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Habakkuk
Men of faith are always the men that have to confront problems. Blot God out, and your problems are all ended. If there is no God in heaven, then we have no problem about sin and suffering…. But the moment you admit the existence of an all-powerful governing God, you are face to face with your problems. If you say that you have none, I question the strength of your faith.
GCM, The Minor Prophets, p. 99
[Habakkuk 2:4] Today there are two principles of life in the world and only two. The principle of the “puffed up,” who are self-centered and conditioned by circumstance; and the principle of the righteous by faith, who are God-centered and God-circumferenced.
GCM, The Minor Prophets, p. 100
Hagar
God did not urge Hagar stubbornly to nurse her grief and keep alive her hate. He did not tell her to live for the one purpose of getting even with the man who had wronged her. The roadway of anger and of bitter resentment never leads out of the desert…. Nursing your wrongs and your burning hate is never a path to an oasis. Hagar must leave God to deal with Abraham, as you must leave God to deal with the one who has wronged you.
Clovis Chappell, Sermons on Old Testament Characters, p. 57
Hannah (1 Samuel 1–2)
She was one of the barren women in Scripture whom the Lord graciously enabled to become mothers: Sarah (Gen. 18:1–15); Rebekah (Gen. 25:19–26); Rachel (Gen. 30:22–24; 35:16–20); and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5–25).
Hannah “poured out her soul” to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:15). See Job 3:24; Psalms 42:4; 62:8; 102:1; 142:2; Lamentations 2:11, 19.
Hannah’s husband must have ratified the vow she made to the Lord (Num. 30:6–15), for he had the power to nullify it. They were in agreement (1 Peter 3:7). They wanted a son who would serve God and lead the nation back to the Lord.
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The story of Hannah introduces a new name for the Lord, “the Lord of hosts,” used nearly three hundred times in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 1:3, 11). Jehovah is the Lord of the armies in heaven and on earth. (The NIV translates “Lord Sabaoth” as “Lord Almighty.”) See 2 Samuel 5:10; 6:2, 18; 7:8, 26–27; Psalms 24:10; 46:7, 11; 48:8; Isaiah 1:9; Romans 9:29; James 5:4.
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1 Samuel 2:18–21
Mothers still make garments for their children … by their holy and enabling characters displayed from day to day before young and quickly-observant eyes, by their words and conversation, and by the habits of daily devotion.
F. B. Meyer, Samuel the Prophet, p. 22
Herod
The Herod clan was Edomite in ancestry, descendants of Esau; so what they did to the Jews and Christians was only a continuation of the conflict between Esau and Jacob, the flesh versus the Spirit. They were murderers. Herod the Great tried to kill the child Jesus by slaying the innocent children in Bethlehem (Matthew 2). During his reign he also killed three of his own sons, a son-in-law, and a favorite wife. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, killed John the Baptist, and Herod the Great’s grandson Herod Agrippa killed the apostle James (Acts 12).
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Herod Antipas (Mark 6:14–29; Luke 23:6–12)
Antipas was a weak, cruel, sensual, ostentatious, shallow-hearted creature…. His licentious life, his family miseries, his political maneuvers, his sycophantic and extravagant expenditures, his ruinous defeats, both in war and in diplomacy, his fall from his throne, and his banishment from his kingdom, all are to be read in the books of Josephus.
AW-BC, p. 525
Herod was, after a sort, a follower of John, but never a follower of Jesus. It is easy for you to hear the preacher and love and admire him, and yet the preacher’s Master may be all unknown to you. The goal of all our ministry is Christ Jesus.
CHS, 26:404
Herod had already silenced the voice…. For what was John? He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” What was Jesus but the Word? He that silences the voice may well be denied the Word.
CHS, 28:103
Herod’s day of grace had lasted long, but now it is at an end. Herod had many opportunities, and at one time he was almost persuaded…. Herod had smothered and silenced his conscience long ago and now he is to be forever left alone.
AW-BC, p. 526
Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:12–13; Isaiah 39)
Here is a prosperous man, in a proud state of heart, with grace at a low ebb in his spirit; he is now ready to be the prey of temptation.
CHS, 12:438
He does not appear to have said a word to them about Jehovah. Would it have been polite? Etiquette, now a days, often demands of a Christian that he should not intrude his religion upon company. Out on such etiquette! It is the etiquette of hell!
CHS, 12:440
“Hezekiah was glad of them” (2 Kings 20:12–13)…. He was very pleased to see them. It is an ill sign when a Christian takes great solace in the company of the worldling, more especially when that worldling is profane…. Courtesy is due from the Christian to all men, but the unholy intimacy which allows a believer to receive an unregenerate as his bosom friend is sin.
CHS, 12:139