Kyle Dresback

Friends,

Maybe the most common question I get as a Bible teacher is some variation of, “Why doesn’t God speak and act today in the same way he did then?” Often the question is merely an intellectual curiosity, but occasionally it comes from a deep personal longing for God to act.

It’s easy to forget that many generations of faithful followers never get to see the waters part or the mountain thunder. At many points in the biblical narrative – the Old Testament accounts of Joseph and Esther come to mind – God recedes from view leaving us with the characters, their decisions, and a concept of God’s providence only in retrospect.

Elsewhere, the narrative leaps over generations. Turn the page from Genesis to Exodus and Israel goes from a family favored by one Pharaoh to a nation enslaved by another. Hundreds of years of oppression have been skipped as we read of God announcing his plan of salvation from a burning bush. In narrative time, generations have lived and died waiting for deliverance.

This silence can be spiritually devastating. I spoke to a friend recently who cited this as the reason he has walked away from the Church: There’s just too much unresolved suffering in the world.

Today’s reading doesn’t explain that suffering, but it places God within it – a theme that the biblical story will return to vividly in the gospels. 

We’re told that Hannah herself lived in days where “the word of the Lord was rare.” (Indeed, it takes repeated attempts before Eli recognizes God’s voice.) She is desperate for a child – not only grieving her barrenness but taunted by Peninnah, who had many children. In a story that takes minutes to read, we forget that Hannah’s prayers stretched over years, as had the prayers of many before her.

When she finally gives birth to a son, she exhales a prayer that can only come from desperate waiting. Hers is a prayer of gratitude to the God who does not abandon the poor and the humble – a reminder of God’s presence, even in the silence:

…The bows of the mighty are broken,
    but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
    but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
    but she who has many children is forlorn.

The Lord kills and brings to life;
    he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
    he brings low; he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
    he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
    and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
    and on them he has set the world.

He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
    but the wicked will perish in darkness,
    for not by might does one prevail.
The Lord! His adversaries will be shattered;
    the Most High will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
    he will give strength to his king
    and exalt the power of his anointed.

In Christ,

—Kyle