"The Weaver"

Hey, everyone. It's, 1 Samuel 2 versus 1 to 11. We're gonna read this morning. And page 272. Then Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the lord.

In the lord, my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in your deliverance. There is no 1 holy like the lord. There is no 1 beside you. There is no rock like our god.

Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance. So the lord is a god who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. The bones of the warriors are broken, but those who stumble are armed with strength. Those who are full hire themselves out for food. But those who are hungry are hungry no more.

She who is barren has born 7 children, but she who has had many sons pines away. The lord brings and makes alive. He brings down the grave and raises up. The lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and he exalts.

He prays is the pour from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with the prince with princess and makes them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the other lords. On them, he has set the world, and he will guards the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that 1 prevails.

Those who oppose the lord will be broken. The most high will thunder from heaven. The lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Then Alcona went home to Rama, but the boy ministered before the lord under Eli the priest.

Thank you, Naomi. Good morning. As as Bob said, my name is is Garrett. I'm a member here at at Hope Church. And we're we're in a series at the moment in in 1 Samuel.

We're looking today at 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 1 to 11. Let's pray. Let's seek the lord's help before we start. Heavenly far that we we thank you that you are not a distant god. You you are a god who speaks to his people, father, and you speak to us through your words, and far and now we pray that you would you would be speaking to us.

Father, you would help us to, to listen. Would you help us to put aside distractions, different things that might be vying for our attention, father. Would you help us to, to be listening, and father, would you speak to our hearts in Jesus' name? Oh, man. Brilliant.

So last week, we looked at chapter 1 of of 1 Samuel and Hannah being a key character there in chapter 1. Hannah, we saw it was it was a horrible start to a book because Hannah is is unable to have children. And she has the pain of that. And we read it in a few verses, but it's it doesn't happen over a few verses for her. It happens day after day, after day.

She she can't have children. And she has her rival, Penina, who is who is taunting her, who is provoking her, who is exacerbating this pay pain, and we saw the climax of that chapter that the lord gives her a son. It gives her Samuel. The lord reverses this pain, and with Hannah, there is joy boy in Samuel. And that theme of reversal is is a big theme of today's passage, that theme of reversals.

Now 1 of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Romans 8 28. It's a very famous verse, as it reads as this. And we know that in all things, god works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. In all things, god works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. I'm a youth leader, as as Bart mentioned, when I when I teach this verse to to the youth, we look at the second word that it says in all all things.

In all things, god works together for the good of those who love him. Not in some things, not in most things, not in international things, in all things. In all things, god works for the goods of those who love him. It won't just be me that holds this verse fairly, fairly close to them. For many of us, This is a virus that perhaps we go to when when there is pain, when there is uncertainty, when there is hardship, when perhaps the the death of a of a loved 1 that just doesn't seem to make sense.

This is a risk that we go to. Perhaps in in your workplace, there's there's redundancy being talked about, and the uncertainty of that, what what's the what's this going to mean? Perhaps, a a health scare. This is a verse that we turn to. In all things, god works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Now we know that Hannah didn't have access to this verse. This verse was written hundreds of years later, yet it is clear from her prayer in chapter 2 after the pain has turned to joy. It is clear year, that she was absolutely convinced of what this verse teaches. That is that she was absolutely convinced that god works all things together for the good of those who love him. When we talk of that in in Christian circles, we talk of god's providence.

You might you might have heard that with god's providence. And when we're talking about god's providence, we are talking a god who is intimately involved with his world, not a god who has set his world in motion, and then sort of comes to see it every now and again. But god's providence is a doctrine, which means that that god's hand is intimately involved in each and every aspect in all things on this earth. God is acting, god is working, god is caring for his world, and for his people on an international scale, on a global scale, but also on the scale of, of a, of a lady of an Israelite who is in pain, and who cries out to her god. And there's a there's a famous there's a famous poem.

Some of us will know it. I remember my pastor when I was younger, he would, he would he would use this poem. It's it's called the weaver. Okay? For for those of us who are artistic, forgive me because I'm going to butcher what weaving is.

