Here’s a new thing for you. Instead of offering you a powerpoint to download you can click on the image below. This comes from www.prezi.com and I recommend you go there if you want to create similar presentations.

Enjoy!

It’s about desperate praying

prayer is the bridge between panic and peace.

How to get the most out of 1 Samuel?

it’s meant to be read as a story
A good story might be challenging, inspiring, comforting, exhilarating, moving

So how do we hear God from a story – (especially an OT story)?

look at the people

ask ‘what does this tell me about that person?’

one thing that makes a great story is the way the characters develop, change, interact
Some of them are simply good or bad – but most of them are a mixture of the two

1 Samuel doesn’t shrink from bringing out the complexity of human nature

actions

What were they doing? What does their behaviour tell us?

However in touch with God we are, we can still allow the beast in the basement to get out of his cage and act in ways that don’t honour God
It tells us about the way God forgives – as well as the way he sometimes punishes

examples

look for examples – good examples to follow, or poor examples to avoid

always, always look out for what God is doing behind the scenes

prophecy

We won’t always find “and God did or said X” – He’ll just do it – and we are left to draw our own conclusions

the story teller intends you to come to a conclusion – but he doesn’t always hit the matter on the nose – he’ll leave you to work it out

and it’s the act of being compelled to work it out that makes the difference between a good story a great story
the difference between a story for then and a message of God for me today.

and that’s the wonder of good storytelling inspired by the Holy Spirit

But wait a minute – doesn’t story mean fiction? No, not necessarily

This was written, and intended to be read as history.

Same a Deuteronomy that we’ve been studying recently.

What’s being recorded are event that actually happened

this is ancient history with a highly contemporary ring to it

We’re going to start this morning with a lady wrestling with infertility

and she has something to say to any woman silently struggling with the inability of her or her husband to have children.

We’re going to find little cameos of people whose key personality features come out in just a few words or verses.

As always with a story that has a historic component there are two key features

Firstly there are the events themselves

some of them are at God’s instigation, his initiative and in line with his will, something they most definitely aren’t

and sometimes the answer to that question is hinted at whereas in other occasion it isn’t

Second feature is the interpretation of the events.

How and why does the narrator describe a particular event or person in a particular way?

why does he (or she?!) play up one aspect and underplay another

This is preached history!

It’s not Hansard! Not a detached, supposedly objective account of the nation’s rises and falls

This author has a motive!

And that motive is to unpack what God is doing and what He is like for ordinary readers like you and me.

Therefore …

it’s meant to be read as prophecy

In the Hebrew canon this is one of the ‘former prophets’

i.e. It’s God speaking

Throughout the book we find God speaking, sometimes through a human voice, sometimes through circumstances, sometimes through the things that happen in the nation

but always he’s speaking.

I say ordinary readers – and here we have a problem

It is likely that the first people who heard this book – it’s initial audience – were people whose reading skills were not great or who could not read at all.

therefore it was probably written with the intention of being read aloud by a priest or scribe

S when you read it (and I hope you will)

try reading it aloud! – or get someone to read it to you

Characters

Elkanah

Name means ‘God has created a son’

The first thing we discover about Elkanah is that he had two wives – so here we have a love triangle

a human situation that is almost guaranteed to lead to frustration, despair and sadness.

One person is intended to love one other – introduce a third party and immediately we run into turbulent water.

While this was not particularly uncommon in their society, 1 Samuel leaves us to draw our own conclusions

Immediately we are told the crux of the problem in Elkanah’s family – one had children and the other had none.

Quite likely that E married Hannah first and when she didn’t produce children he also took on a second wife Peninah

Elkanah insensitive

8 Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping?

As if he didn’t know!

the bass line of this comment is “Hannah – Don’t be so silly” If you can’t have children, you can’t have them, what on earth is the problem?!

tears are an inappropriate response to this situation – you’ can’t do anything about it (Darling!) so just – have a tissue – wipe mascara off your nose and come and enjoy the worship

so she wipes her face

She may stifle her sobbing on the outside, but inside her tears are more intense than ever

And it doesn’t stop there

8 … Why don’t you eat?

