Helping Hannah
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Helping Hannah
Kings don’t just show up. Neither do heroes. When a leader comes into power, it didn’t just happen. When a hero comes to save the day just in the nick of time, it didn’t just happen. It may seem coincidence to us, but everything that happens has happened because God has ordained that it would happen. That includes things that seem good to us and things that seem bad to us. Nothing happens outside of God’s control and nothing happens that does not connect with God’s ultimate plan. He is never surprised by anything.
When you look at history, or if you don't like history, if you look at fiction, whether by reading or watching a show, you know that the best stories have an element of surprise. Good writing pulls the reader into the situation, creating empathy for the story, and creating even anxiety and worry on behalf of the characters of the story, and then at the climax, a hero appears, or a solution to the problem, that no one could have foreseen. It just seems to have happened in a favorable way.
In older stories, you will see the word Providence to describe this. We don’t hear that word so much today, but in some of the great literature of the past, the story explains the seemingly impossible solution or sudden appearance of the hero by chalking it up to Providence. And indeed this is a correct way to look at things, since Providence simply means God. A proper way to view history as it unfolds around us to to attribute what seems like random chance to the ultimate plan of God.
Unfortunately, many do not acknowledge God’s participation in our lives, whether as individuals or in the world in general, so they chalk things up to Karma, or the world righting itself, or cycles of life, or whatever. But when we have a solid understanding of God’s sovereignty, his omniscience, meaning his power over all, we begin to understand that all that happened in our lives somehow fits together for God’s purposes for our lives, and also we begin to recognize that even when we feel out of control, that He is in control, and if we are people who love God, the Bible tells us that all things, even the things that seem unpleasant now, are happening within His purpose and that He is working all the things out for the good of those who love HIm.
And so today we look at the story of Hannah, and her husband Elkanah, two names who would never be known to us had it not been for the son born to them, Samuel, who was intimately woven into God’s plan for Israel, and because of that, Hannah and Elkanah, and other characters in our story today, are known. You would never had heard of them had it not been for their participation in the story, not as main characters, but in supporting roles. And just as today, we know the story of the mothers and fathers of presidents or football stars, not because of anything extraordinary in their own lives, but because they just happened to give birth to someone who ended up famous. And yet, there is more to it in the case of Hannah and Elkanah than just that their son became famous. No, they are known today because God used them in part of His story, and because they were faithful to God regarding Samuel.
There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.
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.
It is interesting here that we see that Elkanah had two wives. Now, this issue comes up often to people confused about what the bible says about marriage. Why were multiple marriages allowed in Israel? We know of many examples in the OT. But God’s ideal has always been one marriage, one man, one woman. Jesus affirmed this when he quoted Genesis that the two shall become on flesh. God’s design is for a man and a wife.
However, in the patriarchal society of that time, where having a son to carry on the family was of utmost importance, and in the case where the first wife was not able to bear children, a man would sometimes take a second wife. The bible is simply recording this, not affirming the practice of polygamy. Just because it is recorded as having happened does not mean it is God’s ideal. So likely Elkanah married Hannah for love, but after probably some years of not having children, he married Peninnah also.
However, we will see that past sins do not preclude us from being used by God. If that were the case, you wouldn't have a preacher in the pulpit this morning, because none could be found without sin.
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.
On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.
Now here we can begin to get a feeling for how Hannah must have felt. As the first wife, who Elkanah loved, not had to be difficult to sit at the table. This likely was the peace offering, when part of the sacrifice was eaten by the family. Hannah had to sit there and see the portions handed out, Penninnah, who we will see in a moment had no pity for Hannah, and her children given portions of meat. This annual ritual must have been very hard for Hannah. He dreams to have a family with Ekanah being lived out in front of her, but with an imposter in her place.
But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.
From Elkanah’s perspective, he is showing a kindness to Hannah in consolation of her situation. But receiving a double portion could not heal her hurt. Men, we do this sometimes with our wives. They are truly grieving about something, and we give them a compliment, or a gift, when what they really needed was understanding and sympathy.
And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, 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.
Here it keeps stacking up. The insults heaped on. It’s not bad enough for Hannah to be well aware of the apparent favor Peninnah had, not only in her husband’s eyes, because she had bore the children, but she probably felt that God was punishing her. In those days, without the medical knowledge of today, she had no answers, no reason given why she should not bear children, and she, as many women in her same situation, would have felt that God has displeased with her to keep her from having a child.
