Sermon Tone Analysis

:* 1  *As some of you know, my wife Lisa is a great cook.

Anything she makes is good, and I love her cooking!

And I’m not just saying this because Lisa is my wife, or because it’s Mother’s Day, but because … well… fellas, have you ever had one of those times when the words came out of your mouth, and they sort of hung there in the air like one of those cartoon balloons?

You wished you could bring them back?

But you can’t?

Early in our marriage, Lisa found out that I like apple pie.

And so she made me pie, lots of pies.

And they were great.

But there’s  something you need to know.

Even though I liked Lisa’s apple pie I really /loved/ Mrs. Smith’s apple pie.

You know the kind that come frozen from the grocery store and you heat them up in the oven, with the squishy apples, and the apple goop that is really, really sweet, and caramelizes into the crust?

Big scoop of vanilla ice cream. .

.

ooohhh!

And Lisa’s apple pie was good, but the apples were a little on the crunchy side and I just wasn’t used to that.

Now I wasn’t so dumb that I ever said that out loud, that I liked Mrs. Smith’s pies better than Lisa’s.

That would be stupid.

I just enjoyed her home made apple pies.

And then one day, she made me a pie, served it on a plate, a little ice cream on the side, and it was really good!

I don’t know how she did it, but she made me a pie that tasted just like Mrs. Smith’s apple pie!

And I thought this would be a good time to encourage Lisa, to let her know that, whatever she did with this apple pie, she needed to do it again.

“Hey hon,” I said.

“This is great!

You are getting a /really good /at making apple pie!”

And then she said, “It’s Mrs. Smith’s!”

You know, there are times when you are better off if you just keep your mouth shut.

:* 2  *Howard Hendricks tells us, whenever we read the Bible, we need to look for things that are true-to-life.

Our text this morning comes from 1 Samuel Chapter 1, the story of the birth of Israel’s last judge, Samuel.

Samuel served as the transition leader from the corrupt days of the judges, where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes,” to the period of Israel’s monarchy, which began with Saul and then King David.

*The story is a powerful one of how* *God’s purpose is accomplished through our pain when we take it to God in prayer.

*This will lead us to the conclusion found in 1 Samuel 2:9:  For not by might shall a man prevail* (or a mom for that matter!)  *But all this starts with a average family, and a husband, a good guy, a godly guy, and a guy who sees a */problem/*, and tries to “fix” it.

:* 3  *Let’s look at verse 1:  1Now there was a certain man from      Ra-MA-tha-im-ZO-phim from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Je-RO-ham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

2He had two wives: the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Most scholars would say it is likely that Hannah is Elkanah’s first wife.

She could not have children, which is heartbreaking at any time, but back then there was huge social stigma attached.

For them, bearing children was a sign of God’s blessing, and to be barren was considered a punishment from God.

In agrarian and pastoral communities survival depended upon children to work, and add to the family’s wealth and to build the status of the patriarch.

A barren woman would see herself as an outsider, even within the group, unable to share with the other women in common life experiences.

Even the things the other mothers complained about; teething, potty training, terrible twos, whining, fussing, and fighting -  Hannah had no part in any of that, and I can tell you from experience that a childless wife feels left out.

And time didn’t heal her sense of loss.

Every year it got worse and worse.

*/PROBLEM:/*  Faced with a barren wife – a problem - Elkanah “fixed” things.

He got a second wife who could and did bear children, perhaps like Hagar did for Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The trouble is, a man has room in his heart for only one woman.

God made us that way.

As far as the family goes, Elkanah’s “fix” only made things worse.

Verse 3:  3Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.

And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there.

4When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters; 5but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb.

Guys, we never cease trying to fix things, do we?

Elkanah could not give Hannah kids, so he did the next best thing:  he gave her presents!

A feast with meat as the main course was a rare and special thing.

To give Hannah a double portion, in front of the whole family, made Peninnah, who would have seen herself as more deserving, feel slighted.

Elkanah’s good intentions really only made things worse.

Look at verse 6:  6 Her (Hannah’s) rival, . . .

would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.

7 It happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, [Peninnah] would provoke her; so [Hannah] wept and would not eat.

Being jealous of Elkanah’s love for Hannah, her double honor, Peninnah provoked Hannah to tears, rubbing salt in her wound of infertility.

“Here we are, going to praise the Lord,” she might say, “and what do you have to praise him for?

You’re not blessed, you’re cursed!

Get yours now, because my children will get it all.

If anything ever happens to Elkanah, I’ll put you out on the street!

Why do you come anyway?

You’re worthless!”

Now here are the facts:  Elkanah loved Hannah.

God loved Hannah.

He actually has a great *purpose* for her life.

She will become the mother of a prophet and judge, the prophet Samuel.

He will replace faithless Eli and his corrupt sons, and usher in a period of devotion to the Lord.

Samuel will turn Israel’s heart back to God.

He will be a king-maker, the answer to the prayers of not just Hannah, but a whole nation.

Hannah will have a significant part in that, setting the course for his entire life as a man dedicated to God.

How strange that we listen to the lies of the devil, when God has a */great purpose/* for the pain we suffer, if we will just see things from His point of view.

Well, Elkanah is not done trying to fix things.

You know guys, the absolute worst thing you can do in the face of emotion, is apply reason.

Take it from me, it doesn’t work.

But that never stops us from trying!  We’re always trying to fix things!

Verse 8:  8 Then 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 better to you than ten sons?”   (Bad idea.

“Gosh dear, you’re getting a whole lot better at making apple pie!)  9 Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She, greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

:* 4  /PAIN:/*  How true-to-life.

How true-to-life that all this happened on a holiday!

What was intended as a day for rejoicing, feasting and celebration had become, year after year, a day to be dreaded and a point of pain.

Today is Mother’s Day, when we celebrate our mothers.

And I cannot let it go unsaid that for many women, Mother’s Day is a day of pain.

Hannah hated getting in the caravan to go to God’s house, to try and put on a show of celebration, when in fact, her heart was breaking.

There are some moms here this morning who dreaded getting in the mini-van today, to come to God’s house, to make it easy for everyone else who, quite honestly, are mostly ungrateful the rest of the year.

But that’s what mom’s do, isn’t it?

They make it easy for us.

Mothers are the “magic lady” who makes things “appear.”

She makes food appear on the table, clean clothes appear in the drawers, and shampoo appear in the bathroom.

She makes little notes of encouragement appear in the lunch-bag.

Her magic also works in reverse:  she makes things dis-appear:  not just dust-bunnies from behind the piano bench, but the sting from a skinned knee, the disappointment in not being picked for the team, and the hurt underneath a thousand tears cried by her kids on mommy’s shoulder.

If you live with a magic lady, it’s time to start letting her know you notice that it’s not done by magic.

And of course there are women who’s pain matches Hannah’s.

They are unable to bear children.

Many of those women are not even here today.

Lisa used to be one of them.

My son Luke was born 15 years into our marriage, and I think the last 5 of those years, Lisa just skipped Mother’s Day.

It was too painful.