READING FOR FEBRUARY 28, 2025: 1 SAMUEL 2, MATTHEW 20, PSALM 15 1 SAMUEL 2 This chapter could be entitled a “Tale of Two Parents:” 1) Hannah, mother of Samuel and 2) Eli, father of priests Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah had just dropped off her long-awaited and only son Samuel to serve God by helping Eli, high priest at Shiloh. In what had to be a bittersweet moment, she launches into an exultation of God. Notice similarities between Hannah’s prayer and Mary’s song from Luke 2.Mary knew her Old Testament.
| Hannah’s Prayer | Mary’s Song |
| My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. | My soul exalts the Lord. |
| Because I rejoice in Your salvation. | And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. |
| There is no one holy like the Lord. | And holy is His name. |
| Those who were hungry cease to be hungry. | He has filled the hungry with good things. |
| He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the garbage heap. | For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondservant; For the Mighty One has done great things for me. |
| Do not go on boasting so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; The bows of the mighty are broken to pieces. | He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and sent the rich away empty-handed. |
| He watches over the feet of His godly ones... and He gives them a seat of honor as an inheritance. | His mercy is to generation after generation toward those who fear Him. |
The text calls the sons of the high priest Eli useless men who don’t know the Lord. Imagine being known in scripture by that dreadful description. They were faulted for not following correct procedure for offering sacrifices. These procedures were given by God to Moses some 400 years before. Hint for us: God's commands don’t come with an expiration date. Yes, they might not be currently fashionable or convenient. No, God doesn’t accept that reason for being disobedient. “The sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully” (vs. 17).
Hannah came to Shiloh to worship once a year. Each time she came, she brought a new homemade robe for her growing son, Samuel. Eli, thankful for Samuel’s faithful service, pro-- nounced a blessing over Hannah. God did indeed bless her with three other sons and two daughters. As Eli aged, his sons got worse, committing sexual immorality with women who served in the tent of meeting. Eli reprimanded them, but it was too little, too late. In a cautionary message to all fathers, God held Eli accountable for the behavior of his sons. This is still the case for men in church leadership: “He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)” (1 Tim. 3:4-5).
MATTHEW 20 Here is yet another kingdom of heaven parable. We need them all because the kingdom is so multifaceted. This parable stresses that 1) it is God who decides how we qualify
READINGS FOR FEBRUARY 28, 2025 CONTINUED: MATTHEW 20, PSALM 15 for the kingdom, not us; 2) His decisions are fair by virtue of who He is; 3) anyone who accepts his offer qualifies; 4) as long as we are living, it’s not too late to accept His offer; and 5) it is totally by faith through God’s grace, not our hard work, that gets us into the kingdom.
This last point can be hard for those of us who, maybe secretly, feel our harder work, merit, or family connections count toward acceptance into the kingdom. If there is a hint of this in our thoughts, we don’t understand the Gospel and are in grave danger. After telling this parable, Jesus comments on the core event of the Gospel making kingdom entrance possible: His death for our sins on the cross and His victory over death with His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:55-57).
Stories like the one with the Zebedee mother contribute to proving the truth of the Bible. How like her we are all tempted to be. As we have seen throughout Matthew, Jesus wants us to aspire to greatness in the Kingdom, but here He clarifies that He loathes the idea of getting ahead of the next guy. Stop it mom! The silver lining is that Jesus was able to articulate another valuable truth: whoever desires to be great should become a servant—not top dog.Jesus then models his servanthood and compassion by healing two hushed-up blind men.
PSALM 15 We just considered a parable that emphasizes it is by accepting God’s offer we gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Or as in Ephesians 2:9, by grace through faith we are saved. We could read this Psalm and get the idea if we just do good deeds A, B, C, D, we are saved or admitted into the kingdom. A helpful expression is “What is implicit in the Old Testament is explicit in the New Testament. Let’s take a brief detour to the New Testament.
Romans 3:21-22 gives us this sense of revealing the Gospel explicitly beyond its more implicit Old Testament witness: “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” Hebrews 11 explodes with the faith of Old Testament heroes who in turn performed great deeds as a result: “For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness” (Heb. 11:32-33).
Back to Psalm 15, perhaps the interpretive key to this chapter is the phrase in verse 4, “those who fear the Lord.” This expression could be considered an Old Testament equivalent to the phrase “through faith” or “those who believe.” It is from this stance of faith/fear from which the list of good deeds flow: practicing righteousness, integrity, not slandering, not shaming, not charging interest, not taking a bribe, speaking truth, and not doing evil. David shows his faithby his works (James 2:18).