In fact, we see that in Deuteronomy, God had promised that he would not close up the wombs of Israel:
You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.
He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
You can see the conclusion a woman like Hannah would come to. This was a conditional promise. If the promise was not kept by God, the assumption was that some part of the condition of the promise was not kept by the person not receiving the promise. So it would go for a farmer who had a bad year, or one who lost his livestock. So it was that Job’s friends insisted he must have done something wrong because things weren't going right.
So you can imagine the things Peninnah must have said, awful things, accusations, hurtful things that bring Hannah to such a state of sadness that she cannot eat.
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?”
Here we are again, the husband making everything better by saying cheerful things. Thank God I am not guilty of ever doing that! “Hannah, Hannah, hey, baby! Don’t cry, its making me uncomfortable! Hey, look, baby, aren't I enough? Why do you need kids? I mean, hey, look at me, How can you feel the least bit dissatisfied with life when you have yours truly?”
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.
We will be learning more about Eli in the coming weeks. He was already very old, and in the next few chapters, it is mentioned twice that he had bad eyesight, which may play into what he observes about Hannah.
She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.
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.”
Now, here we are again with the whole notion of making deals with God. We must be careful not to think we can manipulate God. However, we see very often in scripture where someone makes a pledge or a promise to God. If someone is truly humble and makes a request of Go, knowing that only in His grace can the thing happen, they may make a promise or pledge. In fact, Jesus spoke of this when he said we should not swear oaths but rather let our yes be yes and no be no. But let me say this, as it is not the main point this morning, but worth mentioning. If you do make a promise to God, and He does what you have asked of Him that the promise was in response to, you had better do that thing.
Unfortunately, we are often very careless with these types of pledges to God. “If you get me a better job, then I will start giving back”. The new job comes, and new expenses, and the giving never happens. Or if you will provide me the right spouse, I will do such and such. You see, there is a difference between making a promise to God that is sincere and making a promise that is trying to manipulate Him to do your bidding. Whatever it is you want must be in His will if it is to happen, and if it is His will to do it, He will do it with or without your help, thank you very much. Be very cautious in how you make your appeals to God. On the one hand, we can go boldly to the throne of grace, but on the other hand, we should not be presumptuous to assume we know what God should or should not do nor should we be presumptuous ini thinking that somehow our meager promise to Him will someone sway Him.
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.
Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.”
There is a lot to learn from these verses. As I mentioned earlier, Eli had poor eyesight. He perhaps didnt perceive how troubled hannah was. It was not terribly bad of him to think she may have been drinking, since at festival times, there are always those who over indulge. But see Hannah’s response to the priest Eli! She did not respond with a snarky remark, or snap at him saying “You don’t know my story”. She shows respect, but still explains herself. She doesn't tell him the specifics of her prayer, but she tells him how she is a troubled spirit, pouring her soul before the Lord. You wonder if she continually was searching her heart, trying to know whether she had an unconfessed sin that led to her childlessness. She is pouring out her soul. Do you pour out your soul to God? I’m not suggesting that every prayer time be like this, but are there not times where you need to pour out your soul, searching your heart? Here is a lady who really knows how to call upon the Lord! Perhaps out of her difficulty she has learned to pour out her soul. So often in scripture we see that it is the weakest who seem to have the best relationship with God.
In ancient society, no one was weaker than a childless woman. Scorned by many people, looked down on, without a future of children who may tend to her in her old age, Hannah is a woman who must rely on the grace of God. And so it was with Sarah, the childless woman who God gave the son Isaac. And Rebekah, a childless woman who had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. And Rachel, another first wife, marries for love, but without children while her husband had children with another, Rachel gave birth to Joseph. Samson’s mother was barren and promised God to make her son a Nazarene if God would bless her. And we cannot forget Elizabeth, who was becoming elderly without child, and gave birth to John the Baptist. All of these examples were times where God used someone weak and vulnerable to produce a strong leader who would part of God’s greater plan.
Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.”
And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
Wow! Coming to the house of the Lord should not increase the pain of our past, but bring healing that comes from grace and an experience of peace through forgiveness, not condemnation through blame, should be the outcome. Hannah’s prayer has been heard, and it is the priest Eli who answers her. Hannah had told him, “You don’t know my situation, I am grieving”. Eli responds in a wonderful way. He pronounces peace over her. Go in peace. Salem
And may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.
