Hannah’s Prayer & God’s Answer (5/13/18 Standalone)

ATTN: Happy Mother’s Day! I want to honor all mothers today whose tenacious love I know to be the closest thing to God’s love for us. I shudder to think where I would be if it weren’t for my mother’s mother, my grandmother, who, at the onset of Korean war packed everything she owed, towed her 3 or 4 children, including my mother who was 8 at the time, and came down from the north to the south to start a new life. And my own mother, at the age of 42, packed up everything she owed, towed me and my brother and came to this country to start a new life. I could very well be in North Korea if it weren’t for these mothers who decided to take risks and do the “manly” thing, but as women…

Izaac reminded me that this week is the 70th anniversary of Israel becoming a state again and with all the signs pointing to the return of Jesus soon, all the more mothers’ role to raise up our children to know and love the Lord becomes more imperative.

I want to briefly talk about a mother in the bible named Hannah today. I chose her because, well, we have 3 or 4 Hannahs at our church and I think she was a great example as a mother although her mothering was very short.

She was the mother of the last judge of Israel before they moved to having kings to rule them. Samuel was her son’s name and there are two books written in the OT bearing his name – 1 & 2 Samuel. He was a great man of God who anointed the first king of Israel in Saul and then the second king in David.

Now, is it true that behind every great every man, there is a great mother? Not necessarily. The Bible doesn’t make that link. God can raise a great man or a woman out of a broken family, and then a dud comes out of a great and godly family… But in this particular case, we see an ordinary woman with an ordinary desire being used by God to produce one of the great persons in Israel’s history.

And you know what happens every time before something great happens. Before every miracle is a problem! Her problem was she was barren. She couldn’t children. It’s tough enough today, but back then, in that culture, when all your worth as a woman rides on producing children, especially a male child, she was a woman scorned. As the story would have it, she is so desperate for a child that she makes a bargain with God. When she’s at the temple, she prays 1 sam 1:11 “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not 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, I wouldn’t normally suggest this kind of bargain with God. Normally, it’s motivated by a selfish motive. I once prayed that if God will give me a million dollars, I will use half of it for God and half for me. I was young when I prayed that prayer. A half a million dollars seemed like a lot of money to do everything I ever wanted….  Now, I would’ve asked for more. j/k.

But strangely, God listens to Hannah’s bargaining prayer. 1 Sam 1:19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20 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.

And then Hannah keeps her her end of the bargain. When the child is weaned, she brings the child to the temple to live with the priest and serve God’s people all his life, with herself seeing him perhaps only once a year.

Three takeaways from this story:

1. Pour out your heart toward God on behalf of your children.

Hannah wasn’t passive, thinking, “oh well, it is the will of God I guess. I just should be content… .” She hung onto God for a blessing. She may have started out wanting what others had, but she was determined that if the lord shall grant it, she will glorify the Lord with it.

Mothers, fervently pray for your children. That is the single most important thing you can do for your children. Spending money on piano, violin lessons, soccer, football, and dance camps to give them every opportunity under the sun to succeed is all for naught if God does not take hold of that child and knock self-centeredness out and dwell in him/her.

I know some of you are a lot more spiritual than I am and you have family devotional everyday. I admire you and you really should be preaching up here today. We have family devotional once a week. But I will go into the girls’ room at bedtime time to time, and whisper a prayer for them in their ears. It’s usually for the eyes of their hearts to be opened, to see God as beautiful, and that they will be kind and beautiful on the inside more than the outside. I believe that communicates to the girls who I am really relying on and what’s really important to me. I remember when I was senior in high school, and I was hit in the eye by a baseball almost losing me an eyesight, my mother came into my room every morning while I was sleeping to pray for me. Even though I was older and thought too cool to have my mom pray for me, that communicated who her God was and where her reliance lied…

Pour your heart out toward God on behalf of your children. Do it often in front of your children… Talk more to God about what you want your children to be then talking to your children about what you want them to be.

 

2. Give your children to the Lord, for they belong to the lord.

Hannah kept her word. How many people when they get their crisis resolved, they go away from the Lord. But not Hannah. She kept her promise and gave him back to the Lord. She knew he came from him and belonged to him and not her. This is the attitude we should have with our own children. They are loaned to us and we must give them back, but in what condition, will we give them back?

What does it mean to give them to the Lord? Have them join a monastery? Or have them live with a Pastor’s family so that they will become pastors or missionaries. No. I got my hands full with my two girls…. Rather, it means to raise them as if they are god’s children and not yours. Raise them in a way that they will bring glory to God and not to you although if they are bringing glory to God, they will bring glory to you as well.

1) Allow someone else to mold and shape them – godly influences. Hannah trusted the priest family at the temple and frankly, they weren’t really godly people. But regardless, God honored Hannah’s faith and protected the boy and made him into a great man of God. Involve your children in church. Let them learn from other adults and even peers.

2) Cut out certain things out of their lives. Don’t conform to the pattern of this world by involving them

in everything that a unbelieving family is involved in. Then, they will get the message that our value system is really no different from the world. More is caught than taught! Instead, cut out good things so that they can have the best thing in God.

3) Build in certain spiritual absolutes. Don’t give them a choice on certain absolutes when they are young. Hannah never asked Samuel if he wanted to live with the priest’s family! She made the decision for him! (Horror of horrors!) For our family, one of the things is that we will not miss church on Sunday. So, whether we are in Florida, Oregon, or D.C on vacation, I will look for a church to attend for our family.

 

3. She came to God for a son, she found God (In giving up her son, she found God)

Out of selfish motive, she asked for a son. She wanted what others had. And she even made a bargain with God. But what God gave her was not only a son, but something much more important and that is Himself. She, through this experience, found God to be more precious even than her son. Where do I see that? In chapter 2, after she takes the boy to them temple to leave him there, this is what she prays: “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. (1 Sam 2:1) What mother prays like that when she’s about to say goodbye to her toddler boy only to see him once a year for the rest of her life? A woman who found God to be all satisfying! She experienced God who heard her prayers and who is for her. And so even though she’s parting with her son, she knows that God will that fill that void. And God did. God gave her 5 more children after this.  

It is perfectly fine for us seek God because we have a need. Perhaps your need is a child, like Hannah. Perhaps you need friends. Perhaps a deliverance from certain sin or certain predicament you put yourself in. A financial need perhaps. God can and will provide those things we absolutely. But in the end, pray for the Good behind every good that loses their goodness without that all satisfying Good in God. Seek the Giver more than the gift.

Years later, there would be another young woman who would rejoice over her son. Hannah prayed and received a man of God. Mary never prayed for a son but got the very Son of God. And though Hannah’s son lived to good ripe age, Mary’s son would not. His life was cut off. She would know pain that no mother wants to experience. But because of her son’s sacrifice, we can all rejoice today and not just for now, but forever in the kingdom to come.

Mothers, thank you for bringing this Son of God to your sons and daughters. Find Him yourself first, and then bring your sons and daughters to Him.