"The deep anguish of an unfulfilled longing"

There was a certain man from Ramma Fame, a zoophyte from the hill country of ephraim whose name was ElKana, son of Jorohan, the son of Elohu, the son of Tuhu, the son of Zaf and Ephraim might. He had 2 wives. 1 was called Hannah and the other Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah had none. Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the lord almighty at Shailaw, where hoth, nigh, and Finious, the 2 sons of Eli were priests of the lord.

Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife, Penina, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the lord had closed her womb. Because the lord had closed Hannah's womb, her right rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

Her when Elkanah would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why do you know don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't, I mean, more to you than 10 sons? Once they had finished eating and drinking in Shailah, Hannah stood up.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the door post of the lord's house. In her deep anguish, Anna prayed to the lord weeping bitterly, and she made a vow saying, lord almighty, if you will only look on your servant misery and remember me and not forgetting 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 be used on his head. As she kept on praying to the lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.

Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, how long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine, not so my lord Hannah replied. I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the lord.

Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered, go in peace, and may the god of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes, then she sent her way She then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning, they arose and worship before the lord, and then went back to their home at Rayma.

Elkanah made law to his wife, Hannah, and the lord remembered her. So in course, in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to his son. She named him Samuel saying, because I asked the lord for him, when her husband husband Al Qaeda went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the lord and fulfill his vow. Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, after the boys weaned, I will take him and present him before the lord, and he will live there always.

Do what seems best to you. Her husband, Alcona, told her. Say here until you have weaned him. Only may the lord make good his word. So the woman stayed at home and last her son until she'd weaned him.

After he was weaned, he took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a 3 year old bull, an f f of flower, Anna skin of wine and brought him to the house of the lord at Shailaw. When the ball had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him. Pardon me my lord, as surely as you live, I am a woman who stood here beside you praying to the lord. I prayed for this child, and the lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the lord for his whole life, which shall be given over to the lord, and he worshiped the lord there.

Rachel, for reading that for us. Thank you as well to Steve for your words. And, yeah, Beve and I are delighted with celebrating 25 years of of marriage this week, and thank you for the card and that kind of thing. 25 years ago, well, we're very thankful to the lord for all that he has done for us over 25 years, including that 25 years ago, there was a fuel strike. There was a fuel strike 25 years ago, fuel fuel crisis, not strike, fuel crisis, and so people didn't have petrol and, if you remember back then, people were queuing up at petrol stations and that kind of thing, we weren't all that sure who was gonna be able to get to the wedding, a week before So we were, we were praying and the lord provided.

And, and pretty much everyone was able to get there. So we were very thankful to the lord that everyone was there down in Southampton, to celebrate with us. And the lord has kept fighting over the years. That would be our testimony. He has kept providing, and we're very thankful to him.

For that, well, I could go on more on that, but that is not the purpose that I'm here for. My job is to open up god's word for us. So, that is what we're going to do. So let's pray. Emily father, thank you for your goodness to us.

And we pray please now that you would help us as we open your word as we come to 1 Samuel 1, that you would us to be attentive to your works, to understand it, and to see how it points to Christ, and how it applies to us, Armel. And so, we begin 1 Samuel, as we thought last week, focusing in on a family, the family of, guy called El Kanard, who has 2 wives, Hannah and Penina. And we are told at the start verse 2 that penneur had children, but Hannah had none. And the first chapter really focuses in on Hannah, and her grief. And she is a woman in wish.

She talks about being in misery. And maybe you know something of what she feels. There are all sorts of heart longings that we have, and some of them are very deep. The longing to meet someone. Love and be loved.

The longing, maybe to have children, the longing for companionship, friendship, maybe the longing for acceptance, the longing to be a success, have the right job, the job of your dreams, to live in the right place. There are all kinds of longings that we have. We all have them. And for some, they are very, very deep, and they aren't bad. But if we don't get those things, or if someone prevents us from getting those things.

Sometimes it isn't just a disappointment. It's a disaster. It means an unfulfilled life. We feel Sometimes we might feel if we don't get those things. We question if life is worth living.

It isn't just the end of a dream. It's the end of how in us. That's what Hannah was facing. Come to 1 Samuel. We're gonna go through it and walk through it with Hannah.

