Life Around "The Fire"
This podcast is dedicated to those wanting to experience a living and real relationship with God as well as growing together in love for one another. We consider that to be a true sign of spiritual growth as we journey along The Way. If this is you then come along with us as we co-operate with God in what He is doing around the corner and around the world!
Life Around "The Fire"
Perfect Timing: Why Your Barren Season Has Divine Purpose
Ever felt like you're praying without results while others mock your struggles? Hannah's story from 1 Samuel reveals profound truth about those seasons when nothing seems to happen despite our deepest prayers.
The journey begins with Hannah, a woman desperately longing for a child while enduring cruel taunts from her husband's other wife who had many children. Year after year, Hannah's prayers seemed to go unanswered, leading to such deep grief she couldn't eat. Yet this apparent divine silence wasn't rejection—it was preparation for something extraordinary.
What makes this narrative particularly significant is that Hannah's husband Elkanah came from a priestly lineage responsible for physically carrying the Ark of the Covenant—a 400-pound gold-covered chest representing God's glory. This teaches us something profound: there are no shortcuts to carrying spiritual weight. When Hannah finally poured out her soul at the temple, her prayers were so intense that Eli the priest mistook her for being drunk. Our deepest intercessions often appear strange to others because they transcend conventional expression.
Hannah's breakthrough wasn't just about having a child—it was about birthing Samuel, the prophet who would transform Israel during a critical transition period. The timing had to be perfect, and the depth of her intercession matched the significance of what God would accomplish through her son. Your current barren season may feel endless, but it might be preparing you to birth something of remarkable significance. The question isn't whether God hears you, but whether you can trust His perfect timing while carrying the weight of His glory through the waiting.
Looking for more spiritual insights? Visit lifeonthefire.com or email your thoughts to lifeonthefire@gmail.com. We'd love to hear how Hannah's story connects with your journey.
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Shalom to you and your home.
Before we get going on our ongoing study in the writings of Samuel, specifically in the book of 1 Samuel, I need to give some clarification concerning some dates and times that we've referenced leading up to this particular podcast episode, and that is this that our focus is on 1 Samuel, the book of 1 Samuel.
Speaker 1:There's two books that we have in the Bible. One is 1 Samuel and the second is 2 Samuel. However, the original writings did not have these books separated. It was all one letter, one book, and it wasn't until the writing of the Septuagint that these books were divided, because of the length of the writings that the writers of the Septuagint found it more convenient to put the writings in two scrolls. So they had one scroll that was relegated to 1 Samuel and the second one to 2 Samuel, and so we have 1 and 2 Samuel, and so we have 1 and 2 Samuel. And in referencing the timeline concerning the events that have taken place or had taken place during that time period, I referenced the fact that it was roughly 150 years, and that is accurate, except that's not the length of time that the book of 1 Samuel encompassed. The book of 1 Samuel encompassed about 100 years, and then 2 Samuel occupies about another 50 years and so, combined together, they're 150 years, and so I just want to clarify that so that you know we want to be accurate in these things, because there are some people that are really they're taking notes and they're taking time to really dive in deep on this and we want to be, you know, clear in what we're saying. And so the book of 1 Samuel is going to be our primary focus, and that occupies about 100 years. However, the writings of 1 and 2 Samuel were originally written as one book that occupied about 150 years. All right, so, regarding chapter 1 in 1 Samuel, regarding chapter one in 1 Samuel, we have a series of events that unfold concerning the birth of Samuel or what leads up to the birth of the prophet Samuel, and there's some really interesting points to look at and to uncover in this first chapter. And so I'd like to start reading from verse 1 in chapter 1. And we're going to go through, let's see, we're going to go through verse 20. Through verse 20, and I'm going to read straight through and then make some comments after.
Speaker 1:And there's something powerful when we read the scriptures out loud. There's something powerful that takes place when you do it on your own, and I encourage you to do it on your own, to read it quietly, silently, but also to read it out loud and to try to read it with some feeling, because it brings things alive. And also, uniquely enough, there's something that takes place in our lives when we expose ourselves to the written word of God, and that is this Changes take place within us, literally, changes take place within our mind, within our spirit, within our bodies. There's actually a rearrangement excuse me, a rearrangement or rearranging of things that takes place as a result of how we interact with and expose ourselves to the scriptures and the presence of God. We change, we're transformed, we are transformed into the image of Jesus. It's a powerful thing, and so we want to utilize that in our lives. But also in this particular podcast series, periodically we're going to read portions of the scripture out loud, because there's power in that.
