Hannah: The Power of One Praying

I just should say perhaps that this actually, what we're reading about, occurs really at the beginning of the Book of Ruth, which is also contemporaneous with the end of the Book of Ruth. It's not really chronological. The last several chapters of Ruth actually go back, we could show that very clearly.

Third generation of individuals are marked out in Moses' grandson and Aaron's grandson are all active in the end of the Book of Judges. So Samuel and the beginning of Judges, the end of Judges, and the Book of Ruth all occur roughly about the same time. So keep that in mind because I think it's pertinent what we're going to be looking at.

Verse number one. There was a certain man of Ramath-Zophim, of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeraham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph and Ephrathite. He had two wives.

The name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other was Panina. And Panina had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh.

And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the Lord, were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Panina, his wife, all her sons and her daughters' portions. Unto Hannah he gave her a worthy portion, or a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shed up her womb.

Her adversary also provoked her sore to make her fret because the Lord had shed up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat.

Then said Elkanah, her husband, to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? Why eatest thou not? Why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after that they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. And Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. She was in bitterness of spirit, of soul, and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.

And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaiden, and remember me and not forget thine handmaiden, but give unto thy handmaiden a man-child, then I will give unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. What she's saying there, just so you understand, she's consecrating him as a Nazarite. He's going to be a Nazarite from the womb, and it means she's going to sacrifice him back to the Lord to live for God and not for her family.

Verse number 12, and it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord, Eli marked her mouth. And then what follows is Eli's rebuke. He thinks she's drunk and he rebukes her.

And she says in verse 16, count not thine handmaiden for a daughter of Eliah, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken thereto. Then Eli realizes his mistake and he blesses her and she goes her way no more sad. And we read then in verse 19, they rose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned and came to their house in Ramah.

And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her, wherefore came to pass when the time was come, about after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son. She called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked unto the Lord. Then Elkanah goes up yearly to the feast again, and he wants to take his wife and Samuel with her.

But she realizes he's not ready for that. She's going to leave him with wicked men there and a very act of faith, but she realized she needed to prepare him for what he would face there in Shiloh. But then in verse 24, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her and three bullocks and one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh.

The child was young, and they slew a bullock, brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, the Lord that giveth me my petition, which I asked of him, therefore have I also lent him to the Lord.

As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord. And he or they worship the Lord there. Then we have in chapter 2, Hannah's prayer, Hannah's song, so I'll just have to abbreviate it.

Verse 1, Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation.

There is none holy as the Lord, none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God, and so on. So then she praises God for his goodness, his virtues. Look down the chapter at verse number 10.

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.

He shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Now just stop there for a moment. That word anointed really is the word Messiah.

That's the first mention of the Messiah in the word of God. Now I know there are other references to Christ, but this is the first mention of the word Messiah in the scriptures. God will bless the public reading of his word.

If nothing else, I want you to take away from this the value of one woman praying. The value of one woman praying to God. Women appear at crisis points in the history of the children of Israel and the history of the word of God.

Think with me just for a moment of some of the women that have appeared here before. For example, what about Jochebed, the mother of Moses? With her faith, her wisdom, her courage, she preserves her son Moses and eventually he becomes the great leader of the nation and brings them out of bondage. There's also a woman later on in the scripture, Jehoshabiah, when at a very critical time there was a wicked woman named Athaliah and she was reigning as the heir owner to the throne.

The house of David was reduced to one small infant child by the name of Joash. She took him away when Athaliah was destroying all the seed royals. She hid him in the temple for seven years.

All the hopes and promises of God, all the prophecies concerning the house of David all hung upon one thin slender thread, one little infant child hidden by Jehoshabiah in the temple for seven years and she brought him out and he became the king and she was put to death. So women appear at critical times. Ruth herself, as we considered in the previous weeks, appears here and brings great truth to bear upon us and a reminder of the fact that God in his sovereignty works towards bringing his people into the line of the Christ.

But here now we have Hannah and we see not only the prominence of women in the scripture, their place at critical moments, but also their praise, their worship. They're marked by worship. In fact, here the prayer, the worship of Hannah, the song of Hannah in chapter 2 can be compared to the Anna of the New Testament or to Mary in chapter 1 of Luke.

