Let us turn in our Bibles to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel, if you would. The history of Israel's kings. And I'm going to give you one simple theme that's going to hang over everything else we do in First Samuel. And the simple theme is this. You need a king. You need a king, and it's not you, and it's not somebody else. It's the Lord. Right, That's. I'm going to spoil the ending of First Samuel. You need a king and it's not you. And this is not just old dead history from thousands of years ago. This is our story. This is true for them, but it is true for us. We need a king.
And so on Sunday mornings over the fall, we're going to be looking at this theme in First Samuel. And then in our home groups, we're going to be studying the Gospel of Mark. I want to explain why we're doing that. If first Samuel shouts @ us, you need a king and it's not you. The Gospel of Mark will tell us. And here he is, it's Jesus Christ. So we're going to be in the Old Testament seeing our need for a king, and then hopefully in our groups seeing who he is, seeing Jesus, our king.
But we're going to begin where First Samuel begins. And it's in a surprising place. I bet you anything that you do not think the history of the great kings of Israel is going to start here. First Samuel. We're just going to read verses one and two and then walk through the rest of it together. First Samuel, verse one. This is God's word. There was a certain man of Ramathaim, Zophim of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jerohoim, the son of Elihu, So son of Tohu, son of Zuf and Ephrathite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah. The name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
And Lord, we pray your blessing over the preaching and the hearing of your word today in your presence. Amen.
Friends, what turns the course of history in the world is probably not what you think. It is probably far smaller than you think. And what will turn the course of Your life and your personal history is probably not what you think, and it's probably far smaller than you think.
A number of years ago, as a kid, I remember seeing the USS Midway in the San Diego harbor. Anybody else seen the Midway in San Diego? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to miss if you're in San Diego. Like, what's the giant island of metal floating in the harbor? And it's impressive. It is massive. It is over a thousand feet long. At full capacity, it housed over four feet, thousand crew members. It weighs about 60,000 tons. Fully equipped, it has 18 decks. And I was curious this week. What does it take to control a floating metal city? How many controls does the USS Midway have? Well, if you count up all the gears and knobs and buttons and valves, we actually don't know. There's just too many of them. The best estimate I got online was roughly 50,000 controls, right? If you count up all the little valves and valves and buttons and everything, all that. 50,000, give or take a few buttons. One giant hunk of metal. 60,000 tons. 50,000 controls. And there is one small piece of metal that controls everything. That is the helm. Right now. I don't know what you expected to find for an aircraft carrier. I thought maybe the helm would be, like, really big and it would take, like, three guys to turn it, you know, or something. Or it would have this, you know, real impressive giant steering chassis. No, it's just a wheel. It's just a. It just looks like a ship's wheel. It's just one piece of metal among thousands of tons of metal. One control over thousands of controls. And yet that one thing is. Controls the entire ship. That one thing decides if it's going to Japan or South America. One thing.
6 · Applies the Midway metaphor to the listener's life: amid countless daily decisions and responsibilities, we frantically try to fix our direction by changing external circumstances (job, location, habits) without addressing the one decisive control—our relationship to the Lord
And our lives today can feel a lot like being on the USS Midway in this way, right? We have 50,000 choices, give or take, in our lives, right? We are. We are looking at all of these things. Our budgets, our commutes, our job descriptions at work, our families, our phone calls, our emails, our messages, all of that stuff. And maybe sometimes we find we are headed in the wrong direction in life. And so all of a sudden, we go, oh, my goodness, I am not going where I want to go. And so we start hitting buttons, we start throwing valves. We're like, maybe I need a new workout plan. Maybe that's what I need. Maybe I need a. You know what? We should move, honey. We should move. We need. The problem is this house. The problem is this city. The problem is this job. I got to get out of this job. If I can just get out of this job, then everything will be fine. We start hitting buttons, throwing switches, and to our surprise, six months later, it doesn't seem like we're going anywhere. Our lives feel like this. We need one crucial thing that turns everything else.
