We want to look at 1 Samuel chapter
2 today. We've been reading in 1 Samuel
chapter 1 about Hannah, this woman who had no children because
the Lord kept her from having children. And then she prayed,
and God gave her a son, her firstborn son, and she named him Samuel,
whose name means asked of God. She asked the Lord to give her
a son to take away her reproach, her barrenness, an unfruitfulness
and to give her a son that she could give back to the Lord,
which he did. And so she received him and she
took him to the tabernacle where Eli the high priest was and gave
him there to the Lord to be with the Lord as long as he lives.
That's chapter 1. We're going to read chapter 2,
the first 11 verses here after we pray. Let's pray. Dear Father,
we thank you for the Lord Jesus. Thank you that we who are weak
and poor and helpless because of our sin, who you have given
this grace to know our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've
also pointed us to Your Son, and You've shown us our salvation
in Him alone. And help us, dear Lord, by Your
grace, by Your Spirit, like Hannah in Scripture, to rejoice in Your
salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
1 Samuel 2, verse 1, And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth
in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD, my mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. Verse 2, 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 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, ceased from hunger, that is, so that the barren 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. those first ten verses are Hannah's
prayer. If you look at verse one it says,
and Hannah prayed. And really her prayer is more
than just a prayer, it's also a song. So she prayed as if in
a song, and this prayer was given to her by God. Now there's many
things I want to show you here, but I want you to first of all
realize that Hannah, in this first verse, it says, she magnified,
or her heart rejoiced in the Lord. And so we wonder, why was
she so happy? Why was she so glad? And why
was her heart rejoicing? Well, first of all, I want you
to understand that she was glad, of course, for Samuel. She had
asked for a son. She didn't have a son. And her
husband's other wife had persecuted her and mocked her. and tormented
her a long time because she didn't have a son. And so because of
this affliction in Hannah's life, she prayed to the Lord and God
gave her a son whose name was Samuel. She named him Samuel.
And so I'm sure she was glad for her son Samuel. She was also
glad for her husband. And she was also glad because
she was given this grace to seek the Lord in prayer and to pray
to Him. And by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she prayed
this prayer in the first 10 verses of 1 Samuel 2. and her prayer to God was on
the occasion of God's grace to her, that he looked on her affliction
and remembered her. But notice, in this prayer, Hannah
does not mention her son. She doesn't mention her husband.
She doesn't mention her own prayer as a cause for her rejoicing.
Notice what she says in the first verse because this is the key
to understand this scripture and really all of scripture.
It says, And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the
LORD. Now the word LORD here in verse
1 is all capital letters and it means the Lord Jehovah, Jehovah
God. And really we have to understand
this as being a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
when Hanip goes on in this verse, it says, "...my heart rejoiceth
in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged
over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation." So the Lord
Jehovah, or as it is in the Old Testament, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Matthew chapter 1 verse 21,
God says that Jesus' name, Jesus, means Jehovah is my salvation,
or Jehovah my salvation. And so in Isaiah chapter 12,
it also says the same thing. It says, the Lord Jehovah has
become my salvation. So, when Hannah prays this way,
we know with certainty that she was really referring to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I want you to think about
this throughout scripture. First of all, in John chapter
8, Abraham, Jesus said, rejoiced to see My day. So, Jesus was
talking to the Pharisees in John 8. And he mentioned Abraham and
said that Abraham rejoiced, just like Hannah did here in 1 Samuel
2, her heart rejoiced in the Lord. So Abraham also rejoiced
in the Lord Jesus Christ because he rejoiced to see the day when
the Lord Jesus Christ would come. And so we find in all of scripture
that it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter
4, if you want to look there, it says that our salvation here
and now, our own salvation, salvation of all of God's people, and our
relationship to God is all the same as every one of God's people. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse
1 it says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. The bond of peace means our common
bond of peace with God and with one another in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 4 he says this,
There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you
all. So here we see that God's grace to His people is the common
grace. It's not grace different in the
Old Testament than it is in the New Testament. It's common. We
have one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father, one baptism,
one Savior, one faith. It's all the same. We're all
saved by the same Savior. and also says in Acts chapter
4 and verse 12, there is no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved except the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We see this also in 1 Peter chapter
1 if you want to look at that. In the Old Testament God's prophets
spoke And Peter tells us that when they spoke, they spoke not
of their own selves, but by the Spirit of Christ who was in them. 1 Peter 1 and verse 10, he says,
Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come to you. So the prophets
of the Old Testament searched diligently and prophesied of
the grace that should come to you, that means of us who are
believers after the cross. In verse 11 of 1 Peter 1, he
says that this is what the prophets did, searching what, or what
manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. So, what the prophets of old
spoke of in the Old Testament was by the Spirit of Christ.
