Bible Women: Peninah and the Heart of Malice

And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. 1Sa 1:6  

Ridicule, Malice and Contempt

The simple definition of malice is hate. No one ridicules another because of love. It is because of the recoil of the heart.

It is also because of ignorance. The people who killed Jesus were more ignorant than hateful.

So I read the thanksgiving prayer of Hannah with amusement. She thanked God for salvation over her enemy. But in one tongue she praises God, and in another she can’t refrain herself from throwing barbs at her enemy, ‘Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth’ she utters to our shock.

But we understand where she’s coming from. Back in the days of Moses to pay back was the law, so one gave an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. So Hannah gave back to Peninah what she had received from her.

It is why Jesus had problems with the Pharisees, the custodians of the law. Jesus not only forgave sinners but he ate with them. Even worse he healed people on Sabbath day. So in the end they killed Jesus to defend God! 

They ridiculed him. They scorned him. A few regarded him with utter contempt.

But Jesus forgave them at the cross, even though this only raised their ire. He forgave, but it was like he added coals of fire on their heads!

Traditions, Prejudice and Hate

Contempt was rife in our old traditions. Hate was raised into the stature of virtue. You hated your enemies like death. And you were praised for it!

But then Christianity came and the problem of forgiveness surfaced. People became good Christians but that was during the day. At night they crawled back to the safety of their traditions. They could forgive like their pastor had told them to, but they couldn’t forget! So they forgave, but the scorn on their face remained.

And this discrepancy persists to this day. We inherited it not only from our parents but also from Adam. We fell. And now we are more prone to love the darkness than the light. And so we are ever condemning and ever getting condemned!

The Body of Death

We should love to do good but we can’t. But are we alone in feeling this misery? No. It rattled Paul as much.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom 7:18-24  

What delivered Paul from ‘the body of this death’ is what Pastor John Piper calls belief in future grace in his marvelous book, Future Grace.

And what was that grace or promise? ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Rom 8:1).  

A believer should believe that with his whole heart. Else one risks remaining stuck in unbelief. People will condemn you. Satan will condemn you. And even your own heart will condemn you!

But don’t get trapped in what people or your own heart or Satan is saying. Believe only what God is saying.

‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ (Joh 8:32). And again, ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36).   

You prayed. You believed. So move and believe that you have moved even though the voice says you haven’t. Rather find your strength in God’s promises:

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 5:1 

For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 1Jn 3:20  

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Gal 5:1  

The Just Shall Live by Faith

So we understand why Hannah couldn’t forgive even though she rejoiced in God! She answered to the salvation by works theology. We answer to the salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ theology.

And so too we feel not so much hate against Peninah but compassion and pity. Her husband Elkanah had put her in that position for having two wives (and loving one more than the other) which is what polygamy always does.

We may feel the urge to condemn her. But again we can’t, for she’s our own blood and flesh. If she was prone to an unbridled tongue it is because we are prone to one too.

But we shall run to the cross of Jesus Christ each time that happens. It is there that he settled it all, saying, ‘It is finished.’

I pray that you will believe that with your whole heart, for ‘without faith it is impossible to please him.’

If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph 4:21-24  

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Rom 1:17  

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Heb 10:38