A NEW SEASON

A few weeks ago during my early-morning devotional time, I had a very strong impression from the Lord. It was just three words: a new season. I pondered that phrase and then the Lord directed my attention to the first chapters of 1 Samuel and the birthing of a new season in Israel.

As a nation, Israel was at a very low point. Chapter 3:1 tells us there was no open revelation of the Word and there were only a few true prophets who would preach righteousness and repentance and bring the Word to the people. The priests were typified by Eli, who was passive and did little to turn the people away from their sin. Eli’s two sons, also priests, were blatantly corrupt. Israel was in a pathetic state with its sinful, immoral religious leaders. At this time, the center of national worship was in Shiloh.

Elkanah and his family lived a distance from Shiloh and each year they traveled there to worship and offer sacrifice. One of Elkanah’s wives was a godly woman named Hannah. Hannah’s husband loved her dearly but she was desperately unhappy because she had no children—and that broke her heart.

During one of the family’s visits to Shiloh, Hannah went alone to the tabernacle to pray. She poured out her brokenness and pain to the Lord and also made a vow that if God would bless her with a son, she would give him to the Lord for His service all the days of his life (1:11).

Eli, the priest, saw Hannah silently praying and rebuked her because he thought she was drunk. When Hannah corrected Eli’s misunderstanding, he quickly backpedaled and muttered a blessing.

Hannah wanted a son and Eli was so misguided that he did not recognize her desperate hunger. However, God used this occasion to usher in a new season for Israel and sweep out the corruption that had built up from the past. There is much for us to learn from this story, told largely in 1 Samuel 1 through 4.

Hannah represents the hungry saints who even now are praying into existence the new thing God is doing. Hannah recognized that she was barren and refused to accept it as status quo. She took her burden and sorrow to the Lord in prayer. She was persecuted by her husband’s other wife for being barren and chided by Eli for her intensity in prayer. However, these acts did not deter Hannah but seemed to strengthen her resolve to see God’s answer.

My dear friends, please understand that if you begin to pursue the heart of God for a new season in Him, you will be persecuted, not by the world but by the religious establishment. “He who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now” (Galatians 4:29).

Eli, who was simply going through the motions of being a priest, represents the old corrupt, broken-down religious system. He did not quickly recognize the voice of the Lord when He spoke. He was extremely passive toward sin even when it was being carried on within the tabernacle grounds. His sons were highly immoral to the point of forcing themselves on women who came to worship and sacrifice. ”They did not know the Lord” (2:12). Eli saw it all, knew about the sin, and did nothing.

Hannah was not the only one whose heart was broken and open to the Lord. There was a small remnant of faithful men and women of God. One of the men, most likely a prophet whose name we never get to know, came to Eli and prophesied what was about to happen. The prophecy established that Eli’s family (his house, including both of his sons), would be destroyed (see 2:31) and that God would raise up a new and faithful priest. “I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house . . .” (2:35).

God was about to sweep out the old and bring in the new!

Samuel represents the new thing God is doing. Into the religious and political confusion that was so clearly seen at this time comes a miracle of God in the person of Samuel. Samuel was a miracle child born to a barren mother and the renewal and joy that his birth brought to Hannah prefigures the renewal and joy that this godly man brought to Israel.

Dear friends, don’t be discouraged by the mess of the moment. God is still in charge and a new day is about to dawn. Thank God that there is a praying remnant in our land whose garments are white and unsoiled by sin. They are not deterred by the political and religious confusion that reigns in our land. The remnant is “pouring” itself out to the Lord in prayer. It was the broken-hearted prayer of one woman that God was waiting for and a new season dawned in Israel—and so it will be in our day!

A new day, a new season is coming!