Women of the Bible Part 10

3. When have you been profoundly disappointed? What were your prayers like at that time?

4. Describe what it might have been like for Hannah to fulfill her vow to G.o.d. What does her action tell you about her?

5. What does Hannah's song of praise to the Lord (1 Samuel 2:1- 10) have to do with the events of the story? What does she say about G.o.d, and why is it relevant to her life?

Thursday HER PROMISE.

When G.o.d met Hannah at the temple in Shiloh, he not only answered her prayer for a child, he answered her prayer for comfort in her misery. He gave her consolation in her disappointment and strength to face her situation. Scripture does not say that she went away sure she would bear a child, but it does make it clear that she went away comforted: "Her face was no longer downcast" (1 Samuel 1:18). What even the love and care of her husband Elkanah could not provide, G.o.d could provide.

G.o.d is willing to meet us just as he met Hannah. Whatever our distress, whatever hard situations we face, he is willing-more than that, he is eager-to meet our needs and give us his grace and comfort. No other person - not our husband, not our closest friends, not our parents, not our children-can render the relief, support, and encouragement that our G.o.d has waiting for us.

Promises in Scripture My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

-Psalm 119:50 We rejoice in the hope of the glory of G.o.d. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because G.o.d has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

-Romans 5:2 - 5 And we know that in all things G.o.d works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

-Romans 8:28 Friday HER LEGACY OF PRAYER.

In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life."

- i Samuel i:io - 11 Reflect On: 1 Samuel 2:1 - 10.

Praise G.o.d: That he knows our hearts.

Offer Thanks: For already answering so many of your prayers.

Confess: Your tendency to pour out your heart to everyone but G.o.d, making him a last, rather than first, resort.

Ask G.o.d: To give you the grace to trust his strength.

Lift Your Heart One way to build your confidence in G.o.d is to form a habit Ly of remembrance. It's so easy to forget everything he's already done by being preoccupied with what you want him to do right here, right now. But by forgetting his blessings, you form a habit of ingrat.i.tude. By frequently thanking G.o.d for what he's done, you build a habit of grat.i.tude, which will also deepen your trust in G.o.d's compa.s.sion, mercy, faithfulness, and power.

Find a blank notebook or a lovely sc.r.a.pbook that can become your Remembrance Book. In it, write down ways in which G.o.d has answered your prayers. Keep letters, photos of loved ones, or newspaper clippings - anything that reminds you of answered prayers. Let your Remembrance Book be a tangible way to keep G.o.d's faithfulness in the forefront of your heart.

Father, thank you for all the prayers you've answered during my lifetime. You've answered small prayers and big prayers, evening prayers and morning prayers, quiet prayers and loud prayers, anxious prayers and peaceful prayers. May my own prayers be shaped according to your faithfulness, becoming less selfish and frantic and more calm and trusting with each day that pa.s.ses. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Michal.

HER NAME MEANS.

"Who Is Like G.o.d?"

Her Character: A woman of strong emotions, she was unable to control the important circ.u.mstances of her life. Forcibly separated from two husbands, she lost her father and her brother, who were savaged by their enemies.

Her Sorrow: That she was ensnared in the drawn-out battle between Saul and David.

Her Joy: Though short-lived, she enjoyed a pa.s.sionate love for David.

Key Scriptures: 1 Samuel 18:20-29; 19:11 - 17;2 Samuel 6:16 - 23 Monday HER STORY.

Scene One Michal stretched herself across the window's edge. Leaning out as far as she dared, she could see her husband running through the night shadows, his movements swift and lithe, like a young stag evading its predators. Even if her father, the king, pursued with an army, she was confident he would not catch her David.

She had loved the shepherd boy since the day he had calmed Saul's troubled soul with his harp playing. After he defeated the hideous Goliath with only a sling and a stone, all Israel fell in love with him. But it was for her alone that David had slain two hundred Philistines - to prove his worth.

She turned from the window, grateful for the chance to have aided her husband's escape. Quickly she dressed one of the household idols, placing it in their bed and topping it with goat's hair to make it look like a sleeping David. She was ready for her father's men when they came pounding on her door.

"David is ill," she told them.

So they returned to King Saul, who immediately ordered them back, saying, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him."

Discovering the ruse, Saul confronted his daughter: "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?"

Michal lowered her eyes and replied, "He said to me, 'Let me get away. Why should I kill you?' " She held her breath, certain her father would never swallow so bold a lie.

Scene Two Nine years or more have pa.s.sed. Michal glanced out the window, arms folded tightly against her breast, observing the scene below. David, now the king, had entered Jerusalem, leaping and dancing as the ark of the covenant was carried into Jerusalem. He looked ridiculous to Michal, more like a romping goat than a great king.

