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A Barren Woman and a Powerful God · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever we come to any narrative of the Bible, we want to ask, what is the Lord doing here?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: What are his purposes that he is fulfilling in this story?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, 1 Samuel comes in the history of God's people at a time of transition.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: It is a time where the people of God have been led by these judges that have been raised up repeatedly to deliver God's people from their enemies.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: This was necessary because God's people had disobeyed when they had entered the land.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: They had failed to drive out all the inhabitants, and so over and over and over again God had to keep raising these deliverers up when they turned to idolatry.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so 1 Samuel tells us the story of the monarchy coming into existence, this kingship that is established first under Saul and then David and then Solomon, and eventually culminates in the line in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes forth as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, whose kingdom will have no end.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it all begins with a humble woman who can't have a child.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: It all begins with a weak woman in her desperation crying out to the Lord for help.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to Passing on the Faith, a podcast from generations.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Every week, we bring you a powerful moment from one of our sermons, audiobooks, webinars, or conference talks, handpicked to help you build a strong biblical foundation for your family.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is a sermon from Reformation Church of Elizabeth entitled A Baring Woman and a Powerful God by Joshua Suizo.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word from 1 Samuel chapter 1.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: You can turn there if you'd like to follow along.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: 1 Samuel 1.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Before we read the Word of God, let us pray for God's guidance and giving us wisdom and understanding.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit of God, we give thanks to you for this word that you have inspired, that through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: We ask, O Lord, that you would take these words, which are living words, and make them living in our hearts.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: We know that the flesh profits nothing, and that we need your Spirit's work in us.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so we pray that you would make this word powerful and mighty to help us, to point our eyes unto Jesus, our Savior, and to conform us to his image.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we pray this in Jesus' name.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let us read the word of God, 1 Samuel chapter 1.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now there was a certain man of Ramatham Zophim of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zeoph, a Nephrothite.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he had two wives, the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Panina.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when the time was that Elkinah offered, he gave to Panina his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: And why is thy heart grieved?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Am I not better to thee than ten sons?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore, and she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now Hanna, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken, and Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Put away thy wine from thee.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Rama.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Wherefore it came to pass that the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the man Elkinah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good, tarry until thou have weaned him, only the Lord establish his word.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when she had weaned him, she took up with her with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli, and she said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord, as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he worshipped the Lord there.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: All of God's people said, Amen, you may be seated.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this morning I'd like to begin the book of 1 Samuel with you.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the first chapter of 1 Samuel is an incredible story.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's an incredible account of a woman's grief, a woman's desperation, and a woman's faith in God.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the way a story begins is very important.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: It sets the stage, it gives us a sense for what is to come as we go into the rest of the story.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: It prepares us to anticipate what is going to happen.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so it is here.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is a story.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is a book about God working mightily in weak people, sinful people.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the story of the whole Bible, certainly.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And as a historical narrative, 1 Samuel is an exciting book.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is filled with drama, it's filled with interesting characters, complex conflicts, amazing resolutions.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's an incredible story.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever we come to any narrative of the Bible, we want to ask, what is the Lord doing here?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: What are his purposes that he is fulfilling in this story?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, 1 Samuel comes in the history of God's people at a time of transition.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is a time where the people of God have been led by these judges that have been raised up repeatedly to deliver God's people from their enemies.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: This was necessary because God's people had disobeyed when they had entered the land.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: They had failed to drive out all the inhabitants, and so over and over and over again God had to keep raising these deliverers up when they turned to idolatry.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so 1 Samuel tells us the story of the monarchy coming into existence, this kingship that is established first under Saul and then David and then Solomon, and eventually culminates in the line in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes forth as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, whose kingdom will have no end.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it all begins with a humble woman who can't have a child.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It all begins with a weak woman in her desperation crying out to the Lord for help.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it was Hannah's son Samuel who would anoint Saul as king, who would anoint David, and have this vital role in the kingdom of God that was going to be brought through this.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So Samuel, who is one of the main characters of the book, was born around 1050 BC.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: That puts us right at the end of the period of the Judges.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, Samuel is the last of the judges who would be raised up.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: After him is the kings, who have a different role than the judges do.