Real Mothers are special people.
Real mothers would like to be able to eat a whole candy bar (all by themselves) and drink a Coke without any "floaters" in it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn’t come out of shag carpets.
Real Mothers do NOT want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Mothers sometimes ask "Why me?" and get their answer when a little voice says, "Because I love you best."
Real Mothers know that a child’s growth is not measured by height or years or grade...It is marked by the progression from Mama to Mom to Mother.
APPLY: Real mothers are a class unto themselves.
Real mothers have an investment in the future – because their children ARE the future.
One of the preachers I talked to this week said that he had observed that: “Real Mothers are selfless when it comes to their children. They’ll put up with dirty diapers, the throwing up, the spitting up, the crying for hours. They give up their time and their sanity because this child is theirs. They are selfless… because they are REAL mothers."
This morning we’re talking about a “real mother” out of Scripture.
Her name is Hannah.
Hannah is a very special woman because she’s one of those rare women that God holds up for us to see and admire.
Now, as we’re introduced to Hannah, we find that she has a problem.
What’s her problem? (she can’t get pregnant)
Why can’t she get pregnant? (God has closed up her womb).
Oh really?
I read a sermon online by a one preacher who implied that God really didn’t close up her womb. It was just one of those comments that people make when they don’t know the cause of a tragedy or a natural disaster. In fact you’ll hear it on the news when a tornado has swept through a town. They call that kind of disaster an… “act of God”.
They don’t really think God caused the tornado.
And this preacher really didn’t think God caused Hannah’s womb to be closed.
Now, I have a couple of problems with that:
1st problem is this: The Bible tells me “God closed up her womb.”
It doesn’t say “Hannah THOUGHT God closed her womb.”
Or that “Elkanah thought…”
Or that “the people thought…”
It said “God closed up her womb.”
Now excuse me… if the Bible tells me God closed her womb my first thought is – that’s probably what happened.
My 2nd problem with the “act of God” approach is that scripture only uses this phrase (closed a womb) one other time I know of. It happened way back in Genesis.
In the days of Abraham (Abimelech) the King of Gerar had a nasty habit of killing men so that he could gain their wives for his harem. Apparently Abraham’s wife Sarah was desirable. And since Abraham had no desire to be killed by the king, he passed Sarah off as his sister. Sure enough - Abimelech took her into his harem.
BUT before the King of Gerar can take her to his bed, God appeared to him in a dream and explained the situation. He told Abimelech that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, that Abraham was His prophet, and that if the King ever touched Sarah – he was a dead man.
This dream appropriately frightened the King so that he returned Sarah to Abraham and pled for Abraham pray for him.
Then we read: “… Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, for the LORD had CLOSED UP EVERY WOMB in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.” Genesis 20:17-18
Now, in that story, there’s no question that God closed up the wombs of Abimelech’s harem. God was punishing the King of Gerar for his nasty habit of killing husbands to get their wives.
But here in I Samuel it tells me God closed up Hannah’s womb.
Was God punishing Hannah?
Did God hate her or something?
Oh, I don’t think so.
There’s nothing in this story to tell us that she was wicked or evil in any way. In fact the picture painted here is of a godly woman who is in trouble (heart’s breaking) and she’s praying with all of her heart that God would help her.
That’s not the kind of person God punishes
2 Chronicles 16:9 says “…the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. – That’s Hannah.
God wasn’t punishing Hannah.
God’s eyes had ranged throughout the earth to find a woman just like her.
And His eyes focused on her because He knew Hannah will be a woman He could mold into one of the most influential and significant mothers in Scripture.
Now, this is what happened:
Back in that day - Israel was a nation in crisis.
Judges 17:6 tells us: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
Everybody did what they felt like doing… and it was not a pretty sight.
The whole nation was corrupt
Even Eli the priest and his sons weren’t all that nice a people.
God needed to bring about a change.
He needed to raise up a hero who could lead His people to righteousness.
He needed a man who could step and do what needed to be done.
He needed someone who could be a judge, a prophet, and a priest.
AND in order to train up that kind of leader for Israel God was going to need the help of a very special kind of mother.
That’s where Hannah comes in.
Hannah was going to be – not only a real mother – but a Godly mother.
Hannah was the kind of woman that God could count on and work through to train the man he needed to shape His nation Israel.
But 1st He had to bring her to the point where she was desperate enough to do what God needed done.
You know, God sometimes uses our pain to guide us to something He wants us to do.
C.S. Lewis once said:
“God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks in our conscience,
but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
In her pain, Hannah comes to a decision:
If God will give her a son she says: “… I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…”1Samuel 1:11
Now, every first born son belonged to God anyway (that’s what it said in the Law)
In Exodus 13:2 God told His people:
"Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal."
So Hannah’s first born son would have belonged to God from his birth but like all Israelites, she and her husband would ORDINARILY have redeemed that child.
In Numbers 18:16 it tells the Israelites: “When (your son is) a month old, you must redeem him at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver…”
But what Hannah’s vowing here is this:
God, if you give me a son, I’ll let you keep him. I won’t redeem him back.