And what the Spirit of Christ led them to talk about was the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow, His
glory, that would follow because of His sufferings. And so that's
what the Old Testament was about, and that's what Peter is speaking
about here. This is also spoken of in John chapter 5. In John
chapter 5, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. And he says this
in verse 39, because they boasted that they knew the law. So he
said this in John 5, 39, And then he says this most amazing
thing, you're searching the scriptures because you think that you're going to find eternal
life there, how you can gain eternal life and have eternal
life, and they thought by something they did. But he corrects that,
he says, and they, the scriptures, are they which testify of me,
and you will not come to me that you might have life. And then
in verse 46 he says this, For had you believed Moses, who wrote
in the Old Testament, you would have believed me, for he wrote
of me. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words? So Jesus is explaining here that
all of scripture in Ephesians 4 where it says there's one body
the body of Christ and 1st Peter 1 10 and 11 it says that the
Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, telling us about the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that would follow. And in this here,
in John 5, 39 and 46, Jesus explains that all of scripture was speaking
about himself and about what he would accomplish by his own
sufferings. Look at Luke 24, he says the
same thing there. Jesus was walking He came to
two men who were disciples of Christ. They were walking to
Emmaus, a town nearby, after he rose from the dead. They didn't
know what happened, and they were bewildered. They were confused.
They were troubled in their hearts because they thought that the
Savior that they followed and trusted would save them had actually
died and now he was still buried in the tomb. But he was alive
and he rose from the dead and was walking with them, but they
didn't recognize him until after he made himself known. But in
Luke 24 and verse 44, he said to them, these are the words,
after he explained his purpose for coming and dying and rising
again, he said, these are the words which I spoke to you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the
Psalms concerning me." So in the Law of Moses, and the Psalms,
and the Prophets, that's all the Old Testament. And then it
says in verse 45, Then he opened their understanding that they
might understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all Gentiles,
beginning at Jerusalem. So if you want to condense all
of God's message in the Old Testament is talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ coming, living, dying, rising again after He died as
a substitute for His people, and then ascending to heaven
and sending His Spirit and His apostles and disciples to preach
the gospel of the forgiveness of sins by what He did. And that,
therefore, is why I say, back in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 1, that
when Hannah prayed, she said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. She's speaking here of the Lord
Jesus Christ, because that's the message of all of Scripture.
And this is true throughout. Jesus said in John 14.6, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. They knew the way because they
knew the Lord Jesus, and He's the one who is that. And there's
so many places we could go and look at that. But I wanted to
point this out, that the first thing that Hannah did here was
she prayed and said that her heart rejoiced in the Lord. And what she's saying here is
that she was glad in her very heart. Because she found all
of her joy and happiness in the Lord Jesus Christ. She was glad
because everything that she needed from God, everything that God
had for sinners, was found in Him. Now, she could have talked
about Samuel, her husband, and the fact that now, no longer,
her husband's other wife, Peninnah, had been mocking her and tormenting
her with her cruelty, but she didn't talk about any of those
things. She realizes, having seen What she learned in God's
answer of prayer to her, that her salvation was in the Lord
Jesus and therefore she rejoiced in Him. So that's what this first
verse is about. Let's look at it more carefully.
He says, And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the
Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord. And that horn, when
we think about a horn, you think about animals have horns. We
don't have horns. But an animal uses its horn to
protect itself or to attack other animals. So when Hannah says,
my horn is exalted in the Lord, think about this. When a person
is discouraged and in despair, their face looks downward to
the ground. They've lost all inner strength.
And so when Hannah says, my horn is exalted in the Lord, she's
saying my face is no longer downcast. My outlook is no longer discouraged
and in despair because of my sorrow. Now it's uplifted and
I'm strong. And she says all of this is exalted,
again, in the Lord. So her strength was in the Lord. Her rejoicing was in the Lord.
