Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Hey everybody, welcome to The Bible Guys. We have a great episode in store for you.

Jeff:
Great. Maybe one of the best ever.

Chris:
Yes, actually.

Jeff:
Maybe. You know what? I don’t know. Let’s shoot for it. Okay. All right. We’re going to give it our best. As opposed to just mailing it in like we’ve been doing lately.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Be good. All right. We’re going to do our best. You ever have somebody come up to you right before you preach and they go, Hey, listen, my neighbor’s here today. So, you know, just, you know, be good.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do your best today. Do your best. Oh, good idea.

Chris:
Yeah. I always say, I always say, Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you said that. You know what? I was actually going to shoot for mediocrity. And now that you’ve said that I’m going to go ahead and actually try really hard.

Jeff:
I’ll tell people sometimes they’ll say, Hey, I’ve got a guest here. So do, you know, do your very best or whatever. And be like, Oh, I should go look over the message, see what it is I’m talking about. I should have prepared. Man, I should have prepared this week. I knew I should have been ready.

Chris:
You should always assume that anybody on a public stage in any setting is trying their best.

Jeff:
So in this situation, if you’re new to If you’re new to our podcast, Chris and I, we both pastor at the same church outside of Detroit, Michigan, Sterling Heights. And we just are a couple of guys who like to talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways. That’s what it said literally in the roll-in. But what we don’t do, we always know what the passage is, but what we don’t do is come in with a whole bunch of study notes and work it out. We’re just literally talking about the words that are on the page. And so the whole thing really, we’re ad-libbing. And so if you listen very long, you’ll figure that out.

Chris:
Yeah. It’s not hard to figure out. It’s not hard. So we’re going to start out with a segment that Desiree is calling Dad Joke Competition, which is one of my favorites.

Jeff:
Yes. Last time was rough. It was really rough. Those dad jokes were rough.

Chris:
It’s probably the worst batch we’ve ever had.

Jeff:
But this might be better.

Chris:
Yeah. I like the first one already. Can I read the first one? Yes. Scientists get bored after watching the earth turn after 24 hours. So they called it a day.

Jeff:
Okay. I like that one.

Chris:
Although God called it a day, but that’s okay.

Jeff:
Yeah. So I’m struggling with this one. Yep. My daughter was doing history homework and asked if I knew about Galileo.

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
I said he was a poor boy from a poor family.

Chris:
Oh, that’s great. He’s just a poor boy from a poor family.

Jeff:
There you go. Bohemian Rhapsody.

Chris:
Yes, yes. Galileo, Galileo, Galileo.

Jeff:
I was rough on that one. I was rough on my little imitation there.

Chris:
Good job though. Very nice. Alright, number two. Did you know that milk is the fastest liquid in the universe? No. Before you see it, it’s already pasteurized.

Jeff:
No Okay as an American it’s sad to see that nothing is made in the USA anymore I just bought a new TV, and it says built-in antenna. I don’t even know where that is I

Chris:
All right here. We go. I bought a new iPad and named it the titanic now when I plug into my laptop It says the titanic is sinking That’s why and sinking of sinking.

Jeff:
Oh Two rough ones in a row there. Yeah, that was pretty rough. I visited my friend at his new house He told me to make myself at home, so I throw him out. I hate visitors I Make yourself at home. Okay, get out.

Chris:
I hate company That’s great That’s great.

Jeff:
There you go.

Chris:
All right number four. I was kicked out because of my Arnold Schwarzenegger impression I’m sorry. I was gonna try to say impersonations, but it says impression. Sorry, let me start over Oh, please I was kicked out because of my Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions, but don’t worry. I’ll be back

Jeff:
Okay. That got a giggle. All right. There are two words that will open a lot of doors for you. Push and pull.

Chris:
There you go. Okay. That’s kind of a grinner. Yeah. That’s not, that’s not a, yeah. Yeah. If I had twin daughters, I would name the first one Kate and the second one duplicate. Okay.

Jeff:
I got fired from my job as a taxi driver. Turns out customers don’t appreciate when you go the extra mile. That was a good one.

Chris:
Yeah. Go in the extra mile.

Jeff:
Okay. Was that it? It’s a biblical principle. It is a biblical principle, but it shouldn’t be applied if you’re a taxi driver.

Chris:
Right. Correct. Yes. Correct. Yeah. The guy told me the other day, he went to Vegas and, uh, Oh, it was the guy I had breakfast with. He went to Vegas and he said he got in a cab and they said, oh no, the traffic on the strip is just really, really bad. So he goes out of his way and he goes all the way around. And he said it was like, he looked it up later, it was like three times the distance. And he’s like, that’ll be X amount of dollars. And he goes, well, never again in Vegas.

