1 Samuel 1 Desperation in Dark Times

 

Introduction

Does God care?

Both our personal experiences and the state of the world today may cause us to wonder.

But if God does care about this world, and the individuals in it, then it would be foolish to live as though that were not true. And it would be equally foolish to imagine that God’s concerns must be the same as ours. It is all too easy to make God in our own image- often seeing Him as nothing more than a kindly grandpa there to grant our requests or cheer us on as we follow our own desires.

So, if God really does care we would be wise to listen and learn from His interactions with His People. There we see precisely what He cares about and how He has expresses His care.

These are some of the concerns of 1 Samuel Chapter 1. There we see that the circumstances of Israel in Hannah’s day, as well as Hannah’s personal disappointments, caused this faithful woman to cry out to God in distress. And then see Hannah’s response to God’s gracious intervention; so we can understand our passage this way:

Desperation in Dark Times

Desperate Cry of a Distressed Heart

Total Devotion to God

 

Today we consider the anguished cries of a childless woman. But we must remember our story is also about the fortunes of Israel- a spiritually barren nation. And ultimately it is the story of God working in dark times to fulfil His purposes and bring blessing- a blessing that calls His People to respond with devotion.

Let us begin our story by considering Hannah’s… Desperation in Dark Times

In the opening verses of 1 Samuel, we see there is desperation in dark times. There is domestic desperation, in Hannah’s childlessness, and there is darkness in the nation- there is no king and anarchy reigns. But there is hope, God is at work; indeed, He will use the desperation of faithful Hannah to bring true blessing.

At the very start we are plunged right into a family story. In verse 1 we meet Elkanah and in verse 2 we read:  He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. Notice how Peninnah’s fertility and Hannah’s infertility are simply stated, but they had a major impact on the whole family.

Childlessness is a painful experience for anyone, in any time. It can provoke a multitude of emotions- anger, envy, distress- and bring all kinds of burdens. Hannah would have experienced all of this and more in her day.

Barrenness had added meaning in Hannah’s day. The promise of a Saviour to Adam, in Genesis 3, meant that every new birth raised the question: Would this be the promised Saviour? Without children there was no future for God’s People and ultimately no hope for the world. So childless women were often excluded and deprived of much needed emotional support.

In verses 3 to 8 more light is shed on the domestic arrangements of this family. Elkanah is portrayed as a sincere man who sought to do right by his family and religion. In verses 4 and 5 we see Elkanah loved Hannah and sought to comfort her in her distress, but he didn’t neglect Peninnah her children in the process.

In contrast to Elkanah’s exemplary conduct, Peninnah’s actions are described in verse 6:

⁶ Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 

We can imagine the harsh and hurtful words. ‘What have you got to thank the Lord for, Hannah? Why are you coming here to give thanks to the Lord when the one thing you want he won’t give you! Isn’t it obvious that he does not care about you?’.

All this was Hannah’s bitter portion, month by month and year by year. Most of us can only imagine the desperation Hannah felt.

But even at the beginning this story, there are signs of hope for Hannah. Notice again what verse 5 says:

⁵ But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 

Hannah’s barrenness was clearly acknowledged by all as part of God’s plan. And, instead of resenting God’s hard providence, Hannah trusted in God’s eternal faithfulness. Hannah’s hope was in the Lord and His gracious sovereignty.

Hannah entrusts her story to God. Indeed, Hannah saw her story as part of God’s greater dealing with the nation of Israel. In Hannah’s anguish she trusted that God was using her desperation to work Israel’s deliverance from the dark times of the Judges.

And there was indeed darkness in the nation- everyone is doing what they want because there is no king. But God would raise up King David through the prophet Samuel, Hannah’s son. And through David would come Jesus, Mary’s son. In the darkness there was hope. Hope for Hannah. Hope for Israel. Hope for all God’s Chosen People.

We may never know how God works through our most desperate times to do amazing Gospel work. But we do know God, and we know from His Word that ‘…for those who love God all things work together for good…’. So we can have confidence in God’s purpose in our lives.

