We've been in Galatians, and
I wanted to continue there, but as I was reading on my own from
1st Samuel, I couldn't help but be drawn to this section of Scripture. It's meaningful in a number of
ways, and I pray that the Lord would bless you with it as He
has been blessing me too. 1st Samuel, we're going to look
at chapter 1. I started In chapter seven, well,
that's what I had thought to bring the message from chapter
seven, but as I went back and was reading from the beginning,
I felt it would probably only be best to begin at the beginning
of 1 Samuel. So we'll pick it up here after
we pray. Gracious Father, we know that
you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we pray as you
ministered to Hannah in the Old Testament, in the book of 1 Samuel,
and to her son Samuel, and to the nation of Israel then, that
you would minister to us your word today, that you would speak
to us as you spoke to them, not just in our ears, but deep in
our heart from your word, that you would move us and you would
cause us to hear from you. And in so hearing, we would be
so attached to you, that we would never leave you. Our hearts would
run out to you. And you would make yourself known
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. In His name we pray,
Amen. Now in the book of 1 Samuel,
we read about, it begins with this mother named Hannah. And her husband, Elkanah, I'm
not sure exactly how to pronounce it. And this woman, as we're
going to see here, was one of two wives that Elkanah had. He had two wives. And when the
book opens up, it opens up with Hannah before she had any children. And you'll see how that turns
about to be for the good of his people, God's people, Israel.
And in this story, I want you, I pray that the Lord would show
you how dear and how precious God's word is to us when he speaks
to us from his word. Because he does do that. In fact,
in the third chapter of the book of 1 Samuel, the first verse,
it says, The child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the
word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open
vision. I just mention that because in those days the people rarely
heard from God. And so the account here of Hannah
and her son Samuel is an account of God's grace of speaking to
His people out of the affliction of this one woman that eventually
brought Samuel, her son, into the world. And God spoke through
Samuel. Because there wasn't much time,
there weren't many to whom God spoke in those days. The Word
of God was very scarce or precious. And is both scarce and precious
in our day as well. Unless God speaks to us, we're
lost. Unless the Lord Himself takes
the initiative and speaks with life-giving power from His Word
concerning His Son, then we're lost. And so we need to see ourselves
in this. So let's just begin reading here,
and I will comment as we go through this and help you understand
some of what's going on behind the scenes, but most of it's
right on the surface. That's why when you read these
Old Testament accounts, I don't know if you find it so with with
yourself, as I did when I was reading this, is that you enter
right in to identify with these people in a way that's not just
intellectual, but emotionally connecting. So you feel what
these people feel. This is history. This really
happened. God really spoke to these people. God really did
these things. And from the rest of scripture, we can see how
He works with His people. We can see the ways of God in
the way He works with His people, how He saves them. And we'll
also see in this a foggy picture, and yet a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, and how God saves
us through him. So let's just read the book of
1 Samuel, beginning at chapter 1, verse 1. Now there was a certain
man of Ramatham, Zophim of Mount Ephraim and his name was Elkanah,
the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son
of Zoph and Ephrathite. I'll just give you a little background
here because it gives the genealogy, a little bit of the genealogy
of this man Elkanah. He lived in this place called
Ephrathah, which, if you remember, is the region where Bethlehem
was. Ephrathah, Bethlehem was there,
and that's where the Lord Jesus was born. That was the city of
David. But he wasn't of Judah. He was actually a man, if you
were to look into 1 Chronicles 6, you'd find that he was a man
who descended from Kohath. Kohath was the father of, eventually,
Aaron. And so this man who we're speaking
about here, Elkanah, was actually in the line of the Levites. And
if you look at 1 Chronicles 6, you'll see that he was actually
the sons of Korah. one of the sons of Korah, and
the sons of Korah were not allowed to offer sacrifices, but they
were in the ministry of the tabernacle in those days. So they had to
be of the children of Levi in order to serve in the tabernacle,
but only the sons of Aaron were given that privilege of sacrificing. Elkanah was not one of those,
but he was of those who were singers in the house of the Lord. And so we'll see how this works
out. So Samuel is of the Levites of the house of Korah. And he
was in that group of men that Asaph was one of those that were
made singers in the house of the Lord. That was an appointed
office. God equipped them with these
talents to sing and play. And David wrote the Psalms and
he gave the Psalms to Asaph, one of the brothers of of this
man's descendants a little later on in time. And they would sing
these songs. They would put them to music
and teach the children of Israel to sing these songs. And so there's
a tremendous connection between Elkanah, the tabernacle, and
the ministry to God's people there. And so here he is. His name is Elkanah. He's of
this place where Bethlehem was. Verse two. Elkanah had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah
and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah
had no children. The name Hannah means graced
or favored. So she was preferred over Peninnah. Elkanah most likely married her
first. But she was barren. She had no
children. And then he probably took Peninnah
as a second wife. And Peninnah is a name that actually
has something to do with jewels. But she was like a rough jewel. Because you can see what happens
here in a moment. She had children. Hannah had
no children. Hannah was favored by her husband. And favored also means graced.
