs for her husband. We cannot allow the fact that some have been given more than others to influence true koinonia, Christian fellowship, communion with each other. Sadly, we have witnessed pridefulness and jealousy within the community of faith. If we lived in humility, it would be a wonderful church, and our lives would be without any stress or inappropriate feelings that are not included in loving our neighbor as ourselves. Maybe that is idealistic, but it is biblical. When we see how this conflict between Hannah and Peninnah occurred because of pride that caused emotional pain, we would hope this kind of division or conflict does not invade the church. Being humble is not as easy as it seems; we want others to know our successes or experiences that are better than theirs, which is prideful. How can we combat this human nature that seems to override the nature of Christ? We know our transformation into the fullness of Christ is a process, but to live with so much invested in our human nature will cause both pridefulness and envy or jealousy in the church. Let us make every effort to live in peace and harmony with each other.