That great Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson published an interesting novel in 1886 entitled, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Many of you probably have read or seen the film about this. We studied this literature when we were in High School.
It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigated strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Mr. Edward Hyde. In the story, we find Dr. Henry Jekyll battling between the good and the evil within himself and going through a personal struggle between his dual personalities of the good and evil. As much as he can, he tried to repress this evil urges that goes against his moral position in society. To do that, he created a serum or special potion that he injected to himself in an attempt to mask his hidden evil within his identity. Upon receiving the serum, Dr. Jekyll instantly transforms into a mysterious and violent Mr. Hyde.
He did this many times until eventually, as time grows by, the evil Mr. Hyde grows in strength and power that eventually, the good Dr. Jekyll becomes reliant on the potion to remain conscious of his true self. At the end of the story, when the lawyer, Mr. Utterson broke the door to Dr. Jekyll's lab, he found Mr. Hyde's body. Eventually, he killed himself because he cannot take anymore the overpowering struggle of his two conflicting identities.
There are some critics of the story who say that there is no such thing as a dual personality in man, but there is such thing as a dual nature in man. They said that Dr. Jekyll did not create a potion to remove the evil parts of his nature. But he made a potion that allowed him to express his urges without feeling guilty of the consequences of his evil actions. This, they said is his alter ego, his disguise to commit evil in the society.
In one way or another, that is very similar to what the Bible says about the battle of the flesh and the spirit. The Bible says that in the heart of every Christian, there is a nature that points to the bright side and another on the dark side of man. This is also called the sinful human nature and the spiritual nature of man. This sinful human nature prompts us to think, to speak and act with evil intent - which is the Mr. Hyde in us. While the Spiritual nature of man prompts us to think, to speak and act with righteousness and holiness - which is the Dr. Jekyll in us.
In writing to the church in Galatia, the apostle Paul called this the two contrary desires between the flesh and the Spirit. Galatians 5:17 (NIV) "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want." When we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and resides in our lives to teach us the things of God. However, the sinful human nature that has been there ever since remains intact because we are still living in the flesh. And so, while we are still alive, there is an ongoing conflict in the heart of every one of us that we need to understand as we live daily for Christ.
The Holy Spirit teaches us the bright side of life while the sinful human nature directs us to the dark side of life. The bright side is full of light and godly living, while the dark side is full of darkness and evil intent. We will only be liberated and set free from such sinful nature when we die and be with God forever. But God on the other hand has no such dark side because God is light and in Him, there is no darkness at all. Every thought, every words and every action of God is holy and righteous. That is why we are being admonished to be like God in thought, in speech and in actions. We are being admonished to be nearer God every single day to reflect the bright side of life.
It is this ongoing conflict in man that we will focus as we start our new expository series in the first chapter of the Book of 1 Samuel.
When we know that we have a dark side and a bright side, we will be more careful with our words and actions that we show to people from now on. We will remain humble and teachable because we have failures and weakness that we need to uncover, deal with and improve upon.
Let me give you a brief background of the Book I Samuel.
1 Samuel is in the middle of the Old Testament books that narrates the history of Israel from the time of the conquest to the Babylonian exile. This Book consisting of 24 chapters is significant and important in order to understand the religious and the historical development that led Israel to transition from the rule of the judges to that of the monarchy. And so, in this First Samuel, we will study the birth of Samuel and his calling as a prophet. Then, we will learn how and why Israel was defeated by the Philistines that led to the capture of the ark. And then, we will go through the role of Samuel as the judge and the deliverer until he introduced the kingship. Then, we will learn some Christian principles from the rise and fall of King Saul, the first king of Israel. Then, we will go through the incident when Samuel anointed David as King, in place of Saul. Don't be absent when we study the famous battle between the giant Goliath and the courageous David. Afterwards, we will study the reasons behind the progressive deterioration of Saul's reign while David was gradually rising to the throne. Then, we will focus on the grandeur of David's kingdom as well as his weaknesses and his failures. I assure you that 1 Samuel will be an interesting and an exciting Book to study. Invite your friends and loved ones to join you each Sunday. The topic of the message during the Sunday worship service will be the basis of our discussion study in our Sunday school.
