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Hannah
1 Samuel 1 & 2
Have you ever
wanted a do-over? You made a really dumb mistake and just wished you
could roll the clock back a few minutes and have another go?
Last Sunday night during our Sunday Night in the Park I experienced one
of those times. You see every Sunday night that we go to the park in
Winfield we sit around and eat, walk around and chat while the kids play
on the swings and slides. It is a very nice evening.
But for some strange reason when we head out to the park in Guin I get
this overwhelming urge to prove, Like Toby Keith says in his newest song
“I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” You
see it is at Guin Park that the older men in the congregation play the
teenage guys in a little game of football.
The first Sunday we did this I woke up the next morning with sever pain
in the back of my thighs. Trista smiled at me and said, “Baby I love you
but you’re not as young as you used to be.” “Humph, I said it was
because I was playing in church shoes.”
Well three weeks later we make our way back out to Guin Park and I am
feeling pretty good, I even changed into play clothes and out we went.
Near the end of the game my body turned to the right and my foot turned
to the left, and I hobbled on a sore ankle for five days. The next
morning Trista looked at me and said “Baby I love you but you’re not as
young as you used to be.” “Humph, I said it was because I was playing in
low tops and didn’t have the right ankle support.”
Well last Sunday night I was feeling pretty good and off to the football
field we went. The old guys were winning by 4 touchdowns and we had the
game in hand. I was feeling pretty good about myself and was taking a
breather by watching the quarterback. You see he can’t run unless you
rush and you have to count to 10 Mississippi before you could do that so
Brennen hiked the ball and I waited.
Like I said I was feeling pretty good, and Brennen wasn’t going to throw
the ball so I rushed in, He cut to his right and I was in hot pursuit. I
lunged ahead and touched him with the required two hands, and that’s
when I realized that my top was moving faster than my bottom and it
wasn’t good. I had a choice to make, fall on my face or roll on to my
shoulder then to my back and I could pop right back up. I chose the roll
because I knew it would look a lot more athletic than a fall flat on my
face.
Savannah told me later it didn’t look as graceful as it played out in my
mind. By the time I smashed my shoulder into the ground and finally got
to my feet I wanted a do over. Sunday night after Trista had gone from
ice packs to heating pads to ice packs to heating pads to Ben gay, I
wanted a do over. Monday morning when I realized how much shoulder you
use to brush your teeth and comb your hair I wanted a do over. And
yesterday at my nieces Birthday party when Rylan got tired and wanted to
be held I really wanted a do-over.
All of us from time to time would love to have a do-over. Most of the
time, there aren't any. You make a mistake you live with it from now on.
But sometimes, God grants do-overs. Sometimes, God dramatically and
permanently reverses the direction of a person's life. More often than
not, he does so in response to someone's prayer. If you'll look with me
at 1 Samuel 1, we might find a few secrets to unlocking God's power to
change lives through heroic prayer.
In the town of Ramathaim, which was later known as Aramathea, there
lived a righteous man named Elkanah. Elkanah married a beautiful woman
Hannah. But Hannah could bear him no children. So as was common in that
day, to carry on his lineage, Elkanah took a second wife, Peninah, who
was very prolific in bearing him many sons and daughters.
Every year, Elkanah would take his entire family to Shiloh, where the
house of the Lord was then located, to worship. All Israelite men were
required to make three journeys a year to worship. But around the first
of each year he took the whole family; Peninah and her children and
Hannah. And every year on these journeys, Peninah tormented Hannah for
her childlessness.
Elkanah was a kind a loving husband to Hannah. He tried to console her.
But his kindness was no match for Pininah's ridicule. We'll pick up the
story in vs. 9.
Read 1 Samuel 1:9 - 20
Think maybe Hannah has something to teach us about heroic prayer?
First she teaches us that prayer has the power to set a trajectory for
another’s life.
Remember the odd part of her prayer about never letting her son get a
haircut? That was a feature of a Nazarite vow. The Nazarites were a
special group of people who were always chosen by God to lead his people
in a time of renewal and revival.
