Today we have the second installment on our new
series, Prophet and King – the prophet being Samuel and the flawed king being
Saul. Carl set the stage last week with the introduction to this story in 1
Samuel 1. The Israelite woman Hannah, from the hill country of Ephraim, is the protagonist
here at the beginning. Hannah was barren, unable to have children, and was sharing
her husband Elkanah with his other wife Peninnah, who bullied her mercilessly.
So Hannah in her distress and disappointment pours out her heart to God,
promising that if He will give her a son she will offer him back to the Lord.
And we read that when the Lord does grant her request, she faithfully follows
through on her vow. She names her son Samuel, acknowledging that the Lord has
given him to her. When young Samuel is weaned she takes him the 15 or so miles to
Shiloh where the tabernacle was, and hands him over to Eli the priest.
Imagine the scene again: this mother hugging her
little boy one last time and placing his little hand into the hand of Eli.
Samuel as a toddler would have been too young to really know what was going on.
But do you suppose Hannah shed a few tears as she turned away? I can hardly
imagine how hard it must have been. She was giving up the most precious thing
in world to her, this child for whom she had longed and prayed for so long.
Sure, she would be able to see him once a year, but she would practically be a
stranger to him. Old Eli would be responsible for raising Samuel, and, judging
from how his own sons had turned out, he was hardly a model parent. But what an
example of faith on the part of Hannah! As Carl pointed out last week, she is
the only hero in the story so far. The men involved are weak and clueless.
Hannah’s faith was firmly in the Lord, not in people. Ultimately, she was not
turning Samuel over to Eli and his worthless sons, she was offering him to God,
firmly believing in God’s purposes for him.
So in this context, we now turn to Hannah’s prayer
in chapter 2. It is more than just a prayer; it is a prophecy. It’s not really
about her; it’s about God and how awesome He is. Inspired by the Holy Spirit,
she is able to speak of God’s big-picture purposes, the things He wants to do
for His people and for the world. Jewish people consider it a model prayer, the
first of its kind in the scriptures. It is read at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish
New Year, also known as the Feast of Trumpets, when the greatness of Yahweh is
proclaimed. Christians compare Hannah’s prayer with the Magnificat, the song of
Mary in which her soul overflows in praise to God after the conception of
Jesus. Beyond the parallels in their prayers, there are so many similarities
between Hannah and Mary. God chose each of them, to bless them in a special
way, because they were willing to humbly submit to Him. They are both examples
of faith in committing their first-born sons to God’s redemptive purposes. Both
of them acknowledge God’s desire and His ability to “turn things upside down.” (Theologians
refer to this as reversal.) Hannah speaks of those who stumbled who are now
armed with strength. Mary praises the Lord for casting down the mighty from
their thrones but lifting up the lowly. Hannah says, “Those who were full hire
themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more.” Mary says,
“He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away
empty.” Women were perhaps extra-sensitive to God’s reversals because for them
to even prophesy was unusual in Israelite/Jewish culture; most of the prophets
were men.
In a way, Hannah foreshadows Mary in needing to
give up her son. The other parallel we might consider is Sarah giving up Isaac.
Isaac was another special son, a “child of the promise” of God to Abraham. Of
course we have Sarah getting impatient with the promise and taking matters into
her own hands, giving her slave Hagar to Abraham, which led to the birth of
Ishmael and all the trouble that came with that. The weaning of Samuel marked
the time of Hannah’s committing him to the Lord. The weaning of Isaac, in
contrast, was the point at which Sarah decided to send away Ishmael and Hagar,
creating the division between Jews and Arabs that has lasted to this day.
Still, in a sense, Sarah had to give up Isaac to God when Abraham took him away
to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. Did she know as they headed out about the
devastating command that God had given to Abraham? We are not told. I’m sure
she heard about it afterward! She needed to be reminded also that Isaac did not
belong to her but only to God. The stories of Sarah and Hannah are actually connected
in the Rosh Hashanah celebration in Jewish tradition.