7 · Pivots from the illustration to the biblical text, promising that Hannah will model the decisive turn despite her overwhelming circumstances
And here's the good news. In First Samuel, chapter one, Hannah, this woman gives us that one thing. There is a lot going wrong in her life. She has a physical issue that's painful, embarrassing, and hard to deal with. She, as we're going to see, is in a deep rivalry of being cajoled and abused by this other woman. She lives in a broken country. She has what appears to be a weak husband. But she does one thing, she finds one thing that turns the course of her life and turns the course really of all of Israel's history.
8 · Announces the sermon's three-part structure: the descent, the turn, and the lift
And we're going to look at this in three sections today. I'm going to describe the movement of the text in three sections. First, the descent. That's the first movement, the descent.
9 · Traces the biblical pattern of descent from Genesis: creation was good and fruitful under God's kingship, but Adam and Eve chose autonomy (doing what was right in their own eyes), resulting in darkness and barrenness
Now, I want to zoom out for just a second from Hannah's situation to look at the landscape of the whole Bible. In the beginning, things were good. In the beginning, God created a good, fruitful and blessed kingdom where he is the king. And he gives Adam and Eve reign, in a sense, over creation. And yet they choose not to follow him. They choose to do what is right in their own eyes, not in God's eyes. They choose sin and rebellion, and the world descends into darkness and barrenness.
10 · Narrows from universal history to Israel's history: God rescued them from Egypt to a promised land of blessing, setting them up for a golden age
So we zoom from the whole world history now into the history of Israel. In this world of darkness and barrenness, God rescues a people. God brings this people out of slavery in Egypt, where. Where he promises to bring them to a promised land, a land of blessing. And he does this. He brings them to the promised land, he gives it over to them. And it seems like Israel, man. They are set up for a golden age. And God is going to recreate his kingdom with this people, but it was not to be. In the Book of Judges, we find this ugly cycle where God's people, well, they do evil, and as a result, they are oppressed by others around them. And then they cry out to God for help, and God is faithful to save. And then soon after, they return right back to where they started. This land of fruitfulness and blessing becomes a place of famine. And even by the end of Judges, of civil war, not just fighting those outside, fighting themselves.
11 · Identifies the diagnostic statement from Judges 21:25 as the root problem: no king in Israel, everyone doing what was right in their own eyes
And the statement that hangs over the Book of Judges is the very last verse in the book, Judges 21, 25 gives us what's wrong at the heart of this people. And it's this. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone decided, I'm going to do this. This is what I want. I don't care what anybody else wants. And in that, we see a glimmer of what of our first parents, Adam and Eve, doing what was right in their own eyes.
12 · Transitions from the national descent to Hannah's personal descent
Now, the darkness and barrenness of the nation, though, is reflected in a very personal way for this one woman named Hannah. We. We get only the, the smallest of details about her, but she's part of a nobody family, a certain man, meaning, like you haven't heard of him. There was just a guy, a certain guy. She's childless. She's another wife. She has no children.
13 · Pauses the exposition to establish two crucial hermeneutical principles for reading 1 Samuel: (1) the author gives what we need, not everything we want; (2) description is not prescription—the Bible records what happened without endorsing it
Now, two things we have to get used to right up front in First Samuel as we explore this book. First thing to orient you. First, the author does not always tell us everything we want to know. The author tells us what we need to know. There's a whole lot of background. I want to know about this situation like you probably do. What in the world? How did this happen? What is going on? What were they thinking? We're not told that, just that it happened. Second thing needs to orient us. The author will describe things but not prescribe them. Meaning the author will say this happened without saying, everyone should do this. Right? So 1st Samuel 1 is not like, hey, polygamy is great. In fact, you see the opposite there. It's described, not prescribed. And sometimes people will be like, well, I saw something in the Bible. Doesn't the Bible say to do that? No, the Bible described it, not prescribed it. Okay, Very important, especially in First Samuel.
14 · Reads and comments on 1 Samuel 1:3-7, detailing the family's annual worship pattern and the painful dynamic: Peninnah is fruitful and provokes Hannah; Elkanah loves Hannah but she is barren; the Lord has closed her womb
But the, the, the point is this. We're to understand that this family's brokenness is a reflection of the brokenness of the nation. And in fact, this, the. The most likely explanation for why this man took another wife in addition to Hannah is that Hannah could have no children. And so in desperation to continue his family and other reasons, he took another wife. So the barrenness of the land and the brokenness of the land is reflected in the brokenness and barrenness of this family. So let's pick up the story now in verse three. Now, this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were priests of the Lord on the day when Elkanah Sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. Notice how fruitful. There's lots of them. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore, Hannah wept and would not eat.
