Keep Your Promise
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And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.
Elkanah was the father of Samuel
He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
Pin-nee-nah
“Hannah had no children”
Because a Hebrew man’s generational future was bound up in his having a son to perpetuate his name, his wife’s inability to conceive a son was regarded as a curse from God.
Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.
Hophni & Phinehas
On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.
A peace offering in the Old Testament Law is described in Leviticus 7:11–21. It was a voluntary sacrifice given to God in three specific instances. First, a peace offering could be given as a freewill offering, meaning that the worshiper was giving the peace offering as a way to say thank you for God’s unsought generosity. It was basically just a way to praise God for His goodness. The second way a peace offering could be given was alongside a fulfilled vow. A good example of this was when Hannah fulfilled her vow to God by bringing Samuel to the temple; on that occasion she also brought a peace offering to express the peace in her heart toward God concerning her sacrifice—it was a way to say, “I have no resentment; I am holding nothing back in the payment of my vow.” The third purpose of a peace offering was to give thanksgiving for God’s deliverance in an hour of dire need. None of these three reasons to sacrifice had anything to do with propitiation, with appeasing God, or with pacifying Him.
Each year, Elkanah took an animal to God’s house in Shiloh. At this time, God’s house was the sacred tent that Moses had built (Exodus chapter 40). Elkanah’s gift to God was the kind that Leviticus chapter 3 describes. The priests burned some parts of the animal as a gift to God, and they kept some parts for themselves. Elkanah received back the rest of the animal for himself and his family to eat.
“The Lord had closed her womb”
God was the reason for her closed womb…
And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.
Hannah is provoked grievously and irritated
Because…
The Lord had closed her womb!
So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.
Hannah is provoked
She is weeping
She would not eat
But remember.... God closed her womb
And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
Elkanah I know you think you are all that but He had no control
Because … The Lord closed her womb
After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.
She was deeply…
Distressed: inner self n. — the part of a person (or animal) that thinks, feels, wills, and desires; perhaps an extension of the literal meaning throat.
She prayed to the Lord…
She prayed to the one who shut her womb!
And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
to vow (religious) v. — to make a vow or promise to a deity with consequences if the promise is not kept.
A promise is a commitment!
God honors our commitment… God honors vows and promises
God desires a relationship that has a two way commitment
“Look on the affliction of your servant”
affliction (cause of) n. — a cause of great suffering and distress.
If God was the reason why her womb was closed…
Then God was the reason for her affliction… (Great suffering and Distress)
This is bigger than you…
As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman.
And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.
Troubled: oppressed adjs. — burdened psychologically or mentally.
“I have been pouring out my soul before the lord”
Pouring: to pour out (express) v. — to express without restraint.
To the Lord...
Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.”
anxiety: n. — a vague unpleasant emotion akin to worry that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune.
Vexation: provocation n. — unfriendly behavior that causes anger or resentment.
God knows how to push you to a place to pour out your “I”
Hannah:
I am being provoked
I am being Irritated
I am deeply distressed
I am afflicted
I am troubled in my spirit
I am pouring out my soul
I am speaking out of my anxiety
I am speaking out of my vexation
God pushes us to Him, so we can pour out ourself to Him
God closes things up… To push us to depend on Him to show up!
Remember it was God who closed her womb in the first place…
Because God needed her promise to “Do a thing in Isreal”
A mother / A woman is God’s vehicle/Vessel to Shift a world!
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.”
And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”
“I have asked for him from the Lord”
God knows how to change our “I”
But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.”
And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.
Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.”
And he worshiped the Lord there.
Lent: to dedicate ⇔ lend v. — to set apart something for sacred uses with solemn rites, conceived of as lending something.
Keep your promise!
That child or grand child is not yours....
I have or I am dedicating Them to God....
Take your hands off.........