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now the end of the book of Judges gives us a sense for how dire things were at this time for God's people.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: You may remember the closing words of Judges.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: It gives us a sense for what needs to happen.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: It says in Judges 21, 25, In those days there was no king in Israel.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: The people of Israel were facing this leadership crisis.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Who would lead God's people?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Who would bring about a greater progression in the people of God who were suffering under this lack of leadership?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And as we go into the next chapters of 1 Samuel, beyond chapter 1, we're going to see in particular that God's people were facing leadership problems with Eli and his sons.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Eli and his sons were not providing good leadership for the people of Israel.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Eli failed to restrain his sons from the sins that they were committing.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: They were desecrating the sacrifices of the Lord.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: They were committing sexual immorality.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: They were corrupting the people of God and the worship of God.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's during this time that Samuel is appointed.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel is raised up to rally the people around faithfulness to God in a difficult time.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: So these early chapters are crucial for understanding what God is going to do through the monarchy.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it all begins with this story of a barren woman weeping in Shiloh because she does not have a son.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look at that story.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: In verse 1.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: There was a certain man of Ramatham Zophim of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuf, Anephrothite.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he had two wives.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Panina.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: So the text begins with this account of Elkanah and his lineage.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Who was he?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where did he come from?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: His parents, in particular, his fathers.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it also tells us that he had two wives, Panina and Hannah.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that Elkanah had two wives probably indicates that he was fairly wealthy.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually not that common to have two wives because it required a lot of resources to provide for two wives and all the children that may come from those two wives.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so in this case, Elkana is probably fairly wealthy.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And even though Elkanah is mentioned first, the story is actually not about him.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's really not the centerpiece of this account.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Rather, the story is more about Hannah and her prayer and God answering that prayer.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, interestingly, this story of Hannah, a barren woman giving birth, is a lot like other stories in Scripture.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds us of other important accounts, doesn't it?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: We read one of those earlier in the account of Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary to announce Jesus who was to be born.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we also think of the birth of John the Baptist.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: In each of these three stories, you have a woman who was unlikely to be the person that would bring forth a child, bringing forth a child, right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: All three of these examples.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist, Samuel, and our Lord Jesus Christ are all born into humble situations.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And situations where the woman is not a very likely candidate for giving birth.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel was born of a barren woman who was not able to have children for years on end.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist was born of an old woman who was beyond the years of childbearing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Our Lord Jesus was born, in the most unlikely case, of a virgin.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Of all people that could not give birth, Mary was the one that is the most obvious that cannot.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what's the message we get from all these parallels?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: What do we see in these three accounts?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: God will be glorified by using humble people for his sovereign purposes.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: He accomplishes great things through humble, unlikely, unable people.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: God used humble, insignificant on the world stage people like Hannah to do these things.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah was no queen, she was no leader in the world.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: She was not a significant person in the world's eyes, but she prayed.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: She had the faith to look unto God for help in time of need.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Similarly, God has purposes for every single one of us as well.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And those purposes are not unimportant, they're not insignificant in the plans of God.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: He has purposes for our life, even if we are not big, quote-unquote, people.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: He has purposes.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we see this throughout the pattern of history.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: We look at the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: That was what was important, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: That was where everybody was gathered.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: This was the big project.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: We're building a tower to heaven.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's here.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is what's going on.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And what does God do to that tower?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: He stops it right away.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the very next chapter, we get this humble man, Abraham, Abram of Ur of the Chaldees, middle of nowhere person who is brought in to fulfill God's plans.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So do you want to know what God is doing?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to know what he is up to, what is important to him?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Find a humble person somewhere that is seeking his face.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you will find there the work of God.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Find a humble woman on her knees praying for the salvation of her children, and you will find the work of God.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Find a humble pastor preaching the word to twenty people, year after year after year, and you will find the work of God.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: His work may not be outwardly impressive to this world, but it is important work.