15 · Reads and comments on Elkanah's tone-deaf response to Hannah's grief in 1 Samuel 1:8
And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? This is side note. This is one of those. When your wife is looking at you like, why are you even asking this? Isn't the problem obvious? This is Elkanah, okay? You think when you tell your husband, you know why this is that moment. Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Oh, well, maybe because you took another wife and she's super fruitful and she's provoking me all the time. Why is your heart sad? And then he offers this small, sad consolation. Am I not more to you than 10 sons?
16 · Provides cultural background on the ancient importance of children: they were social security, community standing, national survival
Now, we don't understand this unless we understand the ancient importance of children, especially sons, because children were not just seen as a good thing. In our. In our culture, children are often seen as maybe a good thing, maybe if you choose to have them. But in the ancient world, children were not an optional good thing. Children were everything. Children were your standing in the community. Children were your protection as you got old or you blew out your knee for the first time or whatever. They were your social safety net. When you could no longer work, you lived with your children. There's no Israelite Social Security. They are your Social Security. And they were a matter of survival to the nation. The nation needed farmers to work the land. The nation needed warriors to protect the land. And therefore, all of the. All of the nation looked to how many sons did you have? How many children did you have? Would your line continue? Would you be protected? Could you protect the nation? All of that was wrapped up in children. But Hannah was barren. And in her barrenness, we're meant to see the larger problem. God's people really are barren. They did what was right in their own eyes, and this is the result.
17 · Applies the pattern from Israel and Hannah to the listener's life: we wrongly identify external circumstances (boss, spouse, location) as our main problem when the real problem is internal—we do what is right in our own eyes
Now, let me ask you today, what do you think the main problem in your life is right now? Is it your boss? Is it your spouse? One of your kids? Where you live? Your relationship with a particular family member? What is your main problem? Because until we. We Fix. The first Samuel is telling us, until we fix what is broken in us, we will never be able to fix what's broken around us. And so much of the time we look to try to fix what's broken around us, never looking to, well, what is broken and in us. You might have splintered relationships or money problems or relationship drama or workplace challenges, but none of them, none of them are the biggest problem in your life. Our biggest problem is the same problem of Israel. We each do what is right in our own eyes, and as a result, barrenness and brokenness follow us.
18 · Signals the shift from descent to turn, the second major section of the sermon
Now, thankfully, though, the text does not leave us there. Otherwise this could be a real short book. And it was bad the end, but it doesn't end there. So section number two, the turn, the turn, the decisive turn in the text. And this turn gives rise to the nation's salvation. This turn will give rise to the dynasty of David and Solomon. This turn will preserve the nation for the future Messiah. But it starts so small.
19 · Reads 1 Samuel 1:9-10 and identifies the decisive turn: Hannah rises and goes to the Lord in prayer
Look at verse nine. After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now, Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. Now, this is such a small, simple act, isn't it? It seems so mundane, so nearly unimportant. In a moment of distress and anguish, Hannah gets up and goes to the Lord. She gets up and goes to the Lord's house to pray. She gets up to pour out her heart to the Lord. This is a decisive turn, not just in her life and her family's life, but in the life of the nation of Israel. This turn will change everything. It is as though in this broken family, in a broken nation, Hannah sees the 50,000 controls, the 50,000 problems, the 50,000 leaks going on in the nation of Israel. And she's looking around and she could hit this and she could hit that. She could leave her husband, she could do this. She could get back at this other wife. She. All these things she could do, but instead, what does she do? She turns to the Lord.
20 · Applies Hannah's turn directly to the listener: when facing difficulty, do you try to fix everything else first (hitting buttons) or turn to the Lord as your first call? Challenges the congregation to examine whether prayer is their first resort or their last
Now, friend, where do you turn when things are difficult? Do you start hitting buttons? Or do you make the decisive turn that Hannah makes here? Do you go to the Lord? Do you go. This really challenged me this week. Do you go to the Lord as your last call, when you've exhausted all the others? Or your first call before you try anything else? This is what Hannah does. She goes to the Lord.