I'm sure. But when when we are weaving, we're using multiple strands, different colored strands to make a make a tapestry, make a a beautiful piece of art. But often with with with weaving, 1 side looks beautiful, looks amazing when it's done. However, the back of of the piece It's hard to make sense of. It it looks quite confusing.

There's all these these strands that sort of seem to come out of of this piece, all these threads. And from 1 sides, it looks phenomenal. And from the other side, it can look quite confusing. And this poem pictures god as a weaver and weaving the various strands into the purposes that he has for our lives. My life is butter weaving between my god and me.

I cannot choose the colors. He weaver steadily. Oftentimes, he weaver sorrow, and I, in foolish pride, forget he sees the upper and the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle ceased to fly, will god enroll the canvas and reveal the reason why eye. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.

See, the picture we've got here, the picture we've got to start our our our time together this morning is this this tapestry, this gorgeous tapestry, but we are looking up at the tapestry, and we are looking at the the the underneath the threads that are perhaps a little loose and we're watching them go in and we're thinking, why are we using dark threads? Why why can't we why can't we have gold and silver and vibrant colors? Why is there pain and misery? And we forget that the lord god sees the canvas. He sees the reason why Hannah is going to see that the rivalry, the provocation of Pining which was a painful thing was used in god's providence as he was weaving to draw from her heartfelt praise to work all things together for his goods.

And in chapter 1, the the prayers that were marked by pain are reversed, are now are now marked by by joy in chapter 2. And the reason for this this reversal? The reason that we've gone from pain to joy is because the lord god is weaving. The lord god is creating the tapestry. Not Hannah.

When so when the dark threads go on, when there's pain in our life, when there's pain in Hannah's life, we know that the lord god sees the whole tapestry. And we're going to look at it 3 ways this morning. Firstly, we're going to look versus 1 and 2 what god has done. I'll read this 1 and 2. If you look with me.

Then Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the lord. In the lord, my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies for our delight in your deliverance. There is no 1 holy like the Lord. There is no 1 beside you.

There is no rock like our god. This is a very from prayer. This is a joyful prayer. You'll notice in verse 1, there are 3 mys in Hannah's prayer. 3 mys.

First of all, Hannah prays my heart, my heart rejoices in the lord. And when we're when we're talking about the heart, when the Bible talks about the heart, it is talking about the very epicenter that that who I am as a person, what makes me, me, my heart that is rejoicing in the lord, the very centrality of who I am. And I I wonder this morning, what what do our hearts rejoicing. I I'm thinking this week. It's an awesome way to start a prayer.

My heart rejoices in the lords. Can I pray do I pray that? My heart rejoices in the lord? What does your heart exalting? What does the very center of who you are exult in.

My heart, and then Hannah turns to the second, my my horn is lifted high. What does this mean? What are you talking about horns? I mean, first thing I think about is is a rhinoceros. Or if if if if there's a rhinoceros in the room, you're probably going to to run away more than if there's a zebra in the room.

I mean, surely, because is a little bit to do with the horn. Sure. Rhino is is a bit bigger as well. But if there's a rhinoceros with a horn and rhinoceros without a horn, you're gonna be more scared of the 1 with the horn. This is its power.

It's strength. This is this is its horn. It's only a few verses since Hannah was deeply distressed. And vexed in in spirit chapter 1 verse 16. You see what's happened to her is that she is trust sting in the lord.

Her hope is in the weaver. My horn, my strength, my power. My horn is lifted high. And the third, my my mouth both over my enemies. It's a it's a funny word that boast.

It's a negative word, I think. We we often think of boasting, you know, if your children are boasting because they've beaten you at monopoly, we don't boast in this house. Stop boasting. Well, that's why we say, don't we? If you're on the playground and, somebody wins a race against another, you, you know, you l, take the loser time and all that.

You're boasting, and we think that boasting is is a negative thing, and it is a negative thing the way that the we the way that we do it boasting if if we look at the definition, we're talking with excessive pride, obsessive pride. But what does Hannah boast about? Verse 2, look at Hannah's boasting. There is no 1 holy like the lord. There is no 1 sides you.

There is no rock like our god. Hannah's boasting isn't. I'm so much better than you, Penina. Hannah's boasting is the lord is so good. The lord is so, so good.