As if he didn’t know!

choosing not to eat can be an expression of deep self loathing
refusing food – especially food at a celebration can a sign that Hannah was feeling self-destructive

So intense was her sense of failure that she could not have children that she was taking it out on her body – since her body appears to have let her down

… and depriving yourself of food is one of the most potent form of self-destroying activities

What she craves is someone to truly listen to her

and the one ear she longs for more than any other is her husband – but emotionally Elkanah is as deaf as a door post!

It doesn’t stop there!

8 … Why are you downhearted?

As if he didn’t know!?

My guess is that he married this, vivacious, contented, outgoing wife whose character now seems to have changed beyond all recognition just because she can’t get pregnant!

So (he says to himself – and to Hannah) We’ve now got a family! the place is teeming with our children

I’ve given you the one thing you’ve always wanted!

I just don’t get it!

Women!!

It doesn’t even stop there!

8 … Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

I remember talking with a couple we were getting to know quite well over a meal.

The conversation ambled around to the subject of weddings – our weddings.
And that was a trigger for a story – and she came out with a telling little snippet
“On our wedding day” she said “We were just getting ready for bed on our first night and I’d brought Jim (not his real name) a present
I’d boxed it up and wrapped it in some very special paper and gave it to him – it was my wedding present to him
Clearly she was expecting him to have a corresponding box hidden somewhere in their honeymoon suite
it never materialised
And he said “I’m sorry darling – But you’ve got me!”

We all laughed together

she told us that story as a joke – we all laughed together – but I couldn’t help noticing her body-language. There was pain in the punch line

8 … Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

It would have been far better if he had said “don’t’ you mean more to me than ten sons”

that might have struck a chord with her,
that might have said “Darling I’m hearing you”

Listen men!

(especially married men – although this applies in any friendship)

beware of insensitivity to the people God has placed in your world

In many of the pieces of music we play and sing here there is a melody, a harmony and a bass line

mostly you won’t hear the bass line
but it is vitally important
take it out and something is missing from the music – it’s thin and less satisfying

Do all you can to develop sensitivity to God’s voice and to the voice of your wife >>>

The church should be a place where people’s hurts can be heard, even if the hurts can’t be taken away!

>>>

Hannah

Pressures & pain

singled out v5

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

Superficially this seems very generous

it’s Elkanah’s way of saying ‘you are special’

but for Hannah gifts are so substitute for compassion – however generous

To be deprived of children was the ultimate tragedy for a married woman in their day.

5 … and the LORD had closed her womb.

taunted maliciously v6

6 And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her

insecure v7

because of rival

7 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.

It appeared that Peninah was so malicious in her taunting that she would stop only once she had seen Hannah weep and go into no-food mode for a few days

belittled by her priest v12

12 As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.

13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk

14 and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”

Peninah

It is likely that, since Hannah was Elkanah’s favourite and that he married Peninah just to have some children

But his second wife proved to be a burden to him

she was malicious

a rival

persistent

deep personal need to assert her position

What happens with bitterness of soul?

What to do with bitterness of soul

Hannah did three things

she wept

10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much

In bitterness of soul – We tend to think of prayer as something we do when we’re right with God. Sense of unfairness “Why has God allowed this to happen to me

Psalms 62:8. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah

There is nothing wrong with tears

although these tears were produced by a malicious rival intent on asserting her superiority

Hannah allowed herself to feel her feelings

she prayed

Prayer of faith

Press the pause button here. We know the end of the story – Hannah didn’t

Was this a prayer of faith

the prayer of faith

rests on God’s promises
it recognises God’s sovereign purpose, His bigger picture

10 … and prayed to the LORD.

