April 2005

I love to study people in the Old Testament. For the next few days or weeks, I’m going to share with you some of what I’ve learned in studying Hannah’s life and the people that surrounded her. I hope you’ll join me.

Whenever we study someone’s life, it helps if we know a bit about the times in which that person lived. Our circumstances shape us to some degree, whether we realize it or not. Hannah was no different.

She lived during the times of the judges. No king ruled Israel, but every so often God would raise up a judge to lead the people to war against their enemies, to restore peace and order to the land.

If you study the book of Ruth, you will get a glimpse of what life was like for people of that time. Judges 21:25 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

This does not mean that no laws were kept or that people completely disregarded the Lord during those years.

From the story of Ruth and Boaz, we can see that Boaz obeyed the law of levirate marriage and in I Samuel we find Elkanah (Hannah’s husband) observing the feasts of the Lord faithfully. Godly men and women still lived during this time, but the country had no king and by that statement it is inferred that they weren’t looking to the Lord for direction either. For the most part the people were doing whatever they thought was right.

And their leaders were no better. The last judge mentioned in Judges 16 is Samson and by now he is dead. The country has endured a civil war with the tribe of Benjamin, nearly wiping out that tribe because of their hard-hearted cruelty. (See Judges 19-21 for the entire sordid tale.) And at least one famine (mentioned in Ruth 1:1) ravaged the land.

The country was in need of strong, godly leaders, but if they thought they would find them in their high priests Eli (their current judge) and his two sons, they were sadly mistaken. Eli as we will later see, may have had some good points, but he couldn’t control his wicked sons, making him a weak leader at best, both in his home and in the nation.

Hannah lived during this time of national turmoil. But this external unrest could not compare to the animosity and cruelty Hannah lived with every day under her own roof.

More to come…

I never intended to take such a long break from this blog, but some kind of bug hit me last Wednesday, zapping my desire to think straight, let alone write. My doctor thinks I had food poisoning. Apparently, certain “good for you” foods don’t keep very well, and I think one of them turned rancid without me realizing it.

I’m better now, and back at it. :) Tomorrow I hope to begin a new devotional about Hannah, but for today, I want to share something that God revealed to me this morning.

That is this: Writing is His gift to me to help me cope with the stresses of life.

I used to think that if I’m going to spend time writing, it had better earn some money or something in return to make it seem like I haven’t wasted my time. How else does one justify years spent at the computer crafting stories for themselves? It comes across as mighty selfish if it stays only with me.

I have also wanted my writing to be a ministry, for God to use whatever He gives me to write to touch the lives of other people – the way writing has also touched mine. So I push and I strive to make my writing into some kind of career.

But what I did not realize until today is just how much God loves me and how well He knows me. He knows that stress can do the number on me emotionally, physically, even spiritually. He created me with a need for a release valve, and then He gave me writing as a trigger for that valve.

Looking back, I can see that now. When my family faced a tragedy years ago, God urged me to pick up my pen and start writing. The two-volume fictional epic I wrote helped heal my wounded heart. During the first five years our family homeschooled our three sons, God gave me another story to work on in between the hectic times – as down time for a very busy mom.

Some people escape life’s stresses through reading or watching TV or playing sports. God gave me writing. It restores me to wholeness, it eases my stress level, it keeps my focus on Him.

Whether God ever intends to use my work beyond my own computer screen is up to Him. I am just awed and honored to think that my God loves me that much, knows me that well, that He would give me a gift to help keep me whole. So that when the stresses of life pour down on me, I can look up with gratitude and praise Him for giving me the means to get through it. I can craft stories for Him and no longer fear that I am wasting my time doing so.

I could talk about King David’s life for years to come. The truth is, I’ve already spent years writing Biblical novels surrounding his life. (See the Projects page for more information.) Maybe someday the Lord will open a door for those books to see publication.

For now, I will leave this portion of the life of David with these thoughts.

When Nathan returned to the palace a year or so later, Bathsheba had given David another son. The happy parents named this child Solomon.

I imagine that a certain sense of fear could have accompanied Solomon’s birth. Had God’s judgment passed with the death of their firstborn or would the promise of the sword never departing from David’s house affect this child as well? Would Solomon live to adulthood? These were legitimate questions, and they likely caused a bit of turmoil in David’s and Bathsheba’s hearts.

So when Nathan requested an audience with the king, I would guess that David welcomed him with a sense of hesitation, even trepidation. Of course, God, who sent Nathan, knew David’s heart. I believe this is why He chose to send him – to comfort David and Bathsheba with His word.

For while David and Bathsheba were naming this new son Solomon, God was giving him another name, one that set him apart from all of David’s other sons. He called him Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him.