There is no 1 holy like the lords. There is no 1 beside you. Lord, you are so big, so amazing. You've created this this world. You know each and every part of this world intimately.

It always amazes me when I go on a journey to to somewhere that I didn't know exist I went to Scotland a couple of years ago with Rach, and, you know, you're driving through places. You're like, there was a housing estate over there. I didn't even know this place existed. And god knows the people there intimately. He knows who struggling in different parts of their lives.

He knows, he knows the the name of the dog in that house. He knows that that what this child wants for Christmas. Because there is no 1 holy like our god. There is no 1 besides you. That is Hana's boasting.

She is boasting in what god has done. So we've looked at what god has done. Secondly, what god is doing, Hannah's prayer. She goes on to essentially give us a view of the world, which is distinctly biblical. A view of the world that is sometimes called the upside down Kingdom.

A view of the world that that is reversal, pain to joy after reversal. And we're gonna go through a number of different reverse souls. And we're gonna see see how they they they come. They are so central. This prayer is central to the book of 1 Samuel and to the book of 2 Samuel, this prayer, the reverse sales that that is done in it because you see them repeated.

The pattern of this prayer is repeated throughout the rest of 1 samuel, the rest of 2 samuel. So we'll look at each 1. We'll look at, a a place where it is is, then illustrated for us as well. Verse 4, the first reversal, what god is doing, verse 4. The bows as the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

The bows of the warriors are broken. There's a warrior. I I just Glenn is probably thinking of some gladiator, aren't you? Gladiator ready? You think of whichever 1 you want, some big old warrior, broken.

That's the reversal. That's the first reversal we've got. A warrior The bows are the warrior broken, done. That warrior is no more. Where do we see that in 1, Samuel?

The story of David and Goliath? The Israelite They they they can't come out to to fight the giant. They're too scared because he's a giant, because he's massive, because he's a warrior, because he's humongous, There's no 1 there's no 1 going out to fight him. And there's a dark thread going on to the the tapestry, and the israelites are worried what is the lord doing? How is he letting this happen?

How did he let this guy get so big? What's happening here? And he picks a little shepherd boy. He picks David, the youngest of his, of his brothers. He picks David.

And he does it's not the you know, it's not that movie scene where there's then a montage of David and Arnold Schwartz and sort of getting David ready to fight Goliath. David then goes into battle with his sling and some stones and the warrior is broken. The warrior is absolutely broken. That's what the tapestry looks like. That's what the weaver does.

That's the pattern. That's the upside down kingdom. This this isn't just true in in 1 Samuel. It's true in the rest of the Bible, and it's true in the world today. The warrior, the bows of the warrior, broken.

If I may speak of my own personal experience, not a warrior, but growing up with with a a dad that was cruel. And cruel would be a light word. What the lord god did in my life, in my mom's life, breaking the bows of that warrior, that cruel oppression I'm bringing new life. Dark thread, after dark thread. What are you doing, lord must have been my mom's cry in the early in 2000, the year 2000.

This is hopeless. This is dark. This is there's there's no hope. But the lord god is a god of reversals. The bows of the warrior are broken.

That's the first reverse So second 1, verse 5, those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more. Those who were hungry are hungry no more. We see this pattern again and again throughout the scriptures. Those who are hungry are hungry no more. We see in in the book of 1, Samuel, when, when David goes to to a, a Limilak, the priest, while fleeing from Seoul, and he's hungry.

Scripture says he's hungry, and he asks for bread. The only bread that is available is is the holy bread, consecrated to the lord, and the priest gives him the bread. God's priest feeds the hungry. Those who are hungry are hungry no more. We see this pattern in the rest of scripture.

Those who are hungry are hungry no more. What is Jesus do. Jesus, when he feeds the 4000, he called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people. I have already been they have been with me 3 days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way, and he goes, and he feeds 4000.

This is a pat throughout scripture that the tapestry, the way that it's weaving. The way that god works is he he's a god of reversals. He feeds the hungry. I, as talking to to Toby about it last week. I went to moldova on a gap year when I was 18.