Elkanah didn’t hear her turmoil,

Peninah certainly didn’t want to hear and

even the priest was insensitive to her

So she turned to the one person who, although not present in a physical body would readily hear her

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

Poem – Jill and Ben (steve Henderson)

Is it her or is it him?

Two bruised, barren cherubim

thinking ‘Is this sacred whim

that out of her comes no more him?’

Is it him or is it her?

Shuffling in a doctor’s chair,

screaming heart – but tidy hair

In his seed there’s no more her

An this is what the man should do

to tame and impregnate his Shrew

amid much laddish ballyhoo,

and this is what some men can’t do

Once a womb, now a dam

Outside Tescos, change of plan –

steal a baby from a pram

then blame it on Fate’s random ban

So is it him or is it her

whose organs are beyond repair

whilst listening to the world’s blank jeer

“Now is it him or is it her?”

In my book this is what made Hannah one of the world’s great pray-ers

she made a promise she fully intended to keep and He knew that she would live up to her promise.

Have you ever done that?

‘Lord if you get me out of this mess then I’ll serve you in some way’
‘Lord if you provide this thing for me then I will tithe my income.’

In reality it would be foolish to think that we can ever bargain with God, after all – we have nothing to bargain with!

After all, everything we have and are belongs to the Lord
I’m only giving back what belongs to him anyway!
I have no right to pat myself on the back and say “well you got a good one out of God today!”

Whatever he gives me in answer to prayer, he gives me out of his undeserved generosity

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from [your heavenly Father], who does not change like shifting shadows.

she didn’t care about being misunderstood

13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk

14 and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”

So urgent was she crying out to God for a baby that the misunderstanding of other people –

even the priest she looked up to and admired,

was a small price to pay for having an audience with God and pouring out her heart to Him.

she didn’t care!

never be afraid of pouring out your heart to God

Surely, if there is any place where we should be free to pray urgently and earnestly for people and for our church and for our nation – it’s got to be here!!

Surely this is the place above all others where we can pour our heart out to the Lord – and know that he will hear us!

God deliver us from the kind of formalised, routine praying that sends earth to sleep and leaves heaven unmoved!

I would much rather lose a bit of reputation (for what it’s worth) and see God’s power unleashed here than maintain any of my so-called respectability and keep God at arm’s length.

That is what makes her a great pray-er!

This is what faith looks like!

she accepted the answer in anticipation

18 She said, “May your servant find favour in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

It’s praising God for his answer before it comes.

she hadn’t had sex with her husband so there was no possible way she could now be expecting the baby she longed for

And look at the way this prayer changed her!

‘She ate’ – that’s what she refused to do earlier
‘Her face was no longer downcast’ – the face is the mirror of the heart

e.g sometimes on a Sunday

Rosi sees my face – we get home – she says “I know exactly what you were thinking” – she’s usually right

Hannah had now completed her business with God – her burden had been discharged. And she was resting confident in the fact that God had heard her … whatever the outcome was to be

Result

she engaged in honest heartfelt worship

her heart became free to worship the Lord

19. Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the LORD

This whole of her being was changed by this prayer – even though she hadn’t yet seen the answer.

Hannah’s body (she ate), her soul (she no longer appeared downcast) and her spirit (she worshipped)

That is what puts her into the great pray-ers category!

she took reasonable practical action

Quite simply in any marriage – no sex, no baby!

19. … and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, [as he had obviously done many times before] and [this time] the LORD remembered her.

During the time Hannah spent pleading with God for a baby something had happened in her

she was no longer the woman who wouldn’t eat her meat
no longer the woman so desperate for God to answer that she appeared to be drunk
she was now the woman who was throwing her weight on God
resting on the fact that he hears – whatever the outcome

Oh – and what was the outcome?

20 So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”

‘Samuel’ sounds like the Hebrew words for ‘heard of God’

I believe there are some of us here today who desperately want to be ‘heard of God’

Stand to pray

Are there any Hannah’s here?

>>> time of 1-1 ministry

Hannah’s desperate praying