Father knows best

 DEVOTION

1 SAMUEL

FATHER KNOWS BEST

1 Sam 2:3

3 "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.

NIV

·         We are still taking one stanza of Hannah's song at a time, for each phrase is chock-full of truths, or as we have noted before, little golden nuggets worth consideration of something of value. Of course, the whole scripture, which this is part of, is of great value, for it is God-breathed words spoken and recorded by people of faith as they were inspired by God. Here, Hannah sings about the proud and how their mouths are full of arrogant speech. She may have been thinking of the arrogance of Peninnah, who constantly provoked Hannah about her barrenness while she bore children for their husband. We are aware of the arrogant talk of the people of the world, who trust in their own works, think they do not need God, or even refuse to acknowledge God.  But the deeper truth here is about us believers being arrogant, thinking we are more important than we ought to be. It is also about how we boast about our accomplishments in the church. We have witnessed such arrogance, such pride regarding the size of their church, or all the ministries of the church. We can see this prideful speech even in those who are supposed to be ministers for the Lord. It would seem there is a need to impress other people as to how much we know, or do. Yet, when it comes to our Lord God, he already knows everything about each of us, and he is the one who measures out our labor. It can be seen that he weighs our good deeds, that is, he measures how much we do, and the value of what we do. We might think some of our good deeds are really good to do, and of course, as seen by others, but God is the one who determines, weighs out our deeds, and what he wants us to do. It would seem that deeds are weighted by God is synonymous with judging our deeds, but the Hebrew word translated as weighted has the first meaning of regulated, balanced, as thought of leveling out. This gives us the idea that God, who knows everything, measures out equal deeds for all of us, so that we are all receiving the same measure of deeds for the advancement of His kingdom. This coincides perfectly with the idea of us all being a part of the body, and the mouth should not be proud because it needs the hands to feed it, or any part thinking it is more important than any other. We are all part of the body of Christ, each with the same measured out deeds, interdependent on each other. Jesus said that he came not to be served but to serve, and that is how our lives should reflect him. It is not just about when we are in church, however, that is a good place to see if we are the servant or if we want to be served. Do we want to be lifted up, or lift up others? Do we want to be built up, or do we want to build up others? Do we want to have value, or see others as having value? Solomon said it best, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” There are many times the Lord has spoken about the humble. Through James, he tells us, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”. Let us seek the Lord and follow the path he has laid out before us, doing that which he has weighed out for us, serving as he directs.  For He knows that which we do not, because Father knows best.