Both are marked by similar expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God for his goodness. But I want you to think first of all of the sorrow, the sorrow that burdened Hannah. First of all, there was the condition of the nation.

As I mentioned, what we're looking at here is the beginning of Judges, the end of Judges when every man was doing that which was right in his own eyes, no king and so on, sin, internecine rebellion, warfare, hatred, idolatry, all were rampant in the nation of Israel. So the condition of the nation was a great burden to her. Remarkable that Alcana continued to go up to the temple even though, if we continue to read and we find what was happening in the temple, that Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas were actually taking the sacrifices that people brought to God and taking from those sacrifices what they wanted for their own appetites, for their own pleasure.

It was a time of great immorality, of great idolatry. In fact, the sons were committing immorality at the very temple door, not temple but really it was really the tabernacle. So it was a time of idolatry, immorality, iniquity, everything was wrong.

The condition of the nation. What about the circumstances of her own life? First of all, the Lord had shut up her womb. Not just a matter of she was an infertile woman but the Lord had shut her womb.

Why? Why does God allow circumstances in life that are so contrary, so unexpected, so difficult to cope with? Could I suggest to you, we'll see two things here, we'll see number one, there was a nation that was barren. God was getting nothing from the nation. Here's a woman who's getting nothing as well, she's barren as well.

God is impressing her with the barrenness of the nation as a result of the barrenness of her own womb. We'll see that as she comes to, not just a rivalry between her and Penina, but she really wants a child for God, a child for the nation. So the first thing is, God caused her to experience barrenness because he was experiencing barrenness from the nation.

Secondly, she had a rival, Penina, who threw it in her face every day, I've got children, you don't. Now of course you have to go back now, understand the culture of the day, that to be barren was a sign that God was not happy with you, God was judging you, God was penalizing you. Now they had reason for that.

In the book of Deuteronomy it said that disobedience would lead to barrenness. Disobedience would lead to barrenness in the nation and barrenness in the home. So that there was some scriptural basis, but nevertheless here was a woman faced with a rival who was daily mocking her and scorning her because she was barren.

So number one, God was impressing her with the barrenness of the nation and her own barren through her own barrenness. Secondly, God had a rival. God was being rivaled by all the idols in the country, all the idols in the nation.

So God was experiencing rivalry in a sense. Now she has to experience it as well. So she is beginning to understand something of what God was experiencing himself.

We can just stop there because really, if we can grasp that trials and difficulties come in our life, we often think of them as for the sake of our maturing, which is true, sake of our spiritual growth, which is true, for God's ultimate purposes, which is true. But really here are trials that are making her understand how God feels, to appreciate the heart of God, to appreciate something of the very essence of the sorrow and grief that God was experiencing. So, tremendous thing to think that God was allowing this for her sake.

So the barrenness of the nation, the rivalry with Peninnah. Also a third thing. Now I don't know how you view what Elkanah says to his wife.

Am I better to you than ten sons? I gather he is a bit insensitive. Not a very good husband in this sense. I mean, he was trying his best.

But he is insensitive to the real burden and care of this woman's heart. So why does God allow that? I mean, God allows insensitivity sometimes. Well, at the very best.

Most of us as spouses are poor. We are poor replicas of the original copy that God intended. We fail in so many ways.

Why does God allow that? God wanted her to find everything in Him rather than her husband. I have to remember, and I frequently mention this to young couples who are getting married and in times of marriage counseling. Never look to your spouse to meet all of your needs.

They can't. You only can look to the Lord. He is the only one that can meet every need you have.

He may use your spouse. He may allow your spouse to meet some of those needs. But ultimately we need to find everything in Him.

And so she was being taught here this great lesson. That she must learn to find everything in her God rather than in her husband. Even though he meant well, even though what he said he thought was going to be a comfort to her, it really wasn't what her soul desired.

She desired a man-child to give to God. So we have that here. Lastly, God allowed this trial to go on year after year.

Not every trial has a date on the calendar you can circle and say that's when it's going to end. There are people who have lifelong burdens. Lifelong disabilities, lifelong problems to cope with.

We need to be sensitive to that. Her problem went on year by year, year by year. She was made to feel the burden.

There's this expression that she used back in the book of Genesis when Joseph was thrown into prison. After the dream interpreted to the butler and the baker, you recall, it says he was left there two full years of days. That's the expression used in the margin of your Bible.