Jeff:
Yep. There you go. Well, um, very exciting. And I would say three out of five of mine were good ones.

Chris:
And yeah, I would say two or three out of five were good. Okay.

Jeff:
It’s getting better. It’s getting better. Cause we were afraid that we’re going to, we were going to have to dock, you know, Desiree’s pay or something.

Chris:
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. We can’t be having bad dad jokes.

Chris:
From all the dollars that we give her.

Jeff:
The dozens of dollars. Dozens of dollars. That’s terrible. No, thank you, Des. That was great.

Chris:
All right. Well, today we’re launching into a brand new book, Jeff. A brand new book. It’s called First Samuel. First Samuel. It’s the first of two. I wonder who wrote it. Let me think. Samuel?

Jeff:
Samuel. Do you think? Yeah. Yeah. It’s all about Samuel. The whole book. Samuel. And if you were curious, so is Second Samuel. Yes. It’s about Samuel.

Chris:
Israel has been ruled by judges at this time for about 300 years, and Samuel is Israel’s final judge. He’s the last one of those judges. He grew up in the tabernacle, as we’re about to read, as a priest in training under the priest Eli. And so, yeah, we’re going to jump right into it.

Jeff:
So, the beginning of Samuel’s life is really great. And I think many people, many of our listeners probably will resonate with this story just a little bit. For sure. It says, there was a man named Elkanah who lived in Ramah in the region of Zuff in the hill country of Ephraim. That’s a mouthful. He was the son of Jerohom, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuff of Ephraim. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah did not. Boy, there are a lot of words in that one.

Chris:
Yeah, that was a heck of an intro.

Jeff:
Each year Elkanah would travel to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Heaven’s armies at the tabernacle. The priests of the Lord at that time were the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. On the days of Elkanah presented his sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to Panina and each of her children. And though he loved Hannah, he would give her only one choice portion because the Lord had not given her any children. So Panina would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. Year after year, it was the same. Penina would taunt Hannah as they went to the tabernacle. Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat. Why are you crying, Hannah? Elcano would ask. Why aren’t you eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? You have me. Isn’t that better than having 10 sons? I would not advise that.

Chris:
No, that is not a good approach at all.

Jeff:
We’ll continue on. Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow, O Lord of heaven’s armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime. And as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut. As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her, and seeing her lips moving, but hearing no sound, he thought she’d been drinking. “‘Must you come here drunk?’ he demanded. “‘Throw away your wine!’ “‘Oh no, sir,’ she replied. “‘I haven’t been drinking wine or anything stronger, but I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Don’t think I’m a wicked woman, for I’ve been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.'” In that case, Eli said, go in peace. May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him. Oh, thank you, sir. She exclaimed. And then she went back and began to eat again. And she was no longer sad. The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Rama. When Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her plea. And in due time, she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, I asked the Lord for him.

Chris:
So there it is. So Samuel from the very beginning was birthed, even his conception happened because of a plea of God hearing, you know, meeting somebody in their anguish. So Samuel starts the right way from the Lord. Yeah. I mean, I mean, all children are from the Lord.

Jeff:
Yeah. I was going to say. Yeah.

Chris:
But, but yeah, but, but, but a very cool story nonetheless.

Jeff:
Yeah, the struggle, right? So I think there’s many people who struggle with not being able to have children or whatever. But even before we get into that part, the weird part about this story for us in the West is that it’s these two wives that are struggling. And the closest thing we have is the current wife and the ex-wife. Right. Or the Mormons. Well, there’s that. I don’t think that’s legal, but they do it. So, you know, because we don’t live in a polygamous society per se, it’s kind of an odd thing. But, you know, and God is not endorsing polygamy. As a matter of fact, God was against it. Right. But it was a cultural thing. People did it and it was wrong. It was sinful. And anytime you break God’s laws, there’s always problems. It’s always harder. It’s a harder life. Remember that? That’s what Moses had said, you choose life or death. It’s going to be better or worse based on whether or not you choose to obey God’s laws.

Chris:
A lot of people are, oh my goodness gracious, a lot of people are confused about that because like great men of God, like Solomon, right? The wisest man who ever lived, didn’t he have like 900 wives?

Jeff:
Yeah.

Chris:
A thousand wives, 900 concubines or something like this. So he, so it’s not that it’s not that God ever said that that was okay. It’s just that he did what culture dictated and it was outside of what God allowed.

Jeff:
There’s a note in Life Application Study Bible, it says husbands, this is about Elkanah and Penina. Yeah. It says husbands can be insensitive for many reasons. No doubt. But often they simply suffer from ignorance.

Chris:
No doubt.

Jeff:
No doubt. It says Elkanah had two wives, which doubled his opportunities to be insensitive.

