1 SAMUEL: HANNAH'S PRAYER
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OPENER: Have you ever been reading through scripture and been struck been amazed at how the passage, or story or person or instruction in it almost perfectly related to your situation, or your needs or gave you just what you needed? (Even when you didn’t know it)
God in His incredible providence gives us in scripture stories that not only directly relate to our lives and touch our hearts but show us exactly what we need to do in the situations we live in as we live for Christ.
The story of Hannah we are going to look at this morning is one of those accounts in scripture that closely relates to our lives and reminds us of how to handle the difficulties we face and what a mighty God we serve. While studying her story I was struck by how relate-able it is.
If you read through scripture and are constantly get bored and do not see how it relates, your doing it wrong. I mean no offense, and I realize that some scriptures are more exciting than others. However, when you read passages (like the one we are going to look at this morning) with a heart that is looking for and listening for the lesson God is speaking into your life, you will never get bored. Instead you will come away changes and empowered to live for Christ.
INTRODUCTION TO 1 SAMUEL SERIES:
Series and history: Today we are beginning a series of sermons GOING THROUGH THE BOOK OF 1 SAMUEL. In the history of Israel Samuel is one of the most significant character. He was one of it’s greatest prophets, while also being a priest and it’s last major judge. 1 and 2 Samuel show the Israel’s transition between judges and Israel being ruled by a human king.
Israel would for the first time move to having a human king (like other nations) because of their stubbornness. Even through it was a mistake, (and caused many problems) as God said it would be, He was willing to still work and help His people Israel.
It is good to get the context and history in which the events happen in. But it is not the history in 1 Samuel that I am so much excited about (No offense history lovers.)
Mostly I’m excited about it because there are so many powerful accounts of God’s people doing incredible things through their faith in God as well as prayer and courageous actions.
There are the ones we know well such as David facing Goliath, and Hannah praying for a son and the ones we might not know so well, like the Ark being taken by Israel’s enemies or David living among the Philistines for a time.
CONNECTION: We have these examples and accounts not to just go over like history lessons but to learn from and build our faith in God. As we study, it builds our faith in what He can do through His people today.
As we go forward into a new year that has never happened before we can believe that God can do things in our lives and family that He has never done before.
Having said that, what expectations do you have for this year or the future?
As we approached the year and as it started I heard statements that reflected both excitement and guarded expectation and viewpoints of how it might be just as hard.
No matter what challenges we faced last year or what we will face this year we can look at the future (if God chooses to give it) with faith and expectation. Through faith, we can pray for God to do things that seem impossible, just as Hannah did..
1 Samuel 1 holds some great truths concerning prayer as we begin this year. Your relationship with God and boldness in prayer to Him will have the greatest impact on how this year goes.
Last year what made the most difference for me was prayer in my relationship with God (as we faced difficulty). The same is true this year. (More than any resolution, unless your resolution is to be in prayer more, (Ha!) giving everything to God will make the difference.
Let’s get into the text! 1 SAMUEL begins with His origin story:
THE STORY OF SAMUEL’S BIRTH is not just about Samuel but more focused on the faith and prayer of His mother Hannah. (Who was barren.)
The first few verses introduce Elkanah, Samuel’s father who was a Levite (but Ephraimite by residence), and his two wives; Hannah (whom He loved, but was barren) and Peninnah (pen nen nah) (who bore Elkanah children.)
Hannah, like Sarah, like Rachel and and like Elizabeth (John the immerser’s mother), was barren.
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. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb.
HANNAH’S PAIN IN barrenness and how it was misunderstood. No matter what time or culture you live in barrenness can be one of the hardest things to face. Anyone who has experienced it can tell you of how deeply it can impact you.
In Israel in Hannah’s time having children was considered a blessing from God (and it is) (as Deut 7:13-14 mentions) but those who were barren were considered cursed or forsaken by God and looked down on as not having God’s favor.
For Hannah, having children was one of her greatest desires and considered one of her major purposes. The stigma of not being able to have a child would have been overwhelming on by itself.
Understanding this essential if you are going to see the depth of pain that Hannah was in and to be able to relate her story to your story and what she to what we need to do when we are in distress. (Whether that’s now or sometime later)
Barren and bullied: What made Hannah’s misery even more unbearable is how it was magnified by her rival taunting her with it. She was barren and bullied for it!
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.
Year after year: As hard as it would have been to deal with even for a short period of time, we need to understand that Hannah had to deal with it year after year. Year after year of still not having a child (as she continued to hope for only to be disappointed) and year after year being ridiculed and provoked and grieved as if it were her fault or failure.
If you know what it is like to be so upset that you cannot eat because your stomach is in knots from the anxiety of it all, you know just how hard this was for Hannah. As verse 7 says, “she wept and would not eat.” Verse 8 shows she was inconsolable.
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?”