And, a lot of the time, I had no idea what was happening because I didn't speak the language, but I went into a room, and we had probably 200 apples, then I had absolutely no idea what was happening. Well, you don't often go into a room and have 200 apples. And, we've been given these apples. Why we don't we didn't know the church had given us these apples. Guy comes in, hadn't seen the apples.

This is the, we've just had a phone call from the orphanage. They'd really like us to come down. They'd really like us to come down and and just do some games with the chill and just do some talk. And we took the apples, and we fed the hungry. God had given the apples to to the team.

God had it organized for us to go and see the orphanage. And these chill children. Their faces when they're fed. Their faces when they they've given these apples. It's, like, it's what I likened at the time too, when you're a child in school and it starts to snow, and you think you could be sent home today.

This is this is exciting. These children when they see an apple that is theirs, god has fed the hungry. A god of reversals. That's how he works Third reversal, she who was barren this 5 second half, she who was Baron has born 7 children, but she who has had many sons pines away. Why do we see this in 1, Samuel?

Hannah, she who was barren, has 7 sons. I, I love this. I really love this because god didn't need to give him more than 1 son. God didn't need to give him more than 1 child. For god's purposes, for god to do what god wanted to do, he wanted to Samuel.

We don't hear about the rest of the children. Why does god give her more than 1 child? A phrase I picked up this week was god isn't a fish shouldn't. He doesn't just give her, Samuel so that Samuel can do the job. He doesn't work efficiently.

God is extravagantly generous. Why does he give her more than 1 child, because he wanted to, because he is extravagantly generous, because he he sees the pain, and he fills. He reverses is that. This is the pattern of god's tapestry. This is the pattern of god's kingdom.

We see it throughout the rest of scripture. We see Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca, Jacob, and Rachel. This is the pattern of god's tapestry, and I hope I hope that your list sling this morning because I hope there's a part of you going, yeah. But that doesn't always happen. Han is a special case.

There's enough women who who who don't then bear a child. There's enough warriors who are still walking around without their bows broken. There's enough people in this world who are still hungry. I hope you're listening this morning. I hope you're there's a little bit jarring with you and thinking.

What's about this? How can you explain this in in the weaver? How can you explain this part of this half pastry? Let's look at the the final reversal. Verse 6, the lord brings death and may alive.

He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord brings death and makes a alive. We see that in Samuel. We see that the lord brings death. 1, Samuel, 25, verse 38, about 10 days later, the lord struck Naval, and he died.

The lord brings death. And he makes a life. This week, I heard of a pastor who has been faithful, who years ago, when his children were around the ages of 5 and 3, 2 children, 2 girls. His wife died of cancer years ago, about out 15 years ago. That's tough.

How do you explain that? How do you explain the the the poverty in the world? How do you explain the warriors that are still going about? How do you explain the the mother who isn't able to have children. How'd you explain the pastor whose wife died when his children were 5 and 3?

And who this week on on Sunday last week to his church. He said, his new wife, who he's been married to for several years, who has cancer, she'd been back in the hospital. And he says to the church, he says. Thank you for for your praise. Things are looking positive.

Things are looking really good. And it it we've we've had news from the hospital that she's likely to be to be back out tomorrow. Well, she's not up for visitors. That she's likely to be back tomorrow. And then who on Tuesday informed the church that she had died.

How'd you explain to to 2 children who've lost to mothers, that the weaver is good. And the weaver is a weaver of reversals, and the weaver brings death out of life, life out of death and who breaks the bows of the warriors. How do you explain that? I hope you're I hope you're listening, and I hope you're jarring with me because that's painful. It's painful.

And it's painful to look at the world and to see to see just devastation in so many countries and think there is nothing but dark threads there. There's no gold and silver. What are you talking about? Or to to look and to see in a assassination. I hope you're listening.

I hope you're jarring. I hope you're feeling that. Because, yes, our god is a god of reversals. And he does work like this. But when we recognize that there are times where this doesn't happen.

This doesn't happen straight away. So how can we trust it? How can we trust the weaver? How can we trust the lord god? How can we trust that when the canvas is revealed, that this tapestry is gorgeous, that this tapestry that these threads that were hanging out, that were ugly, that were painful, that were that were horrible, that were death, How do we trust the weaver in those times?