The Bible talks about Nazarites often; Samson and John the Baptist are
probably the two most famous. The interesting thing about this instance,
however, is that God didn't do the choosing. Hannah did. Every other
time in the Bible a man is chosen to be a Nazarite, it comes at God's
initiative. But this time, it was a mother's. And her prayer set Samuel
on that trajectory even before he was conceived!
You can change a life through prayer even before there's a life to
change! Now I'm no Samuel, but from time to time people ask me, "How did
you know you wanted to be a preacher?"
I always answer, "I didn’t!" I have always thought preachers were
stuffed shirts who had no idea what life was like outside of their holy
little bubble they called life. I wanted to sweat and play and have fun.
I knew that you could do that and be a Christian but in my mind you
couldn’t do that and be a preachers. After all I was the guy that used
to pass the candy cigarettes out behind the church after the preacher
preached the “Thou Shalt Not Smoke” sermons.
But my parents had a different plan in mind. I remember praying at night
with my mom and dad and hearing them pray that God would use me in His
Kingdom.
Prayer had the power to set a trajectory for someone's life. It did for
Samuel. It will for the people you know.
Oh, and notice this, too. Not only did Hannah's prayer set a trajectory
for Samuel's life, but it changed all of Israel. Throughout 1 Samuel
chapters 1 & 2, Samuel's growth and progress in the Lord are contrasted
to the corrupt and deceitful ministries of Eli's sons, Hophni and
Phinehas.
God removed them and placed Samuel as Israel's prophet and priest. The
prayer of one broken woman generated a blessing for a beleaguered
nation. Prayer has that kind of power.
Secondly prayer does not only have the power to set a trajectory, it
also has the power to reverse a direction.
Here's the part about do-overs. Look in chapter 2. This is Hannah's
prayer after she gives Samuel back to the Lord.
Read 2:1 - 10
Ten times in these verses, Hannah celebrates God's power to reverse the
direction of people's lives.
Sometimes, God brings disaster on those who are his enemies. Sometimes,
God brings blessing on those who are seeking his help. In her case, God
gave a barren woman six children. And one of those became Israel's
greatest prophet and priest.
Does God still perform do-overs? I believe so.
I have a friend who works with a church in Nashville. He was telling us
a few weeks ago about a lady at his church who was really convicted by
what she had been reading in the scriptures and hearing at church. She
felt that she has no other choice but to take the love of God out to a
dying world but there was a problem. She is a mother of three, and works
in the Christian music industry so everyone she knew or had contact with
already had a belief in God. But there was this conviction to do
something, so she asked her church to pray that God would give her
opportunities, and she would see them. Three weeks after the church
prayed for her and after she had been in prayer everyday an opportunity
came.
She said that she received a phone call fro a man who got her number
from a man who knew a guy that had heard her play the piano. He was
wondering if she could help them out on Friday night. Thinking that this
was an opportunity she agreed and Friday night she left her husband and
kids at home and went to play at this party. Well when she arrived at
the address she was shocked to find that it was a bar, She said that she
was very nervous but still feeling the conviction she entered, met the
owner and started to play and pray that God would use her to make change
in His world. That night she mat a young man named Jazz, who was her
only contact. They surface talked briefly and that was that.
On Monday she received a call from the owner and asked her if she would
like to start playing every Friday night. She said that she would think
about it and get in touch with him. She called her Elders and they met
with her and her husband and prayed about it. She decided that she would
give it a try for 3 months and see what happened. That Friday night she
went back to the bar and to her surprise Jazz was there waiting to see
her again.
During her break they sat and talked and she discovered that he was 26
years old and in a homosexual relationship with a 48 year old partner
that was dying of aids. She said that she knew this was the young man
she felt that she needed to share God’s love with. Over the next three
months they met every Friday night and drank coffee, talked, and built a
trust. She finally got the opportunity to meet Jazz’s partner, and
immediately invited them to her house for Supper. Once again she met
with the Elders and they prayed together about the situation, and that
God would give her an opportunity to share Christ with these two men.
The evening of the Supper arrived and Jazz arrived alone and was a bit
uneasy, but this lady did everything she could to be graceful and
compassionate to her guest. As the evening was wrapping up Jazz began to
cry. He told this dear sister that no one had ever been so kind to him
before, and wanted to know why would she care so much for someone as
worthless as he was.
