When man is powerless to remedy a troubled situation, God intervenes to put things right. Humanly speaking, Hannah seemed to be condemned to barrenness. When properly informed of her desperate cry to God for a child, God's representative, the High Priest Eli gave her a blessing that unburdened her mind and effected what she had asked for - a son.

In another place of worship, a synagogue of the Jews, Jesus intervenes in person. He rebukes the evil spirit possessing a man, and with divine authority delivers the possessed man. The situation produces amazement.

Jesus confronted the culture of death or evil force with the culture of life or the power to do good. In this He declared His authority to bring to nought the power of the evil spirit. It is indeed a betrayal of belief in God's presence when some of those people who were present before Jesus became uneasy. This is because they found God rather too close for comfort and thus rejected Jesus. Their amazement and uneasiness is like the laughter that we sometimes experience in ourselves, especially when we are embrrassed. Should they and (thus we) not have a deep sense of awe at what Jesus did to bring wholenss to a person?