Thirdly, what god will do? What god will do? Verse 9 and 10? He will guard the feats of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that 1 prevails.

Those who hose the lord will be broken. The most high will thunder from heaven. The lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exhaust the home of his anointed. He will give strength to his king.

This is Hannah's pray. He will give strength to his king. There's no king. There's no king in 1 samuel yet. We we may know the story of 1 samuel.

We know we know that Saul comes. Saul's not there yet. David not there yet. There is no king. What is Hannah's pray?

He will give strength to his king and exalt the home, the strength, the authority, of his anointed anointed. This this word here, we have the the word anointed is the Hebrew word for the word Messiah, and you find that this is the first time that this word is used in connection with kingship, he will give strength to his king. He will exalt the horn of his Messiah, this Messiah who step down into the ashes in order that he might lift us up into glory. Is he that reversal? Is he sees the Messiah who stepped down from glory into ashes?

Is he that reversal? All. We've commented on the tapestry, but how can we trust it? Perhaps you're unable to have children? Perhaps unable to understand why certain men and women have been raised up in positions of power, haven't been broken, haven't had their bows broken.

Perhaps unable to make sense of the chaos of this world. Perhaps you've been suspended from from your place of work, and you're thinking, how, how is the lord god trustworthy here? This is painful. This is this is horrible. How can I trust this tapestry?

You see? Because when you look at this tapestry, and I'm glad you're looking at the dark thread I'm glad you can see the pain around the around us in this world. When we wonder what god is doing, we know only 1 thing about the other side of the tapestry. When we see when we see the underneath, we only know 1 thing about this site. We only know 1 thing about the top of the tapestry.

We only know 1 thing about what it will look like when it is revealed. Because from above, in the very center of the tapestry, woven is the cross of the lord Jesus Christ the cross of the king, the anointed 1, the messiah to which god gave strength and exalted the horn. We know that this cross is central to the lord's work in in turning this upside down kingdom in reversal. We know that the lord Jesus Christ breaks, the bows of the warriors, the Roman centurion who has just watched Christ die on the cross. This warrior who exclaimed surely he was the son of god.

Jesus breaking the bows of warriors. We've commented on Jesus feeding the 4000. This is a pat throughout scripture that Jesus feeds the hungry. When Jesus feeds the 5000 in the book of John, he says to them, I am the bread of life. You can trust the tapestry because I am the bread of life.

The lord brings death and makes alive. It is only by the blood of the lord Jesus Christ that we can be made alive. You see this this pastor that I I mentioned, this pastor who's who's lost 2 wives, these children who have lost 2 mothers. How can he trust the weaver. He can trust the weaver because of the lord's anointed 1.

He can trust the weaver because the lord Jesus Christ has come, has died, and has taken him from death to life. The promise for for believers isn't an easy life, but the promise for believers is that god is working all things together for the good of those who love him at a calls according to his peer us. The promise for this this husband, this this man who has seen 2 wives die, is that in that even, god is working all things for his good, and he can trust that because the lord Jesus Christ came, and he died, and he brought him from death to life. That's why he can trust step. So we look up to the tapestry.

And like Hannah, we cry out when we are in pain, but we give this pain to god. We cry out, like Hannah cries up to god, and we can trust whatever he is weaving because on the other side, there is the cross of the lord Jesus Christ that is central to that tapestry. Which started with a poem about the Weaver and his tapestry. I want to end with a prayer that tells us exactly what that tapestry is like. The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

Those who were full, hire themselves out for food, but those who are hungry are hungry no more. She, who was barren, has born 7 children, but she, who has had many sons, pines away. The lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, we thank you that that you are working all things together for the good of those who love you. Father, there are some of in this room for whom that promise is hard to trust at times. Would you help us further to look upon the cross of of Jesus? Would that give us fresh vigour to trust your purposes, to trust when there are dark threads. And father god, for some of us, for whom, we we we do not not trust that.

Father god, would we would we have our our eyes open to you? Would we be sittering or the these things. So we pray in Jesus' name, our man.