Begin
Notes
Transcript
The first Sunday I stepped into this pulpit was exactly 11 years ago last Sunday. In these 11 years, I have been blessed to preach and teach God’s Word to a people I deeply love.
In these 11 years (between Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights), we have studied 36 books of the Bible (34 of those books we’ve covered every verse). We still have more Psalms and 3/4 of Genesis to cover). 36/66 isn’t bad; we’re getting there.
This morning, we start through book #37.
Whenever I start to preach through a new book of the Bible, I like to read 2 Timothy 3. This morning, I want us to read these words together with the book of 1 Samuel in mind:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
“All Scripture”—every single word of the Bible in its 66 books is breathed-out by God (theopneustos). Every single word is for us. It’s useful. It will equip us. It is one of God’s good gifts to us.
Let’s begin, then, shall we?
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to 1 Samuel. Keep your Bible open in front of you as we work through 1 Samuel 1 this morning.
Look with me at the first 6 verses:
1 There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
This story begins the way a handful of other stories in the Bible begin. And this beginning teaches us a thing or two about God and about ourselves.
Hannah, like Sarah and Leah and Rachel and Rebekah and Manoah’s wife and Elizabeth, had no children. She was barren, childless. Penninah had children, but Hannah had none.
Hannah is in good company, but that’s no real comfort or consolation to the woman who can’t have children.
At some point though, we have to come to grips with what verses 5-6 have to say to us:
1 Samuel 1:5 (NIV)
5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.
1 Samuel 1:6 (NIV)
6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
Why is that Hannah is childless? Why is it that Sarah and Leah and Elizabeth and all the other childless women were barren for a time? Because the Lord closed their womb. This is the mysterious and incomprehensible providence of God.
If we stop and think about it the way God’s people should think about these things, we’ll realize that, at just the right time, Isaac was born to a woman who had been barren.
As it was with Isaac, so it was with Jacob (Israel) and Joseph (the one who saves his family from a famine), Samson (the judge) and Samuel (the prophet), and John the Baptist (the forerunner of Christ)—all key figures in salvation history, all those who were the beginning of new chapters in God’s redemptive plan. Each of these figures were born to women who had been unable to have children.
Here, I believe, is the lesson of each of these beginnings:
God often, if not always, begins with nothing.
God often, if not always, begins with nothing.
Think about creation. Think about what God did then.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Before anything else was, there was the eternally existing Triune God. God created the heavens and the earth from nothing, creation ex nihilo.
God begins with nothing.
“God’s tendency is to make our total inability His starting point. Our hopelessness and helplessness are no barrier to His Work. Indeed, our utter incapacity is often the prop He delights to use for His next act.” - Dale Ralph Davis
This doesn’t apply in the Bible or elsewhere only to barren, childless women. This is God’s M.O., His modus operandi, this mode of operation.
This—starting with nothing—is the way God chooses to do things.
This is what He does. He takes our total inability as His starting point. He sees the nothing that we bring to the table and He says, “Perfect. Thank you. That’s just what I need.”
Our God, the One True God, delights—DELIGHTS!—to use the weak, the poor, the sick, the hopeless, the down-and-out, the ostracized, the foolish things (and foolish people) of the world to shame the wise.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
God chose a man who couldn’t speak to lead His people out of Egypt. God chose a boy to slay a giant, a young lady to give birth to the Savior of the world, a Christ-denier and deserter to preach the first sermon at Pentecost, a murderous Pharisee to build His Church and spread the Good News about Jesus Christ.
And God chose you, Christian, to do something for His glory. He chose you, Christian, so that people would say, “Really?!?! That guy!?!?” or “Her? Are you serious? She can’t do anything!”
That’s precisely the point.
“God’s tendency is to make our total inability His starting point. Our hopelessness and helplessness are no barrier to His Work. Indeed, our utter incapacity is often the prop He delights to use for His next act.” - Dale Ralph Davis
If you think you bring something to the team, realize these 2 truths:
It was God who gave you whatever it is you “contribute”, and
He doesn’t need whatever that is.
