One Woman's Faith

Introduction

A. At the end of Paul’s second letter to Timothy is a very personal wrap up to that letter. Listen to what Paul writes. “Do your best to come to me quickly (v.9).” “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. Bring my cloak. It’s starting to get cold. Bring me something to read. Do your best to get here before winter, because if you don’t hurry, the ports will be closed.” Do you think Paul was feeling alone, isolated, forgotten. Notice in verse 16 he says that people deserted him. This is the same word he had used in 1:15.

B. Deserted. Lonely. Isolated. Suffering. Death is approaching. And as Paul ends this letter he pleads with Timothy — Come quickly. Come soon. Come before it is too late. Even the apostle Paul needed to walk this life with someone. Who are you walking this spiritual journey with? Who would it be that you would call if you needed something. If you felt deserted, lonely, isolated, and you thought needed someone to share the burden with, who would you call? I suspect that for many of us, that person is right here in this room. Let’s stand up and greet our family. Find that person who you would call. Hug them. Tell them you love them. Express your thanks for being able to share this faith journey together.

C. Greeting.

The Text

A. Dwight and I begin a series today studying through and preaching through selected texts in 1 & 2 Samuel. We begin today with a story about frustration, hurt, and emptiness. A woman named Hannah wants to have a child. But she cannot. Month after month, year after year, she and her husband Elkanah have tried to have a child. It wasn’t from lack of trying. But no child. To make matters worse, Elkanah had married a second wife. The second wife had had numerous children with Elkanah. Jealousy existed in this home. To make matters worse Elkanah while trying to comfort his wife only made matters worse. Elkanah favored Hannah with double portions of the fellowship offering but that didn’t fill her empty heart or her empty womb.

B. On top of that Elkanah says those romantic words to his wife: Aren’t are worth more to you than 10 sons? We men just have a hard time. Telling our wife how blessed they are to have us usually isn’t very convincing. It would have been far better for Elkanah to say to Hannah “You mean more to me than 10 sons.” Even that wouldn’t take away the hurt but at least it might have emphasized the importance of the double portion.

C. In her emptiness, Hannah goes to the tabernacle in Shiloh and prays. In what was supposed to be yet another year of celebration before the Lord has turned into another year of being reminded that she has no child. It would be similar to Christmas with no children. What’s the point? Hannah sits with her family at this annual worship celebration. Elkanah gives her the double portion and then goes and plays with his children from the second wife. She is too empty of heart to eat. She leaves the celebration to go pray. This wouldn’t have been the first time. This is the prayer of quiet desperation. This is the prayer of one who has nothing left.

D. Hannah cries so much (v.10) that her face is contorted. Her nose is red. The tears flow freely. Yet, while her lips move no sound comes from those lips. And she begs God to give her a child. She bargains with God. She will make the boy child into a Nazarite — no wine drunk, hair never cut, no touching dead bodies. She begs. And as she pleads for God to take away her emptiness by filling her womb with life, she rocks. Eli, the high priest, thinks she is drunk. She is so empty she explains. Eli blesses her and send her on her way.

Application

A. Have you had a Hannah moment? Have you been so empty that you begged God to take it away? When our grief is so deep, who else can we turn to but God. Did her prayer take away her pain? Notice verse 18. Before the child was even conceived, things changed in Hannah’s empty heart. What brought about that change? I would suggest to you that it was combination of prayer and the blessing from Eli. This is what sharing the faith journey with others does for us. It doesn’t alleviate the pain, but it allows us to be uplifted in our heart. Pouring out our cares to God and having the blessing of another releases us from having the burden completely on our shoulders. It allows us to share the burden. Jan Yeager in her book on friendship tells of the time she called one of her friends to check on her. As the conversation ended the friend said, “Just hearing your voice makes me feel better.” Isn’t that what sharing the burdens of life allow us to do. This happened to Hannah as well.

B. Hannah has her son and true to her word she dedicates Samuel to God. According to verse 22, Samuel was to be left to serve in the tabernacle assisting Eli in his work as priest. Hannah dedicated her son to the Lord. We don’t practice dedication services when a baby is born. Perhaps we should. Not a christening but a prayer of dedication for a newborn. Because it is in the dedication of our children to the Lord that we have to dedicate ourselves as well. From the day Samuel was born, Hannah thought about raising that boy to love God; to serve God; to be in subjection to God. It must have been difficult for her to let go of her child at such an early age, but can you imagine the dedication it took on her part to carry through.

C. And that dedication led to praise. In 2:1-11, Hannah upon delivering her son for service to God utters a prayer of great praise and thanksgiving. She acknowledges that there is no one greater than God. That he is truly the holy one. Notice in verse 5. It isn’t that Hannah has had more children since Samuel’s birth. We know according to 2:21 that she has 5 more children. None of these replaced her first born. What she is insisting is that she has found great satisfaction in the birth of the one. The triumph of this prayer is found in the fact that Hannah knows that God is the one who are taken away her emptiness and given her a contentment that she never knew before.

D. Here is the lesson for us. Real joy and contentment is found when our lives are set on honoring God. Jack Higgins, author of such successful novels as The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: “That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.” Joy is found when we dedicate ourselves to the Lord. Invitation.

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