1 Samuel 1-2
Hannah: A Model For Motherhood
Introduction
A. Mother’s Day, it is Mother’s Day
B. When I am studying Philosophy I turn to the most Philosophical person I know, Calvin
C. Calvin as in Calvin in Hobbes
D. There was one comic strip where Calvin is standing by His mother bed when he says, “Hey mom! Wake up. I made you a mother’s day card”
E. His mother was very pleased and started to read it our loud
a. “I was going to buy a card with hearts of pink and read
b. But then I thought I’d rather spend the money instead
c. It’s awfully hard to buy thinking when one’s allowance is so small
d. So I guess you’re plenty lucky I got you anything at all
e. Happy Mosher’s day. There, I’ve said. Now I’m done
f. So how about getting out of bed and fixing breakfast for you son!
F. Isn’t He sweet?
G. Anyway today we are going to be learning about Hannah
H. To give you some background information in our English bibles the book of Ruth comes after Judges (Joshua judges Ruth) however in the Hebrew Bible 1 Samuel immediately follow judges. Look at the very last verse of Judges
I. Read Judges 21:25
J. Things were not looking good, Israel needed a king
K. In Samuel we are introduced to Hannah, who is the mother of the prophet who will designate Israel’s chosen king
L. We are going to take a look at Hannah’s story today
M. We are going to see 5 defining traits of a women of faith
a. Women of Faith Exhibit Real Problems
b. Women of Faith Express vibrant Prayer
c. Women of Faith Experience God’s Provision
d. Women of Faith Excel at Keeping their Promises
e. Women of Faith Explode with Praise
I. Women of Faith Exhibit Real Problems (1:1-8)
A. Explanation
1. We like to think that the great hero’s of the Bible did not have problems
2. That everything was just peachy and good and did not experience the same junk that we have to go through
3. That is not the case, they went through the same things and some times a lot worse that we go through
4. Here we have a man named Elkanah, he had two wives, Hannah and Peninah
5. Penninah was able to have children, Hannah had no children
6. In fact the reason that Elkanah married Peninah was because Hannah could not have children
7. Understand that a women who was not able to have kids was looked down upon
a) This would cause her to be spiritually disturbed, socially disgraced, and emotionally depressed.
b) Now understand something there are plenty of women of faith who battled with not being able to have a kid: Sarah, Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) Rachel (Jacob’s wife), Ruth (Boaz’s wife) and Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s Mother)
8. Every Year Elkanah would take his family and go to worship God at Shiloh, said to be a Holy City
9. Of course Hannah and Peninah did not have that close of relationship, ok so they didn’t exactly get along
10. Peninah knew that it would bug Hannah to the point as the Bible says “that she wept and would not eat”
11. Elkanah knew that she was upset and tried the famous guy line “Cheer up, you got me babe, what more do you need” That is the paraphrase of verse 11
B. Application
1. But what can we learn from all of this?
2. Just because you’re living a godly lifestyle does not mean that you will escape persecution
3. Unfortunately for us, this persecution happens to the best and the worst of us
4. And a lot of time we will not know Why
5. God knows why and He has a reason
6. Women of Faith do not always get to lie in a bed of roses
7. Women of Faith have their share of struggles
8. Men this does goes for you too do not think that this happens just to women
9. When Elighiah was alone in the desert after the great miracle of setting fire to the alter, and was complaining to God that he is the only one, what did God do?
a) God showed him 7000 who were going through the same thing
10. If you are here today and saying “Why me?” I can not answer that. But what I can promise you is that there is a support group here that meets at least once a week Sundays at 10 who either have gone through some rough stuff, going through ruff stuff, or will be going through ruff stuff
C. Illustration
1. A little quote that I thought that you might enjoy by Alan Redpath, “When God has an impossible task, he take an impossible persons and crushes them”
II. Women of Faith Express Vibrant Prayers (1:9-18)
A. Explanation
1. Hannah had some problems, she was obviously heart broken about not being able to have kids
2. What Hannah did with her problems is a lesson for all of us let us take a look
3. Hannah (read 10)
4. She wept and cried out to God
5. It does not record word for word the actual prayer
6. I am sure you can imagine what she said
7. This was not one of those shallow; I better make it look good, prayers. These prayers came from deep within her soul
8. Notice verse 12, “as she kept praying to the Lord”
9. She did not have a set prayer time, this was just a intense, I am going to pray through this situation and she kept praying and praying and praying
10. Eli, the priest, saw her doing this, saw her moving her lips but with no voice, Eli thought that she must be drunk
a) Word of caution, “You’ll have that” when you are having those intense private prayer times someone might think that you are either drunk or crazy