Speaker 1:And so in 1 Samuel, beginning at verse 1, the writer says there was a certain man from Ramathiam, a Zophite, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jerohom, son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, an Ephraimite. Now, that's important. Just hold on to that. That lineage, those names are unfamiliar to many of us, but they are Middle Eastern names. They're ancient but they carry a lot of meaning. So, just pulling out of that thought, he had two wives. One was called Hannah and the other Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah had none.
Speaker 1:Year after year, this man went up from his hometown to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. The two sons of Eli were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of meat to his wife Panina, 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. And because the Lord had closed her womb and because the Lord had closed her womb, her 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. Elkanah, her husband would say to her Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you so disheartened and downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons Once, when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, hannah stood up.
Speaker 1:Now Eli, the high priest, was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. In bitterness of soul, hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord, and she made a vow saying O Lord Almighty, if you 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. And 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 will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine. No, not. Still, my lord. Hannah replied I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have been not 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 and out of my great anguish and grief I'm here. 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 went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast.
Speaker 1:Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the Lord and they went back to their home. At Ramah, elkanah lay with Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 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, there was a certain man from Ramoth, a Zophite from the hill country of Ephraim. Now that's important. Now that's important because Elkanah came from the tribe of Levi, and the tribe of Levi was the tribe that were set apart to be priests unto the Lord, and his lineage was the group from the tribe of Levi, the Kohathites, that were used to carry the Ark of God's presence, the Ark of the Lord of God's presence, the Ark of the Lord that's so powerful. Because Elkanah came from a long line of people that knew what it meant to carry the weight of God's glory.
Speaker 1:The Ark of the Covenant weighed a lot, probably close to 400 pounds, because it was made, on its outer coating, of pure gold. Inside it was wooden, but the outside was pure gold. Inside it was wooden, but the outside was pure gold and the weight of it was approximately 400 pounds and four priests would carry it on their shoulders for a given period of time and then another four priests would take over and carry it, but it was carried on their shoulders. They could feel the weight of God's glory. There's something significant about that, folks. It's important for us to know what it means to carry the weight of God's glory, because the glory of the Lord, when the glory of the Lord comes upon us, there's a weight to it. Literally, the presence of God intensified, carries a weight. And when we don't try to use gimmicks or shortcuts to see the glory of the Lord manifest, when we actually carry in prayer the Lord's glory, when we're prepared to carry that upon our shoulders, he manifests his glory.
Speaker 1:There's a story about Israel taking the ark and trying to move it from one place to another other than with the priests carrying it. They put it on an ox cart and, as the story goes, the ox cart hit a divot in the road and it looked like the Ark was going to fall off the ox cart and a man put up his hand against the ark and he died. Well, the reality was that ark was never intended to be put on an ox cart. It was intended to be carried and because it wasn't done according to the way that God had prescribed, something tragic took place. And when we try to do things our own way, we try to fabricate God's presence, we try to make it happen through our own ways, and means Negative things ultimately take place. Our churches divide and split. There's just a variety of things that take place when we do things out of order or we try to do things in a way that are done by the world, try to imitate what the world is doing so that we can appear to be like them, what the world is doing so that we can appear to be like them. And we're going to find that to be the case in Israel again in this particular book.
Speaker 1:But the fact that Elkanah was from the lineage of a group of people that knew what it meant to carry the glory of the Lord I just think it's significant, because it was from his loins that Samuel, the prophet that was going to be the prophet of transition, was born, was born. And so you know, folks, there's something to be said about the way we go about living our lives and what we pass on to our children. What you do now affects the lives of your children. Literally, what's typed into your DNA gets passed on to your children. Your mannerisms, your behaviors, those things get patterned into your life and passed on. So for those of you who are experiencing your encounters out of your relationship with God and you know what it means to experience God's glory, that's such a beautiful thing for you personally. But it's also significant the fact that your children will have a sensitivity toward that. Even if they rebel, they will have a sensitivity toward that, because there's something about things being passed on generationally. It could be negative or positive. It could be negative or positive.
Speaker 1:So Samuel was a benefactor of the lineage of his father and his father's wife, hannah, one of Elkanah's wives, and in that day polygamy was a very common thing. It still is in some of the tribes in the Middle East, but in that particular day and age, polygamy was a very common thing. So to have two wives was not uncommon. And Elkanah had two wives and one of them, peninnah, was able to give birth and she was proud of it. And Hannah, on the other hand, was not able to give birth. She was barren and again, in that culture, to be barren was a very difficult thing for a woman to carry, because to have children was an honor and to be barren well, oftentimes it was looked upon as there being a problem, there being a problem, and Penina used that to her advantage to gloat over Hannah.
