Sermon Tone Analysis

To Pour out Your Soul

Samuel, the Last Judge

GFC

2019-10-20

Introduction

Have you ever been desperate?

I don’t mean desperate for a cup of coffee, or desperate for a visit to the bathroom.

I realize those both can have levels of desperation but I’m looking for a greater degree of desperation.

In the New Testament we have quite a few stories of desperation described when Jesus was ministering.

The paralyzed man who was let down through the roof of a house was probably desperate and had desperate friends.

They were willing to tear up someone’s roof to access healing.

The woman who had menstrual bleeding for 12 years walked through the crowd hoping beyond hope to just be able to touch Jesus cloak.

She was desperate.

She had tried everything.

That’s the kind of desperate I’m talking about.

Have you ever been that desperate?

Today we’re going to look at the story of a woman who was that kind of desperate; the story of Samuel’s mother.

Today we begin our new series on the life of Samuel, the last Judge of Israel and in some ways, the first prophet of the era of Kings.

In preparation for today’s sermon, how many of you read 1 Samuel 1:1-20?

Before I get into the beginning of the story of Samuel, I need to spend a little time setting the stage.

Time Period of Samuel

Samuel’s parents lived during the latter time of the Judges when the Philistines were the oppressors.

The very brief story of Shamgar in Judges 3 describes the beginning of the period of oppression by the Philistines.

This oppression by the Philistines continued throughout Samson’s day, and later, all through Saul’s kingship and through a large part of David’s life and reign.

David is the one who seems to have gained a decisive victory over them.

It’s also possible that Samuel’s parents lived through the ‘civil war’ when the Israelites fought against the Benjamites.

The time of the Judges is described well in Judges 2:6-23.

Let’s listen as Thomas reads it to us.

So, what we have here, as a cycle of God’s people following him, then turning away, Then God sending/allowing neighbouring peoples to oppress them, the people turning back to God and calling on him after which God sends a Judge who leads and rescues them.

Then the cycle begins all over again.

What were these Judges like and what was their role?

First off, when we hear the word Judge, we mostly think in terms of law and courts.

We think of a court setting where a judge gives a judgement between two people or, in our case, between the state and the individual.

In our case, in terms of criminal law, it is the province that charges the defendant with the crime.

Only in civil lawsuits where one person is seeking damages from another is it between two people.

This concept of a Judge did apply to some of the judges.

(read Judges 4:4,5) As we can see, Deborah acted as a Judge in that way, but if you read through the book of Judges, you’ll see that this wasn’t always the case.

The role that is common to all the Judges is one of leader against the enemies of Israel who are oppressing them.

Sometimes it involved individual action, such as when Shamgar struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad (prodding stick) or Samson killing a 1000 Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone, but more often, it involved leading the men of Israel into battle against their enemies.

The book of Judges ends with this verse: (Read Judges 21:25) – no king to tell them what to do or believe, the implication being, that they were leaderless.

They certainly often lacked leaders who would lead them to God. “Everyone did as he saw fit.” is a horrible judgment by God.

Based on this judgement, it would seem that all is dark.

It certainly was dark, but that wouldn’t tell the whole story.

After Judges we have the story of Ruth.

In it we find that Naomi still worships God, in spite of the loss of her husband and sons, and Boaz is described as a righteous man worshipper of God who is careful to follow the laws of God.

A bright spot in a dark time.

The story of Samuel’s parents is similar.

That’s the story that we’re now going to turn to.

The Miraculous Birth of Samuel

(read 1:1-2)

First off, as we can see, we have a location, Ramathaim in the hill country of the tribe of Ephraim, a man by the name of Elkanah, a bit of his genealogy, and the fact that he has two wives, Peninnah, who has children, and Hannah who does not.

All in all, this introduction is more thorough than most people get in the FT.

There isn’t much more to add, although I should speak to the fact that Elkanah has more than one wife.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.

The Bible never endorses polygamy, the practice of having more than one spouse, but it does describe it happening with Abraham and Jacob and it regulates it’s practice in the FT Law.

Overall there aren’t all that many examples.

The fact that he had two wives, likely places Elkanah in the more wealthy section of society.

(read 1:3-8)

This passage shows one of the common problems with polygamy, favoritism and jealousy.

Elkanah clearly loves Hannah more than Peninnah and, not surprisingly, Peninnah reacts by using the one thing she has that Hannah does not have, children, to get back at her.

Having said all this, we have to remember, that the text in no way blames Hannah for being the favourite.

That seems to have been Elkanah’s doing, whatever the reason.

Enough about the polygamy aspect of the story.

There is another aspect of the story that needs to be talked about.

Elkanah, in spite of his faults in how he ran his home, is a faithful follower of God.

V3 tells us that (read).

Ever since the people conquered the land, the tabernacle had been at Shiloh.

Ramathaim was about 12 miles from Shiloh, so it’s not hard to envision a yearly trip to worship God there.

Even though, overall, times were spiritually dark in Israel, Elkanah and his family did their best to follow God and his commands.

In the meantime, Hannah is in anguish.

Many women in our day and age desire to have children and when they can’t it is deeply troubling.

It’s a longing that just can’t be met.

In Hannah’s day and age, it was a lot harder.

Children were seen as a blessing from God and the lack of children was seen as a curse from God.

Secondly, there was great pressure to have a son to carry on the family name.

It’s possible that Hannah was his first wife and that he took a second wife because Hannah was barren.

This would possible explain why he loved her more, she was the wife he had first fallen in love with.

The fact that Elkanah loved her was no doubt a comfort to her, but it did not take away her anguish and grief.

The provocation from Peninnah just made a difficult situation even worse.

Elkanah’s attempt at consoling her let’s us know the depth of her sorrow.

Then comes the passage that has made Hannah famous.

(read vv9-18) Often in scripture we simply have the actions of a person described but we don’t always get to see what’s going on in their heart and soul, here we do.

We also don’t often get to read what people prayed; again, here we do.

She promises to God that if God will grant her son, she’ll turn around and give that son back to God.

For most of us this is hard to fathom.

How could a person make such a rash promise to God? I’ll look at that in a little more detail two weeks from now when we look at the story of her fulfilling her promise.

As part of her promise she makes a Nazirite vow.

The laws of the Nazirite are described in Numbers 6:1-21.

They describe the regulations for a man or woman who want to make a special vow to God.

They include eating or drinking nothing from a grape vine and no other alcohol as well as never cutting their hair.

These vows were taken for a period of time after which their long hair was cut off at the tabernacle and burned on the altar together with a sacrifice.

In this case, Hannah makes the vow on behalf of her hoped for child, for the entire life of the child.

This underscores the depth of her anguish.

She is willing to sacrifice her whole son’s life to God if God will just remove the shame of her barrenness.

It's not hard to see the depth of Hannah’s desperation Hannah.

The prayer that we have here is likely a summary of what she prayed.

Based on Eli’s reaction, it’s likely that she prayed for quite a while.

I can picture her praying and sobbing, looking up and looking down and swaying back and forth.

Her actions were enough to lead Eli to believe she was drunk.

Her response to Eli says it all.

(read v15) “I am a woman who is deeply troubled.