I remember it like it was yesterday … Thanksgiving 2004 was one of the happiest holidays of my life. We spent Thanksgiving with Selena’s aunt Dorothy and a lot of her family members. It was so nice to be apart of a large family gathering in which I truly felt felt loved. Selena was pregnant and even though we knew there were some complications we were still praying for and expecting her pregnancy to result in our first child together.
Three weeks later Selena developed preeclampsia and our daughter, Taylor was still born. So our tears of joy quickly turned into tears of sorrow. I tried to comfort Selena in our lost. But, there was a longing, a despair, a barrenness that only the LORD could remove. If you are a woman and you have experienced a similar situation you know exactly what I am talking about.
But, barrenness is not an emotion or a state of being that only childless women encounter. We all experience different degrees of barrenness along our faith journey. Is there anyone in here who feels barren this morning? …
Anyone who has longed for, prayed for and even been willing to die for an elusive blessing that seemingly will never come their way can identify with and appreciate what it means to be barren.
But unfortunately, sometimes when we are finally blessed we forget what it felt like to be barren … When God finally comes through with our blessing we sometimes forget to thank Him and to thank the people around us who prayed for us. When God takes us from Barrenness to Blessedness some of us develop amnesia. So, let me see if I can help you remember how it felt to be barren …
For those of you who are married do you remember how barren you felt before you were married? How you prayed morning, noon and night that God would send you a spouse. Do you remember all the promises you made to God of what you would do and what you would not do if only God would send you a spouse? Do you remember the resentment you felt as all of your friends were getting married and you could not even find someone decent to date? If you have ever longed to have someone to share life’s journey with you as your God given soul mate then you know what it feels like to be barren.
But, maybe that is not your struggle. Some people are gifted with the ability to be single and have joy with no desire to marry.
But, there are other life challenges that cause us to feel barren …
Do you remember looking for your first job or looking for a job after you had been unemployed for a long time? Do you remember the frustration you felt after going on job interview after job interview? Only to be told no … Do you remember pleading with God not to put you in a situation where you could not take care of yourself and your family? Do you remember seeing people go to work that you knew were less qualified than you and less hard working than you while you continued to search for employment? To be unemployed with no solid prospects of employment and you have no money will certainly make you feel barren.
I need you to understand that whether it is childlessness, loneliness, joblessness or anything else we desperately seek … if we live long enough we will all experience barrenness. … To be barren is to be put on hold by God while everyone around you is being blessed by that which you desire to have with all your heart.
So it is my assignment today to encourage everyone under the sound of my voice to trust in the LORD and do good and to wait patiently upon the LORD until He turns your barrenness into blessedness.
In our text today we encounter barrenness, which is a common biblical motif. Hannah the wife whom Elkanah loved is barren. Barrenness is a problem frequently encountered by the matriarchs in the book of Genesis which is kind of ironic when you consider the fact that God promised Abraham that his seed would multiply and be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Abraham loved his wife Sarah but she was barren before God finally opened her womb and blessed them with Isaac.
Isaac loved his wife Rebekah. She comforted him after the death of his mother and he loved her with all his heart but she was barren before God finally opened her womb and blessed them with twins, Esau and Jacob.
Jacob loved his wife Rachel. He loved Rachel so much that he served her father Laban for seven years to earn her hand in marriage, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. When the seven years were up Jacob demanded Rachel be given to him in marriage but Laban tricked him into marrying her older sister Leah. But, Jacob loved Rachel so much he worked for Laban for another seven years so that he could marry her.
That’s a lot of love, to work fourteen years just to be able to marry someone. But, Rachel’s womb was closed … Leah gave birth time after time but Rachel remained childless. Leah bore Jacob six sons and one daughter before God remembered Rachel and opened her womb and she gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin.
So when we encounter Hannah and she is barren based upon the other barren women who proceeded her in Biblical history we know to expect at least two things to unfold as the story progresses: (1) We can expect her to get pregnant and (2) We can expect her to give birth to a significant person in the bible.
Hannah is a remarkable woman. She lived in a dysfunctional family situation but she never allowed her dark circumstances to determine her conclusion. As was typical in the culture of Israel during the times of the judges, Elkanah, her husband, had a second wife named Peninnah.
Elkanah may have married Peninnah because she was pretty, or smart or funny. Or, maybe Elkanah married Peninnah because Hannah was barren. We just don’t know but regardless of why he married her their was conflict in his household.
Which should not be so surprising after all it is hard enough to keep one wife happy … I cannot imagine trying to keep two wives happy … Well, actual I can, it is probably sort of like trying to keep over 100 church members happy …
On the surface it would appear that Peninnah is the source of all the friction. I mean after all she is the one who constantly provoked and irritated Hannah year after year, bringing Hannah to tears because she was bearing Elkanah children while Hannah remained barren. But you know Elkanah must take some of the blame in this conflict because he married two women when in reality he only really loved one of them.