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: God has chosen the weak and foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and that is what he did in the story of Hannah as well.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we begin this story, this account, with a problem, a dilemma that Hannah is facing.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that is her barrenness.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: She had no children.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Panina, the other wife of Elkinah, had many children.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Elkinah had probably married Panina because Hannah was not bearing children.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore he wanted an heir, and he would have married the second woman to fulfill that purpose.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, the names of Hannah and Panina indicate a little bit about who they are.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Panina, or actually Hannah first, means favor with God.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Favor with God.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Panina, on the other hand, means the fruitful woman.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what she was in this story.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: She was bearing many children when Hannah had none.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, Panina had many children.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah had none.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And in this relationship, we see Panina using this as a reason for pride, a reason for superiority over Hannah.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: She would provoke Hannah over this situation.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah's barrenness was very hard on her.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: There was already a stigma attached to barrenness because sometimes barrenness was a curse from God that he would bring upon his people where there would not be children that would come forth.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now it would be hasty generalization to assume that it was due to Hannah's sin that she was barren, because, as we see, God had bigger purposes in mind here.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was for the glory of God that she was barren.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: He was going to do something here that was very important.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah faced the cruelty of Panina over and over and over again.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, every year when they went up to Shiloh, Panina would use that of all times as an opportunity to provoke Hannah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: When they're going up to worship before the Lord, to give sacrifices, to receive the blessing of the Lord, there's Panina irritating her, frustrating her, pointing out her insufficiencies and not being able to bear a child.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Panina wanted to make sure Hannah knew that she could not bear children, but that Panina could.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 Her adversary also provoked her sore for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, and therefore she wept and did not eat.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Such was the evil fruit of this polygamous relationship.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's important to see that every time the Old Testament brings out these polygamous relationships, it shows the evil fruits, the consequences that it brought about, the conflict that it created in the relationship.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Polygamy could never reflect the love of Christ to his bride because it was a divided love.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was an imperfect love.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a situation of conflict and tension.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: But just as Hannah's barrenness had purposes in the plans of God, so this polygamous marriage had purposes in the plans of God.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Humbling Hannah, driving her to the throne of grace to find help in time of need.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so we see the way God works in this situation.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah's barrenness had left her absolutely empty.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: She was broken, she was desperate, and therefore in her desperation, she couldn't do anything else but go unto the Lord and find help in time of need.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is how God works, brothers and sisters.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: When we, his people, are without strength, then he does his great work when we go unto him, without strength.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 50, verse 15, describes this paradigm, the way that this works.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's the pattern.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: In the day of trouble, we call upon the Lord, he delivers us, we glorify him.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Repeat, over and over and over again.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so we get to the end of our rope.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's then we cry out to God, God delivers us, we glorify Him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so we must learn to see that our brokenness, our emptiness, our weakness is an opportunity for God to work.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is a prelude to God's work of redemption.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is just the beginning for us to be able to see what God is going to do.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Paul describes this in Romans 5, verse 6, when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: When we were unable to save ourselves, God sent his son to die for us.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same with all the other redemptions in our life.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: When we are weak and when we are unable and when we are desperate, he begins to work.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so we see in verse 8, Hannah being comforted by Elkanah.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Elkanah comes in here, he seeks to comfort his wife.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Says, then said Elkanah, her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: And why eatest thou not?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And why is thy heart grieved?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Am I not better to thee than ten sons?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we see that Elkanah did care for his wife.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: He loved her.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to see her in this broken condition where she is sad over what has happened.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Elkanah is not pointing out her insufficiency and not bringing forth children to him.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's seeking to comfort her, and he basically says, You have me, Hannah.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that enough?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Aren't I enough, Hannah, beyond ten sons to you?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And like many husbands, he might have learned that it would be better to say, Aren't you, Hannah, worth more to me than ten sons?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: But he pointed to himself for some reason.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so this shows us the frailty and weakness of human comfort, right?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: All of us have our limitations when it comes to comforting other people in their desperation and in their difficulty.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: We can't overcome the trials for them.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: We can't be the saviors of the situation.