I ran across a list of different life experiences that can create stress, and amongst all these life experiences creating stress were these: Death of a spouse; Divorce; Being sentenced to Jail; Personal injury or illness; Being fired at work; Retirement; Pregnancy; and a change in financial circumstances.
Oddly enough, in that extensive list, there was no reference to the stress of a woman who was unable to get pregnant. It’s almost like it’s not THAT important an issue.
And yet, the Bible tells us several stories of the frustration. Women had who had trouble getting pregnant. There was Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and of course the woman in our story today: Hannah.
Commenting on that, one source I read: “During the biblical period, bearing children was highly valued and women’s primary role was that of mother.” (https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/barren-women-in-the-bible#:~:text=There%20are%20six%20stories%20of,of%20Shunem%2C%E2%80%9D%20also%20called%20the)
In other words – it was a big deal back then… but not so much now.
Well, apparently it STILL IS a big deal. As I searched the internet I ran across an article from a British woman named Jody Day. She gives TEDx talks to people on this very issue, and she says: “I’m a childless woman. And I’m here to tell you about my tribe – those one in five women without children hidden in plain sight all around you… Childless women have to wade through grief to get to that place, and many of them remain stuck in it for decades, maybe even for their whole lives.”
So, Jody Day began to reach out to women who have struggled with this. After she posted her first blogpost –the response was enormous. Her blog, “Gateway Women”, flourished into a huge online community, and then became a book for women struggling to find meaning in a life that was supposed to be filled with children. That blog developed into more than 100 Gateway Meetup groups for involuntarily childless women in Britain, and there are another 100 such websites all around world. In addition, she runs workshops for women struggling with childlessness. (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/02/the-desire-to-have-a-child-never-goes-away-how-the-involuntarily-childless-are-forming-a-new-movement)
On another website I read this: “The yearning to have children isn’t something you can turn on or off. Today and throughout history, there are many women who are living with this unmet natural craving, the untamed life force within that calls for us to reproduce and nurture our young. This natural hormonal feminine energy is passed down through our DNA. It is hard to escape... Women who are involuntarily childless are often quietly nursing a wounded heart, doubting their worthiness and questioning the meaning of life.” (https://alisoun.com/terms-involuntarily-childless/ )
The pain is real. The grief is real. And that is where we find Hannah… a woman who cannot have children. She nurses a wounded heart and she doubts her … worthiness. But in her pain and grief, she turns to God.
Now Hannah’s story is a little different than other women we may know. We’re told that Hannah couldn’t have children “because the LORD had closed her womb” 1 Samuel 1:6
ILLUS: I read a sermon by a one preacher who implied that God really didn’t close up her womb it was just one of those comments people make when they don’t know the cause of a tragedy or a natural disaster. In fact, on the news, when a tornado has swept through a town you’ll hear it called an… “act of God”. They don’t really think God caused the tornado. It’s just what people say… and this preacher said he didn’t think God caused Hannah’s womb to be closed
Now, I have a couple of problems with his conclusion: 1st - The Bible tells me “God closed up her womb.” It doesn’t say “Hannah THOUGHT God closed her womb.” Or that “her husband Elkanah thought…”; Or that “the people around her thought…”; It just says “God closed up her womb.”
Now, if the Bible tells me God closed her womb - that’s probably what happened.
2nd – the Bible only uses this phrase (closed a womb) one other time, and it happened way back in Genesis.
In the days of Abraham, the King of Gerar (Abimelech) had a nasty habit of killing men so that he could gain their wives for his harem. Apparently, Abraham’s wife (Sarah) was desirable, and since Abraham had no desire to be killed by the king, he passed Sarah off as his sister. And sure enough - Abimelech took her into his harem.
BUT before the King of Gerar can take Sarah to his bed, God appeared to him in a dream and explained the situation. He told Abimelech that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, that Abraham was His prophet, and that if the King ever touched Sarah – he was a dead man. This dream appropriately frightened the King and that he returned Sarah to Abraham and pled for Abraham pray for him.
Then we read: “… Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the LORD had CLOSED UP EVERY WOMB in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.” Genesis 20:17-18
Now, in that story, there’s no question that God closed up the wombs of Abimelech’s harem. God was punishing the King of Gerar for his nasty habit of killing husbands to get their wives. But here in I Samuel – God tells us He closed up Hannah’s womb. So (PAUSE) … was God punishing Hannah? Did God hate Hanna or something? Oh, I don’t think so.
There’s nothing in this story to tell us that she was wicked or evil in any way. In fact, the picture painted here is of a godly woman who is in trouble. Her heart is breaking and she’s praying with all of her might that God would help her.
That’s not the kind of person God punishes.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says “…the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him – that’s Hannah.
God’s not punishing Hannah. God’s eyes had run to and fro throughout the earth to find a woman just like her. And His eyes focused on her because He knew she would be a woman that He could mold into one of the most significant mothers in Scripture.
