An Answer to Prayer / Una Respuesta a la Oración
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Most of us in this morning have been in a situation when we have prayed earnestly before the Lord.
Perhaps we have prayed for comfort.
Perhaps we have prayed that we may be healed of a chronic illness with which we have been afflicted for a long time.
Or maybe wee have prayed for a broken relationship with a loved one.
We know what it means to pray out to God with all our heart.
It seems that these are all-consuming prayers which demand all our energy/focus.
We pray, and continue to pray, and after we have finished praying we pray even more.
God in his sovereign grace has answered many of our prayers.
God has the power to answer prayers and we have seen him answer many of our own prayers.
God is a loving father who delights in answering his people’s prayers.
However, once the Lord has answered our prayer, how do we respond to him?
The deal has been done.
There is nothing left to do.
After all, we have received that which we have prayed for.
Today, we turn our attention to the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel which recounts the story of a jewish woman (Hannah) who was afflicted with the inability to have children. Today we will consider:
Hannah’s prayer and pain
Hannah’s answer to prayer
Hannah’s
Hannah’s faith
I. Hannah’s pain and prayer / El dolor y la oración de Ana
I. Hannah’s pain and prayer / El dolor y la oración de Ana
We read in 1 Samuel that there was a jewish family in the time before Israel was established as a kingdom.
The head of the household was Elkanah.
Elkanah had to wives: Hannah and Peninnah.
Peninnah had both sons and daughters (1:4).
Hannah was barren; she had no children (1:2).
This was a home where there were two wives.
One can only imagine the difficulties that will arise in a household like this.
This home was not an exception. Because Peninnah had children and Hannah did not, the bible tells us:
Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
Y su rival la irritaba, enojándola y entristeciéndola, porque Jehová no le había concedido tener hijos.
It was hard enough for Hannah to not have children. We know that a woman’s worth in not in her ability to conceive children.
After all, woman are created in God’s image.
A woman’s worth and dignity is not in her ability to have children but rather in that she has been created in the image of God.
However, it is understandable, especially in ancient times when families benefitted from having multiple children because:
Many children died in infancy.
Female children would help their mother with the rough chores of nomadic or rural household.
Male children would help their fathers in the fields or whatever jobs they held.
Nevertheless, Peninnah felt superior to Hannah because she was blessed with children.
This was the source of Hannah’s pain.
She desperately wanted to have a child.
Hannah yearned for the opportunity to conceive.
Her husband saw her pain but didn’t seem to understand her longing for a child:
Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
Y Elcana su marido le dijo: Ana, ¿por qué lloras? ¿por qué no comes? ¿y por qué está afligido tu corazón? ¿No te soy yo mejor que diez hijos?
Hannah saw her pain as an opportunity to cry out to the Lord.
Every year, this family would make a pilgrimage to Shiloh. This was the place of worship for the people of God.
On this occasion, Hannah goes to the house of the Lord and weeps “bitterly” before his presence and says the following prayer:
In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
ella con amargura de alma oró a Jehová, y lloró abundantemente. E hizo voto, diciendo: Jehová de los ejércitos, si te dignares mirar a la aflicción de tu sierva, y te acordares de mí, y no te olvidares de tu sierva, sino que dieres a tu sierva un hijo varón, yo lo dedicaré a Jehová todos los días de su vida, y no pasará navaja sobre su cabeza.
Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
It is a very simple prayer.
She knows that it is the Lord who can open her womb.
1
-11
She knows that God has it in his power to give her a child.
She presents her petition before the Lord and then says something extraordinary: I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life.
Although she is crying out to God for a child - she vows to dedicate the child to God.
She will receive him, but she will give him back to the LORD in thanksgiving.
Eli the priest saw her prayer and wrongly though she was drunk.
Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk
1 Sam
Pero Ana hablaba en su corazón, y solamente se movían sus labios, y su voz no se oía; y Elí la tuvo por ebria.
This goes to show the great pain that she was in.
Her prayer was all consuming to the point that an outside observer thought she was not acting normally.
Hannah explains to the priest that she has been praying as a result of her pain:
Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
No tengas a tu sierva por una mujer impía; porque por la magnitud de mis congojas y de mi aflicción he hablado hasta ahora.
