Hannah is very aware that the conception and birth of her son is a gift from God. She comes good on her promise to dedicate Samuel to the LORD’s service at the house of the LORD. And somehow, rather than agonising over having to part with her son at such a young age, Hannah is able to rejoice in her circumstances as the redemptive work of God. She sees her own situation as a picture of what God is doing through the bigger story of her people - bringing down arrogant humanity and lifting up those who seem weak but trust in him. She sees in her circumstances a picture of God’s character and good purposes at work - she sees the hope of humanity.

 

And despite the various differences between us and Hannah, it is a wonderful example of turning from the circumstances themselves (which have made her feel so #blessed!) and to praise God for who he is and to consider how it points to God’s bigger plans to ‘lift up the needy from the ash heap’. When good things happen to us, even in answer to desperate prayer, we are tempted to revel in the pleasure of the ’thing’ itself rather than revel in the giver of the thing and his good plans for all of God’s world. Of course, it was made easier to do this given her prayer and promise focused on God’s plans for his people in the first place. Hannah had just handed over her son to the service of God when she sung this hymn of praise. She saw that God’s answer to her prayer was not just for her pleasure, but for the sake of his good plans. Let’s be praying for things that we are convinced are part of God’s good plans for this world, and turn to God in praise for what he’s doing and will do when we see him answering these prayers.

A new month and a new book of the Bible. Today we start 1 Samuel, which carries the story of Israel from the period of the judges to the beginning of the monarchy. In particular, it serves to introduce God’s chosen king, David, and retells the dramatic story of his difficult path to the throne.

 

But all that’s to come. In this first episode, we’re given the background to the birth of Samuel, the prophet who serves as the final judge of Israel - the one who will anoint the first kings of Israel. And what we are reminded of in this story, is that Samuel’s birth comes about through the sovereign plans of God, and also the desperate prayers of a heartbroken woman. Infertility is heartbreaking in any time and place. And yet, in the culture of ancient Israel, as a second wife, being taunted by the other wife - well, you can only imagine how bad it would be. And this story focuses on the prayer of Hannah, this heartbroken woman, as she begs God for a child, promising to dedicate the child to God’s service if only God will hear her. 

 

The point of the story is not that God will answer our prayer if we are desperate enough. The point is simply that real prayer isn’t complicated. Our job is to bring our requests to God, his job is to answer and rule in his wisdom. As the Explore notes point out - there’s no trick to prayer. It’s simply having a deep sense of our need and a deep sense of God’s ability and willingness to answer. Real prayer is ‘pouring our heart out before the LORD’ (v15). Prayer is resisting the temptation to hide behind self sufficiency. It’s avoiding being too proud to vocalise what we really want from God, or allowing bitterness to turn us inward. Hannah even acknowledges that she’s praying from the depth of her resentment! But she still turns to God as the only true source of hope in the midst of her anguish and need. There’s nothing wrong with being deeply hurt, frustrated and troubled by the circumstances God has put you in. The important thing is to bring that pain to God in faith, trusting him to do what is right. I’m praying that I can instinctively bring my deep needs before God, whether I’m in anguish over them or not.

Well the wheels fell off the plan to post reflections for a few days... (I blame writing a sermon and lack of multitasking skills!) But we’ve picked it up just in time for the final passage of Amos.

 

In case you also missed it, things kept getting worse for Israel and Judah in Chapters 7-9. Despite God’s desire to show mercy, the time for comprehensive judgement was coming. God himself would bring disaster on his people - no one would be able to hide.

 

But in the final passage, the mood changes. The theme of judgement and destruction gives way to restoration and hope. God is determined not just to hold his people to account for their sin, along with the rest of the world, but to restore, rebuild and redeem. Like all the prophets, Amos sees that God is ultimately determined to bring about salvation and redemption through judgement. He will not bypass or avoid judgement, but neither will he give up on his promise to bless the world through his chosen people. And as the notes for todays Explore reading point out, God’s blessing is given in the language of undoing the judgement he has brought on his people: one day there will be no more curse. And like the rest of the prophets, the blessing is described in the language of national Israel - the language of the 1st covenant, but it points to the reality of the 2nd covenant - the reality of a new people of God brought together from all nations through faith in Jesus Christ to experience God’s blessing as members of his family. 

