Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Saturday, March 3, 2018 | Reading: Exodus 33:1-11, Exodus 4, Gen 3:1-21
Topic: The Tabernacle of God 372
Scripture: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say not of this building. (Heb 9:11)
Note: 2Cor 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Paul confirmed exactly his real thoughts on the earthly house of this tabernacle in verse 2, when he expressed his true feeling at the time as one of groaning, expecting his misery to be put away from him with a more glorious tabernacle.
To be caught in such a state gives a picture of a person finding himself in dire straits. It’s the kind of physical and emotional states where a person who is lost in deep thought, most times completely oblivious to the immediate surrounding of who might be watching as a result of the weight of the issue confronting him, suddenly finds himself involuntarily expressing a huge sigh from time to time. This may also represent an expression of murmur or even a state in which a person may be praying inaudibly.
The general emotional characteristics of a groaning person is a picture of grief. It’s not always easy to be able to discern rightly about a person in grief. Even an experienced priest like Eli, with many years of pastoral interactions with people, spanning several decades of ministry, got it completely wrong with Hannah, when she found herself praying deeply from a grieving heart. Eli’s mistake was in trying to use the same strokes for different people. What the old priest didn’t realize was that different strokes must be used for different people in order to achieve the best results.
Are we in the habit of putting everyone in a straight jacket, compartmentalizing everyone in our minds according to groupie mentality or formations based on our past experiences? If an experienced priest like Eli could mistaken a praying woman for a drunken person, then it’s possible to get it wrong based purely on face value judgment or mere assumptions. Fortunately for Eli, Hannah was forthright with him with her response to the old priest: “Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.” 1Sam 1:15
Food for thought: Are you using guesswork tactics, assumptions or street psychology to arrive at solutions instead of using the gift of discernment freely made available to the Church?
Declaration: And Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away the wine from you.” 1Sam 1:14
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