Now, this is what I believe happened: Back in that day - Israel was a nation in crisis. Judges 17:6 tells us: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” Everybody did what they felt like doing… and it was not a pretty sight. The whole nation was corrupt, and even Eli the priest and his sons weren’t all that nice a people.
God needed to bring about a change. He needed to raise up a hero who could lead His people to righteousness. He needed a man who could step and do what needed to be done. He needed someone who could be a judge, a prophet, and a priest. And in order to train up that kind of leader for Israel God was going to need the help of a very special kind of mother.
That’s where Hannah came in.
Hannah was going to be a Godly mother. Hannah was the kind of woman that God could work through to train the man he needed to shape His nation Israel. But 1st He had to bring her to the point where she was desperate enough to do what God needed done. Which was – for her to give her boy to Him!
God sometimes uses our pain to guide us to something He wants us to do. C.S. Lewis once said: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
In her pain, Hannah comes to a decision: If God will give her a son she says: “… I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…”1Samuel 1:11
Now, every firstborn son belonged to God anyway (because that’s what it said in the Law). In Exodus 13:2 God told His people: "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal." So, Hannah’s first born son would have belonged to God from his birth but like all Israelites, she and her husband would ordinarily have redeemed that child. In Numbers 18:16 it tells the Israelites: “When (your son is) a month old, you must redeem him at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver…” THEY GOT TO KEEP THEIR SONS
But what Hannah’s vowing here is this: “God, if you give me a son, I’ll let you keep him. AND I WILL NOT redeem him back.” In her mind was she had already decided that if God gave her a son she’d give him to the priests at the Tabernacle to raise and the boy would serve God for the rest of his life by helping people to worship.
Did she come up with this idea on her own? I don’t think so. I’m convinced God put that idea her heart and because she came to that point in her life where she was willing to give her son to God. And God rewarded her in some powerful ways: • Not only does she get pregnant right away; • But she bears 3 more sons and 2 more daughters; 1Samuel 2:21 tells us that “the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters..."
But even more significant than that… she was the mother of Samuel! Samuel was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament; He was the last of the judges and the first of a long line of prophets; He was such a righteous man that he guided the people out of their immorality and back to obedience to God and His law. And he was so highly regarded by God that not only are there 2 books in the Bible that bear his name, but a couple of times God compares his righteousness to Moses.
In Jeremiah 15:1 God condemns the sins of the nation of Judah, and He declares: "Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people.” Samuel was such a great man that he was equal to Moses in God’s eyes. That’s Hannah’s boy! Now, she has 3 more boys and 2 daughters. But I bet you don’t know what THEIR names are.
Samuel gives Hannah bragging rights. She’s like the mother who pulls out her wallet and says “And this is my son the Doctor/Lawyer.” This is my son who made it big! And this all happened because Hannah was a Godly woman… who prayed. The heart of this entire story centers on Hannah’s prayer and the fact that God was so impressed with how she prayed that He tells us in HOW she prayed… in great detail.
We’re told that she prayed with tears. She prayed with intensity; She prayed with purpose; She prayed believing. And her obedience to God changed the course of Israel’s history because SHE GAVE HER PAIN to God.
Now the point of this sermon is this: We live in a fallen world - a place where most people feel grief and pain and loss, and most people suffer and struggle in their lives.
And WE (who are Christians) will suffer just like the rest of the world. We’ll suffer in ways that we won’t be able to understand; in ways that we can’t control; and we’ll face pain that will cause us to weep BECAUSE WE LIVE IN A FALLEN WORLD.
But we’re different than those who aren’t Christians, because (as one person noted “It’s not whether we suffer in this world… it’s what we do with that suffering.” And when we decide to give our suffering to God, He can take what we give Him and make something valuable out of it. We have a God who has promised that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
That’s what God did for Hannah
Those who trust God often find that God uses their pain to change the world. That’s what happened with Fanny Crosby. She was blind since birth and lived to be 95 yrs. old. And yet she wrote dozens of hymns that people still sing today: Blessed Assurance; To God Be The Glory; Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross; and Praise Him Praise Him.
When she was 8 years old she wrote this poem: “O what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world Contented I will be; How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t! To weep and sigh because I’m blind, I cannot and I won’t.”
CLOSE: I want to close with this story. A woman stood before a crowd and talked about the destructive power of stress. She said “We can’t have what we want and so we carry that frustration and pain around with us and struggle with stress.”
In her hand she held a glass of water in her hand and she asked the audience how much the glass of water weighed. The guesses ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz., but her answer shocked them a little. She said “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”
The stresses and worries of this life are like this glass of water. The longer I carry them and think about them, the heavier weight they create in my mind. But God says… you don’t have to carry that weight by yourself. Give it to Me and I will give you rest.
That’s why Peter wrote: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” I Peter 5:6-7
And Jesus said “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
INVITATION