Hannah’s hope lay in the Lord, whose whole record of dealing with Israel was one of loving kindness and glorious grace. Our true hope, in all our trials, and especially in the burden of our guilt for sin, is that same God- the God who showed His loving kindness and glorious grace for us at the Cross.

Rather than resenting God’s perfect ways our doubting His holy character, Believers must remember that God is holy, so all His deeds are holy; God is good, so He intends our sorrows for good; and God is filled with mercy for the broken-hearted. God does not seek to destroy us through our trials but to save us.

So, there may be desperation in dark times- whatever those times may be- but there is also hope.

And it is this hope that caused Hannah to cry out to God in prayer…

Desperate Cry of a Distressed Heart

Hannah, who has so far been the passive recipient of the actions of others (of the Lord’s closing of her womb, of Peninnah’s taunts, and of Elkanah’s words of comfort), now acts; in verse 9 we read:

⁹ Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. 

Hannah was not seeking Eli. She was seeking the Lord in prayer- an action that would change not only her life but the life of the nation and, indeed, if we dare to see it, the history of the world.

The depth of Hannah’s distress is clearly portrayed; in verse 10 we read:

¹⁰ In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 

Hannah was a deeply unhappy woman. But she was also a faithful woman. Out of her misery and through her tears, Hannah cried out to God- the God Hannah knew had closed her womb.

There is a special logic behind Hannah’s action. We might call it the ‘logic of faith’. To know that your suffering has come, ultimately, from God’s hand could lead to fatalism, or to resentment. But this is not the logic of faith.

Faith in God means knowing and trusting God’s sovereignty and His goodness toward us. Faith in God, therefore, leads us in our troubles to pray to the God who is sovereign over all things. That is what Hannah did.

Hannah’s prayer is a model for us, starting with the simple fact that she turned to the Lord in her need. She believed that He had ‘closed her womb’ and He was the only one who could open it. While others couldn’t possibly envision the possibility that God would have a purpose in her childlessness, Hannah saw things differently and acted accordingly.

Hannah’s faith, expressed in prayer, was not make-believe. It was confidence based on a knowledge of who God is and how God works. Notice how she prays in verse 11:

¹¹ And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

Here Hannah, echoing the language of God’s deliverance of Israel when He ‘saw’ and ‘remembered’ His People in Egypt, Hannah begs God to do for her what He had done for Israel. She was asking God to act the way we had always acted for His People: to bring deliverance in distress.

The language of Hannah’s prayer also reinforces the idea that Hannah’s experience can be seen as a reflection of Israel’s condition. ‘Misery’ would not be an apt word to describe Israel’s experience at the beginning of 1 Samuel. We will see that God’s response to Hannah’s need will turn out to be also His response to Israel’s need.

Hannah’s prayer took the form of a vow. But Hannah here is not bargaining with God, offering something to God to get what she wanted from God. Rather, what she wanted was a child from God to offer to God- a child who would wholeheartedly serve the Lord.

Notice how Hannah’s prayer had the following elements:

She addressed God in terms that acknowledged His majesty: ‘Lord Almighty’. She knew who God was- the cosmic ruler, sovereign over all powers, the great God of the universe- and she spoke with Him accordingly.

She approached God in terms that acknowledged her place before Him: ‘your servant’. She knew who she was before God. All true prayer is like that, too. We can only speak to God humbly.

She made her request known to God humbly and clearly. She came to God knowing what she deeply desired and then asking for it. Likewise, in our prayers we should remember James 4 verse 2: You do not have, because you do not ask.

Notice that Hannah’s prayer did not rely on religious buzzwords or ritual formula. She simply knew the Lord, believed His promises, and prayed to Him for what she needed. This is the benefit of knowing God, including His attributes, His character, and His saving deeds. Hannah was able to pray confidently because she knew the God to whom she prayed.

