Articles
“Heavy Hearing”
“Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
1 Samuel 2:30
Sometimes the biblical authors give us little clues, inconspicuous literary nudges, to help us understand what the text is about. There is no shortage of this kind of thing in the artfully composed book of Samuel. Let’s focus on just two examples.
The first example is found in 1 Samuel 15. This is the story of king Saul’s rebellion against God’s commands that led to his being rejected as king. God, through his prophet Samuel, had instructed Saul to defeat the Amalekites and to “devote to destruction all that they have.” This meant they were to utterly defeat the enemies and were not permitted to keep any of the spoil of battle for themselves (see Achan’s sin in Joshua 7). Saul roundly defeated the Amalekites but spared the king and the best animals. The people devoted to destruction “all that was despised and worthless” but kept the rest (1 Sam. 15:7-9). The Lord revealed Saul’s actions to Samuel and the prophet went to confront the errant king early the next morning.
The text repeats the alternating words of “listen/hear” and “noise/voice.” When Samuel gave his instructions to Saul for the battle he told him to “listen to the voice of the Lord.” (15:1) God told Samuel that Saul had not listened to his voice (15:11). When Samuel confronted Saul the morning after the battle Saul assured him that he had listened to the voice of God (15:13). But Samuel hears the noise of the livestock (15:14) and says that Saul has listened to the voice of the people instead of the voice of God (15:19-24).
Another example of this subtle wordplay is found in chapters 2-4. A single Hebrew root conveys both the literal idea of “weight/heaviness” and the metaphorical idea of “honor/glory.” We sometimes use the word “gravity” to speak of one’s significance, nobility, importance, heaviness or clout.
Eli the priest gave “honor” to his sons instead of God by allowing them to fatten themselves on the best parts of the meat from the sacrificial offerings (1 Sam. 2:29). Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, showed they didn’t know the Lord by treating his sacrifices with such contempt (1 Sam. 2:12, 17). Eli tried to rebuke them but it was a case of too-little-too-late. God said to Eli: “those who honor me [ascribe weight to me] I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed [considered light].” (1 Sam. 2:30) Later, when Israel was defeated in battle, the news came back to Eli at Shiloh. When he heard the report of his sons’ deaths and the capture of the ark by the Philistines, “Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy.” (1 Sam. 4:18) The loss of the ark, the symbol of God’s presence with his people, prompted the naming of Eli’s grandson Ichabod (“the glory is no more”; 4:21).
There are many other examples we could site from Samuel but why did the author include them? We must understand that these are not just little Easter eggs hidden in the text for Hebrew scholars to enjoy. These are powerful, if subtle, literary devices to grab the attention of the careful reader. They invite us to ask ourselves, “Am I listening to the voice of God?” The Hebrew word for listen includes the idea of obedience. Are we really hearing him? Or are we like Saul who gave only partial obedience, which is really disobedience? They invite us to ask ourselves, “Am I honoring God in my life?” Do we ascribe to the Lord the weight, the glory, the significance his name deserves? Our priorities in life, the decisions we make, and what we are willing to put up with—they all tell on us. Eli’s failure to discipline his sons led to their destruction and his sorrow. These verbal clues in the text aren’t always apparent in our English translations but if we are willing to study we will see them. The only question is when we see them will we learn from them?