And she goes on and she says, and my mouth is enlarged over
mine enemies. It sounds like she put her mouth
around her enemies, but what she's saying here is that what
she was saying with her mouth was louder and more victorious
than all that her enemies thought that they could get by what they
said against her. They thought to accuse her. They
thought to mock her and to torment her by their words, which was
Peninnah in her case. But she's speaking about not
just one enemy, but all of her enemies. So she says, My mouth
is enlarged. My voice is lifted up out of
my heart of rejoicing, because all of my strength and rejoicing
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that my enemies can't say
anything, of greater triumph than what I'm saying. God has
given me a glorious victory over my enemies and he's made me to
rejoice not just outwardly, not superficially, but truly from
the inside of her. All of the springs of her heart
were opened up so that nothing held her back and she was able
to rejoice with a clear conscience and a pure heart with all that
she was and what she understood because of what God had done
to save her. Because she goes on, she says, My mouth is enlarged,
or lifted up above my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. So Hannah's joy in the first
phrase, and her strength in the second phrase, and her voice,
the words that she had to say in her prayer and song, were
all greater than her enemies because of God's salvation. So this is significant because
all of God's people have the same cause for rejoicing. We
have the same source of strength. We have the same victory over
our enemies for the same reason. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're going to read on
here about this. because we'll see here why she's so happy. But I want you to look first,
before we do, that this is very, very similar. In fact, in the
New Testament, we see the fulfillment of what Hannah was doing here
in the Old Testament. Look at Luke chapter 1. Mary,
the mother of Jesus, is praying. And in her prayer, she's saying
almost the same thing. Luke chapter 1, the same thing
as Hannah does in the Old Testament. And it's not by accident, either.
Whenever a New Testament person speaks Old Testament words, it's
God, the Holy Spirit, taking those Old Testament words into
the New Testament to explain what God meant in the Old, and
to unfold it to us, and to fulfill that thing. So in Luke 1, verse
46, it says, when Elizabeth came to Mary and said what she said,
it said, Mary said, Notice, it's almost exactly word for word
what Hannah said. My soul doth magnify the Lord. In the Old Testament it was,
my heart rejoiceth in the Lord. So it has the same meaning with
slightly different words. This is what Mary's saying, the
same thing. Out of her soul, her inmost being, she magnifies
the Lord. She lifts up in her mind, she
sees God's greatness. She sees everything about him
as being wonderful and she speaks of it. In verse 47 it says, "...and
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior." So who is our Savior? There's only one name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. God our Savior. It says in Matthew
1.21, His name shall be called Jesus, because He shall save
His people from their sins. And in verse 23 of Matthew 1,
His name is also Emmanuel, which is God with us. He's God, our
Savior. And throughout the New Testament,
Jesus is called our God and Savior, like in Titus 1, 2, and 3. And
so, here Mary is speaking of these things, but notice, why
is Mary saying this now? Why in Luke chapter 1 is Mary
saying this? Well, because God had told her
through Elizabeth and through the angel that she was going
to give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. But isn't that what happened
in the book of 1 Samuel? That Hannah gave birth to a son?
So you see how parallel these two things are. In the Old Testament,
Hannah was barren, she couldn't have a child. In her affliction
and her anguish of soul because of the torments of this woman
who was against her, she prayed to the Lord. God heard her. God
remembered her. God gave her a son. Here in the
New Testament, Mary is praying and she's saying the same things
that Hannah said in these words of scripture, and she's saying
it on the same occasion because she's going to have a son. So,
in seeing this, what we understand is that Hannah's son and her
relationship to her son and what she experienced parallels, in
the New Testament, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
when the Lord Jesus came into the world, it was really the
fulfillment of what God gave to Hannah in the Old Testament
when He gave her the son Samuel. Samuel, in other words, is the
son given to Hannah like the Lord Jesus is the son given to
the woman in the New Testament. And Mary was the woman who gave
birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the woman spoken of here
is a woman more extensive, not just a single woman. And we're
going to see that. Not just a single physical woman, but a spiritual
woman. So I want you to look at this. So what did Hannah experience
and what did Mary experience when they found out, when Hannah
found out she was going to have a son, actually did have a son,
and brought him to the Lord? She experienced this tremendous
joy, this unbounded, unparalleled joy. And joy, when you think
about it, we know joy when we're able, from our very heart, to
know that God knows us, that He knows all about us, that He
saved us, and that He's done it for His own purpose, out of
His own grace, and not for anything in us. We experience the greatest
joy when we know the truth of our inmost thoughts is known
by God, And that God accepts us. And accepts us not because
of our thoughts, or because of our works, or anything about
us, but accepts us because He accepts His Son. In the same
way that He accepts His Son. So this is the joy that we have
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a joy that can't be paralleled.