Peninnah enjoyed the personal fulfillment and social status that came with bearing children in ancient Israel but I am sure she spent a lot of lonely nights crying herself to sleep because she realized she was married to a man who did not love her. She was married to a man who just used her for her body.
Peninnah was not courageous enough to confront Elkanah so she took out her frustrations and her envy on Hannah. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Peninnah’s in our society today …
Women who are merely used as sexual toys by boys who don’t know any better or by men who just don’t care. But, instead of confronting their husband or boyfriend these emotionally neglected women confront the other woman. Instead of blaming their man for his infidelity they blame the other woman for seducing him and leading him astray.
There are also some Peninnah’s in our places of work. They are really mad with their boss but they are to afraid to confront their boss about inequity in the workplace so they take out their frustrations on their co-workers.
There are some Peninnah’s in our families. Grown children who are really mad about the favoritism their parents show their brother or sister but instead of confronting their parents they take out their frustrations on their siblings.
Can I tell the truth this morning? There are some Peninnah’s in our church. They are really mad with God … There are people sitting in your pew right now who are mad with God about an illness they are going through, or the death of a loved one or how God allowed someone to mistreat and abuse them.
But, instead of confronting God they take out their frustrations on other people. Hurt people … Hurt people!
So do us all a favor. If there is an Elkanah in your life who is not treating you right. Confront and deal with Elkanah. Please do not take out your frustrations on Hannah.
Hannah reacted with bitter anguish to her barrenness and the constant teasing from Peninnah. No amount of comforting by her husband could relieve her pain. Elkanah gave Hannah a double portion of meat but that was no comfort … she wanted a child. Elkanah would say to Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you so downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons? But, that was no comfort … she wanted a child.
So in desperation on a yearly pilgrimage to the Tabernacle, Hannah silently poured out her grief to God. Has anybody in here ever just shed silent tears as you shared your pain with God? Is there anybody in here who has ever hugged the altar and cried as you shared everything that was hurting you with God?
Eli the priest saw Hannah moving her lips as she prayed silently and he thought she was drunk. Eli may have thought Hannah was drunk because it was not customary to pray silently in the temple,
In that day and age. Or, maybe he thought she was drunk because it was common for drunk people to enter the sanctuary in those days. If you read the book of Judges you will discover just how immoral the people were of that day and if you open your eyes you will discover how close our current day society resembles the society Hannah lived in.
There might be some drunk people in here this morning. But, that is okay? You are in the right place! Most of the time when we drink a lot or use drugs it is because we are in so much pain and we just want the pain to go away. But alcohol and other drugs can never truly take the pain away. Drugs may mask the pain but they do not and cannot remove the pain. Only God can truly take our pain away.
But, Hannah was not drunk and after convincing Eli that she had been praying out of her great anguish and tremendous grief … Eli responded as any good priest or good pastor should respond when they encounter someone who is petitioning God to remove their barrenness.
Eli simply responded by saying, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” {Preach Paul}
Hannah embraced Eli’s response as affirmation of her petition to God. She got up, wiped the tears from her eyes and went home with a new attitude. She was no longer downcast because she knew in her heart that God was going to turn her barrenness to blessedness and He did! The LORD remembered Hannah and opened her womb and she conceived and gave birth to a son. She named her son, Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
As I close, I don’t know why and perhaps I will never fully understand in this lifetime why God never seems to do things the easy way. Why couldn’t God just bless Hannah with a child the first time she prayed for one year’s ago? … Why did my wife Selena and I have to go through the grief and anguish of losing our daughter Taylor?
As a child every year I would watch the Ten Commandments on TV and every year I would wonder why Moses couldn’t just stay in Pharaoh’s house and release the Hebrew slaves when he became Pharaoh … {Tell the Story}
From my myopic human perspective if God is an all powerful God why must there be suffering, confusion, disease and sometimes even death before victory. Smetimes I have a hard time understanding why the people we love the most die so soon. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why diseases still exist if we serve a God who can cure every disease. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why so many poor black people kill other poor black people in cities across our nation. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why so many people must die as a result of senseless acts of terrorism across the globe. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why the richest country in the world cannot feed the hungry, cloth the naked and give shelter to the poor. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding why men and women who are lawfully married in the presence of God cannot be fruitful and multiply and conceive a child even though they love God and love each other. Sometimes I just don’t understand. But then …
God reminds me that He knows best always and that His ways are not our ways.
God reminds me that the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof.
God reminds me that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
God reminds me that in the beginning He created the Heavens and the Earth.
God reminds me that He causes the morning stars to sing together.
God reminds me that He loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but everlasting life.
God reminds me that it was His Son who bled and died on the Cross!
God reminds me that if there was no death there could be no Resurrection!
God reminds me that if we never experience pain we will never appreciate joy!
God reminds me that if we never experience conflict we will never grow!
God reminds me that if we never experience a season of barrenness we will never be truly grateful for a season blessedness!
