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November 15, 2009
“When God Heard Hannah”
I Samuel 1: 1-20 & 24-28
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The events that are described in our second lesson this morning occurred a little over 3,000 years ago. To get an over-view of the situation of Israel in those days you can take a look at chapters 6-21 of the book of Judges. I will summarize the contents of those chapters by saying that the situation of Israel was not good.
It had been about 300 years since the Israelites had entered the Promised Land. The Jews had conquered parts of the Promised Land and established cities and villages in their various territories. But they had not conquered all the land. In between their settlements there were still some of descendants of the old Caananite populations. One particular group, the Philistines was particularly strong and terrorized and occasionally ruled over the Jews who lived among and near them.
The Jews during this period were also attacked by the nations surrounding the Promised Land, the Moabites and Ammonites are mentioned among others.
This period was also marked by many of the Jews becoming practicing polytheists. In other words, they worshipped more than the God of Israel. And they sometimes worshipped the God of Israel with rites and feasts and rituals that God had forbidden.
So this period could be described as one in which the Israelites were attacked from without and crumbling from within. As you read the pages of the book of Judges you will find a repeating theme of five steps: 1)The Jews have fallen away from the true worship of God. 2)God raises up an enemy to punish them. (this enemy might come from within or from beyond their borders.) 3)The Jews cry out to God for help. 4)God answers their prayers by raising up in one of their territories a Judge, who is really more like a General, who defeats their enemy and brings in an a few years of peace. 5)After a few years, the Israelites again worship other Gods and/or worship the true God in forbidden ways. Then the cycle repeats.
There is a summary of the period of the judges that is given twice in the final chapters of the book of Judges. In 17: 6 and at the very end of the book in 21:25 you find this summary. It reads “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
It was into this unstable, apostate, politically weak culture that Samuel was born. You might have noticed that he was also born into what we 3000 years later would call a dysfunctional family. There was a father and a mother who had many children. There was also another wife who had no children. This situation alone could cause many problems, but to make matters worse, the husband had declared that he loved one of the wives more than the other. If there had been “reality” TV shows in those days, this would have been a great subject family.
The lesser-loved wife in the family used every opportunity to make the more loved wife feel inferior to her. The fact that she had born their husband many children while the favored wife had born him none gave her many opportunities. Even when they took their annual family vacation to Shiloh to worship at the tabernacle and offer sacrifices and eat big sacrificial meals there, the verbal and psychological abuse continued.
As a part of the sacrificial meal each wife was given the food for her children. Penninah was given several portions to give to her sons and daughters and one for herself. Hannah was given two portions, a double share, but still felt inferior to Peninah. This situation would usually make Hanna unable to eat any thing.
Her husband tried to console her, but with little success.
Every once in a while I have thought about writing down some of the stupid things that men have said to women. Ladies, we try to say appropriate and helpful things to you, but sometimes we can’t help saying stupid things. Anyway if I ever compose the book of the 1,000 most stupid things men have said to women, Elkanah, Hannah’s husband will be in there with “Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than 10 sons?” Even I know that children and husbands are two entirely different categories and one cannot make up for the loss or lack of the other.
Anyway, after the helpful comments from her husband, Hannah went to take her case to God. She went into one of the rooms adjacent to the tabernacle to pray. She was agitated and the High Priest Eli thought she was drunk and told her to put away her drunken ways. She explained her circumstances to Eli who then blessed her and hoped that God would grant her petition that God would allow her to have a son.
God answered her prayer and she gave birth to a son whom she named Samuel, because God heard her. She brought Samuel to the tabernacle when he was about 3 years old, and from his childhood on he was trained to serve God in the tabernacle. He lived there for most or all of his youth.
Now, given the political instability and the recurring apostasy of that time and place, I would imagine that a lot of prayers went up to God in those days. And when God heard Hannah’s prayer and gave her Samuel, it turned out that Samuel was also the answer to a lot of those other prayers.
Samuel would not spend his entire life in Shiloh at the Tabernacle. He would later move back to his hometown of Ramah. And from that place, he traveled throughout Israel and made some great changes in Israel.
He provided leadership at the Tabernacle for a while after the corrupt priesthoods of Eli and his two sons were brought to an end by God.
He also became the last judge, leading the Israelites to several decisive victories over the Philistines. And he became the first of the Great Prophets of Israel. As the last of the old order and the first of a new order, Samuel ushered in a new era of political stability and superiority for Israel. He announced God’s selections of those two men who would be the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. He would pave the way for David’s successful reign.
He would also purge a lot of the false Gods and false worship practices in much of Israel.
When God heard Hannah’s prayer and answered it, He blessed her and all of Israel by giving her Samuel as her first born son. Once Samuel served God in Israel things were never the same again.
I wanted to talk to you about Hannah and Samuel and God this morning as we have less then two weeks until Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons
First, I hope you will take advantage of this time of year as you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving to count your blessings. As you do, I hope you will look for some new blessings. You might see that some of them have come disguised as challenges. Some of your blessings might come in the form of people or children from dysfunctional families. Samuel was from one of those. Never turn your back on a blessing from God just because it comes from a surprising place or home.
Second of all, I hope you will be thankful for the prayers of abused, disadvantaged, frustrated, jobless, and/or homeless people in our day. When God answers their prayers, we might also be blessed by the answers he gives them. You might also have an opportunity to be a part of God’s answer to them. Look for these opportunities.
This Thanksgiving comes to us at a time when many have reasons not to be too thankful. As we offer our thanksgiving to God we need to remember those who need help from God and ask God to bless them so they will have reason to be more grateful next Thanksgiving.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at November 15, 2009 02:56 PM