HANNAH – MOTHER’S DAY 2005
1 SAMUEL VERSES 1-28
Did you know that there will be more phone calls made today than any other day of the year, with the exception of Christmas and New Year. Why? Did you know that they reckon car washes were more used yesterday than any other Saturday this year – Why? You just have to look in the card shops and the advertisements all around us – this is Mother’s Day. All of us have a mother. We wouldn’t be here without them. For many today is a day of joy and love but you know for some, even within our family here at Holy Trinity, it is a day of pain, sadness and one which they cannot wait to end. I know I have been there myself. I use to hate being the minister at the front giving out mother’s day cards knowing that we had awoken that morning and there was no mother’s day card in our home. So this morning I want to speak to us all, not just those who are mothers but also to those whose hearts are breaking because they are not, or because their children are estranged, or because you have lost a child in the past. Today is a day of mixed feelings for many. Turn with me to 1 SAMUEL 1 and let us together look at Hannah, a great example of the mixed feelings of today.
VERSES 1-8 THE BACKGROUND
Let us look at the first 8 verses of this chapter before we look in more detail at our reading this morning. From the first 8 verses we learn that a man named Elkanah (literally ‘God has created [a son’]) and that he had two wives – Hannah and Pinennah. We read that Pinennah had children but that Hannah was barren (v2). We read that he was a godly man, when the culture around him was far from godly. Each year, following the commandment of the Law, Elkanah took his whole family to Shiloh to the Tabernacle (the ark of God) to worship and offer sacrifices to God. Elkanah gave his family portions of the sacrificed meat to eat in celebration and to Hannah he gave a ‘double portion’ because he loved her. The literal translation of ‘double portion’ is ‘to show your face.’ It was a means of showing honour to the person and this was the desire of Elkanah – to show honour to Hannah (verses 4-5). But I want you to listen very carefully to what I am about to read now – read verse 6. Did you notice it? It was God who had closed up Hannah’s womb. There is no escaping those words and to be honest with you this morning there is no real explaining away those words. Scripture teaches us that the Lord God is in control – listen to these words of Job 2.10 and Ecclesiastes 7.14. God’s sovereign will is sometimes beyond our comprehension and beyond explanation. It is a hard lesson to learn and accept that sometimes our problems are sent by the Lord God. The result of Hannah’s barenness is that Pinennah torments her, the literal translation is ‘thunders against.’ You know sometimes in our difficulties other people literally ‘thunder against’ us. They use the opportunity to hurt us further and to trample us further down. Sometimes, especially in situations like Hannah, people are unaware of the pain they are causing with their words. Simple questions like ‘How long have you been married and no children yet’ and the like can cause immense pain in a heart. Pinennah was deliberate in her taunting of Hannah. Then along comes Elkanah in verse 8 and he does what almost every husband does when he sees his wife in pain – he tries to rationalise and solve. He fails to listen to the pain of her heart. In fact when you take the literal translation of his words you will see how insensitive he is; ‘Why is your heart resentful? Am I not better than 10 sons?’ ‘Baby you have got me what more could you want?’ He is trying to solve the situation when he should be trying to understand the situation. Hannah found no solace in Elkanah’s well meaning but inadequate sympathy. I am tempted to ask for a show of hands from husbands who have been there, done that and bought the flowers afterwards, but I won’t. This is the situation in which we encounter Hannah – socially disgraced, emotionally depressed and spiritually disturbed. Many of you women have been there. Many of you men have been there too. It is a common place for men and women of God to find themselves. Socially disgraced, emotionally depressed and spiritually disturbed. This morning let us learn from what Hannah did when she found herself in such a position.
Pray – verses 9-18
In verses 9-11 we see that Hannah leaves the rest of the family and goes to the Tabernacle to pray. Pinennah has once again used the annual pilgrimage to give thanks to God to push home the fact that Hannah is barren. Hannah could have lashed out. ‘People would understand. She pushed you one too many times.’ Not Hannah, she goes to pray to God. Elkanah had tried to comfort her soul with an extra portion and his love but it healed only for a short time.
Year after year she had come to this Tabernacle, to the presence of God and sought His face in prayer for a child. We read that ‘in bitterness of soul…she pours out her heart.’ Hannah’s eyes well up with tears and they freely flow bathing her hearts prayers. Her tears reflect the anguish of her soul. Sometimes tears constitute prayer – Psalm 6.8. Hannah is a broken woman before the Lord God. You know in Exodus 3 v7 God tells Moses that He sees the affliction of His people in Egypt. God sees Hannah in her Egypt, in affliction. This morning God sees you in your affliction, in your Egypt. Hannah’s Egypt, her place of slavery, of bondage and of pain – is childlessness. We all have and Egypt in our lives and this morning God would say to each of us that He sees our afflictions and has heard our prayers.
Look closely at her prayer in verses 10-11. Hannah asks the Lord to remember her – this is not asking God to call to mind but a request for God to pay special attention to or to lavish special care on her. Too what does she ask Him to lavish care on – the misery of her soul. Hannah beseeches God to look again upon her anguish and to have mercy upon her and answer her prayer. Then she remembers that children do not just belong to their parents but are a gift from God, and as such belong to Him. She makes a Nazirite vow (no grape, no razor on his head and no touching dead bodies) on behalf of the child that she asking God for. Here is Hannah revealing her heart and soul to the Lord God and vowing to give the child she asks for back to God – which is in reality the context of the OT covenant, and of our baptism. She vows that the child born to her will be dedicated to the Lord and separated for the Lord. Friends she prays for a child. She dedicates Him to the Lord. She doesn’t pray that he will be successful, rich, famous or intelligent. Her prayer is that he would be for the Lord God all the days of his life. There is a timely lesson for all of us there this morning – what is your prayer for you children this morning? Is your desire for health, wealth, fame, intelligence or that they might have a heart for the Lord God above all else? It is not that it is wrong to want these other things for our children – but it is a matter of priorities – eternal priorities.
