Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Once again, happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who are here or watching online, we are so blessed to have you join us this morning.

Today we are going to do a special message in honor of Mother’s Day

We finished up the Gospel of Luke last week, and next week we are going to start a 15-week journey though the some select Psalms

But today we are going to be in 1 Samuel 1.

We’re going to read a story about a mom in scripture and see her struggles and her faith in action

This isn’t a message just for moms though - it’s for all of us who have ever wondered, “Why me, God?”

There’ll be some lessons along the way about parenthood and marriage, but the main focus will be on why God allows hard things to happen in our lives, and what our response should be

So let’s go ahead and jump in

Verses 1-2

The book of 1st Samuel takes place in the time at the end of Judges

Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, but they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because of their unbelief

Eventually Joshua would take over as the leader of the nation, cross over the Jordan River, defeat Jericho, and win over the Promised Land

But after Joshua died, the nation turned its back on God and started to worship false idols

God would allow them to fall into captivity where some nearby nation would rule over the Israelites, and eventually they would cry out to God to rescue them

God would raise up a judge, like Samson or Deborah or Gideon, to save His people

But after that judge passed away, the cycle would start all over again

Judges 21:25 really sums up what it was like

In that context is where we kick off with our story

We’re introduced to a family here

Elkanah who was a Levite - which meant he was responsible to oversee the worship of the nation

The tribe of Levi was the one chosen by God to do this work for the nation.

They were the ones who were responsible for overseeing the tabernacle and they were the priests in Israel

We don’t know 100% for sure if Elkanah was actually doing what he was supposed to do or not, but we know he had a legacy of ministry in his family coming from the tribe of Levi

Elkanah is married to Hannah, and to Peninnah

Uh oh, we have a major problem already in this family

Although it was common practice in that day for men to have multiple wives, that was against how God had originally set up marriage

During this time, it was common place for a man to take on a second wife if the first one didn’t have any kids

Family legacies and descendants were a very important thing to the Jews, so that combined with the fact that all the nations around them commonly practiced polygamy led this to be a norm in society

And Elkanah was not immune to the influences of culture during his time

Compare that to today where culture has a whole lot of ideas about marriage that are very different from what the word of God says

As followers of Jesus, we shouldn’t be caving into what culture tells us about relationships and marriage, we should be standing upon what the word of God says

Even things that seem so commonplace and accepted - having sex before your wedding night, moving in together before getting married, those are just “normal” stages of a relationship according to our culture

But that’s not what God calls for in His people.

He calls for a different way, but He also honors and blesses those who choose that way

In this family, because the didn’t do it God’s way, we’re going to see there is heartache and struggle

Why? B/c Peninnah has kids but Hannah did not

Already in a polygamous marriage, there has to be a lot of envy, jealousy, competitions, and hurt feelings.

We’ll see that Elkanah played favorites too, and I’m sure that didn’t help the situation at all

But then add on the fact that Hannah couldn’t have kids, now there’s something that Peninnah holds over Hannah’s head which leads to feelings of hurt and emptiness and “why me” on Hannah’s part I’m sure

Alright, so even though you’ve got this sin and this struggle going on within the family, there are still elements of faith

Verses 3-7

Once a year Elkanah would load up the camel caravan (the precursor to the Dodge Caravan), and head down to Shiloh where the tabernacle was

They’d go there to make a sacrifice with his family to the Lord

This is a good thing that they’re doing, and Elkanah involves the whole family in worshipping the Lord

He gives portions to his wives and to his kids so they could all sacrifice

He’s setting a good example on not just teaching his kids what to do, but letting them practice it too

But here is where we see the favoritism come in

Elkanah loved Hannah more than Peninnah, so he’d give her a double portion, twice as much as anyone else

You can see the jealousy here - Peninnah would, out of her jealousy, make Hannah miserable every year and provoke her, reminding her that in their society she was “useless” b/c she couldn’t bear any children

That would just tear Hannah apart.

She would go to church and just weep and wouldn't eat anything and be miserable

Satan loves to do this to families and to individuals

He loves to make sure the kids are extra disobedient or fight more on Sunday mornings

He loves to make husbands and wives get into fights before they go to church

He loves to make random things that come up to distract us from coming to worship God

So you get here and the drive over was a nightmare and you made the kids get out of the car and go upstairs to Sunday School while you just screamed for a minute

Your heart is angry or filled with sorrow and your miserable.

And then you focus on that the whole message and wonder about the trouble your kid is probably causing in their classroom and thinking about the punishment you’re going to give out when you get home and making sure it’s a really good one

Oh, wait, sorry, is this just me?

Does this only happen to my family?

Satan loves to stir up trouble within the family in order to distract us from worshipping the Lord

That’s where we have to have the spiritual armor on - realize it’s an attack, realize that the enemy wants to distract you and even discourage you from coming.

You fight for your family.

You bring them here anyways.

So what if your kids are a wreck when you get here, cause you know what?

They’re gonna hear about Jesus.

God’s word and His love are going to be shared with them, what better place could you or they be when it all seems so crazy.

We learn something else really interesting here, it says in verse 6 that the reason Hannah couldn’t have any kids is because God had closed her womb

That can be a tough thing to grasp when you think about it

You might say, “God allowed all this hurt and envy and competition and misery!”

But that’s not right.

Elkanah, by sinning and marrying another wife, brought that upon his family

But God did allow Hannah to walk through loneliness and to wonder what was wrong with her while everyone else around her seemed to have it all together and to be normal

Have you ever felt that way?

Why did God allow this to happen to me when everyone else around me seems to be normal or to not have this problem?

Can I tell you it’s because God loves you?

Story of Lazarus - intro to problem

B/c of the love that Jesus had for Lazarus, when He found out his friend was sick, He waited for 2 more days before He even started His travel to Bethany where they lived

It would take Jesus 2 days to travel there, so Jesus showed up 4 days after hearing that Lazarus was sick, and it was too late b/c he dead

Tell rest of story

Jesus chose to wait, He wanted to do a greater work than what everyone was expecting (the crowds had seen Jesus heal sick people many times before), but He wanted to do a greater work.

In fact, Lazarus would be a witness to so many people after this, John 12 tells us that people came from all over to hear what happened and Lazarus had the chance to tell them about Jesus

If you have that thing in your life that you’re wondering, “God, why are You allowing this to happen?

Why won’t You take this away?

How come You’re not moving in this circumstance?”,

if it’s something that’s not b/c of sin but it’s something that God has just allowed for one reason or another, remember that God loves you and that He has a greater plan, and He loves to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal towards Him

Verse 8

Elkanah sees that Hannah is broken and crying and I love how he tries to fix it, “Hey babe, don’t worry, you’ve got me!

Aren’t I better than 10 kids?”

What a dude...

Verses 9-11

Hannah goes to the tabernacle in her sorrow and just starts pouring her heart and her burdens out to the Lord

She’s praying in bitterness of soul and in great anguish,

This was absolutely the right thing to do in the situation, take it to the Lord and pour it out before Him

Step #1 if you are asking, “Why me, God?” is to take that burden, that issue to the Lord and lay it at His feet

She asks God for a son, and then makes a vow to give him back to the Lord if she got one and to make him a Nazarite

A Nazarite was someone who took a special vow, typically for a short period of time, to be especially set apart for the Lord

Numbers 6 talks about what went into a Nazarite vow, but basically you wouldn’t cut your hair, you wouldn’t drink wine, and you wouldn’t touch any dead bodies

Samson and John the Baptists are examples of Nazarites in scripture