Look at John, the book of John in the New Testament, in chapter
16. It's talking about this woman now, who has a son. And Hannah
in the Old Testament was fulfilled when Mary had the Lord Jesus
as the mother of Jesus in the New Testament. But here in John
chapter 16, look at this in verse 20. I want to tell you what's
happening here. Jesus is about to go to the cross.
His disciples are with Him, but His disciples are very sad because
they know He's going to the cross. They know that something terrible
is about to happen. And He told them, I'm going to
depart from you. I'm going to leave you for a while, but I'll
come back. And they're all upset. They're
greatly troubled by what He says, that He's going to leave them.
And so they're afraid and sorrowful. And so in verse 20 of John 16,
He says this, Verily, or truly, truly, Most certainly I say to
you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. And you shall be sorrowful, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy. So notice Jesus is talking. He's the Son of God. He's talking
to his disciples. The world is going to rejoice.
They're going to be glad. Why? Because Jesus is going to
die. They're going to put him to death.
They're going to be glad. But the disciples are going to
be sad. They're going to be sorrowful. But the very thing that gives
them the greatest sadness and the world their greatest joy
which is the crucifixion of Jesus, that very thing is going to be
turned to the disciples' greatest joy and the world's greatest
anguish and sadness. You see how it's going to be
flipped? Their sorrow is going to be turned to joy. The world's
joy is going to be turned to mourning and fear. So he says
in verse 20, Verily, verily, I say to you that you shall weep
and lament, but the world shall rejoice. You shall be sorrowful,
but your sorrow shall be turned to joy. The very thing that caused
them sorrow now is going to be turned to their greatest joy.
Think of Hannah in the Old Testament. The very thing that caused her
great sorrow was that she had no children. And that she was
afflicted by this woman who tormented her and mocked her, made fun
of her, and brought reproach upon her because she couldn't
bear children. She was barren. She couldn't bear the fruit of
a child. She was fruitless to God. And
so she was sorrowful. The only thing she wanted was
a son. Mary had a son, and we saw that
that's the fulfillment of Hannah's son Samuel. But here, Jesus is
explaining it further as a great fulfillment because he was the
son born to Mary. He's the fulfillment of all scripture,
remember? Verse 21. Listen to how Jesus
tells the disciples. He compares his death and their
sorrow to this. He says in verse 21 of John 16.
A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow, because her hour
is come. So when a woman gives birth,
it's great sorrow. so much sorrow that we can't
imagine it, especially we who have never had children and can't
have children, we can't imagine that sorrow because it's painful. And so it says here, she's in
travail because her hours come, but as soon as she is delivered
of a child or the child, She forgets, she remembers no more
the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. Now Jesus
said this to compare what his disciples are experiencing. And
his disciples are experiencing the sadness and sorrow. That's
compared to the woman who's going to have a child. And then he
says that she's going to have great joy because a man is born
into the world. The man born is the Lord Jesus
Christ. But he's not talking here about
his birth. He's talking about his death.
He says in verse 22, because you're like the woman,
but I will see you again, he's the son, and your heart shall
rejoice." That's exactly what Hannah said. My heart rejoices
in the Lord, and your joy no man takes from you. So what was
the cause of the disciples' sorrow? That the Lord Jesus would be
taken from them in death. They didn't yet understand that
his death had a purpose by God that was going to accomplish
the greatest joy for them. They didn't understand this and
so they were in great affliction of heart, like Hannah was. And
it says in verse 23, "...and in that day..." In that day, when the Lord Jesus
goes to the cross, dies, is buried, and rises again and sits on heaven's
throne, in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily,
I say to you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name,
he will give it to you. Hitherto have you asked nothing
in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be full. And so he goes on to show that
when he accomplished the work of their salvation, then they
could ask the Father in his name. They would come to God in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So their joy was full. Notice,
their joy was full because when the Lord Jesus rose from the
dead, They also were, because of their relationship to Him,
it was as if like a woman giving birth to a child. When she gives
birth to a child, her life is in that child's life. He grows
up and she looks at him and watches him and she takes great joy in
him because it's her son. It's her own life in that son. When the Lord Jesus Christ rose
from the dead, all of His people, all of the people of the Lord
Jesus Christ, their life is tied up in Him, in the Son of God. So Hannah's joy, Mary's joy,
and the joy of every believer in Scripture is because our joy
is in what God has done for us in Christ. Our strength is Christ's
strength. Our joy is because of God's joy
in raising Christ from the dead and saving His people by that.