In her mind was she had already decided that if God gave her a son she’d give him to the priests at the Tabernacle to raise and would serve God by helping people to worship
Now, where do you suppose she got that idea?
Did she come up with this on her own?
I don’t think so. I’m convinced God put that idea her heart.
And because she came to that point in her life where she was willing to give her son to God… God rewarded her in some powerful ways:
• Not only does she get pregnant right away
• But she bears 3 more sons and 2 more daughters
1Samuel 2:21 tells us that “the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters..."
But even more significant than that… she was the mother of Samuel!
• Samuel was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament.
• He was the last of the judges and the first of a long line of prophets.
• He was such a righteous man that he guided the people out of their immorality back to obedience to God and His law.
• And he was so highly regarded by God that not only are there 2 books in the Bible that bear his name, but a couple of times God compares his righteousness to that of Moses.
In Jeremiah 15:1 God condemns the sins of the nation of Judah, and He declares:
"Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people..”
Samuel was such a great man that he was equal to Moses in God’s eyes.
That’s Hannah’s boy!
Now, she has 3 more boys & 2 daughters.
But I bet you don’t know what THEIR names are.
Samuel gives Hannah bragging rights.
She’s like the mother who pulls out her wallet and says
“And this is my son the Doctor/Lawyer”
This is my son who made it big!
And this all happened because Hannah was a Godly woman who prayed.
Now… when God tells us stories like this, there’s something He wants US to learn. And what God wants you to see is this:
• Hannah is a Godly, praying woman
• Hannah is the kind of woman that God listens to
• Be like her!
If you want your children to make you proud - be like Hannah.
If you want your children to make a difference in this world - be like Hannah.
If you want your children to grow up to be truly great – be like Hannah.
(PAUSE)
So… how are you going to do that?
How can you be like Hannah?
1. A Godly mother believes in the power of prayer… and they’re willing to pray for their family to the point of weeping before God.
The heart of this entire story centers on Hannah’s prayer and God is so impressed with how she prayed that He tells us in great detail.
We’re told that she prayed with tears
She prayed with intensity
She prayed with purpose
She prayed believing
And God heard her prayed and gave her the desire of her heart.
That’s the way we need to learn to pray. And when we do, God tells us in Psalm 37:4 that if you “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
2. A Godly mother gives her children to God.
Granted Hannah’s gift to God was more dramatic than most of us would think to do, but a Godly mother is convinced that God will help her children if she places them in His hands.
Now, a Christian should do that anyway. When you and I became Christians Jesus became the Lord of our lives. At that point you became HIS… and everything you own should be His. And we give our entire lives to Him completely because we’re convinced He’ll take care of them. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote:
“I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. 2Timothy 1:12 (sing chorus from the hymn).
That brings us to the third thing a Godly woman does
3. A Godly mother wants GOD’s best for her children.
She learned the wisdom of Christ’s words in the garden: “not my will, but thine be done.
She does this because she’s convinced God’s best is the best.
There’s nothing better that she can supply to her children.
This is the kind of woman who wonders: will my son be a preacher/ daughter a missionary? For her there would be no greater opportunity that they could do in their lives.
Now, this doesn’t mean your kids have to grow up to perform those ministries.
ILLUS: Years ago somebody must have told my son Jonathan should grow up to be a preacher like me. He came to me and said “I don’t want to be a preacher!”
And I told him – “You don’t have to be. I’d be proud if you were, but maybe God wants you to become something else. You just make sure that whatever you do, you do it completely for God”
4. A Godly mother keeps her word to God (and others)
God was able to trust Hannah with this wonderful baby boy because He knew He could trust her to do what she’d promised. As soon as her baby boy was weaned…she marched him right up to the tabernacle and she honored her word to God.
But she didn’t just “leave” him there.
1Samuel 2:19 tells us that “Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.”
Every year she went to visit her son.
And what do you suppose she talked about when she visited him?
She told her son about how God had given him to her.
How he was a special boy - a child of destiny.
That brings us to the last thing a Godly mother should do
5. A Godly mother tells her children God stories.
She looks for ways to tell her child about how God has him/her.
She looks for ways to make them understand that God has a purpose for their lives.
She looks for ways to drive home that they are precious in HIS sight.
CLOSE: A Godly mother is one of the most powerful forces on earth.
They have within their hands the ability to shape the future with their children.
I read the true story of a Christian mother in California. She wrote that her 3 year old son was making it hard for her to do her housework. He seemed to be right behind her wherever she went and whenever she stopped to do something and turned back around, she would trip over him.
Several times she patiently suggested fun activities to keep him occupied. “Wouldn’t you like to play on the swing set?” she’d ask.
But he simply smiled an innocent smile and said, “Oh, that’s all right, Mommy. I’d rather be in here with you.” Then he continued to bounce happily along behind her.
After stepping on his toes for the 5th time, she began to lose her patience with him and insisted that he go outside and play with the other children. Then she asked him why he was acting this way, he looked up at her with sweet green eyes and said, “Well, Mommy, in Primary my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. But I can’t see him, so I’m walking in yours.”
(Davida Dalton “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul”)
