“Where have I heard that voice before?” –part 2

"Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli"

The Word for today:
1 Samuel 3-4

Yesterday, we read Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then we read Mary’s Song from Luke 1.

If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder --as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”

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Who taught the Word of God the Word of God? Read Mary’s brief moments in Scripture and you'll be able to discern not only who taught the Savior to walk and talk, but also who taught him to fear the Lord, and to trust in God's amazing, unfathomable, tenacious grace.

It is apparent from the song she composed that Mary memorized and skillfully weaved together many Old Testament phrases in her praises to God. Knowing Scripture by heart, leaving Bethlehem with her child in her arms as they escaped from Herod to Egypt, this new Mom was thinking of Hannah -- whose son Samuel, like Mary’s son Jesus, was wholly dedicated to God from the moment of his miraculous birth.


Their situations were alike, their songs were alike, and so were their sons:

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men. (1 Samuel 2:26)

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

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After a long while of Bible reading, the characters take on distinctive voices. After listening for a long time, it is clear to my ear that the person whom Jesus “sounds” most like (not in tone or timbre but in attitude and essence) is Mary. And the person Mary “sounds” most like is Hannah.

Though I’m not at all sure how heaven works, I have no doubt that Hannah, by now, has been told by many that the Son of God sounds a lot like her!

But how was Hannah to know, way back when, that the Son of God would gather his voice, by and large, from three influencers:

1. His Father in heaven (who has no antecedent influence), and…
2. His Mom in Nazareth – who had inherited her voice from…
3. Hannah, whose situation was so similar to Mary’s situation that Mary must have read the opening chapters of 1 Samuel over and over and over again until the voice she heard there became a part of her own.

To some degree, it will prove to be the same for us. We will pass away, but the Word we speak will not (1). When we speak God's Word to our own generation, its influence just reverberates through time.

There will come a day when those who speak God’s Word will encounter the persons we have influenced. Someday, somebody whom you’ve never met is going to tap you on the shoulder and say, “They tell me I sound just like you.”

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(1) see Mathew 24:35