Jesus says in Hebrews chapter 12, He says, for the joy set
before Him, He endured the cross. His joy is the salvation of His
people, and our joy is our salvation in Him. You see, when the son
of a woman, as I said, is the woman's life, and so the Lord
Jesus Christ is our life. He was born from the woman, and
the woman here in scripture is referring to all of the believers,
all people throughout time who are God's people, because they're
called the wife, in scripture, they're called the wife or the
bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let me recap now for you. Hannah was sorrowful because
she couldn't have children. She prayed and God gave her a
son. In that son, Samuel, she was glad and she gave him back
to the Lord. And that son, Samuel, was her
firstborn son, right? Remember from last week? And
so, in that firstborn son of hers, her only son, that firstborn
son, God was setting up in scripture a prophecy of how the Lord Jesus
Christ would be born. He would be born into this world,
but he wouldn't just be born, he was born to die, and in his
death, We live. The Son of God is our life because
He took our nature, He took our sins, He paid for our sins, took
them away before God, and in that life and death of His is
our life, our death, and our resurrection to God. You see,
in Scripture, God is teaching us that all of our life is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. All that he did, he didn't do
for himself, but he did for us. So he stands before God as one
man for all of his people. And what God sees in him, he
sees in his people. What God gives to him, he gives
to his people. What God received from him, he
received from him for his people. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why Hannah says, I rejoice. My heart rejoices
in the Lord. My horn, or my strength, is exalted
in the Lord. My weakness is put away. Now
I have strength. Where is my strength? It's not
in myself. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before God, I'm strong. Against my enemies, I'm strong.
I speak in praise to God for what He's done for me in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and what I say is much more triumphant than
all that my enemy has to say." And then he goes back in 1 Samuel
2. 1 Samuel 2 verse 2, Hannah continues in her prayer. She
says, "...there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none
beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God." Now,
Hannah was looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't she? She
saw that her joy, her strength, her victory, all of her salvation
was in the Lord, or in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is
why she's praying this prayer, but she goes on also to say in
verse 2 that The Lord is holy. He's holy. And that's something
that's difficult for us to understand. What does it mean when it says
that God is holy? Have you ever thought about that?
Hannah says this, she says, "...there is none holy as the Lord, for
there is none beside Thee." In other words, only God is holy. None is holy as the Lord, there
is none beside Him. None can be compared to Him in
His holiness. What do you think of when you
think of God's holiness? We don't see holy people, do
we? Because there is none holy as
the Lord. We can't use anything to compare it to God. That would
be an idol if we compared something to God. Nothing can be compared
to God. So how do we know God's holiness?
How do we know what holiness even is? Well, Hannah said the
Lord alone is holy and none can be compared to Him. Well, we
know that God says in Scripture that the angels are holy. Jesus
said He shall come again with the holy angels. But angels aren't
holy in themselves. They don't have holiness in themselves.
Why are angels holy? They're holy because God made
them holy. And they were made holy because
God made them for himself. They're his angels. And he made
them as servants to himself. So the angels are holy because
they serve God who is holy because God made them for himself. And
then also it says that people of God are made holy. We'll see
how that's true. But first I want to say this
about God's holiness. God's holiness is who He is and
what He does. Because holiness, if you wanted
to find it, you really have to say holiness is who God is. We don't have some kind of a,
you know, when you want to figure out how good something is, you
usually think of something that's good and you compare it to that,
don't you? If you want to know how straight
a line is, you get something that's straighter than that line
and you lay it down beside it to measure how straight that
line is. If you want to see whether you're doing something right
or wrong, how do you know if it's right or wrong? Well, you
find the rules. You find what's considered to
be right or wrong and you compare yourself to that. But God can't
be compared to anything. When we think of how good God
is, we can only compare Him to Himself. And so that's why I
say holiness really is who God is. And holiness is therefore
what God thinks. And holiness is what God does. Scripture says it this way, God
is light and Him is no darkness at all. And we know there's no
darkness in God. There's nothing deceitful. There's
no lie. When you think about God, the
wonderful thing about the Lord is that there's nothing about
Him that's deceitful or wrong. Everything about Him is true.