Chris:
That’s hilarious. That’s really good. Yeah.

Jeff:
So, you know, this, this, this marriage relationship causes so many problems because he clearly, he loves Hannah. Penina had more children. She, she was able to, and Hannah was not. And so she took that as her badge of honor and she just put down another. And, you know, I think sometimes even, you know, Penina’s insensitivity, sometimes we say things, we just don’t realize how bad it hurts.

Chris:
Oh, insensitivity. She mocked her.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. But it was cruel. But the mocking thing, you know, uh, could have been, she’s a funny person. She could have had a good sense of humor and she’s just talking fun.

Chris:
Talk about believing the best.

Jeff:
No, no, no, no. What I’m saying is, There’s lots of ways to hurt people with our words. It could have been, she was just being silly, but it hurt Hannah deeply. It could have been that she was being mean and it hurt Hannah deeply. And I think that we can do the same thing. I tend to not be a mean person. but I tend to be a silly person who hurts people a lot with my words. So that, that’s where I was going with that is it could have been, we can hurt people without trying to hurt people. So whether, whether Penina was trying to hurt her or whether just the mocking, the teasing, it could have been, man, you know, it was really easy for you to go to the tabernacle today. You didn’t have to get up and pack four diaper bags. Right. It could have been just a jab. It could have been a goofy thing. And then when you go, Oh, that was really me say, Oh, I didn’t mean for it to be mean. But a lot of times you just don’t realize how, how, how bad it hurts other people.

Chris:
I do understand what you’re saying. And the application certainly is there, but I’m going to go on record and say, uh, the Bible says she would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because, uh, she had, she had no children.

Jeff:
Because the Lord had kept her from having children. I’m not saying that that’s what she was doing. I’m saying you can hurt people with your words, even when you don’t intend to.

Chris:
Yeah, and I’ll tell you what, that’s the whole adage that the word sarcasm, remember what it means? The word sarcasm, what it means? The word literally means to tear the flesh. That’s what it means.

Jeff:
Which is the best humor, by the way.

Chris:
Right, right! Which is tearing flesh. So to rip the flesh is to hurt somebody or to wound somebody. And sarcasm is something that, you know, we like to say, oh, just kidding. OK, it’s not funny unless it’s true, right? Right.

Jeff:
So it’s funny. I like sarcasm. You do too. Oh, I love sarcasm. Yeah, sarcasm is fun. But sometimes we go too far with it. I don’t think that was the situation here, but what I am saying is the sensitivities of other people. She may have been digging a little and not realizing how deep the wound was. Yeah. Right. It’s possible even then when you’re being mean, sometimes we just don’t realize. And so even in today’s society now, I mean, we see children taking their own lives over things that people said online, right? It’s just, it’s a shocking world that we live in now where words are so, can be deadly. And so in this situation here, she is, she’s just brokenhearted. She has nowhere to go. She’s fasting. She won’t eat. And so she’s praying and Elkana goes, honey, You know, sure. Penina has lots of children, but you’ve got me, right?

Chris:
Right. And of course he doesn’t care because he has got a bunch of children. Yeah. Right. So what a what a pig-headed guy.

Jeff:
Aren’t I all that you need? Right.

Chris:
Aren’t I better than 10 sons? That’s terrible. Let me let me say this to to the to the people listening who struggle with infertility. It is a just a You know, I remember when I became a singles director and I got hired at a church and I was with a single adults who have never been married. And I was talking about the pain that they were feeling. And as I was trying to relate to them, one of them, I remember looked at me and said, Hey, let me ask you a question. And I said, I said, yeah. And she goes, have you ever broken your arm? And I said, no. And she goes, then don’t even pretend to know what it feels like to break your arm to somebody else who has a broken arm. She goes, just admit that you have no idea. And I was like, oh, and then I realized right then and there, I was like, because I was pretty young. I was in my young thirties. I remember thinking to myself, uh, that’s a, that’s a really good lesson. right? To not even pretend to understand what those kinds, you know, the pain of somebody who wants to be married, you know, in this case, she was like a 40 year old woman who her whole life, her only desire is to be married and she’s not married. Right. So, uh, that kind of pain, uh, the, the kind of pain that, uh, that, uh, that a couple may feel when they’re trying to have children to somebody who has children. Right. So I, I, uh, I just think there’s wisdom in saying, um, if, if, if you’re that person, then find somebody around you, uh, who has gone through the same struggle. Yeah.

Jeff:
Uh, I would say all humans have experienced pain that others can’t comprehend.

Chris:
I agree with that.

