Talking and Listening to God

 

When we use the silent treatment in a relationship typically it’s a manipulative technique that’s abusive and counter-productive.  But that’s not to say that using silence even in discipline can’t be effective.  God uses silence as discipline (Amos 8:11-12). 

Employing silence can work for a leader in group situations.  I’ve coached youth basketball for many years.  There have been times when our team has walked into the locker room at halftime every player jabbering away, often pooling ignorance.  They have their opinions about what’s worked and what hasn’t.  When they sit and should be listening, they’re often still talking even when I start to give my input.  The room is filled with voices.  Some needing to be silenced.  One needing to be heard.  With everyone talking no one is really listening.  At this point I could and often have screamed to get their attention.  It’s worked.  But often a better way is to simply stop talking, arms folded with a bit of a glare.  That works better.  At that point the boys are ready to listen.  And they need to hear my voice as we talk about our first half performance and the game plan.  What we’re doing right and adjustments we need to make.  I’m the coach and they need my input, instruction, advice and encouragement.  On their own they’ll do what’s right in their own eyes which will lead to lead to confusion and chaos on the court. 

              In the days of the Judges there was moral chaos and spiritual confusion.  People did what was right in their own eyes because there was no king.  No Coach with the authority to direct and make vital decisions.  God’s people had rejected Him as king leaving scattered voices throughout the community offering misguided and conflicting advice leading to some outrageous and disgusting behavior.   God’s response as we see it recorded in 1 Samuel 3:1 is similar to his later response in Amos 8.  His Word was rare in those days.  Revelation wasn’t forthcoming.  The Coach wasn’t talking, the players weren’t adjusting, chaos was reigning and defeat was inevitable.

God speaks.  What He speaks is preserved and circulated.  His words and His actions handed down from one generation to the next.  And in the stories He tells we find Him listening.   God has created a path for human flourishing by being communicative.  He paves the way for order to prevail when His is the voice we listen to.  Failing to listen to God can result in some unwanted and severely painful cultural realities.  In 1 Samuel 1 we see despair threatening to overcome Hannah in a family culture that had pushed her to the margins because of her infertility and her husband’s failure to listen to God.  She was in an emotional place where she could only see herself as irrelevant at best in her own marriage.  She nearly succumbs to despair until she latches onto that sliver of hope that comes with knowing God hears us.  Despair with hope leads to desperation.  The exact place God wants us to be.  The place we recognize communication is imperative.  Despair without hope leads to disaster.  And the difference is a God who communicates.

Elkanah is a critical part of this story.  He is a good guy who seems devoted to God but he’s compromised by a complicated situation.  He’s a man conditioned and shaped by his times.  He has a beloved wife.  A woman he adores.  But she’s barren.  And having kids in his culture is as close to necessary as it comes.  Probably because he feels the pressure to produce, he searches for and finds a fertile woman to make a second wife.   One man with two wives is compromise.   One wife for love and one for babies is culturally acceptable, but biblically its drift.  Because there are biblical precedents describing polygamous situations especially among the patriarchs, we know this situation is a disaster waiting to happen.  We watch as Hannah’s personal crisis unfolds in actions that reflect deep depression.  Every day has its own pain while she is provoked by a rival she can hardly avoid. Here’s a window into the home of a family in the period of the Judges where we have a trash-talking baby factory and a downcast wife empty and desperate.

Desperation can be very productive for God’s child.  This child wants children and though God has closed her womb, He can open it as well.  Like He told Sarah and later Mary.  Nothing is impossible for Him.  Hannah’s barrenness connects her with the matriarchs, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel.  Which connects Elkanah with the patriarchs.  Faced with childlessness Abraham and Sarah schemed.  Jacob flew into a rage (Gen 30:2).  But Isaac prayed (Gen 25:21).  What did Elkanah do?  He wasn’t really listening to God. 

The text is explicit.  The Lord closed Hannah’s womb.  Who could open it?  Elkanah should have learned from the precedents available to him.  We silence God when we fail to listen.  To pay attention. 

Elkanah wasn’t a bad guy.  He did the modern equivalent of going to church regularly.  Getting his family around the table to celebrate the prescribed meal whether it was the Passover or another feast that required his attendance at the worship center. 

He loved his wife.  He pampered her.  He awkwardly tried to console her and it helped a little.  She ate and drank at least while before she was starving herself.  But all the food and drink in the world couldn’t fill her emptiness.  He needed the help that only the Life-Giver can offer.  He should have gone further and deeper in his communication with God.  Listening more closely might have driven him to talk more intimately and intelligently with the Lord. 

Failure to really pay attention to God contributes to a shallow spiritual culture.  We can get some things right, like celebrating the feasts then or going to church now.  But being content with superficial leaves us woefully short of what we can enjoy with our God.  At the very least Elkanah should have been joining Hannah in her desperation for God’s intervention. 

Hannah showed spiritual depth arising out of her grief and the excruciating pain that clung to her heart daily.  Her desperation drove her to prayer.  And the result of her prayer was incredible comfort and satisfaction for her, accompanied by the need she felt to make a sacrifice.  A living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God.  Her piety and her selflessness led to a new beginning and new light for a nation living in darkness and despair.  The filling of a leadership void.  The start of a revival of listening and responding to God.