So with that as introduction, let’s look at what Hannah
says at this crucial time of giving up her son to the Lord: 1 Samuel chapter 2:
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.”—I Samuel 2:1
Right from the start we see that this is a song of
praise to God, acknowledging His power and salvation. Your Bible probably has a
little footnote that explains that “horn” symbolizes strength. This first verse
could be interpreted as Hannah commenting on her personal situation, the first
of the reversals that she highlights. She had been weak, but the Lord has been
her strength, delivering her from the mocking of Peninnah by giving her
something of her own to boast about. But it’s also clear that Hannah is
speaking on behalf of the whole nation of Israel, in prophetic anticipation of
how God would use Samuel in his narrative of deliverance.
“There is no
one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there
is no Rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth
speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him
deeds are weighed.”—I Samuel 2:2-3
In praising God for who He is, His preeminent
attribute is His holiness. This is the song of the angels in heaven: “Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” God’s perfection is what sets Him apart
from everything else. There is no one else like Him. All the pagan gods had
their weaknesses; only our God is perfect in every way – perfectly righteous,
perfectly just, perfect in knowledge and in power, perfectly loving. All of
this is wrapped up in the holiness of God. So we can trust Him completely. He
is the only Rock, the only firm foundation, the only refuge that is perfectly
secure.
We cannot get away with anything before God.
Nothing is hidden from Him. He is the judge who weighs our deeds and intimately
knows our hearts. So there is no room for pride or arrogance before him. Here
again, Hannah could be thinking of Peninnah’s arrogant words condemning her
barrenness, but there is the broader application as well, for all people, for
all time. The Message renders this last couplet as, “For God knows what’s going
on. He takes the measure of everything that happens.”
“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 were hungry are
hungry no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who
has had many sons pines away.”—I Samuel 2:4-5
Here are three more reversals, the ways in which
God turns human systems and values upside down in the areas of power,
provision, and progeny. He is able to break human power and raise up the weak.
Weakness and stumbling are associated many places in the Bible. It’s a vivid
image. People may stumble because they are weak, or they may be weak because
they stumble. In either case, God is able to strengthen them.
The provision of food here can be extended to
resources in general. Wealth is fleeting and cannot be trusted. God can bring
down the rich in a moment, making them so destitute that they have to hire
themselves out for food. In the same way He can feed the hungry in miraculous
ways. In many cultures children are also seen as a sign of blessedness and
security. But God is able to turn this matter of progeny upside down as well.
Having many sons may not protect someone from fading away. On the other hand, God
can give a barren woman the perfect number of children, symbolized here by the
number seven. We will see later on in this chapter that He actually gave Hannah
three more sons and two daughters.
“The Lord brings
death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends
poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor from
the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with
princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.”—I Samuel 2:6-8a
Here are more expressions of God’s power and
sovereignty. We know that God’s plan to save His people would culminate in
bringing Jesus down to the grave and raising Him up. We read in Revelation 1
that Jesus now holds the keys of death. He has control and authority over
death. Death came because of sin, but Satan has never had control over it
outside of God’s sovereign will.
As Hannah asserts these things about God, we can be
sure that she is not doing it in a fatalistic sort of way, saying: God can do
whatever He wants so it doesn’t matter what we do. No, she had prayed and God
had answered her prayer. However, she doesn’t presume to know everything that
God wants to do. She realizes with Isaiah that His ways are higher than our
ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. But she also understands His love for
her and His desire to honor her. She feels like she has been lifted from the
ash heap and placed on a throne of honor. Most importantly, she realizes that
she can trust Him completely.
In a prophetic way, her words hint at what is
coming up in the story of Samuel and the kings that follow him. The exalted
Saul would be humbled and brought down to the grave. The lowly shepherd boy
David would be lifted up and inherit his throne – and be honored by God as a
man after His own heart.
“For the
foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the
world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the
wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by
strength that one 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.”—I Samuel 2:8b-10a
The “foundations of the earth” do not refer to a
physical structure, but rather to the principles, laws, and systems that the
universe depends on. Psalm 75:3 quotes God as saying, “When the earth and all
its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.” God has established all
parts of His creation to work together in harmony. Scientists keep adding more
parameters to the long list of conditions that all have to be precisely aligned
to allow life to exist on the earth. This, I believe, is one example of the
type of pillars that God is holding firm.
“He will guard the feet of his faithful servants.”