21 · Close reading of Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 1:11, focusing on two elements: (1) her address to God as 'Lord of Hosts' (king of armies, palaces, courts), and (2) her self-identification as 'your servant' repeated three times
And look at how she prays. In verse 11, she vowed a Vow and said, o Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head. Now notice two things in this decisive turn. First, notice the way she addresses the Lord. She uses the title O Lord of Hosts. Now that that title, Lord of Hosts, should really be sort of in big, bold capital flashing letters in our text because Lord of Hosts means lord. There's a number of ways to translate it, but Lord of Armies or Lord of Courts and armies, Lord of palaces, kingdom, courts and armies. That's the connotation, the power, the majesty, the dignity of a king calling the nation to war. The that's the Lord of Hosts, meaning this. She does the opposite of the End of Judges, where everyone there does what is right in their own eyes. She goes to the Lord and says, you're the king. You're the king. And notice how she sees herself in relationship to the Lord. She bows the knee and refers to herself as your servant. Notice this three times on the affliction of your servant. Do not forget, your servant will give to your servant a son. So she acknowledges the king as the king. She acknowledges God as the king. And she is reinforcing and saying, I am a servant of the kings.
22 · Interprets Hannah's prayer as a reversal of the Fall—going back to the Genesis moment when Adam and Eve chose autonomy and choosing instead submission to the King
What she's doing is she's almost going back, if I could say it this way, to the. To that moment in Genesis where Adam and Eve decide to do what is right in their own eyes and say, we're not going to listen to the king. We're going to do what we want. She goes back and she says, no, I'm not going to do what I want. I'm going to look to. To the king. I'm going to listen to the king. Here's the main point here. If you get nothing else, get this. Today, history turns on those who turn to the Lord. The wheel of history is not how much money do you have, how powerful you are, all that other stuff. It is, do you turn to the Lord? What is your relationship to the Lord? That out of all the things in history, that is what turns history. History turns on those who turn to the Lord. And so it is with us, your personal history, regardless of who you are, where you've come from. There's a bunch of people in this room. I don't know all your story. I know. I know a bunch of stories in this room. I don't know all of your stories. But I do know this about your story from the Bible. Your history and your story will turn on whether in these moments you turn to the Lord. It's a decisive thing. It is the helm of your life. Will you choose to go your own way or will you turn to the Lord?
23 · Addresses a potential objection (why did God close her womb?) and answers that God allowed Hannah to experience the nation's barrenness so she could model the solution
Now, we know you might think it's so harsh that. That God had. It says God had closed her womb. Why would God do something like that? Well, it seems as though that the text is here. God allows Hannah to experience the barrenness of the land around her, that she might model for us the right solution to a barren and broken land and lives. That she would model a turning to the Lord. Look, and what's great is it's not the. It's not the king, you know, the powerful people turning to the Lord. It's this one woman, a nobody family. She models this for us. And notice this. This is so profound for me, because notice how she turns to the Lord and how she prays, because she promises, she vows a vow to. To give this child to the Lord. Now, it's very likely she's making a Nazarite vow. You can see that in the story of Samson, where a child was especially dedicated to the Lord or somebody especially dedicates themselves to the Lord with additional sort of things that go with that. And at first, I will admit something. At first it seems like maybe she's bargaining with the Lord. Now, look, I don't want to judge everybody else, but I have done some unbiblical bargaining with the Lord in difficult moments, right? I mean, everything from God. If you will get this document that I just deleted back to my computer, I promise I will serve you this week. I will. You know, to those small moments, all the way to big moments, like God, if you will heal my child, I'll do this. If you'll help me here, I'll do this. And. And at first I thought, well, maybe that's what Hannah's doing. She's trying to figure out, you know, what can I offer God to get him to give me what I need? And look. Look what she does. She's not doing that. Notice how she refers to him and herself. She is saying, lord, you're the king. You're the Lord of lords. There's nothing I have that you need. I am your servant. I'm putting myself in a place of service to the Lord.