And so today, we will look at the three important characters in this chapter one: Elkanah, Hannah and the priest Eli. We will look at their bright side and dark side and what can we learn to improve our godly character. But before we go on, let me remind you that at the end of my message today, I am going to ask you again to make a response to God's Word. I will challenge you to make a decision to follow Christ for the rest of your life. I believe that this is the most important part of the message - when you decide and choose to obey Christ and submit to His Lordship. You see, the Word of God is like a mirror that upon looking at it, you see things that you need to improve in your life and you do something about it. You do not just look at yourself and then go about doing nothing.
When we examine ourselves, we look at things we need to work on. And so, let's move on and focus on the bright side and the dark side of man and how we can be consistent in Christ.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF 1 SAMUEL
1. THE CHARACTER OF ELKANAH
I Samuel 1:1-8 (NIV) “There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
In these verses, we will have a glimpse of the character of Elkanah. We will discover that Elkanah had a bright side and has a dark side in his character. Let's begin with his dark side. He had two wives, one was called Hannah while the other was Peninnah. Having two wives is not good and in fact, immoral. This is plain and simple polygamy. You cannot be able to love two women at the same time.
Either you will love the one and hate the other. This will always bring about conflicts in the family.
What deteriorated the condition was that his wife Penninah had children, but the other wife, Hannah had none. The spirit of favoritism entered his home that destroyed the love and harmony in the family. In fact, the text says that this ongoing rivalry inside Elkanah's household provoked and irritated Hannah until she wept and would not eat food. It was impossible for Hannah to live in such a very difficult situation even if her husband gave her double portions of meat to assure her of his love. In verse 8, we read: “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” He tried his best to console and express his love to Hannah, but it did not help much to relieve her of too much stress. The hurt has been deeply embedded in her being.
And the sad thing was that Elkanah was not aware of the ongoing rivalry among his two wives. He was not aware of the irritations and the provocations that is slowly destroying his home. These were all hidden in his sight. Because of this dark side, he could not do anything to resolve the issue inside his home. Brothers and sisters, we had to discover our dark side and deal with it according to God's Word.
But at the same time, Elkanah has a bright side - we discover that he is a deeply religious man. He is regular and consistent in his worship attendance. The text says that year after year, he went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty in Shiloh.
He knew that worship to God is an important habit to cultivate in one's life and he never fall short of such habit. And so, this bright side is what keeping this family intact in spite of the cracks within. Worship relieves him of the stress of life and connects him to God Almighty.
And that is the same thing we need to do. We must always cultivate the power of worship in our lives. We must be regular in our worship attendance.
But just like Elkanah, we all have some bright side and dark side as well. We all have some hidden weaknesses and strength of character. Probably, just like Elkanah, we fall short of expressing how much we love our family. There are many things that occupy our time and priorities. And many times, we are not aware of our own weaknesses that our loved ones recognize. We need God to reveal to us the things we should improve upon if we want to be better Christians. We need God to give us wisdom on how to deal with our problems. This will connect us to the first life lesson.
JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. John 8:12 (NIV) " 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We must always go back to Jesus as the source of the light. When we repent from our sins and allow Him to be the Lord of our lives, we receive such brilliant light in our lives but darkness is still in us. The more we follow Him and obey His Word, the more that light grows in us and we will never go back to darkness.
And so, in order for us to expose the darkness in our lives, we need a constant fellowship with Christ, the source of all light. That is why we can now go to the next life lesson.
THE LIGHT OF CHRIST WILL NEVER BE OVERCOME BY DARKNESS. John 1:5 (NIV) " 5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it." Notice what the text says - "the light shine in darkness." Even if the light of Christ is in us, the darkness in our lives will never disappear but it can decrease. This sinful human nature will always be in us but it can be overcome.
And so, as the light is shining in darkness, the struggle for supremacy continues over the flesh and the spirit. However, God's light is more powerful than darkness of the soul. And it says that the evil works of darkness will never overcome the light of Christ. Don't allow the sinful human nature overcome your spiritual desires.
We all know of Martin Luther King, Jr, that Baptist Minister and social activist who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
One of his most famous quotes is: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." During his time, there was racial discrimination and widespread racial injustice all over the nation. He knew that there only two options to bring about lasting change and deal with the widespread harassment, the violence and the intimidation of the African -American community. Either it would be of light or darkness, either of violence or peaceful change, either of riots and mass protests or peaceful negotiations. He decided that only light can drive out darkness. And this choice of light brought about a legacy that left a tremendous impact to the succeeding generations. He was highly honored even to this day. And that is what Christ can do to our lives.