Two full years of days, meaning day after day. Years don't pass as years. They pass as days.

They pass as hours. They pass as moments. So trials are protracted.

Trials are lengthy. Trials are burdensome. So here's a woman facing a trial that's just stretching out year after year, wondering why, why.

I think the reason was God was bringing her to a point where instead of a rivalry with Penina, instead of having a child to throw in the face of Penina, she really is focusing on what God really wants, a child to use for his glory. So she comes to this point in time where she makes this vow before the Lord. So we see her sorrow that burdened her.

Then we see the spirit that marked her, a submissive spirit. Can you imagine what this will be like? You are pouring out your heart in devotion to God. I mean, here's a woman who was burdened.

She is probably one of the most spiritual women in the country at this moment in time. And the high priest, who's supposed to be marked by compassion, by sympathy, by support, says, you're just a drunken woman. Why are you drunk so early in the day? Quite a blow.

Quite an insult. Yet, how submissive she is. No word of rancor.

No word of retaliation. Nothing at all would suggest her anger with him. I mean, here was a man who had two sons who were not only drunken but immoral, idolaters.

She doesn't say a word about it. Doesn't throw it in his face. No suggestion at all that she is angry with him or going to rebuke him in turn.

What right had he to have to rebuke her when he couldn't rebuke his own sons? But nevertheless, we see her submissive spirit. She's more discerning, more spiritual, more godly than Eli himself. And yet, she quietly bows to his position.

She respects his position as a leader. And she is going to show her character by how she responds. She is going to give character to her sons, to her son rather, to Samuel.

A woman who knew what it was to pray. Remarkable that she produces a praying son. A praying mother leads to a praying son.

You're familiar with the name of John and Charles Wesley, both of them. One a great preacher, the other a great hymn writer. Both of them, their mother was Susanna Wesley.

Now, it is reported that Susanna Wesley spent each birthday of her children. And she had quite a number, not just two. I think she had about a dozen.

She spent each birthday spending the day in prayer for her children. Little wonder that they turned out as they did. A woman of prayer, Susanna Wesley.

So, while we appreciate many, we sang one of the hymns of Charles Wesley just at the end there, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. We sang one of his hymns. John Wesley, a great preacher of the 1800s.

Nevertheless, here we have the great truth of a woman who was marked by prayer is going to bring forth a son marked by prayer. The other thing of interesting to me is her father was marked by consistency. Failure, I know in some sense, but consistency.

He went up year by year to the tabernacle to offer his sacrifices. Marked by consistency. You know what marks Samuel? Consistency.

He goes in a circuit year by year. We could read that at the end of chapter three. Judging Israel, he goes in a circuit year by year.

Marked by absolute consistency in his life. In fact, at the end of his life, he could challenge the nation. Who among you can point to anything I have done? Who among you can say I ever taken a bribe? Ever done anything illegal? Absolute consistency in his life.

So, a man marked by consistency has his son marked by consistency. A woman marked by prayer has a son marked by prayer. So, we're reminded then of the tremendous influence of family upon a child.

So, we have Hannah in her great submission, her submissive spirit. So, we have her sorrow, her submission. Just a word or two about her supplication that she breathed out before the God, before the Lord.

This prayer that marked her. It was motivated, first of all, by the barrenness of the nation. Now, I have to be careful.

God has blessed us. We are richly blessed. But as you look around and think of everything, condition of society, here we are gathered.

Barrington, we just took Barrington, a town of 10,000 people. How many people are here? 50? 60 if we count those downstairs? I have to confess, we are barren in many ways. We're not seeing the fruit we should see.

There was a day in the history of the church when people were being added daily to the church. When the word of God was prospering daily, we hardly see it yearly. There's barrenness amongst us.

Here's the one who felt the barrenness of the nation and it led her to pray. Not only the barrenness of the nation, but the blight on the altar. God wasn't getting anything from the nation.

God wasn't getting the worship he deserved. God was not getting what he deserved from the people. Two sons of Eli, Huffling and Phineas, were taking everything that was brought to the altar and God was not getting his portion.

I don't want... Our brother mentioned this morning, we don't want to sound like we're putting other people down. I'm not putting other people down. I drive to the breaking of bread on Lord's Day morning.

