Worthless People
It may be shocking to many American Christians, but Scripture clearly teaches that some people are worthless. We often assume that because all people are made in the image of God, no one could be worthless. Yet Scripture calls several people worthless, even in the Law (Deuteronomy 13:13) but especially in the historical narratives of Israel. What are we to make of this and how does it not contradict the clearly teaching of Scripture that all people are made in the image of the infinitely worthy God?
Worthless People in the Old Testament
First, let’s look at the people the Bible calls “worthless”. The Hebrew term also means “evil”, derived from the name “Belial” used for Satan (2 Corinthians 6:15), so a worthless person is a child of Satan. In the aforementioned Mosaic warning, “worthless fellows” lure whole cities into idolatry. Worthless men likewise perpetuated the gut-wrenching Gibeah incident (Judges 19:22, 20:13). Their great sin—which in many ways parallels Sodom—is so unfathomable that we can consider it demonic. The term is also used of some of David’s men grumbling against him (1 Samuel 30:22) and of Sheba when he rebelled against King David (2 Samuel 22:5), then later of the men who followed Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:7) and the false witnesses who murdered Naboth (1 Kings 21:10,13). People also used the term as the worst of insults: Abigail and a servant used it of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:17,25) and Shimei cursed David with it (2 Samuel 16:7). This makes David’s forgiveness of Shimei all the more astounding. Conversely, when accused of being a drunkard, Hannah tells Eli that she was not “worthless” (1 Samuel 1:16), which brings up the term’s most notable recipients: “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD”. (1 Samuel 2:12). These corrupt priests extorted people, taking for themselves what belonged to God from every sacrifice, therefore preventing the entire nation from worshipping God properly. This was so bad that it overshadows their rampant adultery (1 Samuel 2:22).
As we saw last time, such rebelliousness in children is often a direct result of parents failing to discipline them, which was certainly the case with Eli. His sons certainly fit the description of a rebellious son in the Law (Deuteronomy 21:18-21), so he should have had them executed. In fact, Eli directly benefitted from their corruption, as God made clear through a prophet: “Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” (1 Samuel 2:29). Such a habit of corruption and evil characterizes worthless people, as we see in Proverbs:
A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing….A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire…..A worthless witness mocks at justice, and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.
-Proverbs 6:12-15,16:27, 19:28, ESV
The worthless person then is given to persistent sin. Interestingly, the term is always used of those within the covenant people of God. A different term, meaning empty or vain, is used of foreigners like the scoundrels hired by Abimelech (Judges 9:4) and the less-than-savory fellows who followed Jephthah during his exile (Judges 11:3). Instead, the worthless men of Israel had received the sign of the covenant in their circumcision but by their wickedness had made it meaningless (Romans 2:25). More importantly, Eli’s sons are called worthless because they did not know the LORD. The term for “know” implies intimate knowledge. So while as priests they knew much about God, they did not know Him personally. From this it is clear that only unregenerate people can be considered worthless. This means that since only God knows who He will regenerate, we cannot rightly refer to anyone as worthless except those Scripture explicitly points out.
Not Who the World Calls Worthless
From this, we see that a person’s worth is determined by God. All who are elect have been purchased by Christ’s blood, which means that God has declared them worthy of that infinite cost, completely independent of our works or merit. Nothing we or anyone else can do makes any difference in our actual worth; definitely not our own feelings. No matter how worthless someone may feel, his or her actual worth is determined by God. There is no indication that anyone Scripture calls worthless ever felt worthless. Instead, worthless people in Scripture are arrogant and self-absorbed. Eli’s sons fit that description, so in contrast to them Scripture holds up the example of someone who was made to feel worthless: Hannah.
In the eyes of many in that society, Hannah as a barren woman would be considered worthless. As we saw here, even in the best of times barrenness was extremely difficult, but Hannah’s situation was arguably the worst in Scripture. For starters, her husband Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah had many children, which would have been a constant reminder of Hannah’s shame, exacerbating an already bad family situation. We recently saw how biblical narratives are descriptive rather than prescriptive, warning us against certain actions by pointing out their negative consequences, which is certainly the case whenever polygamy is mentioned. We see similar disparities and the ensuing rivalries between Sarah and Hagar (Genesis 16:1-6) and then between Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29:31-30:24). Rachel even refers to it as wrestling with her sister (Genesis 30:7), showing just how far even the Patriarchs fell from God’s design for marriage and the negative impact it had on their families. Since God builds His Kingdom through families, Scripture frequently holds up unhealthy families as a warning. Throughout the historical books, polygamy is pointed out as foreshadowing, giving context to coming calamity, which in Elkanah’s case comes quickly.
This family rivalry would have been bad enough, but Hannah’s situation was much worse because Peninnah “used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. So it went on year by year” (1 Samuel 1:6-7). The term “provoke” here is often used of provoking God to anger, which gives us a glimpse of the intense animosity of Peninnah. Her attacks were especially vicious when the family would go to Shiloh each year to worship God. On one such trip, this caused Hannah to be “deeply distressed” and weep so bitterly that she would not eat. Since this was a peace offering in which God, the priest, and the offerors all communed together over a meal, Peninnah had effectively isolated Hannah not only from her husband but also from God. Therefore, “troubled in sprit” by her “affliction”, Hannah poured out her soul to God in “great anxiety and vexation”. These strong words show that Peninnah had waged a cold and calculated campaign to make Hannah feel worthless. And Elkanah’s surprise at her sadness suggests he was oblivious to this campaign, meaning Peninnah was careful to inflict this pain in ways Elkanah wouldn’t notice. In other words, this methodical and prolonged torment can only be described as abuse. Elkanah had failed in his husbandly duties to protect and provide for Hannah from this abuse, so after several years of it Hannah was broken and likely felt worthless. In desperation, she turned to the only One who could possibly help her, pleading with God to remember her (1 Samuel 1:11).