David offered the sacrifices and blessed the people. Then he entered his own house to bless it. But Saul's daughter met him with scornful eyes: "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"

"It was before the Lord, who chose me," he replied, "rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel-I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."

Twice, Michal stood at a window observing David. In the first scene, Scripture paints her as David's wife, in the second as Saul's daughter. In fact, her att.i.tude is so changed that we feel perplexed, watching her as she watches David. To understand what may have shaped Michal's heart in the intervening years, we need to find a corridor connecting the two windows, a pa.s.sageway that somehow led from love to scorn.

Michal may have expected her separation from David to be a short one, her idealism forging a happy ending to their fairy-tale love. Perhaps she believed David would find a way to protect her from her father's wrath. Was she shocked when real life intervened and her father punished her by marrying her to another man? Did her bitterness grow during David's long absence? Had she finally made peace with her new marriage only to be torn from her husband when David demanded her back after Saul's death? Did she question G.o.d's judgments, identifying more with the dead than the living after her father perished in a desperate battle with the Philistines?

Perhaps Michal's bitterness swelled to rage when she realized she had always been someone else's p.a.w.n, a mere woman manipulated by powerful men. Her own father used her, promising her to David in hopes she would prove a snare to him. And, finally, one of her brothers handed her back to David after Saul's death, further legitimizing David's claim to the throne. A princess, then a queen, she was still a slave.

Michal's story is tragic. Throughout the difficult circ.u.mstances of her life, we see little evidence of a faith to sustain her. Instead, she is tossed back and forth, her heart left to draw its own bitter conclusions. In the last scene with David, we see a woman blind with scorn, making the very mistake G.o.d cautioned the prophet Samuel against in his search for a king to succeed the wayward Saul: "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

The truth is, G.o.d is the only one who can see into the depths of anyone's heart, including Michal's. He knew everything that had happened, both good and bad. Still the story of Michal seems to indicate that she grew to be more like Saul than like David. As such, she reminds us that even victims have choices. No matter how much we've been sinned against, we still have the power to choose the att.i.tude of our heart. If we cast ourselves on G.o.d's mercy, asking him to help us, he cannot refuse. Even in difficulty, he will dwell in us, shaping our own wayward hearts into the likeness of his own.

Tuesday HER LIFE AND TIMES.

WORSHIP.

When David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, after it had been in Philistine hands for a number of years and after a fateful earlier attempt to move it, he did so with a deep sense of awe. The ark was moved only six steps before he stopped and sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Then, as the priests brought the ark into Jerusalem, David "danced before the Lord with all his might" (2 Samuel 6:14), and the people with him shouted and blew on trumpets.

There was nothing subdued or restrained about David's worship of the Lord. The psalms of praise he wrote also reveal his deep love for G.o.d, a love so all-encompa.s.sing it could not be contained, but burst forth in exuberant worship.

Sacrifices and offerings were an important part of worship in Old Testament times. Since sin separated the worshiper from G.o.d, sacrifice was needed to reestablish the relationship and make true worship possible. The response of praise to G.o.d took several forms: prayer, as when Solomon dedicated the temple (1 Kings 8); praise in singing as individuals (2 Samuel 23:1) and in choirs (Nehemiah 12); praise with musical instruments (Psalm 150); and praise with dancing (Exodus 15:20-21; 2 Samuel 6:14 - 16; Psalm 149:3).

But G.o.d makes it clear that he won't be satisfied with only the forms of worship. Sacrifices and music and dancing have no meaning apart from a heart and life truly dedicated to the Lord. G.o.d's words to the prophet Micah (Micah 6:6 - 8) clearly state this truth: With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted G.o.d?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown all you people what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your G.o.d.

Michal's contempt for her husband, David, revealed her own lack of true dedication. She was content to be a critical spectator rather than a true worshiper of G.o.d. Whenever anyone puts appearances or tradition or form above a true desire to worship our G.o.d and Savior, we'd best step carefully . . . and read the words of G.o.d to Micah the prophet, which are as true for us today as they were for the Israelites of the prophet's day.

Wednesday HER LEGACY IN SCRIPTURE.

Read 1 Samuel 18:20 - 27; 19:11 - 17.

1. How would you describe Michal in these pa.s.sages?

Read 1 Samuel 25:43 - 44 and 2 Samuel 3:14 - 16.

2. After Michal helped David escape, she didn't see him for more than nine years. How do you think these events in the intervening years affected her? How would they have affected you?

Read 2 Samuel 6:12 - 23.

3. Why do you think Michal responded to this scene of worship as she did? Why do you suppose she was in her room watching from the window instead of in the crowd partic.i.p.ating?

