The Every Day Faithfulness of a Godly Mother.

Greeting.

I would like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 1.

As you are turning, please allow to me to extend greetings from the Lighthouse once again. We are so thankful for your continued partnership in the ministry. The Lord is doing so much that it is often hard to keep up with it all. Next week, Lord willing, I will be able to elaborate on some of the things that God is doing. It truly is amazing to see him work!

And for a bit of a personal greeting, I want to thank you for allowing me to open the Word of God with you. It really is humbling to be trusted with such a high and holy task.

Before we read our text for this morning, lets pray and ask the Lord for His help. PRAY.

Introduction.

Today is Mother’s Day.

Everyone in this room is connected to someone that is a mother or hopes to be one some day.

and there are those that could even be considered spiritual moms, like we see in Titus 2.

Each generation of mothers have faced difficult and trying times, impacting how they choose to raise their children.

While one sermon cannot cover all that mother’s (of all generations) face in this world today, I trust, as 2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given moms all that they need for godliness in this vital area of life.

Today, we will find practical wisdom in our passage, whether we are a mom, or we are connected to a mom in someway.

It is my purpose, today, to not only help moms, but dads in their aim for faithfulness in parenthood,

Whether you are a mom or dad today, or will be in the future, with that in mind, lets read our passage: 1 Samuel 1:1-28.

Here we find a woman by the name Hannah of the tribe of Ephraim, living in Israel during the period of the judges. If you remember, the children of Israel were not the most faithful during the times of the judges. In fact, this era can be characterized in one verse, the last verse of the book of Judges: Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

So, not unlike the time we live in now.

This unfaithfulness grew so bad, that the sons of the high priest were pilfering the Lord’s sacrifice, fattening themselves.

1 Samuel 2:29. (the irony of to “honor” is to give weight).

We find Hannah weak and vulnerable, in couple apparent ways:

She is barren in a culture in which bearing children was considered the chief purpose of a wife.

Possibly because of her barrenness, she found herself in a polygamous marriage.

She was mocked by her husband’s other wife for being barren, every time they would go to worship the Lord.

Even more, Her grief is misunderstood by the priest (v. 14).

Despite her weakness and vulnerability Hannah remained faithful.

This passage today shows us 6 ways to remain faithful in parenting.

The first 3, have to do with mothers.

The 4th and 5th are aimed at father.

The 6th is focused on parents in general.

And so, point number one:

1. A Godly Mother allows affliction to deepen her relationship with the Lord (1 Sam. 1:7, 10, 12ff).

Rather than returning evil for evil with her suffering, Hannah went straight to the Lord.

We see in verses 6 & 7, that every year they would go up to the Tabernacle to worship in Shiloh that Hannah’s rival, “Peninnah”, would provoke her and grievously irritate her.

We’ll talk about this a bit later, but Elkanah’s response was to give her a double portion, to encourage her and to show her love.

The only sacrifice that the Israelites were allowed to eat from was the peace offering (Leviticus 7:11ff).

Rather eating of the peace offering, Hannah fasted.

In scripture, fasting is nearly always seen as a way to focus totally on the Lord without distraction. Often nowadays people try to manipulate God by their fasting, almost like a hunger strike with God. That is just not the case.

Later on, we see that after the sacrificial meal had finished, she went back to the Temple and prayed to the Lord.

Often in our grief and affliction we can tend to give the Lord the silent treatment. Rather than running to God in all our struggle and pain, we just tune the Lord out and wait for him to give us what we want.

Hannah gives us good example, not to run from the Lord, but to press in to the Lord and entreat him for all our troubles.

I am reminded of the persistent widow in Luke 18.

Luke 18:3 “And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’”

We see Jesus’s reason for this parable too: Luke 18:1 “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

1 Peter 5:7.

We do not have some god that is far off and uncaring about what happened to us. No we have a good God who cares, and loves us, and walks through our suffering with us.

It is often in the suffering that we come to know Christ better.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

1 Peter 1:6-9.

2. A Godly Mother has children in order to glorify God (1 Sam. 1:10, 11).

Rather than seeking to fulfill some cultural standard, or even to show off to Peninnah, she chose to give him to the Lord.

In verses 10 & 11, we essentially see Hannah promise that her son would be under a Nazirite vow from birth.

we see this in Leviticus 27.

Often it is seen as though Hannah were bargaining with God here. Personally, I am not sure that is the case.

When she gives Samuel to the Lord a few things happen:

Samuel doesn’t live with her anymore, so she is essentially “childless” until she goes to the Temple (1 Sam. 2:19).

This could have provided Peninnah the opportunity to continue to provoke her.

When the husband of a marriage died back then, the widow’s firstborn was supposed to take care of her.

Hannah seemingly gave up her security for the future, so that God would be honored.

God was honored: 1 Sam. 2:21, 26.

It also seems that Samuel was able to move home at some point: 1 Sam. 7:17.

Hannah’s first inclination was that God would be honored by her baring children.

Hannah’s child would eventually would do that very thing:

He would judge the people: 1 Sam. 7.

