God Surprising Work Through Mothers

Today is Mother’s Day when one-fifth of all floral purchases are made for holidays. In a day where over-programmed kids and hectic family schedules dominate, mothers are incredibly powerful not in the weightlifting sense of that word, but in the areas of trust, encouragement, hope, and courage. You are incredibly powerful in the life of your husband. You are an amazing influence in the lives of your children, adult, or still at home. In fact, I would go so far as to say that for the average man, no one’s opinion of him matters as much as his wife’s.

Mothers, I have one point this morning – in hopeless times God works in surprising ways.

Today’s Story

The book of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel primarily tells the story of three men: Samuel, Saul, the first king of Israel, and David, the second and great king of Israel. You should read it as a continuation of the dark stories in the Old Testament book of Judges. Other than Genesis, these two books give us more stories than any other of the Old Testament books. The two books cover about a century and a half of history. These are dark days when everyone in the nation of Israel was doing what was right in their own eyes. The story begins approximately 3,000 years ago in an obscure village in the hills country of Ephraim, or in the middle of the 1100s BC. We can zoom in to 1 Samuel 1, a bit like Google Earth does, and we can zoom right down to a place called Ramah, or Ramathaim-zophim in verse one. We’re not too sure where that is. It could be on the west coast near Tel Aviv, or it could be just a few miles north of Jerusalem. This is the story of how Samuel, one of the main characters of this part of the Bible, came to be.

A Man with Two Wives

We see “a certain man” who had two wives and our attention is brought immediately to a humble woman who is unable to have children. Now Hannah’s inability to have children forms the cradle of the story. Her name is “Hannah” which means, “favored one.” The family has no social standing and they were little known in their day. Because his first wife “Hannah” was unable to have children, it’s likely that “Elkanah” (El kan ah) married a second wife. The Bible says it so simply in the beginning of verse two: “He had two wives” (1 Samuel 1:2).

Although in Old Testament times God tolerated polygamy, the Bible never portrays it in a good light. God’s original plan is for one man and one woman to be committed in marriage for life. One man and one woman for one life – that’s marriage. Any violation of that plan, whether several wives at the same time or a succession of wives (or husbands) due to divorce, creates problems. A wise man once said, “Better to live with two tigers than to live with two wives.”

Marriage, the Piece of Paper

Marriage has fallen on hard times in our day. Indeed, one of the most common things said today of marriage is this: “Why do we need a piece of paper in order to love one another?” Marriage, it is thought, doesn’t need a paper from the government to say I love you. But think of the marriage ceremony for just a moment. Today, thousands of dollars are spent to celebrate the love where two people say, “I love you” to one another. Yet, marriage is more than the feeling of romantic love. Yes, marriage in the Bible is a place of deep emotion. But marriage is more, not less, than deep emotion. If marriage were only romantic feelings for one another, then we wouldn’t come together to celebrate the wedding. No one of us is going to throw a big celebration for when a man feels romantic feelings for a woman. A rush of romantic feelings happens in cheap hotels and in Las Vegas all the time. No one throws an expensive wedding shower, reception, and dinner to celebrate a rush of emotions. Marriage in the Bible is more than deep emotions. To say, “I don’t need a piece of paper to love you” is to say, “My love for you has not reached the marriage level.” For Mothers to flourish, there needs to be an awakening in the marriage.

Hannah

“Hannah” sadness was all the more compounded when her husband’s second wife was able to produce numerous children for him. Her inability to have children is compounded with the rivalry of “the other women.” “And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.” (1 Samuel 1:6) To complicate matters, Elkanah favored the wife without children over the wife who had all the children. This led to jealousy and rivalry between the two women. Did Elkanah have both wives under the same roof, or were there two homes where he went back and forth between them? No matter, you can imagine the conversation with Peninnah’s children. One of the children says to Peninnah, “Mommy, why does Auntie Hannah not have any children?” Peninnah says, “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her? But, you know, I think it’s because God has cursed her.”