She told him that he wasn’t worthless and that Jesus loved and cared
about him very much and if he wanted to find others who cared about him
she would love for him to come to church with her family on Sunday, and
he agreed.
Two Sundays later Jazz walked in the front door, and was met by two
Elders of the congregation who immediately welcomed him and tried to
make him feel comfortable. He sat with this lady and her family, and
cried again during the worship, saying he had never seen anything so
beautiful. The congregation showered this man and his partner with cards
and prayers, and they continued to come.
8 Months later Jazz and his partner both gave themselves to Christ in a
watery grave of baptism and left their homosexual relationship. And as a
result two years later they are still active in this church and sharing
the love of Christ with their scope of influence.
Because Hannah prayed, her life was forever changed. And because this
Christian sister in Nashville, Tennessee prayed, a young man named
Jazz’s life was changed too. God does do-overs. God reverses directions.
But there's more to Hannah's prayer life than talking about a God who
keeps his promises. Hannah has something to say about us keeping ours.
In the last half of chapter one, Hannah takes Samuel, now probably close
to two years old, to the house of God in Shiloh and does what she vowed
to do; she gives him back to God.
In those days it wasn't uncommon for women to nurse their children for
up to three years. Now think about that time line. Hannah nursed Samuel
for two years. He was born to her and Elkanah approximately one year
after she prayed.
That's three years. Three years after she made a vow, she still
remembered it. She still kept it.
I think it's important here to remember how much Hannah loved Samuel.
Listen to 2: 18. "Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy clothed
with a linen ephod. And his mother used to make for him a little robe
and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer
the yearly sacrifice.
Can you imagine how difficult it was to leave that little boy at the
temple? Can you imagine how carefully and meticulously she made that
little robe?
Now please do me a favor and don't get any ideas from this story and
drop your kids off at church as an offering to the Lord. I will bring
them home. But you can and should do everything you can to make sure
your children see you keeping your promises to God. The life you live
has to be consistent with the prayers you pray.
One last lesson from Hannah's heroic prayer; This one is in 1:17-18.
Let's hear the passage first, then we'll talk about it.
Hannah has been praying, pouring out her heart to God. Her lips have
been moving, but she hasn't been speaking audibly. Eli thinks she's
drunk and chastises her. She replies firmly, but respectfully, "Not so,
my Lord. I am a woman who is deeply troubled," literally, "I am a woman
hard of spirit." That means stubborn.
Hannah is standing with her fists clinched as she pours out her heart to
God, silently mouthing the pain and desperation that is in her heart.
Last week we talked about how God could read words on paper when
Hezekiah asked him to read that hateful letter from Sennecahrib. This
week, we have a story where God can read lips.
But notice what happens once Eli realizes Hannah is truly praying. (Read
17 and 18).
Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
Here's the last lesson; Hannah found peace even before the problem was
solved.
She experiences this tremendous change in demeanor just from giving the
problem to God.
Look in Psalm 6 with me. (Read 1 - 7) now listen to 8 - 10.
Something happens between vs. 7 and vs. 8. There is a change in
attitude, a change of mind, and a change of spirit. The problem is still
there, but the one doing the praying feels a tremendous burden lifted.
Once we turn something over to God we can relax. He's going to take care
of it. We can experience the peace that passes understanding even before
the problem is solved.
Prayer has the power to set the trajectory for a life, even before that
life is begun. It has the power to reverse a direction, even if a
reversal seems impossible. Hannah reminds us of the importance of
keeping our promises. And she blesses us with the knowledge that prayer
brings peace even while the problems are still present.
Remember the story we started with, the one about the football game and
my shoulder? Well Wednesday when I started to move a bit more freely I
asked Trista when was I going to get the “Baby I love you but you’re not
as young as you used to be, speech.”
She looked at me and said, “When I saw you hit the ground my heart went
out to you. I know that you want to play, and I know that you are going
to get aches and pains, but I would never tell you I told you so,
because I love you.”
Do you know why prayer has so much power? Because we serve a God whose
heart goes out to us. We serve a God who says, "Son, daughter, don't let
it bother you. I'll take care of it."
And take care of it He does. What can he take care of for you today?
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