Now I appreciate this is a fairly downbeat start to a sermon. But don't worry. We know from the chapter that it will go up. But the first point that we're gonna see is, misery. That's where we start.

That's where Hannah starts. Let's see why. First 2, we're told, as I've said, that Penner had children, but Hannah had none. And then we are told, what happened year after year? Year after year, this family, Elcona, his 2 wives, would go off to a place called Shiloh, to worship and sacrifice.

Now, Shiloh was a significant place. It was a significant place because it was the place where the tabernacle of the lord had been put. If you know the history of Israel, you'll know there was a time before they were in the land, where they were wandering around in the desert. And the lord god had told them to build a tabernacle Acla tent, which would represent for them the presence of the lord. And after they'd wandered around and had this tent that they'd taken with them wherever they'd gone, and after after they'd entered into the land, they put that tent in Shiloh.

And he seemed there was an annual festival to the lord there, and Elconnor and his family Emily would go every year. Elconer would go. Penina would go. And you can imagine it would be a big task for Penina to go. She has lots of children.

And you know if you have children that going anywhere with children requires a lot of preparation, a lot of planning, a lot of packing. And she would have had all that to do while still looking after her children. But for Hannah, it would have been a very quick task because she was just her. And she had notes. And we know that Elconar love Hannah.

We're told that when it came to the time for sacrifice, he would give verse 4 portions of meat to his family. He would give portions of meat to Penina and all her children, and he would give a double portion to Hannah, of Hannah. And because we're told the Lord had closed her win, what a love thing to do. And a lovely thing for him to do as husband to show his love for his wife, wanting to show it, well, by giving her more meat. But we're told Penina was anything but kind.

Penina was cruel. Dale Ralph Davis, who wrote a book on 1 Samuel calls her an overly fertile mouse the thorn in the flesh. I think it's a great description of her. He's called in verse 6 Hammers' rival, and we're told verse 6 that she, she provoked her to irritate her. Amazing, isn't it how some people can make it their life's work to annoy some.

Our as Penner's lives were. Every opportunity have a jibe at Hannah. Every opportunity needle at her, but she couldn't have children, a pendant occurred. And it's seems even that she would use the fact that it was the lord who had closed Hannah's womb. Every opportunity, a little job, bit of nastiness, needle, nickel, just to have a it.

And because of this, verse 7 tells us Hannah was so provoked hoped that she wept and would not eat any feel for Hannah here. And you see Elcona tries his best verse 8, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted don't I need more to you than 10 sons? I think No.

Billy, don't. But nice try. Here is a woman in misery. If only she could have a child, if only, and yet month by month, the sadness of no children. And year by year, the constant pestering from pen in a, and the needle, and the niggle, and the unrelenting.

And do you notice their theology was right I've already mentioned it, but end of verse 6, be verse 5, beginning of verse 6, there's a repeated thing which which shows they they had their theology right. It says, and the lord had closed her womb, verse 6 because the lord had Hannah's womb, they knew. It it was because the lord had done this, that it was in his hands. They're right. We know, as it says in the the book of Job, where it says, Job says should we accept good from the lord and not trouble?

Same. They they both come from the lord. Good, Adam. Trouble. It was the lord's doing.

She couldn't have children. And we know as we thought last week that on the big scale. The reason why she couldn't have children was ultimately in a big sense because the people had been disobedient to the lord. That's on the big scale, but you then, as you come to Hannah, you wanna go why Hannah? Why her?

Why not pen and her? And the answer is, we don't know. And sometimes, we don't know all the answers. And yet it's so frustrating, isn't it? When you've got that longing, that desire, and you go, well, it's not a bad longing.

And yet you don't have it. It's not fulfilled. And you go, lord, why? You're the 1 who's stuck and you could easily give me what I want. I was, walking past Costa the other day on Towworth Broadway just after it had closed.

It wasn't my longing to get in there and have a coffee. That that wasn't the issue. But I saw, a family, a dad with 2 children, walked up to the door, looking quite desperate, knocking on the door, and there was someone working in costume who was behind the counter, but he'd already locked up. And it became clear. I think afterwards, I realized, actually, the dad wanted to get in there because 1 of the kids needed the toys that.