 

We are very aware of the effects of sin in our world right now - suffering, frustration, sickness and even death. And in the midst of it, it is profoundly comforting to know that God himself will ‘restore the fallen shelter of David’ and ‘rebuild it as in the days of old’. God has already come good on his promise by raising Jesus, the great Son of David, from the dead. And God is determined through the judgement of the cross and the restoration of the empty tomb to bring blessing to his people and his good creation. ‘The LORD your God has spoken’ (Amos 9:15).

“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion!” Amos 6 continues the theme of rebuking the nation of Israel for complacency towards the judgement of God while they exploit others for their own gain. But now God speaks particularly to the ‘upper class’ - those who enjoy wealth and luxury and have benefitted most from the military and political success of Israel at this time. And God says they have their head in the sand. 

“You lie on beds adorned with ivory… lounge on your couches… dine on choice lambs… strum away on your harps… drink wine by the bowlful…” But these people have ‘brought near a reign of terror’ and ‘will be among the first to go into exile.’ God has decreed judgement and ignoring it is not going to help - and continuing to indulge at the expense of others is certainly not going to help!

 

The last thing we want to do is become complacent about sin. And whilst many of us wouldn’t see ourselves as those at the top of the social and economic ladder, we can still be complacent about benefitting from the exploitation of others to prop up our own lifestyles. I think there’s a reason ‘simplicity’ of lifestyle has always been a Christian virtue. Some even see it as a spiritual discipline - you deliberately pursue a life of simplicity in possessions, clothing, eating etc… to train your heart to value righteousness over indulgence. We want to be people who ‘grieve over the ruin of joseph’ (i.e. the spiritual corruption of God’s people) more than lack of the things we want. In a way, we have an opportunity right now don’t we? The world is shutting down and we are encouraging to stay in. People around us are panic buying and securing what they want for themselves. And we have an opportunity to practice simplicity and contentment. Let’s be deliberate about using the current crisis to learn simplicity and contentment, as we pray against complacency in our hearts and minds.

Everyone likes seeing hypocrites have their masks ripped off so that they are exposed for what they are and they get what they deserve. And religious hypocrites all the more! Except when it’s you. No one likes to have their own mask ripped off and to be told that their religion is shallow, self-serving and hypocritical. That’s not fun!

 

I don’t think there’s many better or more direct critiques of shallow, hypocritical and misguided religion that Amos 5:18-27. “Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD!" 'Why do you long for it? It’s not going to be the day you imagine…’, says God. He exposes the complacent sense of assurance and hope in the Israelites that the great day of reckoning will go well for them, just because of who they are. “It will be darkness, not light!” Why? Because God hates their empty, pompous religion. Their assemblies stink, their worship is like awful noise. Their religious rituals are empty because they are a thin veneer over hearts that have no regard for God’s law. God longs to see “justice roll on like a river” and “righteousness like a never-failing stream!” And instead he sees a people full of selfish ambitions and arrogant disregard for His instruction, trying to cover it all over with ‘going to church’.

 

I think Amos 5:18-27 is meant to have two complementary affects of us as we read and reflect on it. It’s meant to be a bit of a slap in the face (very much like Romans chapter 2), causing us to take a good look in the mirror and peel away any masks we see there. It’s meant to send a warning to any of us who are complacently covering over unrepentant hearts with shallow religion. But it’s also meant to cause us to rejoice all the more in the confident hope we have in Christ. Confidence of our justification before God through faith in Christ is not religious complacency. We rejoice in the hope of glory precisely because we’ve realised that no amount of religious effort, whether trying to be a good person or appeasing God with rituals, will ever be enough, and so we’ve thrown ourselves on the offer of mercy in Christ. We know that if it were just down to us, there would come a day when our masks would be ripped off and we would get what we deserve. But, thanks be to God, it’s not down to us and our ‘religion’ - it’s down to Christ and his righteousness. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:1-2)