This instance is one of those where the husband tries to help and says the wrong thing. (As if she should be so happy with Him that she should not be sad… wrong answer…many of you husbands (as I do) know exactly how to do this…HA!)
What we often need is not (well meaning) consolations telling us why it is not as bad as we think or why we should not be sad but others to feel with and weep with us and be there.
The pain in her prayers are expressed ALL THE WAYS HANNAH DESCRIBES HER STRUGGLE and how it was hurting her. She was “grievously provoked and irritated” (year after year) until she wept, (as we already read)
In her prayer in “deep distress” she “wept bitterly,” (v10) mentioned her “affliction” (V11) in her pain.
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.”
If you have ever been so distressed that when you prayed you wept out load or soaked you clothes or pillow or hands with tears?
Her prayer is so intense and consuming that she her lips are moving with no sound. So much so that Eli thinks she is drunk and she tells him she is a “troubled woman” who is not drunk but she has been pouring out (not wine) but her soul in “great anxiety and vexation.” (Vv12-16)
The parallel to our pain and problems If we think about our lives there are likely parallels to the problems we have had or may be facing and the pain and heartache they bring.
It’s my hope that no one here has pain that parallels exactly Hannah because you know barrenness and the difficult of it and all of the reminders of it everywhere. (Hannah was loved by God and her husband, she was not a failure or broken and so those cannot have children today.) Trans: But beyond the exact problem we may be able to relate...
Do the descriptions of her intense pain and emotion apply to how something is effecting you? Is there anything that’s “grieving” you? What is “irritating you?” (Do not look anyone around you, ha) Is there anything that is causing you to “weep bitterly”, or “afflicting you, “causing anxiety” and “troubling your spirit?” (That has been year after year…)
Many of you are good (and that’s great) but some of you know the exactly what it is. You know it well because you have been dealing with it, (like Hannah) for years! (And you are so tired of being here, without resolution) (Like Hannah maybe it has taken that long for you to get so fed up) you could scream, and maybe you have, if not on the outside, on the inside.
When we are struggling, our enemy rubs it in and taunts us with it (similar to Peninnah?) Using our struggle, throwing in your face and taunting you with it. Telling you your not loved, or your not good enough, or God must not be with you, or your a failure as a husband, father, wife, mother, parent, friend or whatever you need to fill in the blank with. So much so sometimes that we have a hard time focusing on anything else. We can’t eat (like Hannah), or sleep. I bet Hannah felt some of these things.
Whether you are there right now or will be later HANNAH SHOW US EXACTLY HOW TO HANDLE IT. (TRans: But before we get into that, let’s consider a few things to help us have the right perspective in difficulty…) Consider that...
OUR PAIN MAY BE A PART OF GOD’S PLAN
(Disclaimer: I’m not saying God enjoys seeing us in suffering but God sees the results of our pain and redeems it for our good. While it is sometimes unbearable it is not meaningless because God uses for His plan for your good and that of others.)
We do not think of it this way much. We imagine and dream and have expectations of what life is going to be and supposed to be. (Which is not bad, just natural) Like expecting to grow up, get married, and have children. But our expectations do not always match up with God’s purposes. But we can trust that God’s purposes and plans are better than our expectations, even if the path to their fulfillment is hard.
(op)Part of God’s plan may be you experiencing things in your life being postponed. Part of God’s plan may involve pain and require incredible amounts of patience. God may close and lock a door in your life for a time so that when He opens it we will give Him the glory and we will appreciate what’s on the other side
God had a purpose to raise up a prophet He would use to bring Israel closer to His will. H
Application: Think about it (with Hannah’s story in mind:) When you read the rest of the story and think about the bigger picture you realize God had a greater plan that would not only bless Hannah but the whole nation of Israel (and even our faith today.)
If Hannah had not gone through this and had children as easily as anyone else would she have prayed with this passion and would she have dedicated the child over to work for God and become God’s priest, judge and prophet.
God even used her rival’s evil taunts in His plan. The pain that her taunting brought Hannah to her knees and to God’s throne with a bold request and willingness to sacrifice.
Some of our deepest pain or difficulty, or weakness, may be, may be, some of the key factors God uses in some of His greatest plans.
God can turn our pain into purpose when we learn how to comfort and help others through the same kind of pain. Our giants can be used to demonstrate how much bigger our God is and what happens when we face them with prayer.
But that is the key; turning our pain over to God in prayer! Pouring out our petitions over to Him to handle and help!
Trans: When or if you are in this place (as Hannah was) remember where she took her pain; to God with passionate prayers. We have this story to REMIND us THAT...
POURING OUT YOUR SOUL TO GOD CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
PRAYER can change that thing or those things that are causing you pain or anxiety or hurting your relationship(s) or family or challenging your faith or future. (Look at Hannah…)
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.”
Think about how this changed Hannah’s life. Her problem was solved and her reproach was God. She had a son and she had freedom because she asked for it.