Let the light of Christ take away the darkness in your life.
First, we have learned that Elkanah was a deeply religious man, regular in his worship.
2. THE CHARACTER OF HANNAH
1 Samuel 1:9-16 (NIV) 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” 15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
The next thing we can learn is concerning the character of Hannah, the wife of Elkanah. There is a bright side and there is a dark side of her character as well. The bright side is that she is very prayerful. In fact, the text says that she prayed with deep anguish of her spirit to God. She believed in the power of prayer. Nothing is impossible with God. Through prayer, we can touch the heart of God.
She believed she can have a child if God would allow it in answer to her prayers. And so, she wept bitterly and she prayed fervently making a vow that if the Lord would grant her request, she would take the Nazarite vow for his son. Remember that in our previous study on the Book of Judges, we discovered Samson, one of the judges who was so powerful and strong because of the Nazarite vow.
All the days of his life was supposed to be dedicated to the Lord and no razor should be ever be used on his head. But when his hair was cut short by Delilah, all his strength was gone and he was conquered by the Philistines.
But in the case of Hannah, the good thing about her is her belief in the power of prayer is what makes her strong. We need to believe in the power of prayer as well. If we do, we will pray like her - fervent and in deep anguish of heart. All our needs must be presented to God daily and with great expectations. We must never stop until we receive the answers to our prayers.
However, just like Elkanah, Hannah has a dark side of her spiritual life that we need to study and learn from. One of that is with regards to the way she relates to the people close to her such as her husband to to the priest Eli. In fact, she is easily misunderstood by them.
For instance, even if her husband Elkanah was assuring her of his love but she finds no comfort in it. She was not able to appreciate such love from Elkanah that made here to be always in deep anguish, troubled and in great sorrow of heart. It seems that her joy was just based on having a child and not having a loving husband. And so, she was so focused on that problem of not having a child that she was not able to have proper grooming when she comes into the house of God to pray. Hence, when the priest Eli saw her, he though she was drunk due to her very haggard look. The priest Eli told her, "How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” She looked like a drunken woman than a spirit filled woman. This is lead us to the first life lesson.
LEARN TO PRAY AND FAST SECRETLY. Matthew 6:17-18 (NIV) 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Brothers and sisters, if we find ourselves seeking the Lord, in fervent prayer, and decided to fast, we must not allow others to know about this and in fact, the Bible says, we have to wash ourselves, have proper hair and face grooming and act naturally. Because earnest prayer and fasting should be secret and directly focused on God. Only God who is in heaven will see our hearts and will grant our request.
This will lead us to the next life lesson.
LEARN TO RELATE TO OTHERS PROPERLY. Philippians 2:4 (NIV) "Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." As we pray, we must not only be concerned with our own needs but with the needs of others. This is what God desires of all of us so that we can brighten those dark spots in our lives. We must not withdraw or isolate ourselves from the public eye when we are in fervent prayer to God. We must even ask other Christians to pray for our needs. The more we share our personal burdens to others, the more we will be relieved of our stress. This is what Hannah neglected when she had a great need. She just poured her heart to God and did not share it to priest Eli. No wonder, she was misjudged and misinterpreted. Brothers and sisters, when we are in great need, the more we must associate with people and relate with them properly through fellowship.
Charles Spurgeon was a well-known Baptist Minister in England who at the age of 22 almost quit his ministry. The evening of October 19, 1856, about 12,000 people, (one of the biggest attendance at that time) were gathered to hear him speak. A few minutes after 6 p.m., someone in the audience shouted, "Fire! The galleries are giving way! The place is falling!" Pandemonium ensued as a balcony collapsed. Those trying to get into the building blocked the exit of those fighting to escape. Spurgeon attempted to quell the commotion, but to no avail. His text for the day was Proverbs 3:33 "The curse of the Lord in the house of the wicked" - a verse he would never preach again.
Here is an eyewitness account: "The cries and shrieks at this period were truly terrific. They pressed on, treading furiously over the dead and the drying, tearing frantically at each other."
Spurgeon nearly lost consciousness. He was rushed from the platform and taken home "more dead than alive." After the crowds dissipated, seven corpses were lying in the grass. Twenty eight people were seriously injured and Spurgeon was in deep emotional and spiritual depression for several weeks. These were the nights when he learned to rely more in the power of God through persistent prayer.