What relief washed over the anxious parents at such a proclamation! This child was beloved of the Lord! He would not die for their sin as their firstborn had done.

And that child went on to become the wealthiest, wisest king in all the land.

Many generations later, another king was born, beloved of the Lord. He could trace his ancestry through Solomon, to David and Bathsheba, a couple whose sin the Lord had covered.

A couple for whom this child came to die, so that their sin, and mine, could be removed for all eternity.

His name is Jesus. He died, was buried, and rose again to pay the eternal penalty for our sin.

And it all happened one spring.

Though Nathan assured David of God’s forgiveness, the prophet had more news for the king. “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

This was Nathan’s final word on the subject to David, but before David’s confession of sin, Nathan had also told him this: “‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.”

Adultery is not a private sin.

What happened one spring night as a secret affair between a man and a woman, ended in untold tragedy. Not only did David’s baby son die, but three other sons ended up eventually dying by the sword – all as a direct result of the wheels put in motion by David’s adultery and murder.

David could choose his sin, but he had no choice when it came to the consequences.

But there was also an immeditate good result of Nathan’s visit. Conviction brought David to his knees before the Lord once again. Fellowship, long broken, was restored as David poured out his honest heart to the God who sees and knows all things. Psalm 51 was written during this time.

David was a man after God’s own heart because he allowed his heart to be broken and honest and contrite over his own failings. Every one of us falls short of God’s standards, and David knew that better than anyone. The guilt was killing him until he finally laid it all at his Maker’s feet.

It was then that God created a clean heart in the king. An act that only God can do. And though every promised consequence came to pass, David heart had been made new.

A year or so later, perhaps on another spring day, Nathan paid another visit to David and Bathsheba.

But this time he brought good news.

(Final thoughts to come…)

Sin has a way of eating at us. David discovered that phenomenon during the year of his affair and subsequent cover-up. While he tried to keep the adultery and murder secret, God knew. “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”

Psalm 32 records David’s feelings during this time. He mentions how old he felt and that his vitality drained away. He groaned throughout the day, feeling God’s hand heavy on him.

But despite all of this, it took a story told by a Godly man to bring King David to his senses.

The prophet Nathan strode into the palace one day after the birth of David and Bathsheba’s son, and requested an audience with the king. David granted the request. One wonders whether Nathan’s presence sent any hint of worry into David’s soul. Chances are good that David’s defenses were up. After all, he’d been ignoring God’s promptings for nearly a year. As far as he could tell, no one knew his dirty little secret, and he wasn’t about to tell them.

Of course, God knew of the wall David had built around his heart. He knew of David’s deception and self-dential and his unbearable guilt. In His tender mercy, God did not allow David to continue in his sin any longer. So He told His faithful prophet, Nathan, to pay David that visit. And He gave Nathan the wisdom needed on how best to approach the moody king.

Nathan used the power of story to get David’s attention:
“There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

David’s anger flared, probably fueled by the memories of his life as a shepherd. He pronounced swift and heavy judgment on the rich man. The story allowed David to see the evil of his own actions without realizing that he was that rich man.

Until Nathan pointed his finger in David’s face and said so.

Anger melted to guilt and immediate repentance. “I have sinned against the Lord,” David said.

“The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die,” Nathan assured him.

Admission of his sin was David’s first step in the right direction. But Nathan had more to tell him. David had a long way to go to climb out of the pit he’d landed in.

(TBC…)

When David’s attempts to wine and dine Uriah failed, David fell to one of the lowest places in his life. He pulled out his parchment and a reed pen and wrote.

Now if it were me, I’d do the same thing. I’d journal my thoughts and pour out my frustration on those pages until my words were spent. This action would have calmed my spirit and given me time to sort things out.

The Psalms show us numerous times when David did just that. The song writer and poetic talent in King David has been matched by few others. His words are sung and quoted and memorized, bringing comfort and encouragement to millions, three thousands years after he walked the earth. Not many authors can claim such fame.

But as David’s pen poised over the papyrus parchment that day, his thoughts were far from poetry or music or even journaling his thoughts and pouring out his frustration to the Lord. God, who inspired David’s work, didn’t even enter his mind at this point. Instead, David let his thoughts roam in dark places, listening to voices that came straight from the pit of hell.

And it cost Uriah his life.

It’s hard to imagine the gall it took to write orders that would command his general to kill such a faithful warrior, to place him in the heat of battle and withdraw so that enemy arrows would strike him down. Even worse was the fact that David placed those orders into Uriah’s own hand. Bathsheba’s husband carried his own sealed death sentence.

And in all of this, the Bible indicates that David showed no remorse.

I Corinthians 10:12 says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Oh, from what heights David had fallen!

(TBC…)