24 · Interprets Hannah's vow as alignment of her deepest desire with God's purposes
So then what is she doing? Well, here's what I think. I think she is praying for this thing that she longs for. But she is holding it out, offering it back to the Lord and choosing to align her prayer with God's purposes. She's saying, lord, even if I get the gift that I've wanted my whole life, I want it to be used for your purposes. Notice what she. She is vowing that this child she's longed for, desired for so long that, that she is not gonna keep the child forever. She's not gonna get to have all of his little, you know, special first steps. His first haircut. I remember when I got my kids a haircut for the first time. I went to this old school El Paso place and they cut my kids, you know, weird curly hair and they gave me the hair in a little bag. Porriquerdos, right? That's what they said. The little. You wanna have the little memories of your son's first haircut. It's like, oh. And then I thought, what am I gonna do with this hair? So I think I might have it still. But she's not gonna get those moments, right? She's not going to get those moments. She's giving him back to the Lord. What is she doing? She is aligning her prayer with God's priorities. She's saying, lord, I want to align my life and even my child's life with your priorities.
25 · Explains the reciprocal alignment: Hannah aligns herself with God's purposes, but God has already aligned Himself with the good of His people
Hannah turns to the Lord and in turning to the Lord, she aligns herself with the priorities of God. Now here is the good news that she knows. I think she knows because she's using Exodus language in this prayer. She knows that though that God's purposes are also aligned with our good, that God has chosen to align himself with us for the good of his people. So when we align ourselves with God's good purposes, it actually is also to our benefit as well. It's not as though I'm going to do something that's, that's counter to my good. No, the Lord has vowed to good of his people. I want to align myself with the Lord. And then a benefit of that is the Lord's already aligned with his people. Do you see what's happening here?
26 · Quotes Henry Blackaby's principle from Experiencing God: the way to find God's will is not to seek a personalized blueprint but to see where God is at work and join Him there
Now look, I. I was really influenced number of years ago by a, a book by a man named Henry Blackaby called Experiencing God is the study. And he talks a lot about, he's very famous for this. He talks a lot about how people will come to pastors or leaders and say, pastor leader, teacher, I want to know what is God's will for me? How do I find out the will of God for my life? Am I supposed to be an engineer or an Accountant, am I supposed to marry this lady or this other lady? Right? How do I know what, what is God's will for my life? And this is his response. Looking at the Old Testament, the secret to finding God's will for your life. And people are leaning forward like, oh, what is it? What's the secret? I'm telling you what, man Christians are. Every time we use the word secret Christians, like, what is it? I want to know it. The secret to finding God's will for your life is, are you ready seeing what God is doing and joining him. You want to know what you're supposed to do with your life? See where God is at work and join him. That's what the Lord wants. You align yourself with God's purposes.
27 · Diagnoses the root of much Christian unhappiness: we make our own plans and then ask God to bless them, rather than aligning our lives with God's purposes
Look, so much of our unhappiness in life, friends, I'm convinced, comes from us deciding what we want to do with our lives and then going, hey, God, would you bless that? I've got a great plan for my life, God, can you bless that? I've decided what's right in my own eyes. And I'm like, hey, could you also put a little kind of divine blessing over that for me? What do I need to give you for the thing? So much of our unhappiness comes from that. And I think so we could have so much peace and blessing and joy and steadfastness by seeing what God is doing and joining him there.
