Monday, January 11, 2010
The Right Resource
(I Samuel 1:10-16)
Depression frequently drives people to seek consolation from wrong sources. Though Elkanah tried to comfort his barren wife, Hannah continued to experience bouts of emotional anguish. Her misery drove her to the right resource—prayer. In her prayer, she expressed all her pent up emotion (10), and she made a serious commitment to the Lord: If He would bless her with a son, she would rear him as a Nazarite—dedicating him to the Lord from the moment of his birth (11).
Interestingly, her fervent praying drew the attention of Eli the priest, who concluded she was drunk. Eli rebuked her alleged drinking, commanding her to abstain from alcoholic wine (14). Hannah’s response to Eli’s accusation reveals the attitude of godly Jews toward alcohol. Explaining her emotional anguish, Hannah countered her accuser stating that she should not be considered a “daughter of Belial”—a worthless woman given to booze. Hannah, a godly, dedicated Jew, understood that the consumption of beverage alcohol to be wrong—inappropriate for one professing faith in Jehovah.
Hannah did not use her depression as an excuse for drinking alcohol. She did not “turn to the bottle” (15). Rather, she maintained her abstinence from alcoholic wine—choosing rather to find her help in the Lord.
Alcohol is never the answer. While unfermented grape juice (often called “wine” in the Bible) was used extensively in Israel, godly Jews abstained from the consumption of alcoholic wine. They were familiar with alcohol’s character (Prov. 20:1) and curse (Hab. 2:15). They drowned their sorrows in prayer, not booze!