Watching all of this was Eli. If anyone in Israel should have been able to recognize Hannah’s pain and desperation in this raw and genuine prayer, it should have been Eli the priest who was responsible for interceding for the whole nation before God. Eli and his sons had perverted the worship of God so thoroughly and for so long that he couldn’t fathom the authenticity he was seeing from Hannah. To him, she was worthless—just a random woman among thousands who came to worship at Shiloh. As a non-Levite woman, she was three social tiers further from God that he was, so she couldn’t possibly have a closer relationship with Him that he did, right? So he accuses her of being a crazy drunkard, to which she responds that she is not the “worthless woman” he supposed. When he sees that she is genuine, he responds: “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him” (1 Samuel 1:17). While this may have been Eli’s generic response, Hannah “went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad” (1 Samuel 1:18). Despite Eli’s failure as priest, God used this encounter to encourage Hannah and give her contentment in spite of her circumstances. When they went home, God remembered her and “in due time” she conceived Samuel (1 Samuel 1:19-20). We don’t know how much time passed between Hannah’s prayer and Samuel’s birth or if Peninnah’s abuse stopped, but it is clear that this woman who was made to feel worthless now found her worth in God.
When Hannah returned to Shiloh to dedicate Samuel to God’s service, her prayer is one of victory (1 Samuel 2:1-10). She rejoices in God’s salvation while deriding her enemies: “Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed….The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn” (1 Samuel 2:3,5b). Clearly Hannah had one particular enemy in mind: Peninnah. God may have given Hannah peace last time at Shiloh, but with the birth of Samuel He had silenced her abuser. And since God keeps His promises to all His people, she finishes by rejoicing in the salvation of God’s people and the fate of all who are truly worthless:
He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.
-1 Samuel 2:8-10, ESV
Hannah’s prayer is not some boastful and selfish revenge against Peninnah but an outpouring of joy and relief to the God who had saved her from a very real enemy. This woman considered worthless by worldly standards spoke words that have echoed throughout the world for three thousand years. Clearly, God is the one who determines our worth.
Worthless People and the New Covenant
All who are in Christ have been declared worthy of the infinitely costly blood of Christ. Conversely, those who oppose Christ without repentance prove to be worthless. We can see this with how concept of worthless people is seen in the New Testament, especially with the Greek term meaning “failing to pass the test”. It is used of God has giving people over to a debased mind (Romans 1:28), but it usually deals with those inside the church. In Hebrews 6, we see the analogy of a worthless field used to describe people in the church who fall away:
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
-Hebrews 6:4-8, ESV
Such a field is tested by being placed in optimal growing conditions, but fails the test because it does not produce fruit. Similarly, these people have been placed in the optimal conditions to grow in Christ: the local church. But they fail the test by falling away. This text has sometimes been used to suggest that people can lose their salvation, but these people who fall away were not genuine Christians. They seemed to be in Christ, but when tested they did not produce fruit, therefore proving that they were actually apart from Christ and therefore worthless. Paul says the same of those “disqualified regarding the faith”:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
-2 Timothy 3:1-9, ESV
This description is consistent with those the Old Testament calls worthless. They are part of the visible church, since they have the appearance of godliness. Like Eli’s sons they may have great knowledge but are led astray by their passions and corruption. These are also false teachers who actively lead people astray. They are therefore compared to Jannes and Jambres, who according to tradition were Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses before Pharoah. They are even thought to have joined the Israelites in the exodus under false pretenses then instigated the golden calf incident. While we don’t know for sure, their comparison to false teachers does support that possibility. It would put them right alongside rebellious people like Sheba, so Paul is saying that these worthless people in the New Testament are just like the worthless people in the Old Testament. As with all of the covenants, they are visibly part of the people of God. They might be baptized and partake of communion—and may even be well-known pastors—but they are not regenerate and therefore not in Christ. And while they may deceive many, their hypocrisy will ultimately be exposed. We can recognize them when they stir up division in the church or when they teach false doctrines, but whether they are exposed in this life or not, they will be exposed in the next. Nevertheless, God can bring even the worst scoundrels to repentance, so we cannot definitively call anyone worthless until God does.
Conclusion: Look for Fruit
Scripture is clear that some people are worthless, so we must be diligent to recognize them, preventing their false teaching, sin, and divisiveness from infecting the Church. More importantly, we must be diligent to ensure that we are in Christ and therefore not worthless ourselves. Paul disciplined his bodybecause it was so important to him that he bear fruit to prove that he would not be “disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). We must have similar diligence and seriousness. We do this by looking for the fruit of faith and repentance in our lives. This is not about trying to earn our salvation or become worthy of it by good works. After all, we can never do anything to make ourselves worthy of Christ’s blood. Instead, this is a recognition that when God applies the perfect work of Christ to us in our salvation, He promises that His work in us will bear fruit in our lives. That is the fruit we must seek with all diligence, so I will end with the words of Paul: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