28 · First application to non-Christians: no external life changes will fix the fundamental problem of doing what is right in your own eyes
Two applications here. First is this. If you have not decisively turned to the Lord and come to him as your Savior and your Lord, nothing else you fix in your life is going to fix your most fundamental problem. Look, I have seen people over the years, they have gone like, okay, I don't like the way my life is going. I'm going to change everything. I'm going to change spouses, I'm going to change jobs, I'm going to change careers, I'm going to change hobbies. I'm going to start going to the gym. I'm going to change everything else in my life. And you're like, okay. And then five years later, they're back in despair and sadness. Why do we keep doing that? Why do we keep running that cycle again and again? It's the cycle of judges. It is us doing what's right in our own eyes. It's you, friend. If you're here today doing what's right in your own eyes, thinking, well, that's the way to happiness and peace and fruitfulness and blessing. And I'm telling you, it's not. The Lord made you for a purpose, the Lord made you for good, but you've turned away. And so the most fundamental problem you have is you're in the downward spiral of the Book of Judges. But the Lord offers a turnout. The Lord offers a turnout, which is to do what Hannah does, to come to the Lord as savior, as, as king, and ask for his help. Right? To trust that Jesus Christ, as we're going to see in a minute, is your savior and Lord. That's the turn you need to make before you turn anything else. It's like hitting everything else on the ship, right? You know, you got the big aircraft carrier, all the other buttons are fine. If the helm is headed towards San Diego harbor, that's not great. You're going to crash. Turn to the Lord today.
29 · Second application to Christians: conversion is not a one-time turn but a pattern of turning again and again to the Lord because we drift
And friend, if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian today, like, like so many of those in our church family, the Christian life is not a one time turn to the Lord. It is a turning again and again to the Lord. It's not as though I turned once when I was 20 to the Lord. No, it is a turning again and again to the Lord. Why? Because we drift. We have to keep revolving, realigning our lives with the purposes of God.
30 · Personal testimony of a moment behind the UTEP library where the preacher wrestled with a life decision—knowing what he wanted versus what God wanted
Looked at, I remember a really key moment. It was so vivid. I was talking to one of the students in our church that's just starting to go to utep and they were talking about their favorite study place at the library. And it brought back this really vivid memory I have of being behind the UTEP library between there and the business building. It's like a no man's land. Nobody would go back there. If you've been to utep, you know where it is. And I remember going, being back there, pacing and literally crying because I was in the middle of a life decision. And I knew so bad what I wanted to do. And I knew from counsel and prayer that that's not what God wanted me to do. And I was out there in the back of the building trying to figure out a way to rationalize doing what I want to do instead of what God wanted me to do. And I remember, like, tears are coming down my face and, and like, I remember vividly there's somebody comes out of the business building, sees me crying and just goes back into the business building. They're like, nope, not that door, right? And I just remember, I remember at the end going like, okay, Lord, I'm opening my hands up And I'm gonna let you take this because I want what you want for my life, not what I want. And that moment, I can tell you all about it, but it really changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my life.
31 · Direct challenge to the congregation: identify the area where you need to turn to the Lord and align with His purposes rather than demanding He bless yours
Where might you friend, brother, sister. Where might you today need to turn to the Lord and align your life with God's purposes rather than trying to get God to bless your purposes? Maybe it's your career, maybe it's your dating life. Maybe it's something else. Do what Hannah does. Go to the Lord, say you're the king. I'm not. I'm part of your purposes. Help me line up God. That's where we want to be.
32 · Corrects a common misapplication of Hannah's prayer: this is not a formula for infertility but a model for offering our families to God's purposes
And let me just say this. There's a huge application here with families, but it's probably not the one you're thinking of, unfortunately. I think sometimes this passage becomes a. Almost a formula to prayer that if you are dealing with infertility, just pray the Hannah prayer, and then maybe God will give you a son. That is. Let me just be really clear. That actually is harmful and painful and not what the purpose of this text is. The purpose of the text is to model a response to family in which we see our families and our children. If God gives us them as being offered into his service, that's the purpose of the text. What we're called to emulate in Hannah is not the formula of her prayer. It's the heart of her prayer, saying, lord, you're the king, I'm a servant. I want whatever family I have to be lined up with your purposes. That is the application. And here's then the challenge. The task of parenting is avoiding two things. One, helping our children avoid the book of judges by them doing what's right in their own eyes. Right. If you ask a toddler, what do you think is right in your eyes? They have a lot of ideas. They have a lot of ideas about how the family should be run. A lot more ice cream, a lot more bluey or television time. Right? A lot of things. And so part of the task of parenting is helping our kids go, okay, that's right in your eyes. It's not right in the Lord's eyes. We're going to follow the Lord. Okay. But the second one that we often miss is we also don't want our children just to do what's right in our eyes. We don't want to go, okay, well, I was, you know, bad at this thing, so you have to be great, or I was great at this thing, so you better be good too. Right? We come with a plan for our kids lives and then we're like, here's my plan, kid, you take it. And God, you better bless that too. Neither of those are helpful. Instead what we're doing is we're saying, no, child, I want what the Lord wants for you. That's what we're aiming at, guys. That's what we're aiming at.