4. What is your biggest barrier to true worship? What could bring that barrier down so that you are a partic.i.p.ant rather than a spectator?

5. What was David trying to tell Michal in 2 Samuel 6:21 - 22?

6. Think about your own experience of suffering-perhaps even victimization. How have you responded? Has suffering tended to make you tough and bitter? Shattered and helpless? Strong and full of faith? Why?

Thursday HER PROMISE.

Michal's contempt for true worship can be contrasted with David's love of worship. He worshiped G.o.d with abandon, with a true heart. His devotion was so deep, so real, it had to be expressed in the most extravagant praise and in dancing "with all his might." That's the sort of worship G.o.d is looking for from his people, and he responds with a promise to bless.

Promises in Scripture Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name.

Bring an offering and come before him; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

- i Chronicles 16:29 Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, and seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the mult.i.tudes of heaven worship you.

-Nehemiah 9:5 - 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our G.o.d.

-Psalm 95:6 - 7 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

-Psalm 100:4 Friday HER LEGACY OF PRAYER.

Now Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. "I will give her to him," he thought, "so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him."

- i Samuel 18:20 - 21 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

-2 Samuel 6:i6 Reflect On: 1 Samuel 19:11 - 17; 2 Samuel 6:16-23.

Praise G.o.d: Because he is the same-yesterday, today, and forever. Offer Thanks: That G.o.d gives us the freedom to choose how we will respond to him.

Confess: Allowing skepticism or cynicism to infiltrate your faith. Ask G.o.d: To increase your awe of him.

Lift Your Heart D avid was so exuberant that he danced in public as a way of worshiping G.o.d.You may not be quite ready to take your joy to the streets, but you can loosen up a bit by raising your hands in prayer, visiting a church whose worship style is a little outside your comfort zone, or just dancing and singing along with a praise and worship tape when no one else is home. Go ahead. Enjoy yourself in G.o.d's presence! If he's not worth getting excited about, who is?

Shout with joy to G.o.d, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to G.o.d, "How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name" (Psalm 66:1 - 4).

Abigail.

HER NAME MEANS.

"My Father Is Joy"

Her Character: Generous, quick-witted, and wise, she is one of the Bible's great peacemakers.

Her Sorrow: To have been mismatched in marriage to her first husband.

Her Joy: That G.o.d used her to save lives, eventually making her the wife of David.

Key Scripture: 1 Samuel 25:2 - 42 Monday HER STORY.

Blockhead, numskull, nincomp.o.o.p - the words strike us as both harsh and humorous. But any woman married to a man worthy of such labels would have little to laugh about.

Abigail must have felt suffocated, having been paired with just such a husband. Her father may have thought the wealthy Nabal was a catch, little realizing the man's domineering att.i.tude might one day endanger his daughter's future. But fools and ruin often keep close company, as Abigail discovered.

For some time Abigail had been hearing of David: his encounter with Goliath, his ruddy good looks, his prowess in battle, his rift with King Saul. Recently, he had become her near neighbor in the Desert of Maon, west of the Dead Sea, where he had taken refuge from Saul. Since David had arrived with his six hundred men, marauders kept clear of her husband's livestock, and Nabal's flocks prospered as a result.

But when David sent ten of his men to ask Nabal for provisions, Nabal, who had grown richer by the day thanks to David, nearly spit in their faces. "Who is this David? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?" Rich though he was, Nabal had just foolishly insulted the region's most powerful man.

Aware of their danger, one of the servants ran quickly to Abigail, begging her to intervene. As Nabal's wife, she must have suffered his arrogance every day of her life. But this time his folly jeopardized the entire household. Wasting no time, and without a word to her husband, she loaded a caravan of donkeys with gifts for David and his men - freshly baked bread, skins of wine, red meat, and various delicacies-and took them to David's camp. As soon as she saw him, she fell to the ground at his feet, making one of the longest speeches by a woman recorded in the Bible: "My lord," she pleaded, "let the blame be on me alone. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name - his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent. Please forgive your servant's offense, for the Lord will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the Lord's battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone pursues you, your life will be held securely by the Lord your G.o.d. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling."

Her well-chosen words, of course, reminded David of his success against Goliath, erasing his anger and enabling his gracious reply: "Praise be to the Lord, the G.o.d of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. If you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak." In addition to saving lives, Abigail's wisdom had spared David from sinning, reminding him that vengeance belongs only to G.o.d.

After her encounter with David, Abigail went to Carmel, where Nabal had been shearing his sheep and celebrating his good fortune. Once again, she found him playing the fool. Oblivious to danger, he was drunkenly presiding over a festival banquet, like a great king. She waited until morning, when he was sober, to tell him what had happened. As soon as Nabal heard the news, his heart failed. Ten days later he was dead.