You see people out walking, jogging, bicycling. I think God's not getting from their lives what he should get. They may not be getting from my life what he should get either.

But you don't understand what I'm saying. There are lives that are barren towards God. God's not getting what he deserves from every life.

Every life was meant to be lived for the glory of God. Every life was meant to render praise and worship to God, but God's not getting it from the vast majority of people and we seem so indifferent to it. Here's a woman who was concerned with the barrenness of the nation, the blight on the altar, the blindness of the leaders, the bondage they were into the Philistines.

All of this was a heavy burden to her and drove her to pray and led her to her decision and her sacrifice she's willing to make. Her prayer not only was motivated by these things, but it was marked by, first of all, the discipline of her prayer. And many of us men could learn from this.

It was short, specific, selfless and sincere. It's amazing. The longest prayer in the Bible, the longest prayer in the Bible, is Solomon's prayer of dedication, 1 Kings 7. It takes eight minutes to read it.

Eight minutes, that's all. That's the longest prayer. So anyone who prays longer than eight minutes, you can say, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Okay? Eight minutes is the longest prayer in the Bible. Most of the prayers of the Bible are short and specific and right to the point. And they're not about yourselves, not praying for someone's health, not praying for someone's job.

I mean, all that is good. We should do those things. But here's a woman who has a spiritual burden and she's praying about a spiritual need.

So our sisters should take care, I mean, our brethren as well, but our sisters especially, should take care of this. You have a tremendous opportunity to pray and bring about tremendous change in not only the assembly, but in the condition of our world around us. So we see the direction of her prayer.

She prays to the Lord. Doesn't just talk about it. We are great at talking about and analyzing and discussing our needs and our barrenness and the need.

She's praying about it, not just talking about it. Praise the God. She's speaking her heart.

This was genuine deep prayer. She poured out her heart before the Lord, it says. The tremendous devotion, tremendous sincerity that marks in her prayer.

I know we think of a prayer meeting as just for brethren. It's interesting that the only, one of the few places we have the order of a meeting given to us is in 1 Timothy chapter 2, the order of the prayer meeting. And we have sisters present.

And the sisters are present and they add weight to the prayers of the brethren by their demeanor, by their dress, by their character. They add weight. No time to go into that right now, but they add weight and value and consistency to what the brethren are praying for.

They are dressed modestly. They are dressed becomingly. They're not dressed in the latest, most expensive, most gorgeous things.

They're saying in effect that the spiritual is more important than the material. The inward is more important than the outward. And so they're giving character to the prayer of the brethren.

So we have then her prayer that is marked by its direction, its depth, its devotion and so on. Think of the sacrifice she brought. She comes and she brings her son.

She is giving her best. She's giving her son. Now this is almost like Abraham again, being repeated.

Not now upon an altar, but to the tabernacle. To offer him to the Lord as a sacrifice. To live forever as a Nazarite for God.

Not only was she giving her best, she was fulfilling her vow. She made a vow. She made a vow to the Lord.

Give me a child, he'll be a Nazarite from the womb. Interesting that we have a Nazarite from the womb in Samson, from Samuel and John the Baptist. Three Nazarites from the womb.

Here we have a man from the Nazarites from the womb. But notice that she brings her best, but she also brings a burnt offering. You may think, well I'm giving my best, why do I need to give God anything else? When we are giving our best, we still fall short of what Christ gave.

So we always bring what Christ gave. We always have to retreat into Christ. He gave God everything.

And so whether intelligently or not, she realizes, even though I'm giving my best, God deserves even more. God deserves even more for me than my best that I can give. And so I'm still deficient.

We're reading in Ephesians chapter five that Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice for a sweet smelling savor unto God. He is the burnt offering. He is a meal offering.

He gave God what we should have given God and what we should have given each other as men in the meal offering. He gave God everything because we're so bankrupt. So here, she's giving her very best and she's giving it to God intelligently.

And she does it with joy. She does it with joy. Not just begrudgingly.

Not just dutifully. Not just kind of, well, I made an agreement. I've got to go through with it, you know.

No. She does it with joy. Giving God our best with joy.

Our best time. Our best efforts. Our best labor.

Our best years. All of that with joy. Not with any sense of reluctance.

Any sense of regret. Quickly now, time has gone. Her song.