Eli must have been greatly surprised to learn of this woman’s pain. He leaves her with a blessing:
Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
1 sam 1:
Elí respondió y dijo: Ve en paz, y el Dios de Israel te otorgue la petición que le has hecho.
Hannah departs with new found joy!
She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Y ella dijo: Halle tu sierva gracia delante de tus ojos. Y se fue la mujer por su camino, y comió, y no estuvo más triste.
Her circumstances are the same.
She does not have a child in her arms.
However, the Bible tells us that she has not eaten, which she had not wanted to do.
The Bible also tells us that her face was “no longer downcast”. She was no longer in pain and anguish for she had put her trust in the Lord.
She now understood that everything was in the Lord’s hands.
She was an incredible example of the faith described in
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Es, pues, la fe la certeza de lo que se espera, la convicción de lo que no se ve.
She had conviction.
She had hope.
She could not see God’s answer to prayer yet - but she trusted that the Lord had heard her prayer and that is all that mattered.
II. Hannah’s answer to prayer / La respuesta a la oración de Ana
II. Hannah’s answer to prayer / La respuesta a la oración de Ana
The Lord answers her prayer by giving her a son - Samuel.
So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
Aconteció que al cumplirse el tiempo, después de haber concebido Ana, dio a luz un hijo, y le puso por nombre Samuel, diciendo: Por cuanto lo pedí a Jehová.
1 Sam
God had heard his servant Hannah.
God gave her that which she most desired - a son.
But Hannah knows that it is God who graciously has given her that baby boy.
III. Hannah’s faith / La fe de Ana
III. Hannah’s faith / La fe de Ana
Hannah’s life was now full of joy for the Lord had answered her prayers.
Nevertheless, she had made a vow to the Lord. She had vowed that she would dedicate the child to him all of the days of his life.
For this reason, she tells her husband:
Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”
Pero Ana no subió, sino dijo a su marido: Yo no subiré hasta que el niño sea destetado, para que lo lleve y sea presentado delante de Jehová, y se quede allá para siempre.
They lived in an age where there was no prepared baby food.
She would keep the baby at home until he no longer had to be fed from his mother’s milk but could eat digest proper food.
Hannah is determined to give him back to the Lord.
But, wasn’t her prayer to be given a son?
Why would she now take him to the house of the Lord where he would be far away from home?
First of all, she had made a vow before the Lord and vows were expected to be kept.
Second of all, the boy Samuel would never cease to be her child.
Thirdly, wouldn’t the best place to grow up be in the house of the Lord where the boy Samuel would continue to grow in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord?
Fourthly, by dedicating him to the Lord, she was not prohibited from coming to see her child. She would always be his mother and he would always be her son.
The day has finally come and Hannah presents herself before Eli the priest:
and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
Y ella dijo: ¡Oh, señor mío! Vive tu alma, señor mío, yo soy aquella mujer que estuvo aquí junto a ti orando a Jehová. Por este niño oraba, y Jehová me dio lo que le pedí. Yo, pues, lo dedico también a Jehová; todos los días que viva, será de Jehová.
Y adoró allí a Jehová.
1 sam 1.26-2-28
Hannah recognizes that the Lord is the one who has granted her a son.
Hannah fulfills her vow by dedicated him to the Lord.
Hannah does this in an act of worship.
As we come closer to the dedication of baby Zacai Silva it is helpful for us to have considered this passage.
A baby dedication is not an ordinance as such.
The church of Jesus Christ has only two God-ordained ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Any other ordinances or religious practices are man made superstition.
Our evangelical presbyterian, lutheran, and anglican brothers and sisters practice infant baptism in which they administer baptism to infants as a sign and seal that they are now part of the God’s covenant.
As a baptist church, we believe that baptism is administered only to those who have made a profession of faith. This excludes babies who are not able to make a profession of faith.
However, in the Bible we see examples such as Hannah where believers came to dedicate their children before the Lord. This act of dedications means:
We recognize the children we have been granted are a gift from the Lord.
We recognize that ultimately our children belong to God.
We recognize that we are to dedicate our lives to up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
We recognize that the ultimate way to raise up our children in the fear of the Lord is by fearing the Lord ourselves and being an example to them.
We recognize that what our children need most is God’s blessing and saving grace in their lives.