And he was knocking on the door, but the person inside was, no. It's not gonna open that door. We've locked up. And you may maybe you know that frustration of going, what I need is just in there. And all you've gotta do is unlock that all you've gotta do is that, and it would be make my life so much easier, but you're just not doing it.

You don't care. And he the dad walked away really frustrated. And maybe you feel that about the lord, that with your desires, that maybe have been frustrated, you come away going, well, the lord is like that guy on the other side of the door. He could just easily give me what I want, but he's not giving it to me. Maybe he doesn't care But do you notice with hammer?

It still goes to worship the lord and away from the lord. It'll go goes year by year to worship and sacrifice to the lord. I want to encourage you, similarly, to keep turning to the lord. Don't turn away from him. Don't assume that he doesn't care, that he doesn't love you.

Second point is the turning point in the passage. Where's the turning point in the passage? I wonder if you noticed it as you went through, don't worry if you didn't. It took me a while. Others of you will have been quicker at spotting it.

Because you see, there the turning point in the story, you would assume would be, well, you've got Hannah who can't have children and is desperate for a child. And by the end of the story, she's got a child. And so you would think the turning point is gonna be, whatever be when she finds out she's pregnant, the the day she finds out, or the day she tells Elcona that she can have a baby, or when they have the baby shower, and she's got all her friends around, and they're sort of celebrating together and penniless in the corner miserable. And you go, and you know, that's the turning point, like, or when she gives birth, and El and then takes the baby and like Rafiki and the lion king, hold him up, and you've got the maybe that's the turning point, but it isn't. And you can spot the turning point by seeing where does the run to focus.

Where does he spend time? It isn't on her being pregnant, and it isn't on the birth. In fact, they're covered very briefly. No. He spends time on a particular visit to Shiloh.

And in some ways, it's a bit like the other visit because it starts with Hannah upset, but you'll notice by the end, by Versa, 18, her head is lifted, and she can eat, has been a turning point. What's the turning point? Well, the turning point is. How pray? This is where the chapter turns.

So let's see what she prays. On this particular occasion, when they went to Shiloh verse 9 after they've eaten and drunk, Hannah stands up. And we're told Eli the priest is sitting on his chair. We'll come back to Eli. We've heard about him, by the way, and, hopped and Finney, has his sons who are priests in Chile.

They've they've been mentioned. They're they're not good, but we'll come back to them. That's a little teaser for sort of future chapters. But Hannah gets up, and we're told she prays. Verse 11 tells us her prayer.

It's quite incredible that we have this written down. We've been we're brought in into her prayer because this is a prayer she prayed in her heart. And yet, we are brought in to hear it. What does she pray? Verse, verse 11.

Lord almighty. If you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, she begins there. Keep looking at it. She begins there, lord almighty, which means it's lord of hosts. It that you're in control, lord, you're powerful, you're sovereign.

And then she says, if you will look on your servant's misery and remember me, now she's picking up language, actually, which is used earlier in the Bible. When god's people, before they were in the land, they were slaves in Egypt. And it says in the book of Exodus that the lord looked on them in their in their misery, looked on them in their in their suffering and remembered them. And Hannah is picking up that language. It's like she's saying, lord, know that you've done this before.

You've seen people in misery before. You've remembered them. You've looked. You've remembered now look on me and remember me. There's an and not forget your servant, but give her a son.

Then now this, I think, is amazing. This is incredible what she says. Then I will give him to the lord for all the days of his life life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. What's she doing here? What's she doing in this prayer?

You might think that she's bar bargaining with the law, but I don't think she is. I don't think she's bargaining because if she was bargaining, I don't think she would have used the child is the thing to bargain with, because that's the thing she wants. If she was gonna bargain with the lord, she would be saying, I'll give you something else. I'll I'll give something else to you. And, you know, if you give me a child, I'll give you I'll give you pen in her old girl, 1 of her children.

I'll give you 1 of them. Well, maybe not that. Maybe it would have to be something of hers, but but she I don't think she'd be offering the child itself because the child is the thing she really wants. And if she was bargaining, I don't think she would come away from this, with head lifted, because she still doesn't know that she's gonna get what she wants. And when it came to giving the child over, at the end of the chapter, if this was bargaining, I I'm not sure she'd have been able to, or she'd have been in anguish because of it, but she's not.

