A Word in Season: Ups and Downs (1 Samuel 2:6–8)

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The Bible records the history of a godly woman by the name of Hannah, a true servant of the

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Most High God who'd been through particular trials and tribulations. She was a married woman, and her husband seems to have been in many respects a kind man, but not particularly helpful in some of the things which she faced.

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He was also married to another woman which was a particular trial to her, because that other woman was unusually cruel toward her.

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Among other things, Hannah was barren, she had no children, the Lord had closed her womb, and when she had gone up to the tabernacle of God to cry out for his mercies, she'd been accused by the priest there of being drunk.

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In other words, Hannah knew what it was to be distressed and dismissed and despised, and yet she clung to the

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Lord her God. And in due course, God in his mercy was pleased to answer Hannah's prayer and grant her a son,

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Samuel. And in 1 Samuel chapter 2, Hannah sings a song of praise and thanksgiving to the

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God of her salvation, in which she testifies this in verses 6 through to 8.

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Now Hannah's confidence in God is not a carelessness with regard to life.

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Hannah is a praying woman, she clearly takes care of the son that the Lord gives her, not only when he's growing up in their household, but also after she devotes him to the service of the

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Lord God. But Hannah is absolutely confident that when it comes to the great matters of life and death, when it comes to advancement and abasement in this world, it is

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God and God alone who holds the reins. So the Lord kills and makes alive, he brings down to the grave and brings up.

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It's important to remember that Hannah is speaking here of the Lord her God, the great

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I am, the unchangeable God who in himself is entirely self -existent, altogether glorious, dependent on no one and nothing.

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He simply is. He is, he was, and he is to come. And he has made himself known to those who trust in him.

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He has made himself known that he may be trusted in, in all his goodness and wisdom and glory.

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And it is this God that Hannah recognizes is in control of both life and death.

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It's not arbitrary. It's not capricious. It is not cruel. But God is the one who appoints the days of our lives.

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It is God who makes the distinction between those who live and those who die, whether it's war or famine or pestilence, whatever it may be, however random it may appear, it is

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God who appoints these things. It is also the Lord who makes poor and makes rich, who brings low and lifts up.

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And when we see men squabbling for supremacy, when we see the ugliness of unrestrained ambition, when we see the godly ways, godless ways and means that people use to advance themselves in this world, it's important too to remember that it is the

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Lord who makes poor and makes rich, the Lord who brings low and lifts up.

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Again, we're not totally dismissing the means that God has appointed for the usual way that things are in this world, and you'll find much of that, for example, in the book of the

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Proverbs. But it is an acknowledgement that these things ultimately come from God, who can either bless or blight those means, who can raise to the highest point or bring crushingly low.

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And you only need to look, for example, at a king like Nebuchadnezzar, who at the pinnacle of his powers was made to act like an animal for a season, because the

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Lord was humbling him. God is in control, whether it's a matter of life or death, whether it's a matter of lifting up or bringing down, it is

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God who rules on high. He lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory, not just in natural and physical things, but also in spiritual.

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It is the Lord, our God, who raises the poor from the dust. And so we need to remember when there may be great challenges in things natural, physical, political, national, that it is

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God who remains in charge. And we put ourselves very much in his hands and we rest in him as God, our