God can do infinitely more with nothing than you can do with your something. Let’s understand that much.
God wasn’t waiting, wringing His hands together like some ineffectual deity, hoping and wishing Hannah would have a kid so that He could use him, that is, only if he wanted to be used.
No, God closed [Hannah’s] womb in order to work something in and through Hannah in order to accomplish His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
God did what He intended to do in this situation at just the right time and for His good pleasure.
It bugs us and bothers us, it might anger us and offend our delicate sensibilities, but we should be pleased with our inability to understand God’s ways and to enjoy the privilege of seeing His hand at work.
If we could figure God out and understand God’s ways, He wouldn’t be higher than us; He’d be on our level, no different from us. And that would be a disaster. It’s good we can’t figure Him out or understand how He does things.
Ours is to trust Him.
God often, if not always, begins with nothing.
It seems Hannah’s childlessness went on for many years as did the mocking of Hannah by Peninnah.
6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 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?”
Year after year it went on. Peninnah is a mean girl (you know the type). Peninnah baits Hannah, irritating her, winding her up until the sobs break out. There’s something familiar about this particular scenario.
When Hagar became pregnant (Genesis 16:4), she started to despise Sarah. No doubt there was tension between them from that point on.
The tension, the hurt, the anger, the inequity (“it’s not fair”), understandably gets to Hannah.
All of this, however, resulted in gain for Hannah. The tension, the hurt, the anger, the inequity did something. It drove Hannah to God, to the throne of grace, to the presence of Yahweh (the covenant God).
Hannah was driven to God in prayer.
We can’t downplay Hannah’s heavy grief or bleak circumstances—or our own. But we need to moderate our despair and realize it may be another prelude, another beginning to a might work of God—the God who can and does work from and with nothing.
This is the beginning of a mighty work at the hand of Almighty God.
9 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. 10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 11 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.”
12 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
17 Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
18 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.
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 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.”
The sacrificial meal is over. Hannah gets up and rushes away to the tabernacle entrance.
What she does is instructive for us:
10 In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.
You see, like Hannah
God’s people must learn to begin with worship.
God’s people must learn to begin with worship.
It’s the habit of Hannah’s family. Year after year, her hubby, Elkanah, went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh.
This appears to be more than an annual family gathering. It wasn’t just a once-a-year, Day of Atonement sacrifice activity for Elkanah and his family. Throughout this chapter—really from the beginning (v. 3) to the end (v. 28)—worship is their M.O., their way of doing things.
It might not always look like what we think worship should look like, but their hearts are turning to God, to the Lord Almighty.
This here is the first appearance in the Bible of this title—Lord Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, Lord Sabaoth. This is the God to whom Elkanah offers sacrifice, the God he worships, the One to whom Hannah prays:
1 Samuel 1:11 (NIV)
11 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...
Right worship is that which recognizes the God to whom we pray, the God we praise, the God we serve, the God to whom we cry out, the One on whom we fix our eyes—right worship recognizes that the Lord Almighty commands the angelic beings and armies, and that He can do anything.
He is omnipotent, all-powerful; omniscient, all-knowing. He is the Lord Almighty.
The Lord Almighty, the God of angel armies hears the cries and anguish, the worship and the joy of His people. Let that sink in. The Lord Almighty sees us and hears us and cares about us.
“[Hannah] addresses the Lord of hosts, the cosmic ruler, sovereign of every and all power, and assumes that the broken heart of a relatively obscure woman in the hill country of Ephraim matters to Him.” -DRD
And she’s right.
The Psalmist shares this marvelous truth:
Psalm 6:8 (NIV)
...the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord Almighty heard His child, Hannah, praying, weeping, sobbing. For Hannah, there was nowhere else to turn but to worship.
We should begin with worship.
For Hannah and Elkanah and their family, worship was routine.
Now, worship should be more than a routine, but it should never be less than.
Sometimes you might not feel like going to church to worship. Go anyway.
