There has been a lot of great mothers throughout the centuries. Mothers that have stood against impossible odds for their children, who have endured many hardships to care and provide for others as they go without. They are teachers, caregivers, and sometimes, bull dogs. God made women to bear many burdens, and because of this, a woman’s ability to care goes beyond their own biological children.
One such mother was a woman named Monica. In the fifth century A.D. she gave brith to one of the most important theologians of the Church. In his younger days, he was a rascal. In his own words he was a thief and a fornicator. He lived from himself. But Monica was persistent in her love and care for her son. She wanted not only good for him in life, but she wanted him to know Jesus as his Savior. Though he would party, she would take him to task. Once he tried to sail away from his home, just to find her dogging him. Decades went by with no show of change in the young man’s life, until he finally went away and found that the life and beliefs he held failed compared to Christ. Monica was blessed to see her one desire fulfilled, her son became a Christian. That man was Augustine and went on to influence many of the doctrines we have today.
But it was Monica’s perseverance in pointing her son back to Jesus, whether he wanted to hear it or not, that stands as a testimony to all mothers who care for their children.
This brings us to our summer series in the book of 1st Samuel, where we’ll be picking it up in the first chapter. As we open up to 1st Samuel chapter 1, verses 1, let’s first talk about what we do in these summer series and then I’ll give a little background to the book before we begin.
First, these summer series are not to be an in-depth verses-by-verse treatments of the passages we will cover. Rather, these summer series are to see the bigger picture of how the passages connect with each other within the book itself and how they connect to the greater story that the Scriptures are telling us about God. So sometimes, like today, we will read only parts of the larger passages. That means your homework every week is to go back and read through the whole passage that we cover. Sometimes it my be looking at a handful of verses, other times it will cover multiple chapters. But we need to see the greater thought process of the Holy Spirit through his word, and these summer series are meant to do just that.
Next, we have to understand where the book is placed within the canon of Scripture. The first book tells of God’s creation, humanity’s fall, and God’s special work through the lineage of Abraham. The purpose of his work is to bring about a blessing for all people. It is also to break sin’s power through the seed of Eve.
The next four books focuses the reader’s attention to the linage of Abraham: its brith, slavery, exodus, and covenant with God. These books end with the nation of Israel on the eastern banks of the Jordan River ready to enter God’s Promised Land.
The book of Joshua then delivers on God’s promise that the Israelites would subdue the land if they followed him, which in a great amount, they do. The next book, Judges, opens to a new generation that is becoming rebellious to God’s rule over them. The individual judges show us the spiritual and moral decline of Israel over the course of a few hundred years. The book of Judges ends with the statement, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Jdg. 21:25)” Israel was on the brink of civil war, because they had almost completely abandoned their covenant with God as their king and instead followed their own sinful desires.
It is after Judges that we get a curious book. A story about a woman, who was not an Hebrew, but who was faithful to her Hebrew mother-in-law. This woman, Ruth, is then married to Boaz and produces a son, Obed, but the book quickly transitions to her great-grandson David.
Which half of 1st Samuel and the majority of 2nd Samuel focuses on. However, we must understand that the book of Samuel, that we cut up into two parts, is about God’s continued redemption of humanity through the seed of Eve and the linage of Abraham. What we will read over the next two summers is how that focus narrows, eventually leading to Jesus. If we see this underlying story of God’s redemption work at play, then everything will make sense as we make our way starting, not with David, who was the last thought in Ruth, but with Hannah, another woman who is a faithful servant of God. Let’s read together her story, starting in 1st Samuel 1:1.
1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim (Ramathigh-aim)—zophim (zo-f-im) of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. 2 He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”
Walking through Hannah’s story we see a man from the area of Ephraim. The last time we heard about Ephraim in Scripture it wasn’t good. In the book of Judges, we read a story about a Levite journeying into the land to find his concubine, and after finding her, experienced the same sin of Sodom. In the end the concubine was murdered and a civil war began. So to have a man from Ephraim begin this book, we are returning, in a sense, to a place of horrible sin.
Though this man himself is in sin by having multiple wives, he seems to be trying to be faithful to God by going to participate in the yearly sacrifice to the Lord. It is on these long treks that we learn that there is strife in the household. Like Rachel and Leah in the book of Genesis, the man loves one wife more than the other, even though the loved wife has bore no sons. Yet due to he infertility, Hannah is ridiculed and treated poorly by her husband’s second wife. Even though he professes his love for her and makes sure she is taken care of, the societal shame of not having children weighs on her.