Speaker 1:Isn't that? Sometimes, folks the way it is? There's people that seem to have things that you don't have and they look at you and make a judgment upon you because you don't have what they have in fact, none of. They make a judgment, they gloat over it and they make fun of you as a result of you being different from them. You look different, you talk different, you have different ways of saying things. Like I said, you just don't think like they do. You don't have the same material thing that they have and, as a result, they gloat over that and they mock you and that can be something that really weighs in on a person. If you've ever had that happen and I have in on a person, If you've ever had that happen and I have it can be very, very disturbing. And if it goes on year after year, as we see in verse 3, that year after year, elkanah went up to provide his offering to the Lord and year after year. Peninnah would mock Hannah during that time because she didn't have children and Peninnah did.
Speaker 1:And it reached a point where Hannah was just absolutely grief-stricken man. And sometimes in life we can get there because it seems like the promises just never happen. It's like what's wrong with me? This is happening in their life and they don't even act decent about it and yet they seem to have everything going their way. And here I am, supposedly the love of my husband's life or the one who has things that they're doing right, and I'm kind of dried up, I'm barren, what, what, what's wrong with me? And Hannah had the grief in her life so deep she lost her appetite. And I know some of you listening you can relate, man, you've been there. Maybe you're there right now where things just aren't going on like you thought they would. It's kind of barren, say God, what am I doing wrong? I thought you said this and here this is what's going on. And maybe there are people that are mocking you out loud or maybe you could feel them mocking you behind your back, or maybe it's just extremely difficult. Anyway, hannah was at a point where she just didn't really even want to talk about it anymore to anybody. She, in her deep, deep, deep place of sorrow and longing to be useful, just said God, please. And her intercession was so deep.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we're allowed to go through things so we get to a place where the depth of what we're interceding for reaches that place. That matches the significance of what God is going to provide. That matches the significance of what God is going to provide. It's not as though he's toying with us. It's the fact that what we're about to birth is so significant that he has to arrange things in a way so that the timing of it is perfect. You see, samuel was born right on time because he was going to be used by God to do things in the nation of Israel that were going to change the course of that nation and the course of our lives today. And Hannah was the one who was going to give birth to him. But it wasn't going to be until the right time, even though she wanted it earlier. It wasn't until the right time.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that's the way the intercession works we pray and we pray and we pray, and then we pray, we travail in prayer, so much so that it looks odd, we groan. It says in the scriptures that the Spirit actually does that within us. At times, the Holy Spirit actually provides groans that are there's no English, there's no human language, regardless of what language you speak, it goes beyond that, that groaning, that deep travail, unutterable. Well, that was Hannah. She was mouthing things out, but no words were coming out and sometimes intercession is so deep other people don't understand it. In fact, eli didn't understand it. He thought she was drunk and he accused her of being drunk because it just didn't fit in his framework of thinking what that was all about, because that's what it looked like to him. But it wasn't that she was drunk.
Speaker 1:There was a transition so significant that was taking place and Hannah was going to be part of it and at the depth of prayer that it was aligned with. That prayer was aligned with was so significant that it was at that depth in which something was released and when she was with her husband the next time she conceived, the promise was made, kept and delivered. God is faithful. God is faithful. There are transitions that are taking place in our lives and I want to underscore the fact that God is faithful. Sometimes things get to a place where they require us to experience the depth of them the significance of it, because the release is going to be that significant. The answer is going to be that significant. It matches the depth of your prayer.
Speaker 1:So please don't lose heart. If you're going through a time that seems barren, the timing of God is perfect. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that really, your timing is perfect. Your ways are not necessarily our ways In fact they're not and your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But you clue us in and you involve us, and I thank you. I thank you that you're using our lives. You could do these things without us, but you've chosen to use us, and sometimes it's comfortable and sometimes it's just hard, but the result is good.
Speaker 1:Help us see that Father and not lose heart. Help us see that Father and not lose heart. Holy Spirit, use these times in our lives to transform us into the very likeness and image of Jesus. We want that more than anything and we stand here in his name and we say amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, we love you and if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at liferonthefire at gmailcom. That's our email address, and if you want to look us up on the web. Just type in liferonthefire and check out what we've got going on. We'd love to hear from you in the meantime. God bless you. Adios Amigos.