11. Hannah had the opportunity, to say that she is not drunk, she is just involved in some intense prayer
12. Eli, not really knowing the whole situation but recognizes her sincerity, responds to her with (Read 17)
13. Then look at verse 18. She ate and her face was not longer downcast
B. Application
1. What can we learn from this?
2. Hannah modeled something we should do on a consistent basis
3. She prayed until she got an answer
4. This is what we do often dear Lord I have this situation, Insert situation, what should I do? And then have the patience of a flea and go an do what we want to do
5. The Bible does not have enough pages to record blow by blow descriptions
6. Therefore we often read and think that every problem is like a TV show were the solution is only minutes away
7. Reality of the situation is it just not like that
8. We need those time were we “Pray Through”
9. Pray through is an older term that I want to reintroduce, I am not sure why we ever got away from it
10. Hannah prayed through the situation, praying through the situation is just as it sounds
11. To keep on praying and praying and praying and praying until you get the answer
12. We have watered down prayer to, using Hannah as an example, “God give me a Child” and if God does not grant us that request immediately after we pray for it, it is not God’s Will
13. Do you know that for sure? Are you sure of what God’s will is after praying for 10 minutes?
14. Pray through
15. Pray through
16. Pray through the situation, God will reveal His will in His timing, pray through
17. A women of faith will pray through a situation
III. Women of Faith Experience God’s Provision (1:19-20)
A. Explanation
1. Before we get into the main point of this point I want you to notice Early in the morning they arose and worshiped God
a) What a Great way to start the day
2. So Hannah and Elkanah went home
3. When they got home they begin to try and have a kid
4. Sure enough they had One
5. Now let me throw a word of caution in here
6. Hannah’s prayers were anasw3eared that does not mean that you will given a child like Hannah was just because you prayed for one
7. You will receive God’s provision, one way or another. But it might not be what you thought you asked for
8. I read that one of 6 women who want to have a baby cannot conceive.
9. The question then become why did God let her wait this long
10. Their might be a good reason for that, think about how much she would value this kid, this kid that she had to wait so long for
B. Application
1. Let’s apply this to our lives
2. God will answer us
3. God has not abounded you
4. God has not ignored you
5. God has not been mean to you
6. God has a reason behind what He does
7. You might not know the reason
8. You might not understand why you have to wait, especially when it come to ordination Dan
9. But God does, And we can experience God’s Provision
10. Hang in there
C. Illustration
IV. Women of Faith Excel at Keeping Their Promises (1:21-28)
A. Explanation
1. Remember back in verse 11. Hannah makes a promise to offer her Son to the Lord for his entire life, if she would only have a son to offer
2. Sure enough she does have a Son now let continue in our story
3. It was time to go back to Shiloh, this year however, Hannah did not go
4. She staid home to be with Samuel and continue to wean him
5. She told her husband her plan and her Husband agreed
6. After Samuel was weaned, about 3 years old
7. Hannah took Samuel to Shiloh
8. When she got there she offered the typical sacrifice and then went to Eli, Who gave her the blessing that gave her assurance of having a kid
9. Told Eli the promise she made with God
10. And read verse 28. Imagine if that was your kid?
B. Application
1. What can we learn from this?
2. Two very important lessons come from these couple of verses
3. Number 1 when you make a promise to God, Keep it
4. So often when we are at our lowest we will promise this that and the other thing
5. But as soon as we are going again we will forget about our promise
6. We will forget the fact that it was God who brought us out of the situation in the first place
7. We will begin to think that we did by our selves for our selves and nobody can tell us other wise, that is not true, do not forget your promises
8. Number 2 Look at 28. For all of you parents out there especially all the mothers out there
9. Make this your Goal
10. Make this how you intend to raise your Child
11. Can you imagine how this world would turn upside down if we practiced verse 28?
C. Illustration
V. Women of Faith Explode With Praise (2:1-11)
A. Explanation
1. Hannah just has left her darling little kid,
2. I don’t know if you have thought about how you would be feeling in that situation, but I would venture to guess that you would be sad, that you would be feeling down, depressed, heart broke
3. Read this prayer
4. Read 2:1-2
5. Notice what she does not say, she never brags about how handsome Samuel is, she never talks about how smart he is, or how neat it is that he can say prayers at such a young age
6. She overlooks the gift and gives all the praises to the Giver of the gift
7. Her focus is on the Giver not the gift
B. Application
1. What can we learn from this?
2. A lot
3. Hannah endured years of silent suffering because she could not have a child
4. Finally she has a child and she gives it away
5. Seems weird her only child, she has to leave
6. Less you think God is not a loving God read 2:21
7. God always gives in abundance
8. Keep your focus on God
9. Explode in praise
10. God is there for you he has always provided and always will
C. Illustration
Conclusion
A. Allow me to make a couple of concluding thought
B. Number 1:Women, Ladies, you are of great worth in God’s sight weather you have child or not
C. Lift your head up and realize that God loves you for who you are, not for what you do
D. Number 2: Mother make it your mission to give your children to the Lord for a lifetime of dedicated service
E. There is not greater purpose in life then to serve the Lord
F. It is really interesting to continue to read 1 Samuel. You will find out that Hophini and Phineas were very evil and did bad things, there mom is never mentioned, Samuel did great things for God and look at his mother
G. Mom’s you matter greatly to your kids and the very future of our nation
H. Number 3: One of the lessons from the life of Hannah is that each of us needs to be growing in our own relationship with God
I. If you want your kids to learn about God, and to love Him with all they’ve got, it first got to be real in your life
J. On this one short day that we celebrate mothers, I want to say thank you for all your hard work
K. Mothers Make a huge difference in all our lives