Jeff:
So a mature way to respond might be to say, I don’t entirely understand your pain, but I do know pain. I’ve had pain I maybe can’t talk about. Yeah. Right. And, and I, and I think that if you are feeling, if you’re like that woman who says, don’t even pretend like you understand my pain, you understand pain. Right. Right. So maybe for her, like, if you are going through pain, don’t be resentful for somebody who’s trying to connect with you.

Chris:
Right. Right. So that’s a bitterness thing a little bit. I was at fault. Yeah, probably so. But I was at fault.

Jeff:
But, but we can give permission to people to say, to try to make a connection and go, if they’re being dismissive, that’s one thing.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
But if they’re trying to say, if, if you’re trying to say, Hey, I get it, pain, you know, I, I’ve had a lot of pain in my life, a lot of pain in my life. And so every once in a while, you’ll be dismissed because what you’re trying to do is empathize. And somebody else goes, you have no idea what you’re talking about. And in my mind, there’s a touch of narcissism in that moment when, when the other person refuses to allow you to empathize. Right. At all. That’s right. So there’s, there’s brokenness on both sides, that pain causes us to do really weird things. And we’re not always at our best when we’re in the middle of pain.

Chris:
Right. Well, hurt people, hurt people.

Jeff:
That’s right. Hurt people, hurt people. And so, so we just have to understand that. I think one of the best notes I’ve ever read in the life application study Bible is right here in this story. What? I’m not joking. Listen to this. It said, the one for verse 10, it says, Hannah had good reason to feel discouraged and bitter. She was unable to bear children. She shared her husband with a woman who ridiculed her. Her loving husband could not solve her problem, and even the high priest misunderstood her motives. But instead of retaliating or giving up hope, Hannah prayed. She brought a problem honestly before the Lord. Each of us may face times of barrenness when nothing comes to birth in our work, our service, or our relationships. It’s difficult to pray in faith when we feel so ineffective. But as Hannah discovered, prayer opens the way for God to work. What a great note. She had every reason in the world to be bitter, every reason in the world to be angry, every reason in the world to just give up and quit. And instead of those things, she could have been resentful towards her religion. She could have been resentful towards her spouse. She’d be resentful towards other family members. She could be resentful against God himself, against religious leaders. And instead she just went to her knees to God because only God could answer her prayers. Right. And I love her response because most of us don’t respond like Hannah responds. And maybe that’s why most of us don’t get the miracles Hannah got.

Chris:
Well, it’s faithfulness that endures all, right? Yeah. So here she is just, you know, believing that, you know, prayer is the best thing and prayer matters. And so, you know, Eli, as we all know, well, for those of us who know the Bible, he wasn’t in a good spot. No. Right. The high priest. Right. He wasn’t the best on his best behavior. Why would he ever walk up and just assume that she’s drunk? Right. What a goofball. And we find out that he’s just really not in a good spot later on. But yeah, you’re right. The faithfulness of Hannah, you know, looking to God and believing in God and that never wavering is pretty admirable.

Jeff:
And then her willingness to say, God, more than anything, I want a baby. And then to say, and I’ll give the baby back to you. What a commitment, right? Because a lot of times I want more than anything. I want a baby. When God finally gives a baby, then we hang on so tightly. And it’s like this, you know, tiger mom kind of mentality, just fight everybody, fight everything, hang on tightly. This is mine now. And we almost get to the point where the gift becomes the God instead of the gift giver. Right. And so even in her prayer, She was saying, I will not make this child more important than you. And there is something to that, that when we’re going to God and we so desperately want a thing, we want to be married. We want a child. We want this job. We want this college opportunity. We want, right. Oh God, you know, I’ll do anything to get it. And really we’re almost worshiping the thing that we want rather than worshiping the God who gives. And so from the very beginning, she’s saying, I will not allow this. I’m praying for you to give me the, my heart’s desire. There’s nothing in my life I want more, but I want you to know this. It’s not going to be a more and more important than you. And I think that, uh, you know, when, when we have that brokenness, that disappointment, that sadness, that hole in our life, we also have to be, I think, cognizant of the fact that we’re tempted to make what we think would fill that hole in our life. more important than God. And she doesn’t. And I think on every level, you know, we talk about this sometimes we’ve, we’ve talked about different people in the Bible that seem to have almost a perfect reputation and no real negative things. And here’s another one, Hannah, there’s nothing negative about her in the Bible. She responds the right way every single time in this. And it’s just, it’s really a beautiful thing. So I think she’s a woman that we should all look up to and aspire to be a little bit more like. Now, her story really becomes amazing. You know, God does show up and she does have the baby. I hate to spoil it tomorrow, but that’s what happens.

Chris:
Well, you know, the book’s written by Samuel. So I think we figured that part out. All right. Well, that’s our time. So we will see you hopefully next time on The Bible Guys.