You might feel like sleeping in, or spending time with family, or checking off items on the to-do list. Go anyway.
Worship is not so much about you or your preferences. Sorry, I said that incorrectly. WORSHIP IS NOT ABOUT YOU OR YOUR PREFERENCES.
“Worship is about God. It’s for God and to God.” -Eugene Peterson
Make worship part of the routine of your week. Schedule activities and events around worship. Make sure you prioritize the gathering together of God’s people. If you can’t make it in-person, don’t let that stop you from making this time a priority. God deserves the worship and adoration and attention of His people—undistracted, unimpeded, uninterrupted.
We should begin with worship. And this, as our first resort.
A good portion of the time, we turn to other things, to other people before turning to the Lord in worship.
Notice Hannah, in her deep anguish, turns not to her husband or to Eli or anyone else. She doesn’t turn inward or punch Peninnah right in the throat (though mean girls like Peninnah deserve a good throat-punch).
Hannah, as her first resort, turns to the Lord. She prays to the Lord Almighty and makes a vow to Him (v. 11). She pours out her soul to Him while she was deeply troubled (v. 15).
We get the sense that Hannah is, at her core, a worshipper. It’s where she turns when times were hard, when she is distraught, when she is at her lowest point.
After her interaction with Eli, the priest—the conversation she has with him—what does Hannah do?
1 Samuel 1:19 (NIV)
19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah.
It seems to be that worship is their routine, their first resort.
We should begin with worship—worshipping with all we have.
21 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22 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.”
23 “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 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. 27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 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.
What Hannah prayed for the most, the deepest longing of her heart, she willingly gave back to the Lord.
In the ANE, it took up to 3 years to wean a child. As soon as Samuel was weaned, young as he was, Hannah took her son, the answer to her prayer, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.
The bull is sacrificed, Hannah takes the boy to Eli, reintroduces herself, and then gives her one and only son to the Lord. And she says, “For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord,” dedicating her son to the Lord for the remainder of his life.
We should pay special attention to what Hannah says in the last verses of the chapter. As she present little Samuel to Eli, she uses a form of the Hebrew root sa-al (to ask) four times.
It’d be a little clunky in English to translate all the times this word root is used; it’d read something like this:
For this child I prayed, and Yahweh gave me my asking which I asked from Him; and I also have given back what was asked to Yahweh; all the days he lives he is one that is asked for Yahweh.
What Hannah says here pick up Eli’s blessing in verse 17: May the God of Israel grant you what you’ve asked of Him.
And then Hannah names her child Samuel saying, “because I asked the Lord for him.”
Hannah’s worship, then, gratefully rehearses the Lord’s gift and then places that gift fully at the Lord’s disposal.
Chapter 1 ends with the comment about Samuel’s worshipping the Lord there [in Shiloh]. The young boy has come to understand what worship looks like, no doubt from his parents’ example.
God’s people ought to begin with worship—as a routine, as our first resort, with all we have.
>As we begin this great book of 1 Samuel, it’s my prayer that we come to understand better these two great truths:
God often, if not always, begins with nothing.
This is true in my life and in yours. He doesn’t need anything from you; you need Him. He will do a work in your life with no contribution from you.
Where the work of God in your life is concerned, you bring nothing to the table. Where salvation is concerned, you offer nothing to the team.
God works in the nothingness to bring new life, transformed life. He alone is able to do this. Our God is able to do more than you could ask or imagine or fathom, and this, ex nihilo—from nothing!
God’s people must learn to begin with worship.
I pray our routine and our first resort would be to worship Him.
This is a learned behavior, one that comes with time and in the ways all habits are formed.
How much does the Lord deserve our worship—our prayers, our praise, our service.
God gave His one and only Son, not simply to live out His days in the temple like Samuel, but to give His life for us.
That God—the One and Only God who gave His One and Only Son— that God deserves all of our worship.
He deserves worship from all of us.
He deserves us to worship Him with all we have and with all we are.
Let’s begin!