33 · Signals the third and final major section: the lift, where God responds to Hannah's turn and raises her up
All right then, third section, very brief. The lift. So we've done the descent, the turn, the lift. We're going to get back out of the hole, which is good news, right? The lift.
34 · Reads 1 Samuel 1:12-18, narrating Eli's clueless misreading of Hannah's prayer and his rebuke, her dignified correction, and his blessing
What happens after she prays? Look at verse 12. As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips moved and her voice was not heard. And therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you. But Hannah answered, no, my Lord, I'm a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman. For all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation. And then Eli answered, go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him. And she said, let your servant find favor in your eyes. And then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
35 · Interprets Eli's failure as a signal about the book's structure: Eli is not the hero, Samuel is not the hero, Saul and David are not the heroes
Now notice something profound right here at the beginning of First Samuel. First Samuel sets us up to see who the real hero of this story is. Now you think, okay, the high priest is intersecting with this story. Surely he is the hero. Surely he's going to know what to do. He's the go between, between the people and God. He's the one seeking the Lord. Surely he will come in with a godly, wise, seasoned, discerning response. Nope. Right? He comes in, doesn't even realize what's happening. He is clueless. And, and he rebukes a poor lady pouring her heart out before the Lord. I mean, this is, this sort of sets the, the, the trajectory for the character of Eli. It's not great. He's. He tends to be clueless about the things of the Lord, despite being the representative, so called representative of the Lord. He is not the hero. And in this, First Samuel sets us up to understand. Eli's not the hero, Samuel's not the hero, Saul's not the hero. Even David is not the hero, right? Saul fails, David falls. They are not the hero of heroes. Who then is the hero of 1st Samuel, 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
36 · Reads 1 Samuel 1:19-20 and identifies the Lord as the decisive figure
Look at verse 19. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house in Rama. And Elkanah knew his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And the Lord remembered her. And in due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Samuel. For she said, I have asked for him from the Lord. Do you see this? The decisive figure who is turning the world to his purposes. The decisive figure in the history of Israel. The decisive figure in the history of Hannah's family. It is not Eli. It's not the husband. It's not anybody else. It is the Lord. The Lord is the hero of the story.
37 · Proclaims the good news: when we turn to the Lord, we discover He has already turned toward us
And here is the good news. When we turn to the Lord, we are not trying to attract God's attention. We're not trying to wave him down. When we turn to the Lord, we find that the Lord has already turned himself toward us. The Lord could have decisively said, you know what? If this is what you're going to do, I am turned away decisively. I'm not hearing. I'm not saying I have nothing to do with you people. But instead, Hannah goes and she finds the Lord has already been turned toward his people. The Lord is ready to remember. The Lord is ready to act. Look, see the Lord's posture here, Friends, this is a nobody family. Whose family is this? Do you ever do that with your extended family? Wait, who is this? I saw Sarah the other day. Who? Who? Sarah? Do I know Sarah? That's this family. A certain man. Who? I don't know. El Kana Kanak. What? Something say? Not. Not famous, not important. And this woman is the lowest in the family in terms of rank. She is a nobody woman. She is barren. She has no standing, no children. But before First Samuel tells us about kings and armies, it tells us about a nobody. A nobody that goes to seek somebody in the Lord. And that somebody changes everything. Hannah has no nobody. She is nobody. And yet she knows somebody. And that somebody changes everything.
38 · Applies the truth about the Lord's posture directly to the listener: God is not ignoring you, unconcerned with you, or reluctant toward you
The same thing is true in our lives. Friends, what do you think the Lord's disposition is toward you? Is he ignoring you? Is he unconcerned with small people like you? Is he reluctant? No. He has turned toward you. He has turned toward you.