Hannah’s prayer is for a child who will be for the Lord. As we will see she keeps her promise. This is no bargaining with God – as if the sovereign Lord could be so moved.
Verse 12 – would you note from this verse that Hannah kept on praying. This was no quick prayer but a repeated prayer bathed in tears and prayed not for attention but in the secret place of her heart. How many of you, mothers especially, have prayed those secret prayers in your heart with tears for your children? I am sure most, if not all of you, could raise your hands to that question. Hannah continued to pray in her heart with the result that Eli misunderstands and rebukes her – believing she is drunk. What an indictment of Eli and the people of that day – that he could believe someone would turn up drunk to the Tabernacle, the place of the presence of God, to pray. It must have been a common sight for Eli to make such a mistake. Hannah quickly corrects him by stating that she is a ‘woman who is deeply troubled’ which literally means ‘burdened in spirit’ and that she has been pouting out this burden in prayer and not pouring out the drinks. She tells Eli not to mistake her for a ‘wicked woman’ or literally ‘a daughter of worthlessness.’ Let me stop there for a moment. Hannah knew she was not a ‘daughter of worthlessness’ despite what society thought about barren women. Despite what Pinennah had said with cruel vindictive words about her childlessness. Some of you women here this morning need to hear that above all else today – you are not a daughter of worthlessness despite what this society says, despite what others say and despite what even your own heart tells you this morning. Hannah knew she was not because she took her problem to the Lord God in prayer. She tells Eli that ‘out of her great anguish and grief’ she has been praying.
Eli’s response (v17) is to bless her and prays that God may answer her request. We read that Hannah goes her way but her countenance has changed – her face is no longer downcast. Prayer has changed Hannah. Verse 19 we read that early the next morning they, as a family, worship again and then go home. The Scriptures tell us that in due time Hannah conceives and bears a son whom she calls Samuel. Samuel means ‘heard (asked) of God.’ Every time Hannah hears Samuel called she will remember that she asked God for him and He answered. Now I want you all to listen to me carefully at this point because it is important. It would be wrong of you or I this morning to take from this that if we are broken before God in prayer, if we shed tears in prayer, if we cry to God from our grief and anguish that God will answer us according to our request. Hannah’s prayer was answered as she had desired but that was specific to her and cannot be taken as a general promise to all. Please hear and understand that this morning. You cannot take that specific answer to Hannah’s prayer and make it a general rule of prayer for all prayers. It was specific to Hannah but it is not a general formula for all prayer.
Verses 21-28 Hannah keeps her promise.
In these verses we learn that Hannah did not forget her promise to God. She weans Samuel and then brings him to Eli to be dedicated to the Lord God. We know from chapter 2.19 that she did not abandon Samuel but provided for his needs whilst he grew up. Many people make promises to God in times of grief and anguish and never fulfil them when the time passes. I want you to listen to what Hannah says when she comes to bring Samuel to Eli:
For this child I prayed, and God gave me my asking which I asked from Him; and I also have given back what was asked to God; all the days he lives he is one that is asked of God.
These words pick up the blessing of Eli in verse 17 ’may the God of Israel give you the asking which you asked of Him.’ Hannah dedicates and gives Samuel over to God. It is one thing to dedicate a child to God it is quite another to give them over to God.
CONCLUSION
You know Hannah is not unusual in the Bible – there are lots of barren women. Sarah was barren until her 90th year when she bore Isaac, the promised seed. When you do the calculations you realise that Rebekah was barren for 20 years before Jacob, the father of Israel, was born. You read that Joseph, Samson, Samuel – all had mothers who had experienced a period of barrenness. Elisabeth was old in years when she bore John the Baptist, the forerunner to Christ. The bible is full of stories of those who experienced barrenness only to experience a greater blessing. Maybe, just maybe for some in here this morning that is what you need to hear from God – barrenness is a prelude to greater blessing.
But the main lesson I learn from Hannah is that when you begin with nothing, when you have nothing and you receive the blessing you know it is of God and not of yourself. God took Hannah’s total inability to have a child as the starting point to work a miracle, a blessing of many. Her helplessness, her hopelessness were no barrier to His work, indeed they were the prop He delighted to use for this blessing. Our inability, our helplessness, our hopelessness are no barriers to His working in our lives. They are not barriers to His blessings but may be the very props He uses to bring us in brokenness before His throne of grace that we might be blessed. God’s work began not just in the barrenness of Hannah’s life but also in the distress of her life. God is the same yesterday today and forever. The God who brought fruitfulness out of a barren womb in the life of Hannah is the same God who will bring fruitfulness out of the barren womb of your life. The key in all of it I believe was that Hannah turned to God in prayer. In her grief and anguish she poured her soul out to the Lord God Almighty. Through her God raised up Samuel who was to anoint the kings of Israel and so prepare the way for the King of kings to come.
I think there is a challenge here not just for mothers, but for fathers and for us all. In our barrenness, in our grief and anguish who will we turn to? The love of others cannot satisfy the soul, Elkanah loved Hannah but it did not meet the deep desires of her soul. We should not allow the taunts of others to distract us from the presence of the Lord. The answer is found in turning to God in prayer. Maybe even through the tears of our hearts to lift it to God and to trust Him to bring fruitfulness and blessing out of our barrenness this morning.
AMEN.