He would anoint two kings: 1 Sam. 10 & 16.

Eventually, through one of these kings, the Messiah would ultimately come.

In a world of social media clout and a world focused on the glory of self, a godly mother will bare children to glorify God.

Closely connected with this point is point number 3.

3. A Godly Mother prepares her children for a life of service to the Lord through discipleship (1 Sam. 1:21-23).

The time of weaning has been hotly debated. 3 or 13 years. Usually back then, mothers would breastfeed their children until they were two or three. But there also could be an understanding that “weaning” is no longer relying on moms for decision making, which would be at 13, or the Bar Mitzvah age, when boys become men in the Jewish culture.

I find myself going back and forth between what to think here. At this point, I think it was three years old, because of 1 Sam. 2:19, and the little rob. She made multiples, so he had to have been growing.

During that time, the time that he was home, it is quite evident that Hannah took her role seriously as a mother to disciple her son in the ways of the Lord.

We see this because of the immediate contrast that Samuel has with the sons of the priest Eli.

1 Sam. 1:28, Samuel worshiped the Lord at the Temple.

1 Sam. 2:12, Eli’s son’s were worthless men who did not know the Lord.

1 Sam. 2:17, Eli’s son’s treated the Temple worship with contempt.

1 Sam. 2:18, Samuel ministered before the Lord.

1 Sam. 3:11-14, Eli’s sons would be killed off for their iniquity.

1 Sam. 3:19, The LORD was with Samuel (he was not rejected).

This didn’t happen in a vacuum. Instead of going to the Temple with her husband, Hannah showed her dedication to diligent parenting of her son by staying back until he was weaned.

Parents, especially mothers, can be inundated with all kinds of pressures and formulas to parent a certain way, whether that be from well-meaning “mom’s who’ve been there” or through various social media platforms.

In fact, it was amazing to see the disparity between my wife’s social media accounts and mine soon after our son was born.

Mine was all about the cool fun dad and the tactical baby gear.

My wife’s is still all about the different methods of parenting:

How to speak to your child

How to discipline your child, or even if you are to discipline your child.

The only thing we’ll ever be held accountable for by God is whether we followed Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers [Parents], do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 4:9 ““Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—”

Deuteronomy 6:7 “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

The faithful discipling of your children in the way of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

A proverb, not a promise.

4. A Godly Husband points his wife to the Lord and not himself (1 Sam. 1:8, 18).

Back in the account of Hannah, we see Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, do something in verse 8 that I think most husbands have done in one way or the other. Essentially, when their wife is deeply struggling with something, the husband will make it all about himself by saying, “am I not enough?”

Men, let me frankly say, no, your not.

We get a good glimpse of what all wives need in verse 18. Look at what makes Hannah stop grieving. The Lord.

Our wives need Christ, infinitely more than they need us. We may have, or we may think we have, all of the wisdom and knowledge about whatever situation is grieving the heart of our wives, but that will never satisfy.

The well of human wisdom dries up quickly.

The balm of human love is the Sahara desert compared to depths of Christ.

This coincides with our next point:

5. A Godly Husband leads his family in worship (1 Sam. 1:3, 19, 21, 25).

In each instance of worship, it is seen that Elkanah is leading in worship.

Even to the point that the vow Hannah makes in verse 11, is taken by Elkanah in verse 21.

In verses 19 and 25, “they” (plural) sacrificed.

here it is truly seen that Elkanah is taking his headship roles seriously, leading his family in worship.

There is a tragedy in the church today, and that is that it is primarily made up of women.

While there is no problem with women in the church, the problem is that their husbands and fathers are absent.

Ephesians 5:25-29.

6. Godly Parents trust the Lord and His meticulous sovereignty (1 Sam. 1:6, 23).

I’m not sure where you are on the sovereignty of God, and I mean the fact that he is in control of everything. But I want to encourage you to trust that God is sovereign.

Look at how Hannah and Elkanah did:

v. 6, we see that it was recognized that the Lord, God Himself, had closed her womb. This seemingly had no bearing on how Elkanah loved his wife. He showed her great honor by giving her a double portion of the sacrificial meal.

v. 23, we see that Elkanah and Hannah were trusting that the Lord would accomplish “his word” or his purposes in the life of their child.

Parenting can be difficult, and fraught with the “what-ifs”.

What if my son gets hurt?

What if my son eats dirt?

What if there is a tornado while I am away from my wife and son?

We love and care for our children, but a way that God show his love and care for us as his children is the ongoing work of sanctification in our lives. He accomplishes this sovereignly through the circumstances, whether parenting or not, that we come to.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 2:12–13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Romans 8:28–29 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Conclusion

The story of Hannah, Elkanah, and Samuel is the story of the triumph of everyday faithfulness. We saw how vulnerable and weak Hannah was at the beginning, but by allowing God to use her pain, God was ultimately honored and glorified through the birth of her son.

Understand that God uses the weak things to shame the strong.

1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;”

And he certainly is not opposed the the little things

Zechariah 4:10 “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the whole earth.””

Even Christ was considered weak and insignificant.

2 Corinthians 13:4 “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.”