And this meant that Hannah could cry out to God from the depths of her distress. She knew that her God was big enough to handle her tears- that He permits His People to come to Him honestly. Our Lord can handle our tears; it won’t make Him nervous or uncomfortable. Prayer, ultimately, is pouring out our hearts to God.

And prayer is powerful and effective.

Hannah’s prayer changed things. In verse 18 we hear how prayer changed Hannah. Now she was no longer weeping, no longer refusing her food, no longer sad. She had cast all her anxiety on the Lord, knowing that He cared for her, and God had exalted her.

In due course, God answered Hannah’s prayer; in verses 19 to 20 we read:

…Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

As we said to the children earlier, names have meaning. Wherever Samuel went and whatever he did, Samuel’s name testified to a great and important truth about God: when God’s People humbly ask, the Lord hears and answers with mercy and grace. God calls us to know this truth today and to cast our burdens on Him, believing that He hears and answers.

We have seen the desperation in dark times and we have considered the desperate cry of Hannah’s distressed heart. We finish, more briefly, by considering Hannah’s…

Total Devotion to God

Hannah can now truly say that she is a ‘favoured one’- she is living up to her name because of God’s intervening. But how will she respond now that she holds Samuel in her arms? Again Hannah is a model of faith and faithfulness. In verses 21 to 28 we see her total devotion to God as she fulfils her vow.

Several aspects of Hannah’s response to Samuel’s arrival explain why she was willing to display this devotion and keep such demanding a vow. First, it is clear that Hannah’s godly behaviour is stimulated by gratitude to the Lord. We see this in her explanation in presenting Samuel to Eli in verses 27 and 28:

 ²⁷ I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.

Notice the sequence: I am giving him to God because God gave him to me.

Likewise, all true Christian service is given to God by thankful Believers for His gracious provision. God’s grace rightly demands that we respond by giving back to the Lord. All that God gives us belongs to Him and is intended for our good and for His glory.

Hannah was not only grateful, but faithful in fulfilling her vow. We see in verses 21 and 22 that Hannah was determined to fulfil her vow and was careful to act in such a way that she would fulfil her obligation to God. She would not return to the tabernacle until she was ready to leave Samuel there.

As people who rely on God’s promises, Christians should be careful to keep our own. Regardless of difficulties, our chief desire should be to remain faithful to our duties and obligations before the Lord.

Finally, Hannah showed great generosity in the way she fulfilled her vow. In verse 24 we see that instead of doing the minimum required to keep her vow, she offered the most she could manage. She gave a generous offering. But her greatest generosity was offering her son.

The proper response to her answered prayer was dedication of Samuel to the Lord’s service. The faith that receives God’s gifts also entrusts those gifts to God’s Kingdom purposes.

Today we can trust the Lord by offering all He has given to us in service of Him. The generosity we have been shown at the Cross calls us to totally devote all we have to the cause of Christ knowing that God is no man, or woman’s debtor.

We can learn much from Hannah’s attitude of gratitude, faithfulness, and generosity, and in her zeal to offer her son to God’s service. And while there are aspects of Hannah’s situation that are unique to her, we also realise that every Believer is called to give to the Lord and serve in the cause of the Gospel.

So how do we go about offering our gifts and service to God?

Hannah models three principles:

she acknowledged that what she offered came from the Lord and rightly belonged to Him;

her offering involved considerable preparation and effort;

and she presented herself and her offering not in light of her own merits but on the basis of God’s mercy and grace.

So, we are to respond to God’s grace in Jesus Christ by offering ourselves to God gratefully, faithfully, and generously. Let us leave this place resolved to hand over our lives completely and unreservedly, trusting that God can do with us much more than we could ever image.

 

Conclusion

 

Today we live in dark times- when everyone does as they want. But we live with hope because God is sovereign and good and longs to hear His People in true prayer. In our distress we can cry out to God and know that He is working out His sovereign purposes in our lives and in our world. Our role is to be totally devoted to God- heart, soul, mind, and strength- and entrust all that we are and have to the One who gave us His Son, His only Son, to free us from sin and give us fullness of life.