There's something else going on here. This isn't bargaining. What's she's saying. She's saying, Lord, if you give me my dream, I'll give him to you. Saying would.

Here's my dream. My longing. Give me a child. He won't be mine. It'll be yours, lord.

I give into you. And in a way, he's she's saying, either way, I won't have a child. She's saying, if you give me a child, if you don't, then I don't have 1, but if you do, I still won't have it. I'll give him over to you. Hannah's turning point, bringing her dream to the lord, thunder him, sacrificing, worshiping, not sacrificing the child in terms of killing the child, obviously not, but sacrificing the dream and saying, Lord, it's in your hands.

It's over to you. She's not she's not giving up on the dream. She's not giving up on life. She's not just saying, oh, stop it. It's never gonna happen.

But she's not bargaining with the lord either. Now she's bringing the dream to the lord. And this, I think, we can imitate I know I've said before, and I've said to gospel community leaders that we've gotta be careful that we just sort of look in the passage and go, well, where am I? Who should I copy? Because there are definitely some things about Hannah you shouldn't copy.

We're gonna have Thanksgiving Services for the birth of some children coming up over the coming months. Don't imitate her by, you know, bring the child give thanks and then just leave the child behind. You know, don't copy her in everything. But I think in this, we can can because what she's doing, I think, is living out what we're told what Jesus tells us to do in Mark chapter 8 when he says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. I think this is an example of that.

Because when we deny ourselves to follow Jesus, when we take up our cross, it can be easy in some parts of our lives. We can go, well, there are some areas where you go, well, yeah, I can sacrifice that to the lord. I can live, you know, for the lord in that part of my life, because that was easy, and that wasn't precious. And there could be other bits which are a bit harder where you go, well, maybe it's your finances. You go, actually lord, lord, this is under you, and I give this to you, and maybe that's a bit harder.

But then there's the longings, the longings of our hearts. And they can be very hard, but actually we are to bring them and say, I'm gonna live wholeheartedly for the lord. Bring it all under him, bring it all to him, deny myself. And for some, that might mean saying, lord, here's this longing in my life. If you give it to me, if you give it to.

It's in your hand. If you give it to me, I will move it. I give it back to you. It's in your hands. You're the wisest.

You're the best at knowing what I need and what I need to have. So if you give it to me, I give it back to you. And what we see with Hannah is that this brings her to a place of freedom. She doesn't go from the prayer dejected. Having she's not given up on life.

She has head lifted. She can eat. Why? Because she's left dream with the lord and worshiped him. So that's Hannah's turning point.

That's what transformed her, I think. And praying like that can transform us too as we bring our streams and submit them to Jesus. Well, we need to go on in the story. Alcona, as we've seen, sees her praying, sees her deeply moved, sees her mouthing the words of this prayer and assumes she's drunk, which says how bad things had got in Israel at the time. If the priests are more familiar with people being drunk than they are with people praying.

But, also, it says something quite bad about Eli maybe. I mean, there is various things that you go through the chapters where you see, actually Eli is not good. And 1 of them is that maybe he has priests doesn't recognize prayer. Well, he and Hannah have parting words. He he says she's drunk.

She says I'm not, you know, I'm not wicked. And he says, go in peace, may the god of Israel grant you what you've asked? Be responds and goes with head held high. And we come to our third point, which is remembered. The Lord, we're told remembered Hannah.

She the next morning, verse 19, gets up, worships the lord, and then they go home. And we're told Elcona made love to his wife Hannah and the lord remembered her. And when it the lord remembered her. That that doesn't mean the lord had forgotten about her. Oh, Hannah.

No. When the Bible tells us that god remembers someone, it's remembering in the sense of about to act for them. And that's what he does for Hannah. He becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. She calls him Samuel because I asked the lord for him, and Samuel has he's a bit like the word for to ask.

And then we're told about another trip to Shiloh. Elconer and his family, verse 20, go to, Shiloh again, sorry, verse 21. They go to to Shiloh again. Elconer goes. Penner goes, and all her children, but Hannah doesn't go.