Because it points forward to what God will do for all of his
people. In the book of Luke, when Elizabeth, the cousin of
Mary, greeted her after the Lord appeared to her, she called Mary
highly favored of the Lord. And that's exactly what the name
Hannah means here. In fact, Mary prays in a way
that's very much like Hannah praying here in chapter 2 of
1 Samuel. So, think of Hannah as looking
forward to the blessed, the favored, the graced of the Lord. In Ephesians
1, if you want to turn there, I'll show you what's true of
all of God's people. All of God's people fit this
name, Hannah. It's a very endearing name, and
she's a very endearing woman. But this is the way God thinks
of His people. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse
2 it says, Grace be to you. There's the word, grace. All
of God's people receive grace from God. None who do not receive
grace are God's people. Only those who receive grace
are God's favored ones. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the way
grace comes to us. It comes from God our Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ and comes to us from Him too. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. How much does God
favor His people? He gave them everything that
He gave His Son. In Christ, God has given us all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Romans 8.32, it says
that He who delivered up His Son for us, how shall He not
also with Him freely give us all things? If God gave His Son
for us, He will, without fail, give us all things with Him.
This is proof that God highly favors His people in such a way
that there shall not fail one of all of God's promises to them.
All of them fit this description. Verse 4 shows the origin of this
blessing that comes to us. According as He hath chosen us
in Him, God the Father chose us in Christ, That's the hymn
here. Before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Why are God's people accepted? Because God chose them
in Christ. And He looked upon them in Christ.
So when He looks on His Son, He sees His people. And when
He looks upon His people, He sees His Son. And He loves His
Son. He is well-pleasing in His sight,
and He loves His people, and they are well-pleasing in His
sight because He sees them in His Son. Never think of yourself
as being pleasing to God except as He sees you in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one, according
to Jesus, He said to the rich young ruler, there's but one
good and that is God. And He's that one that's good.
He's the good shepherd. And then in verse 5, God's love
to us, having chosen us in Christ and predestinated us to be holy
by giving us to Christ and justified by His blood. He says this in
verse 5, Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children,
Adoption means to choose. They used to have orphanages
in the 1800s and other times in the world and people would
go there and they would find a child that they wanted to be
their own child and they would adopt them. They would choose
that child to be their own. God the Father, before we were
born, before the world was created, chose us in Christ to be holy
and without blame. And He chose us, He Himself chose
us, to be His own children. That's love. unspeakable, incomprehensible,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ, because it was by Him, His redeeming blood, that we
were made children, according to the good pleasure of His will. He did it because it pleased
Him. And here's the words I wanted
to get to. To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He
hath made us accepted in the Beloved. The Beloved are those
loved, and accepted means that God has placed us in the company
of those loved of God in Christ, because He's the Beloved One.
And here's what God's love has done for us, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, Christ's blood, the forgiveness
of our sins according to the riches of His grace. Do you see
that? And so Hannah's name in 1 Samuel
means graced or favored because her husband favored her over
Peninnah, this rough and bad-tempered woman. He favored Hannah more
because he loved Hannah and favored her, which teaches us God loves
and favors His people in Christ out of the good pleasure of His
will and made us accepted in the Beloved. And that's what
this is to remind us of. So back in 1 Samuel 1, Hannah
had no children, verse 3. And this man, Elkanah, went up
out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord
of hosts in Shiloh. That's where the tabernacle was.
That's where men would bring their sacrifices to worship God.
So Elkanah is a worshiper of God. In fact, Elkanah's name
means God has possessed him, or he's the one who possesses
God. Both have to be true. All those
whom the Lord possesses are his, they're his inheritance, and
they all possess him. In Deuteronomy, chapter 32, it
says the Lord's portion, or his inheritance, is his people. Jacob
is the lot of his inheritance. And we know that God told Abraham
in Genesis 15, He says, Abraham, I am your shield and your exceeding
great reward. Because God Himself is the inheritance
of His people and His people are God's inheritance in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you can read about that more
in Ephesians also. So Elkanah went up yearly to
worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts. So he's going
to Shiloh, the place of peace, to worship God and sacrifice.
And it's called peace because of that. Because God's sacrifices
were offered there and God makes peace with his people in the
sacrifice. And it says, and the priests
of the Lord were there. And when the time was that Elkanah
offered, now listen, he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to
all her sons and her daughters, portions. Because when they offered
sacrifices, they would take a portion of the sacrifice to themselves.
That was God's law. But notice in verse 5, but unto
Hannah he gave a worthy portion. In other words, he gave her a
larger amount. The best part. A worthy portion. For he loved Hannah. Now, notice
he didn't say he loved Peninnah. She was his wife, but he doesn't
say that he loved her. It does say he loved Hannah.
What can you conclude then about Peninnah? She wasn't loved like
Hannah. Why would he even mention that
he loved Hannah if he loved both Peninnah and Hannah the same?
But he loved Hannah. It says, notice in the last part
of verse 5, verse 5 he says, But the Lord had shut up her
womb. So Hannah couldn't bear children.
Her name means favored, graced, highly favored, accepted in the
beloved, and loved of her husband. And yet she had no children because
God would not allow her to bear children. In other words, her
affliction was a God-sent affliction. All of our afflictions are God-sent. You know that, don't you? Some
of them are because of our own sins. And when God afflicts us
for our sins, it's to humble us. By His grace, when He afflicts
us, He humbles us, so that in our humbled condition, we will
see our great need, our eternal need, and yet our total inability
to meet that need, even in the smallest way. And then we will
look and see His salvation, and we will find all of our need
in the Lord Jesus Christ. like Israel when they were facing
the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind
them, they had a great need. They were about to be consumed
either in the sea or by the armies and God told them through Moses,
stand still and now when you're helpless, And without any strength,
and you're crying to the Lord, and see the salvation of the
Lord. That's the way God's grace comes
to us. In 2 Chronicles 20, in verse 12, Jehoshaphat prayed
that way. When the armies were coming against
him, he said, Lord, we have no power against this army, and
we don't know what to do. And this is the way God's grace
works in our lives. He afflicts us to humble us because
of our sin, to bring us to that point where we don't know what
to do. We have no power either over our sin or to reconcile
ourselves to God. And then in His grace, because
this is His high favor towards us, He points us to the Lord
Jesus Christ and says, in Him you're accepted because of His
blood and His righteousness. So, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20,
in that same place, the same thing happened. Jehoshaphat was
told by the prophet, stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here, Hannah is afflicted,
and we're afflicted when God afflicts us, either for our sin
or, in Hannah's case, it was for a purpose that God had designed
to bring blessing on His people. Out of her affliction, she's
going to cry to the Lord. God's going to answer her, and
that answer is going to be a gift. to God's sinful people. Look
at Psalm 119. I just want to show you a couple
of places here where the Lord afflicts us for our good. Psalm 119 verse 50. He says,
This is my comfort in my affliction. What is my comfort in my affliction?
For thy word hath quickened me, has made me alive. What is the
comfort of every believer in affliction? What is the only
comfort, really, of a believer when you're brought to the end
by the grace of God of yourself? Brought to the end of yourself
and in a desperate condition. I mean desperate in your soul.
There's only one thing that can meet that need. God's Word spoken
in your heart from His written Word. It's when He takes the
written Word and He shows you Himself, shows you His Son, shows
you your salvation in Christ, and He brings you to see that
He brought you low in order to lift you up. And so He says this. Look at verse 67 of the same
chapter, Psalm 119 verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray. But now have I kept thy word,
you see? before I was afflicted. And then
look also at verse 71. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn my statutes. We learn about
God in our affliction. That's why in Hebrews 12 it says,
All those whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He chastens them. Not just outwardly. We think
of chastening. I got a flat tire as I was going to my job interview
and now I can't get there and I'm losing the job. You feel
terrible. Now that's an affliction, but
it's not the kind of affliction God's speaking about. It's the
kind where He works in our soul to bring us low before Him because
of our sin. And because of our great need
of a Savior, which we are completely blind to until He shows it to
us out of His Word, and He writes it on our heart, and He makes
us to see and cling to Christ, and so then we're comforted.
So back in 1 Samuel 1, He says, He gave this worthy portion to
Hannah, but the Lord shut up her womb, and this was a great
affliction, verse 6, And her adversary also provoked her sore,
for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
So the Lord afflicted Hannah, but what did Peninnah do? She
added to her affliction. She jumped on her when she was
down. When she was sliding down and
depressed and in despair, Peninnah just adds to her despair. She
had no pity. She persecuted the one God afflicted. And this is the way, this is
the pattern of the wicked. It's to persecute those God afflicts. And so when you read this, what's
your natural reaction? Well, the first reaction we have
is, of course, What a wicked woman Peninnah was. And we hate
her already, don't we? For jumping on and showing no
pity and pushing this woman down when she was already brought
low by the Lord. And so you see this in society
when there's a mob, usually, and they pick on somebody. You see it in so many ways, and
it's very frustrating to see it. And your righteous anger
actually rises up, and you want to take vengeance upon them.
But this was God's doing. This was God's doing, because
He always afflicts His people. And then when the wicked afflict
them too, He even turns that for their good. So he blesses
his people when the wicked persecute them. But then he also brings
the judgment on the wicked for their persecution. And where
in scripture can you think of this ever happening? All over,
right? Think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the one who ultimately was most persecuted. He was the
one God afflicted because of our sins. And what did men do
when God afflicted him in his soul? Well, they were the worst. They falsely accused him. They
hit him in the face. They spit in his face. They beat
him on his back so that his bones stuck out of his back. And they
crowned him with a crown of thorns, mocking him. And then they stripped
him naked. And they made him carry the cross
and nailed him to it. And then they mocked him again.
And they put him between thieves. And they put him to death. And
all of this was because they persecuted the one that God had
afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions.
But yet we despised and rejected him. So you see in Hannah the
pattern of God's dealings with his people and the way that the
wicked of the world treat them. In Galatians chapter 4 we remember
how Isaac, when he was born, he was younger than his brother
Ishmael. And Ishmael persecuted Isaac.
And it says in Galatians 4, he says there, verse 28, Now we,
brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then,
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit, even so it is now. This is the way it works.
But look at Psalm 109 in Scripture. Psalm 109, I want to show you
this in verse 16. The verses before this are really
an intercession against those who persecuted the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, verse 4, "...for my
love they are my adversaries, but I give myself to prayer,
and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love."
And then the Lord prays this way in prophecy, "...set thou
a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand."
He's speaking of Judas here. "...when he shall be judged,
let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his
days be few, and let another take his office. Let his children
be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually
vagabonds, and beg. Let them seek their bread also
out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all
that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labor. Let there be
none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor
his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off,
and in the generation following, let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. That sin he was
born in. Let them be before the Lord continually
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. And here's
why. Because that he remembered not
to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man that he
might even slay the broken in heart. You see? Paninna was like
this. This is the spirit of the flesh. We naturally, in our wickedness,
will persecute the righteous until God turns our hearts. This
is what we are by nature. We're reading here both about
what we are by nature in Paninna. In our own case, if we were left
to ourselves, even as others, and yet God's mercy to us as
we see His work in the heart of Hannah. She was afflicted
back in 1 Samuel chapter 1. She was afflicted by the Lord.
God shut up her womb. And you know in those days to
be married but have no children was a great reproach. Because
God had promised through the seed of the woman He was going
to bruise the head of the serpent. So all throughout history, the
nation of Israel was looking, all of the descendants from Adam
on forward, were looking forward to the birth of that son through
a woman who would be born and deliver his people from the hand
of Satan. Bruising Satan, crushing their
enemy. And so they waited. But when
a woman had no children, it was a reproach because she wasn't
part of that blessedness that would come upon the woman who
had this child. And so she wept sore. God had
shut up her womb. And she wondered, why is the
Lord afflicting me so? And now we can see here how God
works in his people. It's when we think that we're
of no value. It's when we think we're left
out of the blessings of God, outside of the promises, and
we're driven in desperation to have a blessing from God. Like
Jacob who clung to Christ when he wrestled with Him there. Or
like Bartimaeus who sat by the wayside crying out to the Lord
Jesus, Son of David have mercy upon me. And over and over throughout
scripture, these desperate people who were sick and dying, and
they cry out to the Lord, and the Lord answers them. And then
God does what He had intended to do. But He won't do it until
first they cry. Because this is the way God works.
Look at Psalm chapter 34. I want to read this, because
this is a great comfort to us. When we're afflicted, it's God's
hand, but it's God's hand with grace, it produces in us a cry. And that cry is an evidence that
we are the Lord's. Psalm 34, verse 17, the righteous
cry. And the Lord heareth, and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saves such as be of a contrite spirit. Look at chapter 50, Psalm chapter
50. In verse 15, God tells his people,
call upon me, call upon me in the day of trouble. That's why
trouble is given to you. Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. What a blessing
that is. Look at Psalm 55 and verse 16. As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me evening and morning, and at noon will
I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice." That's
the promise of God. Psalm 79 and verse 8. These are
cries of God, prayers of God's people out of their affliction.
Oh, remember not against us former iniquities, because this is the
greatest affliction that we have, the recognition that we're sinners
before God and that our sins are something we have no power
over until God delivers us. Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us or go before, for we are brought very low. Help
us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and deliver
us, and purge away our sins for Thy namesake. Why does God help
His people? For His own namesake. And that's
why we can pray confidently. Do it for Christ's sake. Do it
for Your glory. Do it according to Your purpose.
Save me according to Your righteousness. That's the only way God saves
His people. It's according to His righteousness. And so back
in 1 Samuel chapter 1, and it says, And the Lord shut up her
womb. And so as Elkanah did this year by year, it says, And so
as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the
Lord, Because she went up, his whole family went up with him
when he went to the house of the Lord. So she provoked her. Peninnah provoked Hannah. Therefore,
she wept and did not eat. She went without food. Then said
Okina, her husband, to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest
thou not? And why is thy heart grieved?
Am not I better unto thee than ten sons? He's trying to comfort
his wife and he says, look at me. I'm better than ten sons. But there's a deeper meaning
in it than that. You see, Ocana means the one
who is possessed by God. Or the one who possesses God.
He had two wives. He really is showing us what
God is to his people. Remember, he had two wives. One
of them he loved. The other, she bore children,
but he didn't love her. In the Old Testament, It says
that God was married to Israel, but because of their iniquity
He divorced Israel, the nation of Israel, the outward people
who were identified as God's people. But they weren't truly
God's people because the Lord Jesus Christ truly loved His
church and gave Himself for her, the church of God. And so in
the Bible there are these two women featured. The one are those
people who outwardly were called by the name of the Lord, but
in their hearts had no love for Him. And He had no love for them. And then there are those who
though in themselves are just like the others, just as wicked,
yet out of His love for them Christ died and laid down His
life and washed them in His own blood in order to have them for
Himself a holy bride. A holy people. And he loves them
with an everlasting love. And so Elkanah in this sense
is like God. God had these two wives. He loved
the one. And he says to the one who had
no children, Am not I better unto thee than ten sons? And
yet notice how Hannah was still in need of a son. She needed
a son because in God's purpose, His people needed the Lord Jesus
Christ to be born. Otherwise we would have no comfort. We couldn't come to God. We'd
have no Savior. And so that's what Samuel is
going to be here for God's people. Verse 9. So Hannah rose up after
they had eaten. She didn't answer her husband
evidently. So Hannah arose up after they had eaten in Shiloh
and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a
seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. Eli was an old man,
a priest. And she was in bitterness of
soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. When we read this
on our own especially, and I encourage you to read these things on your
own, when you read this you can feel the weight on Hannah's heart,
can't you? She had no children. And though
her husband loved her, the other wife of her husband was constantly
persecuting her. The woman after the flesh was
persecuting the woman after the spirit. The woman who was the
object of her husband's marriage was not an object of his love.
And the other one who was the object of both his marriage and
love, she was persecuted by this one. And so she wept sore. She
had no child. The one thing she wanted more
than anything was to bear a son. And notice what she wanted to
do with this son, verse 11. And she vowed a vow, a solemn
promise. She vowed a vow and she said,
O Lord of hosts, she calls God by the one who rules over the
armies of heaven, referring to him as the all-sovereign, almighty
God, 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, then I will give
him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall
no razor come upon his head. Lord, she was so afflicted in
her soul, and she said, Lord, God of hosts, the Lord of hosts,
if you will look on my affliction, because the Lord brought that
affliction, and remember me, remember my affliction that you
brought upon me, you understand what it is, And not forget your
handmaid, but give unto your handmaid, that means I'm your
servant, a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the
days of his life. This is a significant prayer.
She prayed for her son, she prayed to have a son, and she wanted
a son more than she wanted anything. And she knew that God had to
give it. And she knew that if God would be so pleased to give
her her son, she would be so thankful, so thankful to God
for that, she would give her son back to the Lord. You see,
we can give nothing to God that He has not first given to us.
What is pleasing to God is when we give to Him out of our need
what He has given to us in that need. And what is that? It's
this precious salvation. It's this faith with which we
come to God, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to Him,
Lord, my sins are like an enemy. They prevail against me and I
have no power over them. Deliver my soul. Point me to
Christ. Give me this faith. Help me to
see. Speak to my heart from your word.
Help me to come with this need and the prayer that you have
put in my heart from your word according to your will. Praying
according to your will for Christ, the Son. And with that Son, I
will bring back to you this faith that you've given to me. And
looking to Christ, I will be thankful to you. Because you'll
put it in my heart. In other words, she's asking
God to give to her that she might have to give to Him. She wants
the one thing that's precious, a son. And this son would be
a blessing to God's people. He would be a prophet. And so
it says that in verse 12. It came to pass as she continued
praying before the Lord that Eli, the priest, marked her mouth.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but
her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had
been drunken. And Eli said to her, How long wilt thou be drunken?
Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said,
No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before
the Lord. This is what she's saying. You
see, when God's people pray, it's such a burden upon their
heart that they're not doing it for the show of men. They
don't pray in order to be seen or heard of men. They could care
less about what men think. They have this burden, and so
they go to the Lord with it. And she was doing this, and her
lips were moving, but her heart was being poured out. Verse 16,
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, or of Satan,
but for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have
I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Now
this is a God's priest. He's speaking God's word in answer
to her prayer. He said, Go in peace, and the
God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked
of him." God spoke through Eli to her that her prayer was answered. And notice, she believed. And
she said, let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. You
see, our response to God's promises in Christ is this, Lord, let
me find grace in thy sight. Let God look upon me as one who
has found grace in his sight in the Lord Jesus. I want that
name, Hannah, from God to be given to me. I want that the
name describes the person, God's view. And here, this woman here
is one who says, you answer my prayer, let me find grace in
your sight. That's our only response, let
me find grace in sight. You've provided promises, you
fulfill your promises in Christ, fulfill them to me, Lord. So
the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was
no more sad. And they rose up. To be no more
sad before she had received the blessing, what does that teach
you? That she believed the promise, doesn't it? And they rose up
in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned,
and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife,
and the Lord remembered her. This is the love, the intimacy
of marriage Elkanah and Hannah had, and out of that the Lord
remembered her. 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. She gave him the name that had
this meaning, I have asked him of the Lord. And what was her
request? Lord, give me a son, look on
my affliction, remember me, give me a son and I'll give him back
to you. And so she took all that God gave her, all the grace that
God gave her in answer to her prayer, out of the affliction
of her soul, with the word God put in her mouth and the desire
she had for this son, and she took that back to the Lord with
thankfulness and faithfulness. to give back to the Lord what
He had given to her, even this son named Samuel. Later on in
the book of 1 Samuel, another man is named, asked. His name
was Saul. The people asked him, but they
asked for a king because they rejected God. They asked to have
the king to satisfy their own need to trust something other
than God, like the nations around them. They wanted a king to go
out and fight their battles and do everything because they didn't
trust God. And so he was a wicked king and God eventually took
him away. But here Hannah asked, and she names him Samuel because
she asked him of the Lord, not of men. It was a request that
God be glorified. And then in verse 21, And the
man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord
the yearly sacrifice and his vow. Notice in verse 22, But
Hannah went not up, because she had this son now. For she said
to 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. Can you see here? Do you see
what she's saying here? I'm going to take this only son
that I've been given. I was barren And now I have a
son and I'm going to give that son back to the Lord. Can you
think of anything more sacrificial than that? That a woman would
give her only son? Except the one that we know is
the greatest sacrifice ever is that God the Father gave His
son. She gave her only son and it was a portrait really of the
gift of God's grace to us in His only son. And it was an answer
to her prayer, which was asked according to the will of God,
because God's will from eternity was to give His Son for His people
in sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
gave Himself in sacrifice because of His love for His people and
His love for His God and Father. And in this, It should move us
to the greatest attitude of worship and thanksgiving and bring us
to tears in our heart that someone would be so blessed by God that
they would not only ask and receive out of their affliction like
this, but then give back to the Lord the blessing that He gave
them. Because it points us to the work of God in the heart
of our own hearts. We can't do this. God has to
do this. He has to operate in us. And
He does so out of affliction. But He always points us to His
Word so that we'll take His Word and pray to Him according to
that Word and His will. I want you to turn to Hosea chapter
14. We'll have to end it here. But
in Hosea, is after Daniel, the book of Daniel. The next book
over is Hosea. Very beautiful promises given
by God to a sinful people named Israel. In Hosea chapter 14 and
verse 1, Oh Israel! If you read the whole book of
Hosea, it's about an adulterous woman and a man marrying this
adulterous woman. And he's speaking to her, this
woman now, this nation. He says, Oh Israel! Return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. And
now here's the words. In the affliction of her iniquity,
God gives words to his people. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto him, say these things. These are the
very words God's going to give you. take away all iniquity,
and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of
our lips, not animals in sacrifice, but the lips of thanksgiving
to God. Asher shall not save us, not
the Assyrians, we will not ride upon horses, like those who trust
in horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands,
you are our gods, not the works of what we can do to make ourselves
righteous, For in thee the fatherless find mercy, and here's God's
promise, I will heal their backsliding. When they are so afflicted that
they bring my word according to my will in this way, because
of God's operation in our hearts, I will love them freely, for
my anger is turned away from him. And that's speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're reconciled to God. by the
death of his son. And if you continue reading in
the chapter of 1 Samuel chapter 1, Hannah brings her son to the
Lord and leaves him there with the priest in the tabernacle
to do the service that God had designed for him to do. And this
speaks volumes about our Lord Jesus Christ. And according to
God's grace, we will continue in the book of 1 Samuel, probably
not after, until we finish Galatians though. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, we thank
you for your holy word. We know that your word searches
our hearts, opens us up, shows us things, and exposes our sin,
and shows us that we have no power, no strength in ourselves.
And this is affliction on our souls at the deepest level. And
yet it's grace at the highest level. Because in so doing, you
point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone there is hope and
help for sinners. And in seeing Him, we see that
the grace of God and all of our salvation is not in us. It's
not from us. It won't be worked in us, but
will be found in the Lord Jesus and what God thinks of Him. Help
us to see Him, and in so seeing, see all of our salvation and
what God thinks of us in His own obedience, in His shed blood,
taking away our sins and making us holy before God by His own
holiness. And help us in so seeing to worship
our God and our Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by the power of your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.