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, human comfort is important.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah needed a greater comfort.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah needed greater help.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: She needed God to act.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the God of all comfort was the one who was going to help her in the situation, who was going to bring about a redemption.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in this account, where do we see the hope?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Where is the first ray, the first glimpse of hope that we see?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that we find it in verse 5.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, where's the hope in this verse?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: You might be wondering.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is there some sort of hope that's contained implicitly in verse 5?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Where is the encouragement?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: The ray of hope in verse 5 is the fact that the Lord had closed her womb.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: If it was the Lord that closed her womb, then he has the power to open it once again.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: If it is God who has brought the affliction, he has the power to remove it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: If God is sovereign to bring it, he is sovereign to remove it.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the hope.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Hannah and Elkana knew that.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord had control over the womb.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: So if we know that the Lord sovereignly brings the difficulties, we know that he can sovereignly remove them.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that is why it is so cruel to take away the sovereignty of God in the midst of suffering.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: To say God has nothing to do with your suffering.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Takes away all hope.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: We think it so it is meaningless then.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't have purpose.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Where does the hope go?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: It disappears, it vanishes with the sovereignty of God.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: We must build upon this foundation of the sovereignty of God to bring the afflictions and to remove them, or we will not have hope.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: The missionary to Burma, Adonairam Jetson, often spoke of this.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: He went untold number of suffering, lost his first wife, both him and his second wife underwent all different kinds of sufferings in Burma.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he wisely said these words If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I couldn't have done it, I couldn't have kept going if I didn't know that it was a God, sovereign God of love and mercy, who ordered these things in his wisdom, though I did not know why these things were ordered in this way.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is the first ray of hope, brothers and sisters.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: God had closed the womb, he could open the womb.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so also for us, if God has brought some barrenness in your life, some difficulty, some desperation in your life, it is of his making.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: It is under his power, it is by his wise direction that it has come.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he can remove it from you if it be his will.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: He has the power.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now it was on a particular occasion that Hannah brought this desperation before the Lord.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: The family would go up to Shiloh yearly to offer this sacrifice.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: From what I can tell, this was a free will act.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: There was not a specific feast mentioned here.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: They would just go up as a gift unto the Lord to worship.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was an opportunity to worship before the Lord.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's on this occasion that Hannah does the very best thing you can do when you are downcast.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: She prays.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: She prays to the Lord.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Couple weeks ago we looked at James 5.13 where it says, Is any among you afflicted?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let him pray.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is any merry?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let him sing psalms.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: When we are in such grief and sorrow, we have two options before us.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: On one hand, we can become angry, we can become bitter with God.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: We can withdraw into ourselves, we can stop interacting with others entirely.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: We can have a pity party about what is going on in our lives.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some will completely reject God, they'll refuse to recognize his sovereignty in the situation.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah does the very best thing any one of us can do when suffering, and she goes and takes her sorrows, her anxieties, her desperation to the Lord in prayer.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to look here at her prayer and her petition, because in it we see a picture of how we come before the Lord when we want that barrenness removed.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: When we come in desperation, we see a picture here of how we are to pray.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the first thing about Hannah's prayer that we observe is this Hannah recognizes who she is speaking to.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: She says, O Lord of hosts.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord of hosts.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: That phrase, O Lord of hosts, is a majestic description.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: It describes God's power as the commander of the armies of heaven, probably referring to the angels of heaven that were innumerable number, and that would be used by God to fulfill his purposes.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so Hannah knows the God to whom she prays.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is no impotent God.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: This is a God of power.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: A God whose power is absolutely infinite.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is the God who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is the God who delivered his people from all their enemies over and over and over again in the times of the judges.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And most relevant to Hannah's situation, perhaps she remembered the story of Abraham and Sarah having a child.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: There was a story of a womb that could not be opened.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: A woman passed the years of childbearing, and God had brought forth the promised child through that couple.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: And if this is the God who parted the Red Sea and opened it, can he open a woman's womb?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Can he, in his power, open that womb and bring forth children?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So she recognizes first his power.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, Hannah recognized her own position before the Lord.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: She calls herself God's handmaid, or in other translations, God's servant.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: She does not come complaining.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't assert her right to have a child.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: She comes humbly before the throne of grace.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't assert her rights.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: She doesn't complain bitterly against the Lord.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: She simply asks, Lord, would you give me this?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: I am your servant.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: I desire this.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: So also when we come with our petitions, no matter what the desperation, we don't come complaining, we don't come asserting our rights to a different life.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: We come humbly as the servants of God and confess that anything we receive from the Lord is undeserved.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're all beggars for undeserved mercy.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: We come to God as Abraham did in Genesis 18, when he was petitioning the Lord to not judge Sodom and Gomorrah.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: He came to the Lord and asked the Lord in verse 18, uh Genesis 18, verse 27.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Similar to what our brother Todd mentioned earlier.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was dust and ashes, he says, I'm nothing when I come before you, Lord, but I have boldly undertaken to speak to you and to lay before you my petition.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so we come recognizing our undeserved position before the Lord, secondly.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, Hannah was clear about her request.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: She was specific.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: She told the Lord what she wanted.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's true that our prayer should consist of more than petitions, more than things we ask for, but it should contain things we ask for.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: It should contain the things that we desire of the Lord.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: James tells us, you do not have because you do not ask.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: We often do not have because we do not specifically ask for what we want.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: And say, Lord, I desire this.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Would you give me this?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, the fourth thing about Hannah's prayer that we see is the fervency of prayer.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a fervency born out of desperation.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 10, she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then verse 15 says these words, she poured out her soul before the Lord.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is the fervency of prayer.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: She was making herself totally transparent to the Lord, the Lord God, who can see inside us already, all we're doing is just opening it up even further and saying, Lord, this is me.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: I need your help.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Care for me, deliver me, bring me out of this desperation.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: It seems that Hannah knew something of what Hebrews 5 describes.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4 describes.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace and help in time of need.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now this promise of Hebrews 4 is set within the context of the new covenant, that the greater access that we have through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah herself still had access.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: She could go to that tabernacle and she could pray before the Lord and have her prayer heard and answered by God.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have this freedom to come to the throne of grace with great fervency.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: We are able to lay our souls bare before the Lord.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to hold anything back in prayer.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: We can speak our hearts to the Lord, who knows our hearts already.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so Hannah also makes a vow.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: She vows a vow to the Lord in verse 11.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: She said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaiden remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man's child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: So in this vow, Hannah willingly gives up her child for life.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible thing, brothers and sisters, to see this woman who has so desperately wanted a child and who would have loved to have raised that child all the way to adulthood to say, if you give him to me, he's yours.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: For the entirety of his life, he's yours.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: And some have thought Hannah is bartering in this petition.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: They look at Hannah saying, Hannah, that's not the right approach.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can't come to Lord and say, you give me this, I'll give you that.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what Hannah's doing?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is she saying, I will pay you back, God, for what you've given to me in giving you my son?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a very wrong way to view this petition.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's something else going on here.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah's desire to give up her son to the service of the Lord is not an attempt to give God a good enough reason to give her a son.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's not her purpose here.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah knows that God doesn't need her child.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's the Lord of hosts.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: He has the power to accomplish what he wants with or without this child that she's going to give.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: God doesn't need anything.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: What need has he of one child in particular?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: God could raise up any man to be a leader for his people.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: So anything we give back to God is always smaller than what he gives to us.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not something that he absolutely needs.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: For example, if your son, if you give your son$100 on Christmas and a couple months later he gives you a dollar back and says, Dad, I wanted to pay you back for that$100 you gave me a couple months back.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's hardly a repayment, is it?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really repaying what was already given.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, the gift was a gift, it was freely given, but secondly, it doesn't even match up to what was given.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if you apply this example to God, the distance between what God gives us and what we can give back to God is an infinite distance.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's far greater than$100 to$1.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's perhaps a billion dollars to something, or a trillion to something.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: There is an infinite distance.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul asks this question in Romans 11.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever God gives us is undeserved, it is by his grace, and we do not have the power to pay it back fully, nor should we try.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a gift.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so Hannah's not trying to make a deal with God.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: After all, Hannah was denying some of her own desires in this petition.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: She was sacrificing her desires in making this vow before the Lord.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: She wouldn't have the opportunity to raise her son to care for him in all those crucial years after he was weaned.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: She would have to go up once a year, perhaps, to see him.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that was all that she would be able to do.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: So she vowed him unto the Lord as a permanent vow.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it says that a razor would not come upon his head, which relates to the Nazirite vow that's mentioned in Numbers 6.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: However, typically the Nazarite vow was temporary in nature.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was not permanent, and this is a much greater thing that she has done in the sacrifice.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so we learn here from this that if we are to bring our desires before the Lord, we must always be willing to sacrifice our desires for the greater cause of Christ's kingdom.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: We must be willing to sacrifice those things that we so desperately want.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: We come to prayer saying, Lord, this is what I want.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: But more than that, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: That is more important to me than even my desire.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so it is here also.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah desires a son, but more importantly, she wants the purposes of God to be fulfilled.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: And she wants her son to seek the Lord, to serve the Lord all the days of his life.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now we see in verse 13 this interaction between Hannah and Eli.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Put away thy wine from thee.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now we get a little bit of a hint about Eli here and his inability to discern between heartfelt prayer and drunken ramblings.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now this is a real problem, as we will find out in the chapters that follow.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why would Eli assume such a thing of a woman who was praying in the tabernacle that she was drunk?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as we will learn in chapter 2, the priesthood had been seriously corrupted.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Eli's sons did not walk in faithfulness before the Lord.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: They desecrated the sacrifices of the Lord.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: They committed sexual morality right in the tabernacle itself.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very likely, though we don't know for sure, that there was a lot of drinking in the midst of all this.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: My assumption here is that there was probably something that Eli had seen before in the context of the tabernacle that gave him some pause about what Hannah was doing.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what Hannah was doing.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: She was praying before the Lord.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: She was pouring out her soul unto God.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: And she says, Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: She says, This prayer, this is not a drunken rambling where I'm just bearing all my emotions in a drunken state.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: I am bearing my emotions in a spiritual state, asking for help.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so we come to the answer to this prayer.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah, she prays to the Lord, she goes away, no longer sad, she is raised up, comforted by God, and she goes home.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: They rose up early in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned, and came to their house to Ramah, and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: That little word he remembered.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is such a beautiful word in the scriptures, brothers and sisters.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: When the Old Testament says that the Lord remembered, it doesn't mean that he forgot something that came back to his mind.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: It means that he hears the petitions of his people.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: We get this same word in Genesis 8, after the flood, the global flood that occurred, Noah is on the ark, and it says, God remembered Noah and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: God is faithful to remember his promises and to remember the petitions of his people that he brings to them.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a God who ignores half the requests that come in and is too busy to get to all of them to respond.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is a God who hears all the petitions, remembers, and answers prayer.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: And God is very different from us in this way.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: For example, think of your email inbox.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: I like to be an inbox zero person.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: I like to get down to no emails left, but many of you are not that way, as far as I know, in some cases.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Some of you might have 500 to 1,000 unread messages.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that means that there's 500 to 1,000 specific emails that came in that never got your attention once.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: You never opened them, you never considered them, they're just there, and there's pages and pages of them.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, our prayers are not like that.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Our prayers are not like a giant email inbox that is thousands of unread messages, and you are seven pages back, not sure if we're going to get to you.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see if we have time.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's not the way God answers our prayers.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so if the answer that we have desired does not come, it's not because God forgot, it's not because God hasn't heard, it's not because you are five pages back in his emails.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is his sovereign will how he answers those prayers.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is that every petition we bring to the Lord is considered, heard, remembered, and answered according to the will of God.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: God remembered Hannah.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now that this prayer has been heard and fulfilled and answered right in the way that she wanted, what will Hannah do?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: Will she keep her vow?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Will she go unto the Lord and give her son to the Lord?
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes in situations of distress, people make a promise to do something, right?
