THOUGHTS

June 16, 2020

I'm still not recovered from the flu even after two and a half weeks 

so my posts will be irregular.  

At least my laptop "recovered."  

Here is a revised repost from June 16, 2014 

looking forward to

 Father's Day.

"A real man fights on his knees."

What makes a man a father in the Happy Father's day kind of way?

A woman who bears his child or someone who chooses to adopt. 

We've tried it both ways, 
but you have to throw the "happy" part in yourself 

by making a loving commitment. It's not about money, fame, or fortune,
but a daily laying down your life for your family.

Here's one of my favorite Bible stories about a guy with a manly name of Elkanah, Elk for short. "Hey, Elk, how's it going?"  In my head he would be a big man wearing a flannel shirt sporting a beard and with a gun rack in his pickup truck. I'm still surprised his name hasn't caught on and made it in the top ten of  baby names. In fact, I doubt it is in any book of baby names.

 Unfortunately, like the elk, he had a harem of sorts and practiced bigamy.  That's not the formula for happy wife, happy life.  He had it rationalized that though he loved Hannah best, it would be okay to take on another since his first wife was barren.  He should have observed exhibit A: Abraham, Sarah, and Hager.  Of course, wife #2 made life miserable for wife #1.  Elk, what were you thinking!  It was a vicious love triangle that would have made good reality TV viewing.  So, he actually is not a very good example of a father, but the Bible just tells it like it is.

Elkanah was of the priestly line of Levi and spent some of every year visiting the temple.  It was a dark time in Israel's history with a priest like Eli and his two wicked sons who were always on the take in the temple.  In fact, the boys had turned the temple into a bawdy house using women and bullying those bringing offerings to give it to them until they literally grew fat.  They even used the Ark of the Covenant as a good luck charm, no more respected than a rabbit's foot.  It is interesting that Elkanah allowed Hannah to go with him to the temple and even allowed her to pray there by herself.  This brings us to one of the ironies of the story.

When Eli the priest saw her there, he probably thought she was one of the loose women his sons constantly brought into the house of God.  When he saw her distraught appearance as her lips moved in fervent prayer with no sound coming out, only tears, he assumed she was drunk.  Even though a priest, he was evidently not used to a true worshipper in spirit and in truth.

Hannah replied, "No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit.  I have not drunk wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.  Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of complaint and grief I have spoken now."

Eli replied, "Go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him."  (I Samuel 1:12-17)

Nowhere in that little conversation did she reveal what her request was; and little did Eli know that when God answered that prayer, he himself would hear the pitter patter of little feet in the temple after the dedicated child was brought to him to serve in the temple.  It was to be another chance for Eli to get it right as well as an answer to Hannah's barreness.  

Another clue was that Hannah was not taking wine or intoxicating drink, one of the requirements of a Nazarite vow like that of Samson's mother while she was pregnant.  Hannah was a good Jewish girl who knew her history.  

It is seen in her prayer in I Samuel 1:10-11, "And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.  Then she made a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and not razor shall come upon his head."  This is a Nazarite vow indeed.

So, Elk had an especially happy father' day that year.  Since Hannah had promised to bring her son to the temple after he was weaned, I always chuckle and think that little Samuel perhaps held the record for the longest nursed child in history.  Anyway, whatever the age, three, six or ? Hannah and Elkanah eventually presented their precious child to Eli in the temple.  Even as a boy, God spoke to him there when Eli could no longer could hear God's voice.  Listen up, dads: does your child hear God speak better than you?  

Later when Eli's two sons decided to take their good luck charm before them into battle, the Ark of the Covenant, the battle was lost, they both were slain, and Eli himself when he heard fell off the wall (he was rounder than Humpty Dumpty) and broke his neck.  One of his daughter-in-laws gave birth just then and named her son, "Ichabod, the Glory has left." 

Samuel remained, God's chosen, alone in charge of the temple at probably a young age.  The Ark of the Covenant was taken into captivity for what was to be a very long time.  In the meanwhile, the people clamored for a king rejecting Samuel as a judge and priest.  They evidently were still mad at Eli and sons.  So first he anointed Saul, then David as kings of Israel.  Later when David brings the Ark back to Jerusalem, there was an Elkanah who was chosen to help carry it back.  Hmm, I wonder who that could be?

Hannah and Elkanah went on to have three sons and two daughters after Samuel, so their quiver was full.  Wife #2 had to resign as chief flaunter of "Naa, naa, na, naa, naa, I have more children than you do."  God was good to Hannah. Happy Father's Day, Elk.  You the man!  Finally, happy wife, happy life.  

What makes a man in a happy father's day kind of way?