Nougat 28

Siblings,

Yesterday’s Nougat stayed with me, demanding that I consider other aspects of the larger story. I pray that we all will be convicted and transformed by Today’s Holy Nougat

1 Samuel 1:5-7a NLT

​5 And though he loved Hannah, he would give her only one choice portion[b] because the Lord had given her no children. 

6 So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. 

7 Year after year it was the same—Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle.

Taunting … or Haunted

There is a Jamaican saying, ‘wanti-wanti can’t get it and geti-geti doesn’t want it’; which suggests that we not only desire what others have, but that we also disdain what we have in our desire for that which we don’t have. Although it doesn’t exactly describe Hannah and Peninah’s rivalry, there was a sense in which – as stated in yesterday’s reflection on our Nougat – Hannah and Peninah wanted opposite things, while they each had what the other couldn’t/didn’t have. In sharing the same husband, life was not very complementary for them, as each woman was faced with her ‘inadequacy’ – the inability to have children and the inability to make her husband love her.

Self-Check

– In our relationships at home, work, school, worship, etc., are there spaces where we feel inadequate?

– Have we been responsible for another person’s sense of inadequacy? If yes, how did we resolve the situation?

Application

I agree, Elkanah wasn’t totally responsible for the rivalry between the two wives, but one can imagine how Elkanah’s rejection burned in Peninah’s blood each time Elkanah declared his partiality toward Hannah. Unfortunately, it is not an uncommon sensation for many of us. And, just as Peninah turned that sense of inferiority into bullying and taunts, we may also have retaliated similarly at the one who seems to be the source of our troubles. Taunting Hannah didn’t secure Elkanah’s love, she might even have faced more negativity from him. Since we don’t have all the details of the marriages, we can’t make judgement calls; though based on the Abram-Sarai saga, one might be inclined to think Peninah was brought into the equation for her fertility. But it doesn’t seem that Hannah was the root cause of the rivalry. If that premise is correct, then Peninah was getting upset with the wrong person, even if she felt it was for the right reason.

So it is with us sometimes. We get annoyed with others over what isn’t actually their ‘sin’; although we’re actually reacting to being haunted or triggered by a particular situation. Should it be that even as we try to discern God’s will for our lives in a situation, we ought also to determine why we respond negatively to someone in a ‘conflict’ situation. Is it pride, shame, a sense of rejection that is triggering our responses? And, when we figure out the cause, what next? I propose that we take it to God, as Hannah eventually did, and invite God’s intervention in our situation.

Assignment

When we find ourselves feeling haunted by a situation, may we seek to be extremely intentional about avoiding the urge to taunt others.
Let us try, as much as is possible with us, to live peaceably with God and others.

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May all we seek be found in Christ