39 · Reads 1 Samuel 1:21-28, showing Hannah's faithful fulfillment of her vow
And notice how Hannah responds to this. Will she perhaps in this moment, finally holding this beautiful child in her arms that she's prayed for? Will she finally. Will she say, you know what, Lord? Maybe we can renegotiate. Maybe you can get Weekends, maybe you can, you know, maybe I can give him a, you know, maybe an internship later. Just let me see these. These moments that I want to see. Now look at verse 21. The man, Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up. And she said to her husband, as soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, do you know what seems best to you? Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And she had weaned him. She took him up with her, along with the three year old bull, an FF of flour and a skin of wine. And she brought him to the house of Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, o my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord for this child. I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. And as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.
40 · Interprets the beauty of Hannah's fulfillment of her vow: she does not grip the gift but releases it to God's purposes
Do you see the beauty of this moment that Hannah finally holding in her arms the thing that she has prayed for, instead of gripping it to herself, gripping this child to herself, saying, I'm never going to let him go, she brings him and says, lord, may my child be used for your purposes. It's beautiful. It's profound. And notice this. In this moment of the period of the judges, this descent into darkness and this dark and barren family, one woman makes all the difference. One turn makes all the difference. She turns to the Lord. And in turning to the Lord, she aligns her life with God's word purposes. And how does the Lord respond? He lifts her up. He lifts her up.
41 · Previews next week's sermon by quoting 1 Samuel 2:8 from Hannah's song: the Lord lifts the poor from the dust, the needy from the ash heap, to sit with princes
We're going to hear much more about this next week. But just look at 1st Samuel 2, 8 and this particular line in the song that she sings. She says, the Lord raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them and he has set the world. Do you see what makes a difference? The Lord, inclined to his people, lifts them up, lifts up the nobodies, lifts up the outcasts lifts up the barren to a place of honor and love and kindness.
42 · Reveals the theological wordplay: Hannah's name means grace
In fact, this whole story, it's almost like a surprise ending. This whole story has been contained in the name of Hannah. Which we would, if we were Hebrew speakers, we'd be like, oh, I wonder. I wonder if I know where this story is going. Because Hannah's name means grace. Hannah's story is the story of God's grace on the nobodies, the small, the overlooked. And the grace of God in her life gives birth to a savior. To a savior named Samuel who will grow up. He will seek the Lord. He will be a military leader at crucial moments. He will guide the nation at crucial moments. He's not the Messiah. He's not the sermons serpent crusher from Genesis 3 yet he's not everything. But the grace of God gives birth to the Savior his people need at this very moment.
43 · Brings the story to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ
And it would be century later, almost a thousand years exactly later, that the the Lord through His grace would see another savior born named Jesus Christ. A savior born to a nobody woman. A savior who would grow up to be righteous with a capital R, who will be the judge of Judges, the prophet of prophet and the King of Kings. And this savior boy would turn himself toward the very wrath of God and bear it for his people's sin so that the Lord's face could be turned toward the sinner, toward the outcast, toward the barren, toward the broken, toward the hurting, so that all who will call on him and his grace would be welcomed into his kingdom.
44 · Final application: the decisive question for every listener is whether you will turn to the Lord
The question then for us is this. Will we turn to Him? Will we turn to Him? All of history turns on those who turn to the Lord and align themselves with his purpose. Your story and your biography and your eulogy will be defined by this. Will you turn to him today and align yourself with him, his purposes? He's a better king than you can imagine.
45 · Closing prayer calling the congregation to be a church aligned with God's purposes, turning to Him as first call not last resort, offering all of life to His service
Would you stand and let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father. Lord, we. We want to be a church. We want to be a church that is aligned with your purposes for our lives. We want to be a church where our first call, not our last call, is turning to the Lord. We want to be a church where we run hard after you. Where we offer our lives and our families and our careers and our jobs and all our dating life, all of it. We want to offer it all to you and say you're the King of kings. I'm your servant, Lord, help my life to line up with your purposes. But Lord, when we turn to you, the happy surprise is that you have already turned your face to us. And we see your face turn to us no place more clearly than on the cross of Jesus Christ, where the Lord turned his face away from his Son, that his face might be turned toward the sinner. So, Lord, as we end, we just pray, turn our eyes to Jesus.