He said later: "The Christian should work as if all depended upon him and pray as if all depended upon God."
Then, later on, he said concerning the need for persistent corporate prayer: "Oh! yes, (the prayer meeting) is the place to meet with the Holy Ghost, and this is the way to get His mighty power. If we would have Him, we must meet in greater numbers; we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer steadfastness. The prayer meeting…is the appointed place for the reception of power." ~ Charles H. Spurgeon
First, we have learned that Elkanah was a deeply religious man and regular in his worship.
Secondly, we learned from the character of Hannah the urgency of prayer.
3. THE CHARACTER OF ELI
1 Samuel 1:12-17 (NIV) 12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” 15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” 17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
The next character we will study in this first chapter of the Book of Samuel is the priest Eli. He has a bright side and a dark side of character as well. Let us first examine his bright side. In this chapter, we will find that his two sons were serving with him as priests of the Lord. As a priests, their work is to offer yearly sacrifices to the Lord in behalf of the people that they maybe forgiven of their sins.
And so, they are familiar with the character of God who abhor and cannot tolerate sin. And through the shed blood of that sacrificial offering, God's mercy has been extended and sins are forgiven. Being a priest is a wonderful and worthy occupation because you are serving the Lord God. I encourage you, if you have the heart of a servant leader, may you pursue that calling. However, as they begin to perform such ceremony year after year, it is possible that the real meaning and significance of such work can be lost even to the priests themselves.
You see, whenever you do something over and over, it becomes monotonous and boring over time even in spiritual aspects. For instance, if you have been an usher of the church for many years, it is possible that you will get lost of your calling and consider this work boring and insignificant. This can be the case as a church treasurer, a caregiver, a pastor or any other work that you do. Regularly doing a job for many years can be monotonous indeed unless you are given a new assignment. So, what do you do when a job becomes boring?
You have some time off, go away for some time or probably, change jobs. That is why it is always important for us to reassess ourselves and our ministry service in order to see whether we are still aflame for God. We don't want to grow cold serving the Lord in the ministry.
Because God does not grow cold in loving us. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. God does not change in the way he cares for us, but we do. We must therefore be consistent in the manner we serve God in the ministry.
Now, let's look at the dark side of the character of priest Eli. Have you noticed that when he saw Hannah praying, he misinterpreted her?
Priest Eli was observing her mouth moving. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard.
And so, Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled."
He misjudged her who was praying as a drunken woman. He missed the guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life that was communicating to him spiritual matters such as the posture of prayer. And this happened to a man who has a high position in the house of the Lord.
Surely as a priest, he should have been so familiar with prayer. But unfortunately, he was not. In the same manner, we must be able to discern the moving of the Spirit in our midst. We must not misinterpret a person praying as being drunk with wine. May the Lord give us wisdom and discernment in all these things.
DON'T FORSAKE THE LOVE YOU HAD AT FIRST. Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV) 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." Brothers and sisters, don't forsake your first love on Christ. Don't allow the daily routine of life to rob you of your being in flame for God's service. Maintain your spiritual discernment and godly wisdom at all times. Be faithful in your worship and prayer life. If you feel that you are being lukewarm, do something to overcome it because the days are evil.
DON'T JUDGE OTHERS. Matthew 7:1-5New International Version (NIV) 7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Brothers and sisters, don't judge the spirituality of other people, but always focus on your own. You do not know their state of mind, but you know your own personal spiritual temperature in Christ. You know what makes you hot or cold.
Let me now ask you to make a response to the things you have heard this morning. As I said before, if you look at yourself in a mirror and determine that there are things in your life that you need to improve, you should not just go away and do nothing about it.
I challenge you to do something definite about those dark areas in your life. Let the light of Christ expose those dark areas because no one in this room has all the bright spots in life. Only God is holy and pure but we are not. Whether we like it or not, we only see the bright side in us but ignore those dark areas that we need to work on. Let God's Word expose those dark spots and allow God to illuminate your life and change you for the better.
What should we do? We must first of all recognize that we are all sinners.
We have sinned before God and men every single day of our lives.
Then, we must believe in the forgiveness offered by Christ.
He died for you and me at the cross of Calvary.
We must then humble ourselves before the eyes of God and submit to His Lordship.
We must be transformed into the image of God.
Please come forward and stand in front if you want to make this kind of response to God.
Afterwards I will anoint you with oil and pray for you.
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