Well, I only have a few minutes. Just a couple of things. When she was giving her best, she did it with joy and did it with a song of praise.

She did it with worship in her heart. This song, if you look at the proportion, there's only one verse about her blessing. There's 11 verses about the greatness of God.

That's worship. Not just her blessing. But worshiping all that God is in himself.

It's the exact same thing with Mary's Magnificat in Luke chapter 1. There's just a brief one or two verses about what God has done for her. The rest of it is all about God's greatness. God's grace.

God's mercy. God's transcendence. All about God.

Not about herself. So we find here then, the true worship is occupation. Not just with my... Now, we need to be occupied with our blessings because they're incredible.

But true worship is getting beyond just what I have received. But as we stressed this morning, our brethren were stressing in their worship this morning, what God has received from Christ. All that God has gotten from him.

All that God is and God has revealed himself to be in Christ. All of that is what true worship is. Recognizing the worth.

The worthship of God and of Christ himself. So, she gives her son with joy and does it with a song of praise. She does it recognizing the greatness, the majesty, the transcendence of God and so on.

She gives God more than the entire nation and the priesthood was giving God. Eli couldn't praise God. Hophla and Phinehas were far from praising God.

The nation was far from praising God. Here's a woman, who in her praise, gives God more than the entire nation was giving. She knew God and she worshiped God and so on.

But I want you to think of where this prayer ends. This prayer ends with the Messiah. Your anointed.

The Messiah. So, she begins with sorrow that brings her to an appreciation of a coming Messiah. Every trial in life, every difficulty we face, every challenge we encounter, should like as it is with Hannah, lead us to a deeper appreciation of the Messiah.

All he is, all he is. And all he has done. So, we see that.

And exactly, it's actually the same exact theme that Anna in the New Testament comes to. She spoke of all that look for redemption. The Redeemer had come.

She wasn't thinking about herself so much, but about the Redeemer who had come. Mary likewise speaks about God and his greatness and what he has done for her and the coming of Christ to her. So, we have then women and their tremendous role in the purposes of God, in the purpose and plans of God.

So, again, to review. A woman that was marked by a burden. Her own barrenness.

Her own rival. The nation was barren and God had a rival. A woman whose husband was insensitive that cast her upon God to find all she needed just in him alone.

We see as well the concern she had for God's honor. There was no one to lead the nation. There was no one to restore the nation.

So, she asks for a Nazarite. Did she have any idea that she was asking for a Samuel? What a Samuel would do. It is remarkable to think of what some of you young men could do for God in your lives.

It's tremendous to think what God can accomplish through one man. Not that somehow any of us are great. But God used one man, Samuel.

The rest of the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel will bear testimony to it. God used one man, Samuel, to bring in a David to restore the nation, to bring in the Davidic dynasty, to lead to Christ. The tremendous value of a mother's prayer for her son, for her nation, for her people.

May God help us. May we as well be marked as people of prayer. Not just talking about problems.

Not just talking about barrenness. Not just talking about the need in our generation. But burdened and active and praying.

Crying to God. Willing to make sacrifices. I guess we could ask ourselves, like Hannah.

How much of a sacrifice am I willing to make to see God's work blessed in our midst? How much of a sacrifice am I willing to make to see the work of God honored and going further in our society? Hannah was willing to give everything. She only had one son at this point. Later on, God will give her more.

But at this point, one son. She was giving everything she had for God to be glorified and the people of God to be blessed. So we're confronted then with the great challenge of sacrifice for the purpose of the work of God.

Shall we pray? Our Father, we bow in Thy presence together. Thankful again for these lessons from Scripture. Thankful, Lord, for individuals like a Hannah that dot the landscape of Scripture.

That tell us and guide us and teach us valuable lessons relative to the work of God and the people of God. Help us, we pray, to learn from these lessons and to apply them to our lives. We do have great need here, Lord.

We do confess before Thee how barren we are, how rarely we see souls added, how limited we are in our outreach and how failing we are in our testimony personally. We own that before Thee to our shame. And thank Thee again for Thy long-suffering and Thy goodness to us.

Receive our thanks. Remember the meeting again this evening in the Gospel. Help our brethren to have that responsibility, we pray.

As we give thanks now in the Savior's worthy, precious name. Amen.