THINK ABOUT IT FOR A SECOND and apply her statement to your life. WHAT DO YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU “ASKED THE LORD FOR IT?” I CAN SAY I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL GODLY WIFE, “BECAUSE I ASKED THE LORD FOR HER.” (If not for that I would not be here today.) While working on this text I started thinking about some pretty big things that I have asked God to help me with or even find a solution. It is incredible how God helped and helped so many of those things. Now I can glorify Him.
What would change if you asked God for it? What Hannah did is a living example of what God encourages us to do all over His word.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
We can be confident that we can ask for anything and if it’s according to God’s, He will give us what we ask for. Because “the fervent prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:16 Not that we should ask only spending our prayer on our selfishness. We know that James 4:3 says,
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Hannah understood that her request was not all about her and she gave Samuel back to God who had given him in the first place.
God does not always answer our prayers just as we want as with Hannah (because it not what’s best for us) but we do not need to forget that obviously sometimes He does!
Hannah example shows us that we can be bold and specific and ask for big things, specific things. If we believe that our prayers are powerful then we should be asking for things that take God’s power to accomplish!
Sometimes we are to general, and flat and rote. Sometimes we ask God to help us deal with the symptoms when we could be asking for a solution.
Hannah’s prayer not only changed her life (and her biggest problem) but (Her PRAYERS HAD AN IMPACT ON THE whole NATION OF ISRAEL!)
We may not think about the ripple effect of our prayers can have. What effect could your prayers have on your marriage, family, children, grandchildren, the church, the city, the nation, the hurting, those who are lost?
MAYBE THE QUESTION WE ALSO NEED TO ASK IS NOT JUST “WHAT DO I HAVE NOW BECAUSE I ASKED THE LORD” BUT WHAT COULD WE HAVE, WHAT COULD BE DONE, WHO COULD BE HELPED, WHOSE LIVES COULD BE COULD BE CHANGED FOREVER “IF WE ASKED THE LORD FOR IT?”
Something that we do not need to miss in Hannah’s example. Notice what happens after she prayed (long before Samuel was born.) in verse 18:
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.
Do you see it? Why was her face no longer sad? (You might say, well she ate something and that usually makes me happy. HA!) (It was likely that unlike we do, she wasn’t eating so she wouldn’t be sad, she was no longer sad so she was able to eat.)
Hannah went on her way “and her face was no longer sad” because the great burden she had been carrying year after year she laid down in God’s hands.
Hannah’s joy did not start after she found out she was pregnant, it started after she said Amen! APP:Prayer in faith doesn’t just have the potential to change things it has the power to change our RELEASE OUR HEARTS as we trust in God. SO...
YOU CAN SAY YOUR PRAYERS AND LIFT UP YOUR FACE knowing that God will remember your prayers. (In verse 11 Hannah asked for God to remember her and then verse 19 says “THE LORD REMEMBERED HER.”
Have you ever noticed how when you really pour out your heart before God, literally pouring out your emotions and heart and give it all over…you are tired but the weight of it is lifted because in faith you have really taken it off your shoulders and placed it in God’s hands?
Trans: there is one more thing to point out about Hannah’s character that is not about prayer but what she did after she prayer. She teaches us to...
KEEP YOUR COMMITMENT TO GIVE YOUR LIFE TO GOD!
Hannah’s actions after her prayer are just an incredible. Her level of devotion to God did not rise and fall with her difficulty. SHE went through with the vow that she promised to give her baby boy over to live and serve in the temple saying this;
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.
It can be really easy to commit to giving yourself more fully to the Lord and devotion to Him when we are desperate but when God brings us through, forget how much we need Him and loosen our grip on Him along with our commitment.
It is unimaginable how hard it must have been to give your little child over to live in another place and only see them from time to time.
GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES TO YOU, ARE YOU KEEPING YOUR COMMITMENTS TO HIM?
What we have said we will do we should be faithful to do as followers of Christ. That starts with our obeying your covenant with Christ.
OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CHURCH TO PRAY FOR YOU!
I want to give anyone the opportunity right now in two ways: First, if you have not been keeping your commitment to God (despite His goodness to you) and you want to come and give your life as a living sacrifice anew to recommit yourself, come. Second, if you want to, like Hannah, bring what has been troubling you and not only pray yourself for God’s help but have the whole church pray for you, come forward.
If you need, you can come and sit up front where we have notepads you can write down your requests.
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Challenge: I want to challenge you by Hannah’s example to take those things that you wish were different, about your situation, or life or relationship, or world.
That thing that the enemy keeps throwing in your face and taunting you with. Telling you your not loved, or your not good enough, or God must not be with you, or your a failure, or a bad mother or father or parent or friend.
Instead of acting like it is no big deal or just letting your anger grow about it under it explodes pour your soul out to God like Hannah. When God answers your prayer you make note of God’s work.