This may remind us of the “beautiful feet bringing good news” that Paul writes
about in Romans 10. Feet have to do with going places. As we go out in service
to God, He promises to guard our feet, to protect us on the way and also to
make our message effective. Somehow the image of feet has to do with more than
just going; it relates to the message that it brought by and through the goer. In
this way the proclamation of the gospel is a beautiful thing. Perhaps this is
why the statement about feet in our text is paired with the wicked being “silenced in the place of darkness.”
“It is not by strength that one prevails; those who
oppose the Lord will be broken.” This is another truth that Saul should have
kept in mind. We will see later in our series that his disregard and opposition
to God’s way was his downfall. He thought he could prevail by his own strength,
so God had to break him. The Lord judged him, and He will judge the ends of the
earth, meaning all people everywhere.
“He will give
strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”—I Samuel
2:10b
Here Hannah looks ahead prophetically to the
setting up of a king in Israel. Samuel would be the last of the judges, the one
to anoint the first two kings, actually. Saul will be anointed in chapter 10
and after God rejects him, young David is anointed as his replacement in
chapter 16. But through the Holy Spirit, Hannah is seeing far beyond them to
the Messiah. This is actually the first place in the Bible that refers to “his
anointed.” Priests had been anointed for service to God, but God’s Anointed
refers to a king and ultimately to Jesus the Christ. Hannah had started out
rejoicing in her own horn of strength being lifted high. She closes with that
of the Messiah being exalted.
So that is the end of Hannah’s remarkable prayer or
song of praise. What would her listeners have thought? If their hearts were
open they would have had an amazing, unprecedented glimpse into the glory of
God, through the word-and-deed testimony of this humble woman who was willing
to put her faith into action and commit herself and her precious son to the
Lord.
Then Elkanah
went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before
the Lord under Eli the priest.—I Samuel 2:11
Hannah was able to leave happy. Even though her
heart must have been breaking at the same time, I can picture her walking along
the dusty path back to Ramah singing, “For I know whom I have believed and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against
that day.” Actually it would be almost 1200 years before Paul would pen those
words to Timothy, and 1800 more years before Daniel Whittle would make them
into a hymn. But Hannah’s confidence was in God. Her little boy, just a toddler
at this stage, would minister before the
Lord under Eli the priest. She knew that he would be living in the presence
of the Lord – what a place to be!
I am blessed by Hannah’s amazing openness to God.
She realized that this whole thing wasn’t about her. It wasn’t even about
Samuel. It was about God’s bigger purposes for his people and for the world. Look
at the way God was able to use her faith. There was nothing special about her –
she was just an ordinary woman from some small village in the hills. But she
was willing to step out in faith, to do something very difficult for God’s
sake: give up her precious little boy. Her obedience set in motion a very
important piece of God’s redemptive plan for the whole word. Samuel would grow
up dedicated to the Lord, able to hear from Him, proclaim His word, and follow His
will. He would be the one to establish God’s king on the throne that would
eventually seat the Messiah, Savior and Lord for all eternity.
Do you believe that God has some steps of faith that
He would like you to take? I don’t know what those might be. Ask Him to show
you. All of us need to consider the promises that we have made to God and how
well we are following through on them. Let’s keep encouraging each other as a
body to be conscientious and obedient to those things that God has shown each
of us to do. For those of us who are parents or who want to be parents someday,
we can learn something from Hannah about our attitude toward our kids. Carl
mentioned this last week when he reminded us that our kids don’t belong to us,
but we have them on loan from God. It means that we have to be willing to let
go of them, as Hannah did, so that they are able to pursue God’s calling. This
requires a step of faith. I know as a parent that it is not easy to let go. We
feel responsible – and that’s a good thing. I’m sure Hannah felt responsible,
too, and probably had some questions. Eli was hardly an exemplary character, and
what about his sons? Wouldn’t they be a bad influence on Samuel? But ultimately
what it came down to was this: Samuel was dedicated to God, and even a loving
mother could trust God to take care of him. And we see the results of Hannah’s
willingness to let go and let God. She set Samuel free to do some amazing
things. We will study them in coming weeks.
For the
eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may
strongly support those whose heart is completely His. – 2 Chronicles 16:9
(NASB)
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