But not only that, but God sees everything. And He measures everything
compared to Himself, who is holy. So God is not going to let anything
go by unnoticed, but He's going to measure it. He's going to
uncover the error. He's going to discover the error,
and He's going to discover sin, and He's going to make known
the truth, because that's who God is. He's like light. When
light shines, everything else is seen because of the light.
Everything is known to us by God, who is light, who is holy.
So there's no standard to which we compare God. God Himself is
the standard. He is holy. He is righteous. He is light. He is just. If we want to know anything about
holiness, righteousness, or justice, we have to look at God. But how
can we look at God? How can we know God and His holiness? That's the puzzle that we face. We can't really know. Either
what holiness is, or how God is holy, unless we can somehow
see God. But we can't see God, can we?
No man has seen Him at any time. But there is a way. And the way
we know God's holiness is we see Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples asked Jesus to
show them the Father, God the Father. And He said, if you've
seen Me, you've seen the Father. All that God the Father is, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is in His own person. God the Father is
holy, He's eternal, He's almighty, He's all wise, He knows everything,
He's sovereign, He's full of grace and mercy and truth and
justice and righteousness. All these things are in God the
Father. They're also in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the revelation
of God, and therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation
of God in all of His holiness and all of His perfections. Now
I say all that in order for us to try to understand what God
means here when Hannah prayed, There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. She's talking about God's saving
grace to her in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because she's saying
her heart rejoices in the Lord, her strength is in the Lord,
her ability to speak of God's greatness is because of His salvation. And then in verse 2 she immediately
jumps to this, there's none holy as the Lord. Well, in Isaiah
chapter 6, Isaiah the prophet saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it says there that he saw the king on his throne. So Isaiah
is looking at the Lord Jesus on his throne as the king. And
how did he get on that throne as king? Well, as the Son of
God, He was always on the throne of God. But He, as the Lord Jesus
on the throne, means that He had to go through life and death
and rise again and ascend back to heaven in triumph over His
enemies because He fulfilled the will of God and therefore
God exalted Him to the throne of glory. And in Isaiah chapter
6, Isaiah looks And he hears the sound of these angelic creatures
called Seraphim, and they're flying. Two wings they fly, with
two wings they cover their face, and two they cover their feet,
and they're saying this, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. After
he describes the seraphim, he says, "...one cried to another
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory." So what does Isaiah see? He sees
the Lord Jesus Christ enthroned on heaven's throne, in glory,
in his glory. This vision that he sees is the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're sure it's him because it
says so in John chapter 12. But he says here in verse 4 of
Isaiah, "...and the post of the door moved at the voice of him
that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then Isaiah
said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see here that when
Isaiah describes God, he sees not God in all of his divinity,
but he sees the Lord Jesus Christ exalted as the one who did the
will of God, overcame all of our enemies, and put away our
sins. So he's describing the Lord Jesus in his victory over
our sins, And in that victory, he says he sees him on the throne
and he is holy, holy, holy. So this is a revelation of Christ's
victory, having accomplished our redemption by the will of
God. And in that, Isaiah says he is holy. So in his person
he is holy, and in his work he is holy, and in his victory in
that work he is holy. So what is this saying to us?
is showing us something very important. That God's holiness
is seen in what God himself required from himself. Now, you know how
we are. We want to build something or
we want to do something. We have certain standards. We'll do it according to our
own standards. No one's telling us to do it
as well or not so well as we do it. We have this internal
goal that we set for ourselves. We say I'm going to build something
or I'm going to clean this thing or I'm going to write something
and we have this goal and we do it and we get it as best as
we can and we finally say that's enough, I'm stopping there and
the work that we have in mind is done. Now who told God what
he had to do? Who told God what was required?