This is when she goes to the tabernacle of God and prays. It is a prayer of the heart poured out to God. It is a pleading from a person in distress. Eli, the priest is there, but he doesn’t recognize the anguish in Hannah. She is there late at night, just moving her lips, so he thinks, she must be drunk.
But no, she is there out of desperation and he softens towards her. He directs her to go in peace with a blessing and she does. Soon after Hannah conceives and Samuel is born.
Hannah’s story is like many in the Scriptures. Sarah could not conceive, yet the promise child Issac was eventually born. Rachel could not conceive, yet Joseph and eventually Benjamin were born from her. Hannah’s conception is heartbreaking and yet has purpose. To be barren in the ancient world was to be cursed by the gods, but not necessarily so with the God of the Bible. We may wonder why God holds back those who desire to have children, while others are blessed when they do not want them. Jesus answered this type of question when his disciples ask about why a man was born blind, was it his or his parents’ sin? Jesus said this, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:3)” Though we might not understand why a certain situation occurs, God works his purposes out in all situations, and we must trust in that.
However, that should not stop us from seeking our heartfelt desire before God. If they are not sinful wants, then we should bring them to God as we see Hannah do. Seeking God in our desires that are not found in sin, are never something that is rejected by God. Yet we must seek his will in our lives above even our purest of wants.
Hannah would go on to fulfill her vow to God that if he would give her a son, she would give him back to his service. Dropping down to verse 24 we read, “24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, ‘Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. 27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.’ And he worshiped the Lord there.”
Hannah’s desire was in keeping with the purposes of God. When God’s will and our desire align, mighty works are done in the presence of both the individual’s life who is blessed, and those around them. From here, Hannah breaks out in a worshipful song, about God’s faithfulness and greatness. She begins with, “1 My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. (v.2:1)” The song ends with, “9 He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. 10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
And this is where we must zoom out form Hannah’s story to the overarching story of God. See Hannah may not know it, but she is prophesying in her worship. Similar to the women who broken out in blessing at the birth of Ruth’s son, when they shouted, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! (Ruth 4:14)” These women spoke of God’s redeemer, Hannah is speaking of his anointed.
At this time there was no king in Israel, but God himself. No redeemer but God, and though there would be a human king to come, it is God continues to be King over all, and the world’s Redeemer.
Yet it’s that very Kingship that Israel will reject, seeking to be like those who’s god isn’t the God of Israel. Yet in this moment, God is working our redemption through Hannah, and though she doesn’t see the full scope, she sees that the Lord is working in her life, redeeming her from her perceived shame, and because of that, she worships him and rejoices in his saving work.
God is calling us to be like Hannah laying the desires of our hearts before him and desiring to be in his will. When our desires match his, we will see his great work in our lives. This is what Paul is talking about when he writes in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
As Christians, our minds are to be renewed, this leads to us being transformed by God and not conformed to this world. This leads us to then know God’s will to which we then desire for our own lives. In this type of living sacrifice, we are giving up of ourselves, and by doing so, we are engaging in true worship. Our desires conform to God’s will and the mighty things God desires to do happen in our lives.
Hannah gave herself up to God, pleading for what she desired. This aligned with God’s will and he moved a mighty work in her. She then responds with more worship and fulfilling her oath to God in returning her son to be his servant.
My challenge for you this week is to write down your heart’s desire. Once you do that, ask the Lord if it is a sinful desire or a one that would be within his will. If it is sinful, ask for it to be taken from you, we need a transformation of our desires to be away from sin, so when we recognize that a desire is sinful, we need to seek God to cut it out of our lives. If it isn’t sin, then leave it before the Lord. Leave it there and be satisfied in the peace of God that if it is fulfilled you will praise him, and if it is not, you will praise him. The key to this whole thing is to understand that we should desire the will of God above all things, even our purest desires. It is God’s work we should want, so let’s not let our desires supersede his.
Instead, let us be a people who understand we can bring our heartfelt desires before the Lord, and at the same time, seek his will above all other things, worshiping him not matter what the outcome. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment