1 Samuel. It's that book right
after Ruth. I told you I was going to try
to start here this evening. And I'm going to read the first
18 verses and say a few things on them, if the Lord would enable
me to. And I appreciate, you know, you all got us a housewarming
gift, and I appreciate it. And gave Shirley some money,
and she went and spent it yesterday. And enjoyed spending it. She
just kept unloading the car. But you know the greatest gift
we had and the greatest housewarming gift we had was to have you all
there, to have all of you all there. That's the most blessed,
heartwarming, housewarming gift you could have is to have you
folks that were there. That's the housewarming gift.
All right, first book of Samuel. I'm going to read the first 18.
I'm going to pray first. Let's pray before I read these
scriptures, okay? Now there was a certain man of
Ramathahem, Sophom, of Mount Ephraim, and Rama is the same
place as Bethlehem, of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah,
the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son
of Zuth, and Ephrathite. And he had two wives. The name
of the one was Hannah, the name of the other was Peninnah. And
Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man
went up out of his city yearly to worship and sacrifice unto
the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni
and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And when
the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife,
and to all her sons and her daughters, portions. But unto Hannah he
gave a worthy portion, or a double portion, for he loved Hannah. But the Lord had shed up her
womb, And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make
her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did
so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord,
so he provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not
eat. Then it said Elkanah her husband
to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? Why eatest thou not? And why
is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than
ten sons? So Hannah rose 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. And she
was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept
sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou
wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember
me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will 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. And it came to pass, as she continued
praying before the Lord, that Eli 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 unto her, How long
wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee.
And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord. I am of a woman
of a sorrowful spirit. I've drunk neither wine nor strong
drink, but poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine
handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my
complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and
said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition
that thou hast of him. said, Let thine handmaid find
grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and
did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. 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." Well, you know my normal
way of doing things when I start a book is give you an introduction
to the whole book. But this is one book you can't
do that because it starts right out with a story. Starts right
out with something for us to deal with. But I will say this
that this is in the book of Samuel is the first time that Israel
ever had a king. They wanted a king. God gave
him a king. But also that was a rebellious
king and God raised up David, a man after his own heart, through
who the Lord Jesus Christ would come and God would establish
his throne forever. But I want to deal tonight with
Hannah's prayer and the vow that she made and then next week,
God willing, her keeping her vow. But this book opens with
the birth of Samuel, and we'll deal with that next week. But
as we read this few verses here, we have five characters in this
story, Elkanah, Hannah, Padina, Eli, and Samuel. Now here Elkanah
had two wives. Two wives. Hannah, she's mentioned
first. Probably his first wife. She
was barren, she couldn't have any children. So he married Padina
to have children. But let me say this right now,
and in the scriptures it shows us this. Polygamy was wrong. Is wrong and was wrong. To have
two wives was wrong. And these men, they knew that,
they had what God had to say about it, they understood what
God had to say about it, and yet they went on and done it
anyway. And the reason why it's so wrong is because it caused
such grief, it caused such sorrow, it caused anger, it caused jealousy,
it caused war in the home. It caused war in the home. But
Hannah was barren. God, the scripture said, God
shut up her womb. And this went on for years and
years and years. They went up to the temple, up
to the sacrifices every year, every year. They went up there
year after year after year. And Penina, she is the one that
had children, sons and daughters. But I tell you what, it tells
us here that Elkanah loved Hannah. Didn't say anything about him
loving Penina. Never said anything about that. But he was a gracious
man. And he went up every year. And
he went up to worship God, he went up to offer sacrifices,
he took his family with him, and he provided for his family
while he was up there. He gave Peninnah, them, some
portion, but he gave Hannah, because he loved her so much,
a double portion of whatever that they gave him. And she had
an adversary, and that's why polygamy is so bad. Penina would
taunt Hannah and provoke Hannah and tease Hannah. I've got children,
you ain't got any. Oh, I'm gonna get something off
my husband, you ain't gonna get nothing. So she provoked her,
look what I said down in verse six. And her adversary also provoked
her sore to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
And Peninnah did this year by year when she went up to the
house of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore, she is up there
one year, she wept and wouldn't eat, wept and wouldn't eat. But
Elkanah was a gracious man. He looked to the sacrifice and
the feast. But Elkanah was concerned. Look
what he said down here in verse 8. Then Elkanah, her husband,
said to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? He had great concern for
her, great concern for her. Why do you weep, and why aren't
you eating? Why is your heart so grieved?
You know, there's three things on here. She's weeping, she don't
eat, and says her heart's grieved. And she said, am I not better
to thee than ten sons? Well, how did Hannah respond
to Penina? How did Hannah respond after
all these years of being provoked and fretting and worrying and
grieving over having a child? How did she respond this time
when they went up to the sacrifices? How did she respond to this situation? Well, she prayed. That's what
she did, she prayed. And then went up to the feast,
but Hannah was in no mood to celebrate. And she went up to
the temple, look what it says there, verse nine. So Hannah
rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had
drunk, and Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the
temple. He sat up there to see what was going on around the
temple. His sons now are the priest. He sits up there. He's
an old man, he sits upon a temple, sits on a seat by the post of
the temple. And look what was happening now. He sat there to
see what was going on. So she went up to the entrance
of the tabernacle. She went up and Eli was watching
her. And it said she in verse 10,
and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord
and wept sore. And oh, she was right there.
Now watch what she did now. And she vowed a vow and said,
O Lord of hosts. Now the first thing I want to
know about her prayer is this. That's what we want to look at,
her prayer, Hannah's prayer. She approached the Lord there
in the presence and in the entrance to the temple. and to the interest
of the tabernacle, she opposed God with holy reverence. It was a reverential prayer. And she vowed a vow unto the
Lord and said, O Lord of hosts. That's the first thing she said
to him. She vowed a vow, and the vow was that, oh, if you'll
give me a child, I'll give him back to you. But she said, O
Lord of hosts. And you know why she said that?
Because she recognized and acknowledged to God that God was God, that
he was not a pretender. She was going into the presence
of the Lord, and the Lord has a multitude of hosts. You remember
that time when this great army surrounded Elijah's house, and
his servant, Gehazi, went out there and said, oh, Lord, said,
Master, they got us surrounded. They're gonna destroy us. And
he said, go back, and he said, Lord, open his eyes and go back
out and look. He went back out and looked, and there was thousands
of chariots around to destroy his enemies. God let him see
who was for him. And that's the way it was here.
And she said, oh, Lord of hosts. and here's God's it's a declaration
it's a it's an acknowledgement that God is almighty she is saying
here that he's the Lord of hosts and he reigns over everything
and she first thing she says and I tell you beloved I've said
this for years when we come to God when we come to God When
we go into the presence of God, whether here, whether privately,
no matter where we're at, we know that God is holy and high
and lifted up. And that's the first thing we
know. We're not coming into the presence of a God who can be
manipulated by us, can be cajoled by us, could be told what to
do by us. And she come before the Lord
and said, Oh, Lord of hosts, Lord of hosts and I do you know
the Lord of hosts is mentioned 239 times in the Bible 239 times
let me give you just one keep first Samuel looking in Psalm
24 and look at this one Psalm 24 verse 10 I Could quote it
to you, but look at it It's like what Daniel said You know, Nebuchadnezzar
said, he's the one that said it, when after he'd found out
that God is the one, he said, oh, this is mighty Babylon that
I've built, that I've established. And God said, right then and
there, put him out like a cow, put him out like a beast. And
he crawled on all fours until his hair grew and his fingernails
grew like a beast. And God said, when the scripture
said, when his understanding returned to him, he said, this
I know, that all the inhabitants of the earth that includes me,
Nebuchadnezzar saying, all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing. And God doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And no man can stay his hand or say unto him, what
are you doing? And that's what Hannah's first
thing, she acknowledged, Lord, you're the Lord of hosts. You're
the one that shut up my womb. You're the one that's kept me
barren. And I've not come here to manipulate you. I've come
here into your presence because you're high and I'm low. You're
everything and I'm nothing. And look what happens here in
Psalm 2410. Who is this King of glory that's coming in? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Who is this King of Glory coming?
That's the Lord of Hosts. He's the one that's coming. Oh,
and I tell you, we're like Hannah was. We find great confidence,
great assurance in God's almightiness, in God's power, in God's sovereignty. And we must approach God with
holy reverence. And Hannah's words, as she approached
God, reveal how deep her respect and her devotion to God was,
knowing that he's overall and superior to everything in this
universe. superior to everything. And so
she comes and said, Oh Lord of hosts. And the Lord has shut
up her womb. Ain't that what says there in
verse five, the Lord shut up her womb. And I tell you, she
knew that and God in his sovereignty can make her barren or give her
a child. And she approached God's throne
with holy reverence. And that's the way our Lord Jesus
even taught us to pray. He said, pray after this matter.
say, Our Father, not look at everybody and say, God loves
you and I do too. There's a fellow advertised on
the radio all the time. Your heavenly Father loves you. I want you all to know that. But our Lord taught us to pray
after this matter. Our Father, where ye at? Which art in heaven? The heaven
of heavens can't contain. Which art in heaven? Hallowed,
holy, glorious, wondrous is your name. Thy will, thy will be done,
your will be done on this earth in me and all mine. And when we pray like that, it's
us acknowledging that God is high above all. He dwells in
majesty. He dwells in splendor. He has
all power and all dominion. And multitudes and myriads of
angels are constantly and continually worshiping our Lord. And He is
holy. And this I know without a shadow
of a doubt. No matter what, we know this.
He is separate from us. He is so high above His own creation. He's separate from His own creation. And this is a day when everything
is casual. Everything is casual. I'm pretty
casual myself when I'm not here. But this is a day when everything's
casual. They have, you know, They have what they call traditional
worship, and then contemporary. I've come to this conclusion,
that there ain't but one way to worship God, and that's through
His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can do it any
place, any time, under any service. Now you say, well, we have a
traditional worship service. I don't know what that means.
We have a contemporary worship service. I don't know what that
means. But I know this is the day of people being casual. And
they have casual days at work on Fridays and things like that.
And it's one thing to be casual in this world, to be casual in
your dress, to be casual in a lot of ways. But I'll tell you one
thing, don't approach God, oh, casually, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no. One thing, this is, I'll tell
you a little pet peeve of mine. And this happens, I see it happen
pretty often sometimes. that you know a man will get
done through saying something, he said, let's pray. And he'll
start praying. I like to be quiet and be still
for a while. That's why I wait on Sunday morning
for everybody to get through stirring and everybody to get
through moving. Let the Bibles be quiet and the books be closed
and everything still. Then we'll speak to God. A man's
a fool to come in, come casually before the presence of God. When
we come before God, we come before, old Mr. Spurgeon said, we're
doing business with the great king. with the great king, and
we're going into the presence of the high and lofty one, the
one that inhabits eternity. And I tell you what, if you ever
approach God, wait a minute, wait a minute, don't rush, don't
rush, consider. And that's what she did. She
was grieved, and she was weeping, and she was hurting, and she
said, I know where I can go. This old panina, she's provoked
me so many times, and I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
ask God to give me a child. I'm going to ask God to give
me a bad job. But I got to approach Him first of all who He is. I
got to approach Him who He is. And then not only that was it
a holy reverential prayer, but it was a humble prayer. Look
what it said here in verse 11. Again, she vowed a vow and said,
O Lord of hosts. Now look what she says here now.
She said, if you will, if you will. She understood that she
was shut up to the will of God. And I tell you what, if you will,
look on the affliction of thine handmaid. And you know handmaid,
what it means. It means maid servant. It means
maid servant. You find that name all through
the scriptures, thine handmaid. That means a maid servant. She
stands at your hand to do what you bid her to do. She stands
there to do what you want her to do. And what it amounts to
is a female slave. And what she's saying is here,
she refers to herself this way three times in this verse of
scripture. Thine handmaid, thine handmaid, thine handmaid. Thine
maid servant, that's what she said. I'm your servant. And you
know Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's what
she called herself before the Lord. And oh my, and so what
she does, she approaches God as a servant, as a servant, and
she approaches him as a servant would approach her master. And
when she does it like this, if you will, if you will, would
you look, would you look on the affliction? And she considered
not having a child an affliction. And a penina was an affliction,
a thorn in her side. And this went year after year
after year, and she said, Lord, if you will, look, on your servant,
your maid servant's affliction." She went for a specific reason,
and she used specific language. And oh, and she approaches God,
and she was in absolute submission to Him. And as a servant, she
was willing to accept whatever God did. She said, if you will,
you can leave me barren, or you can give me a child. God's will
be done. That's why she said, if you will.
David said in one place, Lord, if it pleases you. Henry Mahan
preached a message one time. how God's to be approached, how
God is really worshiped. And he used those three, those
three lepers that came down off the mountain. In Matthew chapter
eight, you can look at it yourself. Three lepers came down off the
mountain, and they came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the scripture
said they bowed before him. Lepers. And said, Lord, that's
the first word out of their mouth, Lord, you're Jehovah, you're
God. You're the one running this show.
Lord, if you will, If you will, you can make us clean." And you
know what our Lord said? Be thou clean. That's all He
had to say, just be thou clean. And that's the way our Lord Himself
prayed. He submitted to His Father's
will. He said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup This
cup of justice, this cup of wrath, this cup of sin, this cup that's
so full of bitterness, full of dregs, the dregs of man's humanity
and sin, if you, if you, if it be possible, let this cup pass
through. But nevertheless. Not as I will,
but as you will. And Eli, this man, this priest
is sitting here watching Hannah. He had two sons. God, when Samuel
was just a boy, he had to tell him, said, God told me he's going
to kill both your boys. because they are evil men, sinful
men, and God's going to kill them. They've abused the priesthood.
And you know what Eli said? He didn't get up before the Lord
and said, Lord, I've served you all these years, and I don't
think that's fair. I don't think it's right for
you to treat me like this. I've been a faithful priest.
No, no. You know what he said? It is
the Lord. Let him do as seemeth good. If it pleases God, he said, if
that's what God wills to do in my life, take my two boys, God's
will be done. That's what he's saying. And
Job got up one morning, lost his sons and his daughter. A
little while, they said he lost his flocks. A little while, they
come said, lost your herds. And you know what Job did? He
fell before the Lord and he said, naked, naked, I came out of my
mother's womb and naked, I shall return. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Bless his name. That's where Hannah felt. And
I tell you what, we can worship a God like that. We can truly
bow down and worship a God that's like that. And our starting place
with God, this is a humble prayer, our starting place with God is
we confess our smallness, our inabilities, and express God's
greatness and God's glory. And I tell you, God doesn't know
any great men. He doesn't know any great men.
People say, boy, he's a great man, this is a great man. When
we speak about a believer, we always say, boy, he's a gracious
man or he's a faithful man or he's a... a loving man, or he's
a precious man, and he's this kind of man. We don't know, God
said, he don't know any great man. I'll tell you what he does,
though. He begins with nothing, and sometimes he'll make a man
useful to himself. But he starts with nothing, and
as long as you think you're something, God ain't never going to. Wouldn't
use me, and He wouldn't use anybody. And you know what God thinks
about pride? He said, six things I hate, yea, seven are an abomination. The first thing he mentions was
pride. Pride. Oh my. God hates pride. And he said that he resists the
proud over in 1 Peter. Resists them. That means he's
at war with them. He's not going to let them win.
But he gives grace to that man that's low. Pick him up. Lift
him up. He'll give grace to him. And
then last of all, this prayer of Hannah, not only was it reverential,
a reverence, she had a reverence for God. He's the Lord of hosts.
Not only was it a humble prayer, but it was a fervent prayer.
Look what she said in verse 10. And she was in bitterness of
soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. She was greatly,
greatly burdened. Her heart was grieved. She said,
oh, why is thy heart grieved? And the scripture said she wept
sore. She just cried and cried and
cried and cried. And Hannah prayed with earnestness
and with passion. Look what it says down in verse,
you know, in verse 15. Now Eli said, how long are you
going to be drunk? She was praying from her heart
and he saw the tears in her eyes. Her lips were moving, but your
voice was not heard. And oh, Hannes answered and said,
said, no, my Lord, I'm a woman, listen to this, of a sorrowful
spirit. Spirit is so heavy. I've drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but listen to this, but have
poured out my soul before the Lord. Now, I tell you what, you're
in pretty bad shape when you're pouring your soul. I mean, pouring
out your soul. I mean, just laying it out there. Just so in such agony and bitterness
and heaviness that you just pour it out. Oh my, and she was heavy
hearted. She had a heavy spirit, had great
grief in her heart. And what did she do with it?
Did she run around telling everybody, oh, I'm a miserable, I'm just
so miserable, and I'm having such hard times, and I'm so,
you know, Panina's doing me this way, and I can't, no, no. You
know who she told her affliction to, and where she took her affliction?
She took it to the Lord. We sang that old, I read it to
you one day, take your burden to the Lord. She carried her
affliction before the throne of God, and it was a passionate,
fervent prayer. She wept sore. She was like Jacob
when he wrestled that night. He said, I'm not gonna let you
go. I'm not gonna let you go till you bless me. And oh, beloved,
so Hannah prayed, and she said, God, in verse 11, give me a man
child, and I'll give him unto the Lord all the days of his
life. We'll deal with that next week.
No razor shall come upon his head. And here's the last thing
about Hannah's prayer, her prayer before God, and this is she's
praying before the Lord. Ain't you grateful that we got
someone to go to, someone that knows us? I was reading today
over there when Job said, the Lord knoweth the way that I take.
You know, God knows every single one of us. He knows the way that
we take, the way that we think, the way that we feel, the way
that we... He knows everything. God's knowledge
of us is perfect. And that's why we can come to
Him with such confidence and such comfort and such assurance. And no matter how heavy it is,
when we can't do nothing but just groan before the Lord and
say, Lord, help me. He knows. He knows. But one more
thing about Hannah's prayer. It was a prayer of faith. It
was a prayer of faith. And look what she says now in
verse 16 and 17. And oh, she said, I've poured
my soul out before the Lord. So don't consider your handmaid
here, this maid servant, for a daughter of Belial, a low life. That's what it means. You're
a very low type person. For out of the abundance of my
complaint and grief have I spoken here. That's what I've been praying
about. Now watch what happens now. Then Eli answered and said,
go in peace. She come down there in bitterness
of heart and grief and left in peace. And listen to what he
said, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition as thou has
asked of him. She came broken, she came distressed,
she came made a vow that if you give me a man child, I'm going
to give him right back to you. He'll be used of you. And then
look what happened, she said in verse 18. Let thine handmaid
find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way and
did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. Now listen to
this. She says, remember, remember
how she says, remember me and not forget thine handmaid when
she prayed in verse 11. Now look what happens. And they
rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord
and returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew
his wife, and the Lord remembered her." She said, Lord, remember
me. And the Lord remembered her. Oh, you think God gonna forget
us? We may forget him. Larry Matthews tell me about
his sister with Alzheimer's. You know, we may get to where,
I know I've seen people that they didn't know their name.
They wouldn't even, they forgot to even drink water. Somebody
had to give them their water. They just forgot how to do anything.
And we may get like that, but one thing for certain, God won't
forget us. Amen, amen.