Who told God what was needed in order to save, for example,
Hannah here in scripture? Because she says she's talking
about the Lord who saved her, her salvation. Well, nobody told
God. God Himself had His own internal
requirements of how that would happen. He Himself was the one
who determined to save His people. And in His holiness, He would
leave nothing unaddressed. No sin untaken care of. He was
not going to have a people who were partly, but not fully complete. He wouldn't have an imperfect
people. He would have them absolutely perfect in all of the scrutiny
of His holiness. There would be nothing tainted
about them. And the only way He could do
that is if He gave His Son for them. God required His Son. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. Because this tells us how God
makes us holy. I said the angels were holy.
I said the people of God are called holy. And this is what
God required in His holiness to make us holy and to bring
us to Himself. Hebrews chapter 10. He says in
verse 10, This is God's will that Jesus did, it was an eternal
will, and it required Him to give Himself in sacrifice in
total. Hebrews 10, verse 10. By the
witch will, by God's will, we are sanctified, made holy through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. What did
God require to make us holy? He required the offering of His
only begotten Son. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 while
you're there. In Hebrews chapter 13, in verse 11, He describes
how the bodies of the beasts that were offered, whose blood
was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin in
the Old Testament, their bodies were burned outside the camp.
Wherefore, verse 12, Jesus also, that He might sanctify or make
holy the people with his own blood suffered without the gate
of Jerusalem. So Jesus Christ made his people
holy. How? How did he do it? With his
own blood. And so here we see, here is the
revelation of God's holiness. What is holiness? We see it in
what God required to have a people for himself who were holy. Look
at Psalm 22. God's holiness is seen in the
Lord Jesus Christ who is holy, because he did God's will in
a holy manner, and that will was the sacrifice of himself,
and we see why God required it, because he's holy. He's not going
to leave anything unaddressed, no sin untaken care of, he's
light, nothing can be imperfect before him, and he will have
a people, and this is what he required. In verse 1 of Psalm
chapter 22, this is speaking in prophecy about Jesus on the
cross. He says, in prayer, he says,
this is exactly what Jesus prayed in prayer, on the cross. When
the sun refused to shine, there was no light from heaven, he
cried from the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? Why did Jesus say this? Because God forsook his son on
the cross. That's what he's saying. He felt
the forsaking in himself. He felt as if God had forsaken
him. Now, for me and you, we don't
think that's that big of a deal, because we don't think about
God most of our lives. But here, the Son of God had
never, from all eternity, ever experienced a time when He was
not in full and perfect communion with His Father. Except at this
time, when He bore the sins of His people, and God forsook him,
and that's why he prayed this way. He cries out in all of his
affliction, Lord, why have you forsaken me? And then he says,
in verse 2, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest
not, and in the night season, and am not silent. Listen to
what he says next, in verse 3. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. the one whom Israel praises,
God's people praises God who is holy. And God, in all of His
holiness, would not look upon His Son, forsook His Son, when
He bore the sins of His people. That's holiness. That is God's
requirement, to have a holy people. He required the blood of His
own Son. So back in 1 Samuel 2, when Hannah
prays this way, she's praying in all the joy of her heart.
overflowing, uncontrolled joy that comes out of her because
her joy is in the Lord Jesus Christ, her strength is in Him.
She's able to express a triumph far greater than all of the words
of her enemy because she rejoices in the salvation that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Like a woman giving birth to
a son, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He saved
His people, and then she cries, there's none holy as the Lord,
that He would require His own son in order to save me from
my sins, and that he would accept me because of what he sees and
provides in his Son." That's the holiness of God. He accepts
his people and he won't do it by compromising his own nature
and character. He won't fudge at all. His requirement,
His standard, is His own holiness. And He will not have His people
anything less than acceptable to Him, that is, the holiness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's why it says in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30, God has made Him, the Lord Jesus, to us, wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification, or holiness and redemption. So
that we might glory in the Lord, which is what Hannah is doing
here. What is a rock? A big rock. It can't be moved. It can't be broken. It doesn't
change. It's stable. And that's who Jesus
Christ is in our salvation. He can't be moved. He can't fail.
He's the foundation of everything on which our salvation is dependent.