Hannah stays at home. And she explains it to Elcona first 22. After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the lord, and he will be there always. First 23, Elconer says, do what seems best to you? Her husband, Elconer told her.

Stay here until you have weaned him. Only may the lord make good word. Now that is a slightly curious thing for Alcona to have said. There's only make the may the lord make good his word. Now that's curious because so far in 1, Samuel, the lord hasn't said anything.

We haven't had a word from the lord. So what word is Elconer talking about? I think the commentators quite rightly say it must be a word from the lord that has happened before this time. The word that the lord gave to the people of Israel, for instance, in the book of deuteronomy, where it says that when the people turn to the lord, the lord will lift them up again. The lord will store them.

And the comment is think now that's probably what Alcona is thinking about. He's saying, well, it's great that the lord has remembered you, Hannah, but I want the lord to remember his word to us. And the word remember is not used there, but it kind of, the feeling of it is, may the lord make good, his word, may the lord remember his word, may the lord do what he said? You see, there's a longing actually in Elconer's heart. He wants the lord to do what he has said.

And, actually, if Elconer knew what was knew what was happening, knew what was happening in the birth of this child, the child's Amuel, he would know the lord is keeping his word. The lord is keeping his word to Israel. He is making good his word. Because you see, there's something unique about this birth, this baby. The purpose of this passage is not actually to teach you and me what to do if we can't have children, what prayer to pray so that the lord will give us a child.

That is not the purpose of this passage. In fact, what we're being told here is something that's unusual. This wasn't normal for the people of Israel that a barren woman would pray in this way, and then be able to have a child. What's odd is this is unusual. This is abnormal that this child is born because this child is special.

This child we're going to see is going to bring the word of the lord to the people of Israel when they haven't had the word of the lord. This child is different. And actually, this child is saying to all of Israel, the lord cares for all of you. He is showing it in the birth of Samuel. What about you and me?

How do we know god cares for us? The answer is also in a birth, but not the birth of Samuel, but the birth of Jesus. Because although Samuel began to fulfill the lord's promises to his people, we know that it is in Jesus that all god's promises are fulfilled. How do we know god loves us? John 3, 6, steam, famous verse says, for god so loved the world, that, what?

It doesn't say god so loved the world that he will give us all our longings, all our desires. No. It says, for god so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. He loved the world so much. He gave his son.

Not giving his son to live in a temple for the rest of his life, but giving his son so that he could go to the cross and die for us. In crime, That is our hope. Not that all our longings would be met, but rather that he came, and through him are deepest need, our deepest longings are met. When he met a woman at the well, he says to her, if you knew you'd ask me, and I would give you living water that was totally quench your thirst. Jesus is saying, he is the 1 who can meet all our deepest needs and our deepest longing.

But we come to him. And if you have deep unfulfilled longings, you have if you feel yeah, I'm in misery today. Of course, you're to pray about them. Come to the lord about them. Talk to him about them and ask him.

You can ask him. He might change your circumstances. Maybe he will. But even if he does even if actually he doesn't give you what you want, we can know, even still, the lord cares for us, loves us because Jesus came, and god made good his word. And we can find the greater fulfillment.

The lord remembered Hannah. The lord remembered Israel and the lord has remembered us to. And as we finish the passage, Hanag returns to Shiloh, taking with her, her child, presenting him at shiloh, and I wonder what Eli made of this, that they left the child there. I wonder what he thought, what he did. I'm sure it was hard for Hannah to leave her child.

Hard enough leaving a child when you take them to school first time or take them to university. It's hard enough, but for her to take her child and leave him there when he was that young, it would have been hard. And yet we aren't told it was hard we're told that the place of agony, the place of pouring out tears was in prayer. That's where she did it. That's where the hard work was done as she her dreams, her longings, gave them to the lord.

Emily father, we, we praise you for your word We thank you that it shows us that you care for us, that you see our longings, the times when we're in misery, when we're in anguish, and we pray that you would help us each 1 of us to bring those longings and desires to you, or add our hearts to you, bring our longings and desires under the lordship of Jesus. And we thank you that you have remembered us. And as we're gonna think about in a few moments, when we take communion, thank you that you remembered us by giving your son to die for us, up his father to take that in, and that our hearts would be satisfied in Christ, amen.