Our Lord Jesus Christ's person
and work and character and offices are precious to his people. We love to speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We love to learn of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is food for our soul. He is
balm. He is ointment. He is peace. for our troubled hearts. And
it is lovely to see sometimes in Scripture, as we turn to the
Word of God, how frequently the beauties of the character and
the nature of Christ are laid out for us in very many different
places and persons and times and eras. Throughout Scripture,
incidents and events and the lives of individuals portray
and convey something of the character and the nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is as if the whole of Scripture
points towards Jesus. It is as if the whole of the
lives of the people have been recorded in order that the Holy
Spirit should pick up and point to his people aspects of Christ
which are typified, which are pictured, which are revealed
for us to learn from. That is no less the case when
we look into the Old Testament as in the New. And here we have
read the opening chapter of the book that carries the name of
one of God's greatest prophets, the prophet Samuel. And he is
an important figure in the history of Israel. He was a prophet,
and he was a priest, and he was a ruler in Israel in the days
before kings were established. Indeed, Samuel was the one who
brought in that period of monarchy into the old Israel, into the
old system of the Israelite nation, the children of Israel, starting
with Saul and then, of course, David. And Samuel had to be told
by God that it was okay to follow through and to establish a king
because hitherto it had been the rule of the prophets in a
theocracy rather than a monarchy that had been set in place in
Israel. Samuel then was a ruler in Israel. And in that capacity, he prefigures
the Lord Jesus Christ, because as you will be well aware, our
Lord also has those three principal offices, which he takes to himself
of prophet, priest, and king. And so here is Samuel, all those
years ago, labouring and serving God, ministering before God and
ministering to the people of Israel as a prophet, as a priest
and as a ruler. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ
being typified all these years before in his own mediatorial
capacity of prophet, priest and king. The Lord Jesus Christ is
a prophet, He is that prophet indeed that was promised from
the earliest days of revelation. The Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied
by Moses. The law came by Moses, but grace,
peace and truth comes by the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses understood
that God would send a substitute, that God would send a Redeemer,
and he saw that Redeemer in his prophetic capacity primarily. And in Deuteronomy 18, verse
18, we read these words from the mouth of Moses. He said,
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren. Moses
himself was a prophet, he was a great prophet, but he understood
that there would be one raised up in time to come from amongst
their brethren, which speaks of the humanity of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that there would be one raised up like unto thee, and
that the words of God would be placed in his mouth, that he
would speak as God commanded him. And so the Old Testament
prophets understood from those earliest statements by Moses
that there was to be one expected, one who would come in days that
lay ahead. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
proved, as we read in the Hebrews, he has proved to be that great
priest, that great prophet. He is our great high priest,
he himself offering the blood of his own sacrifice. Hebrews says we See then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession. We come this morning into the
presence of God. We enter with our worship into
the very courts of heaven. We come, as the writer to the
Hebrews says, boldly because we have a priest who has entered
into the Holy of Holies before us and on our behalf. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is our King, for he rules in his church, he
rules as the head over the body. And so, as prophet, priest and
king, he fulfils these offices. And we have seen these offices
replicated previously in the lives of others who have gone
before him, pictures that have been given and presented. Timothy says that he is the king
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. That kingship of Christ is going
to be our song in the eternal ages to come. We're told in Revelation
chapter 15 and verse 3 that there is a song sung in heaven. It is the song of Moses who understood
the prophetic role of Christ and spoke of him who was to come. And it is the song of the lamb,
the one who was the sacrifice and that priestly work of Christ
as he, priest, offered the blood that he shed upon the cross.
And it is the praise, the song of the King, the song of the
Lamb. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou
King of Saints. It was my intention to speak
more particularly about Samuel today. And as I began my thoughts
and as I began thinking about this, I thought, what I will
do is I will set before the friends who gather the work of Samuel
in his prophetic and in his priestly and in his ruling capacity, and
then I will draw some parallels to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is still my intention to do that. But not today. I couldn't get past Hannah. I wanted to tell you about Samuel,
but I couldn't get beyond his mum. So we're going to think
a little bit about Samuel. but only in the context this
morning of what is said concerning his birth and his mother, Hannah. And then as the Lord enables,
perhaps on another occasion, if he will permit, we will turn
more particularly to think about some of the aspects of Samuel's
own life. The first thing I want to draw
your attention to, therefore, is the strange events that surrounded
the birth of Samuel. And it's interesting when we
go to the Word of God to realise that perhaps there were no greater
unusual events surrounding the birth of anyone than the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, when you look back into
the Old Testament, So many of the Lord's saints had strange
and peculiar events occurring in their earliest years, whether
we're thinking about Moses or Daniel or many of the saints
of God. And here, Samuel also has strange
circumstances which arise at the time of his birth. God, as
we will see, was preparing a man for himself. There's nothing
random or accidental with God. We were reflecting upon that
this morning just as we were waiting to come in. All of our
experiences, all of the events of our lives are ordained and
directed by God. And let us never imagine that
accidental things happen in our lives. We call them accidents
because we didn't foresee them coming or it was random or it
was carelessness. But all of the things that happen
in the lives of men and women in this world are directed and
ordained by God, not least in the lives of his people and his
church. And it is a good thing for us
to be able to step back from the apparent vagaries of our
day-to-day lives and see the hand of God at work in them. Hannah's experiences bore testimony
to the hand of God in her life. And there was, let it be noted,
much bitterness and hurt and sadness in those experiences. And yet the Lord designed those
hardships in order to achieve his own ends and the birth of
Samuel by this woman who would in turn grow to be both useful
for the people of God of that age to minister to God in that
age and as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Church of
God in centuries and generations to come. Hannah was a woman who
was a wife, but she was barren. And despite the love of her husband,
she was bullied by another wife, Penina, that Elkanah, her husband,
had. Now the word of God is very clear
about one man and one woman being joined together as husband and
wife. So all of the things that go
on in the world, whether we're talking about marriages of the
same sex or whether we're talking about multiple or unusual formulations
in marriage, this is the pattern that the Lord our God has given. And Elkanah was in error, and
it may well be that Elkanah in his domestic circumstances was
subject to some of the trials and the difficulties that taking
a second wife will bring. There was much unhappiness in
this house. There was unhappiness in Hannah, for she was barren. and she was always comparing
herself with Penina. There was unhappiness in Penina
for all that she had, yet she was not a happy woman. And we're
told that she purposely caused Hannah to be fretful. This lady, Penina, went out of
her way to hurt Hannah as much as she could. She provoked her
sore to make her fret. Why did Penina have to do that?
There was a deficiency in Penina's character also. And I don't know
but that Elkanah must have been aware of what was happening. He saw the sorrow in Hannah and
he would doubtless know its source and he would doubtless see how
both Penina and her family would aggravate that situation. It
wasn't a happy home. Hannah knew her own peculiar
and personal hurt and her sorrow was purposefully intensified
by Penina who had her own children. The Lord's people, as we might
assume both Elkanah and certainly Hana, Hana means gracious, and
Hannah was a woman who knew the grace of God. There's no doubt
in my mind about that. The Lord's people, even those
who have tasted the sweetness of his grace towards them, still
are called to bear crosses in this world. Hannah's life, as
it is set before us in these early verses that we read in
this first chapter of 1 Samuel, speak to us of constant trial. She was beset all the time with
the longings that she had and the aggravated circumstances
that appertained. She was depressed. She wept a
lot. She would not eat. That would
have consequences with her body. She was a woman who was in many
ways sick because of the emotional strains that were in her mind
and in her spirit. And we are told that the reason
for that was despite her husband's affection, that the Lord had
shut up her womb. She was a sad woman. And we have
to say that as the Lord has explicitly been said to shut her womb, that
it was the Lord who led her into that place. Can I use a more
emphatic word and say that he drove her to that place? Would that be wrong to say that
God should take that responsibility? And yet the Lord's people know
in their own hearts that we are driven sometimes to places that
we would rather not be because of the circumstances and the
providences that God arranges to come into our lives. Now, Hannah had a proper response
to this. She was at breaking point. Her
tears were real. Her emptiness was genuine. But she took her troubles to
the Lord. And I think that this is perhaps
one of the finest evidences that we can have in our own experience
as to how we should act in the similar circumstances that come
into our own lot. In her own words, she said, I
have poured out my soul before the Lord. I look around and I know that
there are people here who have been brought into circumstances
that have straightened them, brought into experiences that
have tried them sore. And they have been caused, like
Hannah, to pour out their soul before the Lord. Let it be that
we understand the value of so doing. We can do no better than
Hannah in such circumstances. Let her be our example. Peter says, casting all your
cares upon him, for he careth for you. There's a dichotomy there, there's
a dilemma, is there not? That it is the Lord who shut
up her womb, that drove her to this emptiness, this sore trial,
and yet he cared for her. For there was a plan at work
here that she did not see nor understand. There was a purpose
which extended for decades beyond her immediate issue, her immediate
problem. And the bitterness of her trial
under Pinaya's aggravation was sore in the moment. But it was
just a moment. It was just a little while. and
the things that the Lord had planned for her extended for
generations, for centuries beyond. And we need to be able to understand
that whatever happens in our lives, the Lord cares for us,
and he is working for our good. Let me draw one particular application
here, if I may. Because I must not assume that
everyone who is here today is saved. I must not assume that. And we can perhaps consider that
the greatest problem that any individual in this world has
is that their burden is the burden of their sin and their guilt
before God. We have an eternal soul, and
there is a weight of sin and guilt upon that soul, that if
we would be like Hannah, this gracious one, and take our need,
that need of forgiveness, that need of cleansing, that need
before the holiness of God, That is the portion of every sinful
creature in this world. If we would take that to the
Lord, then he would hear our prayer. Eli was high priest. His name means my God, and he's
a very interesting character. And this too is a beautiful picture. We take our need We take our
need for the forgiveness of sin to Christ, who is our Eli. As Hannah went up to the temple
and bared her soul before God and poured out her petition before
the Lord, there in the presence of Eli, so the Lord's people
take their need So those who are burdened with a sense of
sin and guilt, take their need to the only one, the high priest,
the one who can intercede. And we set our need before God
in the presence of Jesus Christ. We cry out in the abundance of
our complaint and in our grief. We ask, we seek, we knock, we
are persistent. We lay these things before God
and we seek His answer. We seek God's grace and we seek
his mercy. If you are yet a stranger to
God's grace, if you are yet burdened with sin and guilt in your life,
then be like Hannah. Take it to the Lord. Be like
Hannah who went to the priest. who went to the place where God
met his people. And open your soul to the Lord
and ask him for that forgiveness which he alone can provide. Our
Eli, our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, declares on the
merit of his own shed blood, as Eli said to Hannah, go in
peace. and the God of Israel grant thee
thy petition. Those that come seeking grace
from God will not be sent away empty. It is the promise of Scripture. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And in faith we
take the words of Hannah and we declare, Let thine handmaid
find grace in thy sight. The next thing I want to mention
is the way in which Hannah dedicated, took the vow of dedicating this
child to the Lord. Hannah made a vow when she prayed
Doubtless, it was prompted by God the Holy Spirit. We read
about it there in verse 11. If you will give me a man child,
she would give that child back to the perpetual service of the
Lord. And that's exactly what she did.
She took that little boy. He had only just been weaned. I don't know, we could guess
what age that might be, but it's probably around the age of four
or five. And it's taking him and handing
him over, that child, that infant, into the hands of Eli. and into the circumstances of
the worship that was taking place there in Shiloh, I don't think
we should overlook the personal cost of this. Hannah loved her
son as any mother would, and yet she was faithful to the one
that had been faithful to her. Samuel was very young, and her
heart must have ached to leave that child with an old man, Eli,
and his two sons. We know the character of those
two sons. We know how wicked they were. We know that they were motivated
by lust, not by the honour of God. And yet here was this child
being placed in the midst of this situation and Hannah must
have been concerned as she did so. And yet she trusted the Lord. She had made this promise. God
had been faithful to her and she was faithful to him. Paul asks each one of us, what
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Let's ask ourselves,
what have we got? What have you got that you haven't
been given? We come into this world with
nothing. Some are blessed in material things more than others,
but nothing that we have is our own. and soon it will all have
to be given up again anyway. The Lord gives us good gifts. All good and perfect gifts come
from above, and they are His. As He gives them to us, it is
as a loan, and we are called to employ them in His service. We do not lose when we give to
the Lord. If you flick over just into chapter
two and look at verse 21, I think this is a lovely little mention
that is made of the faithfulness of the Lord to Hannah. She was
giving up her only son that she had longed for for so many years. And she did so graciously and
faithfully. And the Lord visited Hannah so
that she conceived and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before
the Lord. You see, the Lord had all of
this in hand. He gave Hannah that which she
desired. He rewarded Hannah for her faithfulness
to him. None of us will be indebted to
God as we give, God will not be indebted to us as we give
those things which he has given to us back to his service. Samuel, we're told, was girded
with a linen ephod, as worn by priests. It's an interesting thing, if
you just look at chapter 2, verse 18. Samuel ministered before
the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod, This linen
ephod was part of the priestly garb. It had been established
in the days of the wilderness journeying of the people of Israel.
And it was worn under the breastplate. And it was cleverly woven with
various colors. And it was a picture. of the way in which all God's
people are made pure and white, the white linen ephod which was
worn by the priest. Samuel ministered before God
wearing a linen ephod and so he was dressed in priestly garb
even as a child. Look at the next verse. Moreover
his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from
year to year. I guess the coats got bigger
every year. when she came up with her husband
to offer the yearly sacrifice. Maybe that was the only time
she got to spend any time with Samuel in those years thereafter. For although it was not a great
distance between the city of the home of Hannah and Shiloh,
probably about 12 or 15 miles, Nevertheless, it would not be
a journey that would be made apart from these times when worship
was to be given to God. But there's a picture here for
us as well. Here's this little boy and he
wears a linen effort next to his skin and he wears the coat
that his mother made over the top. It pictures us, I think,
the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ. It pictures to us that
holy one who came out of heaven, that pure one, and yet who was
covered with our humanity, who had a body like unto his brethren,
as Moses had declared, and yet was the eternal son of God. And it is a picture, too, of
the nature of every blood-bought child of God. For we have that
new man within us, that man who is holy, that man who is righteous. And we have that old flesh, which
is our covering also. And there, the linen effort and
the knitted coat, the old nature and the new nature, are carried
side by side And yet there is a struggle that goes on in the
experience of the Lord's people while we carry these two natures
within us. Samuel was girded with a linen
effort. Our Lord Jesus Christ in his
humanity is able to comfort his people. to help our infirmities,
to lead us in the ways in which we go because he has an empathy
and a sensitivity and an awareness to us in his own humanity. The final thing that I want to
draw your attention to is Hannah's song. Hannah was a believer. She trusted in God. She worshipped
God. in the light that was given at
that time. She understood sacrifice. She
took those oxen to the place where sacrifice would be made. She understood prayer to God. She understood that personal
relationship that there was with God. She understood the intercession
of the priest. And she thanked God. She thanked
God as she trusted him and had faith in him. She knew the Lord
God personally and she rejoiced in him. Let us hear Hannah's prayer. Let us hear her song of personal
testimony. This struck me so forcibly as
I was reflecting upon it. Let us think of what this lady
said and the understanding and insight that she possessed, even
all those years ago. Look at chapter two, 1 Samuel
chapter two, and we're going to read the first 10 verses. And Hannah prayed and said, my
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. That means her strength, her
power, her energies are exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is
there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions
are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they
that were hungry ceased. So that the baron hath born seven,
and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth
and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them
inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will
keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries
of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he
thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt
the horn of his anointed. I think that's wonderful. I think
those sentiments, those themes, those words, for a woman like
Hannah to be able to bring that forth as a hymn of praise to
God, as a prayer from her heart, is a beautiful thing for us to
be able to read and to hear all these years later. Now there
is much that could be said about these verses, and perhaps more
will, But let me just show you two or three things briefly from
what this prayer tells us. First, Hannah knew and trusted
in God's sovereign power. She knew who the judge of all
the world was. She knew who had strength. She
knew who could bring down and kill and make to be alive and
raise up. She knew to whom all men and
women in this world would be answerable. Hannah knew the sovereign
Lord. Her prayer is full of testimony
to God's excellence and majesty. She says, thou art holy, unrivaled,
unchangeable, the author of my salvation. You are just, you
are merciful, you are gracious. You are all wise. You are all powerful. This was
Hannah's knowledge of God. She knew that he could work all
things according to his own will and providence. And it was not
merely words with Hannah. It was the experiential testimony
of a woman who knew in her own heart the Lord God Almighty. Today, we live in a nation that
is full of people who say that they know God. Would that you and I and many,
many more could know God as Hannah knew God. Second thing is this
to notice about Hannah's prayer. Her heart rejoiced in the Lord. That was what she says. Hannah
prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Her heart didn't
rejoice in her son. She wasn't so preoccupied with
Samuel that all her joy was focused upon that boy. Sadly. I fear too many people today
focus all their attention on their children at the expense
of having a relationship with God. Hannah knew where her true joy
lay. She knew in whose hand the well-being
of her son Samuel was held. In this elevated state, in this
place of understanding, this insight and grasp that she had
of the true nature of God, she saw that her sadness had been
taken away. She had joy in her heart despite
the having to give up her son, despite the long periods of not
being able to see him, despite the fact that there were other
things now had come into her life that she had to deal with.
She knew that there was a residual, an inherent, a foundational joy
in her heart's experience because of the faithfulness of God to
her. I trust we all will find that
in the midst of the trials and difficulties that we have to
encounter, that we have a joy that is deeper than all the problems
that we face day by day, the Monday morning hassles, and all
of the issues that come into our lives and into our families.
The joy of the Lord. Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the
Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Let me take a third thing and
then I'm done. There's something towards the end of this prayer
which is unique. And I guess you wouldn't notice
it immediately. But Hannah caught a glimpse of
something that was unique. Something that no one else hear
me. Not Moses. Not Jacob. Not Joseph. No one else before
the time of Hannah had ever seen this before. God the Holy Spirit
didn't reveal this to one of the patriarchs, to one of the
prophets, to one of the leaders of Israel. He revealed this to
a woman who prayed to him for a little child. And here's what
it is, verse 10. He shall give strength unto his
king and exalt the horn of his anointed. See that word there,
anointed? Do you know what that word is? Messiah. Messiah. Hannah was the first to anticipate
and name the Messiah, the Lord's anointed. And every time after
this, that David speaks of the Lord's anointed, and Isaiah speaks
of the Lord's anointed, and Jeremiah speaks of the Lord's anointed,
and as we anticipate the coming of the Messiah, it all finds
its origin here in this prayer that was made by Hannah. Verse
nine says, he shall keep the feet of his saints. He shall
give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his Messiah,
of his anointed. The first direct reference to
the Messiah in the whole of scripture. Samuel was a great judge, a prophet
in Israel, but it was Samuel's mum gave us the first naming
of the anointed of God who was to come. Yes, we had seen them
prefigured right back there in the Garden of Eden. We understand
that there would be one who would come who would bruised, or whose
heel would be bruised and who would stand upon the serpent's
head. But here the Messiah is specifically
identified. And this blessed dear lady had
this insight granted to her by God the Holy Spirit. We too like
Hannah can see the Lord's anointed. We recognise him now in history
as the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see him in the same deep
way that Hannah understood him. She understood the significance
of the ox that was taken to the temple to be slain. She understood
the significance of the priesthood and the priest who carried the
blood to the altar. She understood that this anointed
one that would come would himself preserve the feet of the saints
of God. because she understood that a
sacrifice would be found that would be worthy to save her own
soul. Friends, do you know the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, as Hannah knew Him? Do you see
that in His priestly office that great prophet who came with the
Word of God to his people has taken his own blood into the
sanctuary and there has mediated for the salvation and deliverance
and redemption of his people? And do you see that he is king
now in his church? And does he rule in your life? May the Lord give each of us
a taste of grace as Hannah knew grace, a view of glory as Hannah
saw and understood, and an enduring confidence that our feet are
secure amongst the saints of God whose trust is in Christ
alone and in the shed blood and justifying righteousness that
he has obtained. Amen.