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: In that crisis, they make a promise.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther did that.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: He cried, Saint Anne, when the lightning hit, and he says, I'm going to become a monk.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: And others do the same thing similarly when they say, God, if you exist, help me, I'll serve you forever, I'll believe in you if you help me right here.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: Some continue with that vow and they fulfill it.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Others, it's just a foxhole prayer, and once they're out of the foxhole, there's not going to be any follow through at all.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: But Hannah, she follows through.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: She does the vow that she had committed unto the Lord.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: By God's grace, Hannah did not go back on her word.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: She gave Samuel to the service of the Lord.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Hannah, she waited a number of years to bring Samuel up, it says until he had been weaned, which in that day and age probably would have been between three to five years of age.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Old enough that Samuel could be left alone here with Eli and be cared for by him.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in this coming back to Shiloh, we see Hannah's gift, her gratefulness, her generosity to the Lord in giving Samuel.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the two things I want to look at at the end of this passage.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: First, Hannah's gratitude, and secondly, Hannah's generosity.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 27 describes the gratitude she had.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: Praise be to God.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: He had answered her prayer.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: He had heard and he had remembered.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so Hannah expresses her gratitude to the Lord.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: She says, God has answered this prayer and given me this son.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hannah could have looked at this sacrifice, bringing Samuel back as a begrudging necessity.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: She could have said, Okay, I guess I vowed to the Lord.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I have to bring him and give him up.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not her spirit, is it?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is a spirit of gratitude.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: She was ready to give her son up.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: She says, All I gotta do is wean him, and then he's yours, God.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: I will bring him to you.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so it is the grace of God toward us as well that should be the wellspring, the fountain out of which our gratefulness comes.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: What has God done for us that we can render back to him as an expression of gratefulness to God?
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: Secondly, we see Hannah's generosity.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: Not only did Hannah fulfill her vow, but she gave generously to the Lord.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 24 describes the sacrifice that she brought.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bullocks and one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: This description of what they brought is actually a significant abundance beyond what was required by the law.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: The law had certain requirements about how much you would bring, and this is basically tripling those requirements that were brought.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, so amazing is it to think that they had brought three bowls to sacrifice to the Lord that many commentators think, ah, the Hebrew text got corrupted here.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: It must have been a three-year-old bowl, and then they change it because they're thinking, it's just not possible that she would have brought that much to the Lord.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: But there's no need to change the text.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_01: The regulations of the law only required one-third an ephah of flour for every bowl that was brought.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so she brought three bowls plus all the flour that was needed to fulfill that.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so Elkanah and Hannah, they give generously, they just pour out this massive sacrifice and say, Lord, praise be to you.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: You have answered our prayers.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: We give this up to you freely and willingly.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then the greatest sacrifice of all that Hannah gave, beyond three bowls, beyond an epha of flour, beyond the wine or the wine, is Samuel himself.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_01: That was the great sacrifice that she brought.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: She gave up her son to the service of the Lord.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel's name meant the God who hears.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel himself was an example of God's answer to prayer.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: So as we close, brothers and sisters, I want to bring your attention back to the title that I gave this message, which is A Barren Woman and a Powerful God.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: You can fill in the blank with whatever your barrenness is as you reflect on the words of this text.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: What is your barrenness?
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a fearful woman and a powerful God?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is it an anxious man and a powerful God?
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a woman undergoing severe daily trials and a powerful God?
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: Is it an angry man feeling bound by this sin and a powerful God?
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever the affliction, whatever the desperation, whatever the sin, we come bringing these things to a God who hears, a God who does not forget, and a God who has the power to answer our prayers.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: There is no trial that is more sovereign than God.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: There is no sin more powerful than our God.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: There is no affliction that our God cannot remove, that He has Himself brought.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so when He remembers your prayer, do as Psalm 50 says, as we read earlier.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Our God, of comfort and mercy, we come to you through the blood of our Lord Jesus who has bled and died for us and rose again, that we might have new life.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we ask that you would use this account of your mercy upon Hannah as a template, an example for us of how you answer our prayers.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you, Lord, that you do not forget those things that we bring to you, that you care for us as we seek you.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: We ask, O Lord, that you would expose to us our own barrenness, our own desperation, and then teach us, as Hannah did, to pour out our souls before you, that we might find mercy and grace to help in time of need.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we pray this in the name of our mighty Savior and Lord Jesus.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a production of the Generations Media Network.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: For more information, go to generations.orgslash media.