She leaves with her face turned from sadness, from being so grieved she cannot eat to being able to eat. Something has changed for Hannah! Something wonderful happens when we pour out our soul to the Lord. Hannah has now had her outlook changed, and as one turns away from the house of the Lord, they ought to come away with peace as Eli gave it to Hannah.
The experience of coming to the house of the Lord may sometimes include chastisement. In Hannah’s case, the chastisement of Eli was misplaced. Sometimes chastisement comes to us that is misplaced. How do we react? Hannah reacted gracefully, explains her situation. How will we react when someone wrongly chastises us? It does happen in the church from time to time. How will you react to it?
But sometimes we come to the house of the Lord and receive chastisement that was rightly ours to receive, whether through scripture, or preaching, or from a brother or sister in Christ. What then? Will we receive the chastisement in a godly way, or reject what we know is something we ought to do? In National Secrutiy, whether FBI, or CIA, or other intelligence agencies, they receive an unbelievable amount of information. Partly because they are tracking all of our phone calls. They receive a lot of intelligence, which is simply information, and most of it is ignored because is it not what they call “actionable intelligence”. There is no action to be taken, other than to evaluate the information and if it is determined to not hold enough weight, it is not actionable intelligence.
Sometimes in church we get information through other people that think they are doing some good for us, but they are really off a little. It isn't actionable intelligence. But other times, it is actionable intelligence. In other words, it is something we need to take action on, something that should raise our awareness level a notch. When I said earlier that healing, grace and forgiveness ought to be experienced in the house of the Lord, that does not mean that we will always feel comfortable, because when we receive actionable intelligence, something we must take action on, and when that actionable intelligence comes from chastisement, then if we take action, and submit to God in that case, we will experience the peace. You see, peace comes after chastisement. Isaiah 53:5 says that upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. You see, Jesus took the chastisement for all who put their faith in Him as Savior and Lord, but we still have actionable intelligence and we need to do something about those areas of life that remain for us to turn over control of to him.
Sometimes you will come to the house of the Lord and be chastised, and other times you may not be, but whether you are chastised or not chastised, you can experience the peace that comes only when you pour out your soul to the Lord.
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
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.”
We learn that here that when our prayers are answered, it isn't because God’s purpose aligned with ours, but because our purpose aligned with His! God didn’t hear Hannah’s prayer and think, “Well, I had intended for her to remain barren, but since she really really really want s baby boy, I will somehow make it work”. Instead, God already had laid the plans that would bring about King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and down the line, but God’s plans already included Hannah, and when she began to pour out her soul to the Lord, her purposes became aligned with God’s purposes, and my friends, that’s what I want to figure out for my life and for this church. Am I trying to force God to become aligned with my plans, or am I trying to align myself with HIs?
1Sam1.21-23
The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.
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.”
Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.
Just a note here. In their custom, even though Hannah had made a vow to God regarding Samuel, Elkanah, her husband, could have overridden it. He also had a right to the child, and had there been a conflict where he wanted to keep the child, he, as the husband, would have won that battle. But here we see his response to what God had done for Hannah, and the faithfulness of Hannah. Elkanah trusts Hannah and after the years she had been barren, to see her give birth, hems have trusted that God was in this.
And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young.
Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.
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.
In a sense, it must have been quite painful for Hannah to give up her own child. He was weaned, and depending on who you ask, he was probably between 3-7 at this point, but even at the younger end of this, age 3, it would be very hard to give up a child. I would not want to any of my children up. Hannah, however, had made a vow and she was going to keep it. If you think today of the many missionaries who leave behind their families and communities, we may have some sense of it. But even now, with email, facetime, skype, we still cannot imagine how it would be for Hannah, who would only have the possibility of seeing Samuel on a very infrequent schedule.
Yet at the same time as this must have been difficult and painful, how rewarding it must have been to encounter Eli once again, and to be able to share with him how the prayer she prayed, and his prayer for God to answer, had brought about this child, Samuel. And so we are rewarded sometimes for our faithfulness when we have the opportunity to share with others how God has blessed us, and when it comes to singing Hs praise, may our mouths never be silent!
And he worshiped the Lord there.
Eli’s response is to worship, and so our response to God’s grace in our life should be worship as well.
(Barbi’s story)