And God is that way. He is the Rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's holy. Our salvation is holy. And our
salvation is in Him. Now when we think about this,
it should also give us this great joy. Because God has accepted
His people as He accepts His Son. God favors His people just
like He favors His Son. God sees His people as holy and
righteous as He sees His Son. And this is what He made them
by His Son. In Ephesians 1.4 He says, He
chose us in Christ that we should be holy. I want to look at one
more scripture. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
holy by God's requirements that he placed on the Lord Jesus Christ
in order to have us to himself. holy people, without spot, without
any blemish. Colossians chapter 1, it says
this. Verse 19 of Colossians chapter 1 says this. It pleased
the Father that in Him, the Lord Jesus, should all fullness dwell. In other words, all that God
is, is in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. The Son of Man
is the Son of God. He's the fullness of God. And
then he says in verse 20, and having made peace, God having
made peace through the blood of his cross. God took away the
offense that we by our sins made to him. And how did he do it?
By the blood of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He having
made peace to the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things to himself. By him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled." We were enemies of God. We were estranged
from God and we had offended God and God took it upon Himself
to take away our offense to Him in the blood of His Son. Look
at verse 22. He reconciled us in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight." So, why do we rejoice? Because our salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at Hannah in scripture,
or anybody, What's our natural reaction? I'm nothing like them.
Don't you think that? You think, I don't pray like
them. I don't have the words to pray. I don't have the faith
that they have. I don't have the holiness that
they have. I don't have anything that they have. I have no reason
when I consider them to think that I'm anything like them,
that I have any hope at all. And so we would conclude from
that that we have no hope before God. Isn't that the way it would
be? But you see, faith doesn't consider anything about ourselves. And this is the wonder of God's
saving grace, is that faith points us to what God considers only
in His Son. It's only what He sees in Him. He sees us in Him, and in seeing
us in Him, everything about Him, about Christ, that He sees, He
counts it as ours. He looks upon Him as ours. And
faith knows that, and so our faith that God gives to us causes
us to look away from our fruitlessness, our barrenness, like Hannah did
in the Old Testament. Or like the woman in the New
Testament who sorrowed because she had no son. And then the
Lord Jesus Christ came and there he was, God's son. In God's Son,
God looks upon Him and all of our salvation is found. Therefore,
all of our joy is in Him. And so she can rejoice from her
heart knowing that God is holy because He required and received
the Lord Jesus Christ for her. And that's the way all of God's
people rejoice. We have true joy. A joy that
can't be taken from us, a joy that can't be altered by anything
about us that's only because of Christ. And so in Romans chapter
15 verse 13 it says that we have joy and peace in believing. When we are given this faith
to look away from ourselves and consider only what God thinks
of Christ, that's a cause for joy. There's no doubt of it,
is there? When God convinces us that the
Lord Jesus Christ is all of our salvation, then we don't look
at all to ourselves, do we? We look to Him only, and we find
everything in Him. And it's when we do that we're
able to say with Hannah, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn,
or my strength, is exalted in the Lord. And my mouth is enlarged
over all my enemies, my sin, my sinful nature, The fact that
I'm subject to God's wrath and eternal death, Satan himself,
none of these things can do anything to me because my salvation is
all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we overcome by the Lord
Jesus Christ, which is what the rest of scripture is all about.
It's about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow. It's about Him. And that's why Hannah rejoiced.
Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that
our salvation, like Hannah's and like all of your people,
is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that as
she rejoiced and her heart overflowed with unbounded joy, the restraints
were taken away, she was set free in order to rejoice, that
all of her sins And all of her weakness, all of her lack of
strength were all met in the Lord Jesus Christ. And she looked
away to Him and found her all in Him. So we pray, dear Lord,
that you would enable us by your grace to look away from ourselves,
knowing that we're sinners, that we have no strength, that we
must be saved by your grace alone. teach us to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ and there in Him see all of our salvation and
so come to you and rejoice in you and pray as she did with
this great thankfulness and joy in her heart because you've given
us this faith to see that truly you are holy, you required for
us, the blood of your only begotten son, and you received his blood
for us, and therefore you receive us and made us holy in him. Thank
you, Lord, for this salvation. Teach us this in the low bottom
of our heart and cause us, dear Lord, with all that we are and
think and do and say to honor him and worship him for your
salvation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.