Episode 13- Faith in Action

Today we will be reading part 1 of Samuel's story! We will be reading from Samuel chapters 1 & 2, as well as Ecclesiastes 3:1 and Hebrews 11:1 NIV. Thanks for joining! 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Full Armor of God podcast. My name is Taylor, and I'll be your host. I am so thrilled to dive into week 13 with you. Thank you for coming back for another week of the Lord's Wisdom. For our readings today, we're mostly going to be in the book of Samuel. Chapters 1 and 2 is the bulk of our story. It's our whole story there in chapters 1 and 2. For today, we are also going to be reading supplemental verses from the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 3, verse 1. And then we'll read a verse from the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, verse 1. Now, the book of Samuel, Samuel is one of the big Old Testament prophets. He has such a role in the Old Testament kingdom era. And his story is just one of those that's incredible, starting from before he was even born. So we're going to split up his story into two parts. And this first one is his coming into the world. And of course, a lot of that revolves around his mom. His mom is Hannah. So today we're talking about faith in action with the story of Samuel and his mother, Hannah. So first Samuel chapter one, our story opens with a man named Elkanah who has two wives. One is Hannah and the other is Panina. Now, Panina has many children, but Hannah couldn't have any. Hannah had none. The Bible tells us that Elkanah, the husband, truly loved and valued Hannah more than his other wife, but the other wife would provoke Hannah every time they all went to this annual feast at the temple in Jerusalem. She would provoke her, making fun of her, that she had no children, to the point where Hannah was brought to tears. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to be there. She was miserable. One quick note that I want to make is that throughout the Old Testament, we can see men who have multiple wives. And it seems like it's this normal thing. It was part of the culture because the goal was to have as many children as you could. That was your legacy, that was your wealth. And those children would carry on your name. So it was important for men to yes, have as many children as they could, and they would do that by having many wives oftentimes. However, back in Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, we can see that God designed union to be between one man and one woman. And when this blueprint isn't followed, it causes pain, brokenness, and destruction all throughout the Bible. So just because something's there doesn't necessarily mean that it's God's design, because humans are broken. This world is broken. And when we stray from God's design, that's where we start to see the brokenness. That's where we start to see the destruction. Just like here, this man Alcana has two wives, and there is strife between the two. There is not a union of family. We see jealousy, hatred, bitterness. We see Penaniah holding the children over Hannah's head. So there are certain times in the Bible where we see things and we think, hmm, is that right? But God's design specifically back in Genesis chapter 2 is for one man and one woman. When that's not followed, problems arise. Back to the story in 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 7. It says this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival, the other wife, provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? In verse 9, once they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on his chair by the doorstep of the Lord's house. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. I just love this because Hannah knows who can handle her grief, who truly sees and understands what she's going through. She's not able to be comforted by her husband. She's absolutely not comforted by the other wife. And she knows that God is the one to go to. He's the one who can handle her grief and her frustration. She prays to the Lord and she makes a vow. And the start of this prayer starts out with Lord Almighty or Lord of hosts in some other translations. This translates to the God of angel armies. The Lord of hosts is the God of angel armies. Hannah is calling on God's power and authority because she recognized the need of the God of heavenly armies to come and fight for her in this situation. So she makes a vow in 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 11, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on 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. No razor being used on his head is a very specific detail because this was a Nazarite vow. A Nazarite vow was described back in the book of Numbers, and it basically means that one's life is not lived for themselves. It's a whole life dedication to God. Now, anyone could take this vow. It wasn't like a priestly thing, it wasn't a tribe of Levi thing, it was for anyone to take, but it was usually for a period of time, not ongoing, not for someone's whole life. But Hannah wanted her son to be a Nazirite under this Nazirite vow for his whole life, fully, wholly dedicated to the Lord. This Nazirite vow involved sacrifice of comfort, convenience, and cultural norms in order to honor God wholeheartedly. And Hannah is begging God, if you give me a son, I'm gonna give him right back to you. He will be under the Nazirite vow and he will serve you wholeheartedly all the days of his life. In verse 12, it continues, As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli, the priest, observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. And Eli thinks she's drunk. So he says to her in verse 14, How long are you gonna stay drunk? Put away your wine. And Hannah says, No, no, no, I am a woman who is deeply troubled. In verse 15, I have not been 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 out of my great anguish and grief. In verse 17, Eli answered, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. So the story goes on, and Hannah ends up having a son. She names him Samuel, meaning heard by God. She says, Because I asked the Lord for him. After he's born, it's time for the whole family to go up and do another annual sacrifice, that annual feast again. And she tells her husband, I'm gonna stay home with this baby, but after he's weaned, after I don't need to breastfeed him anymore, I'm gonna take him to the temple, to the Lord, and he will live there always. So in verse 26, Samuel is of age, they take him to the temple, and she tells Eli, who's still the priest, she says, Pardon me, my Lord, as surely as you live. I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord for his whole life. He will be given over to the Lord. She's following through on her vow after God followed through, granting her request. And then she goes into this great prayer, just praising God for hearing and answering her prayer. In chapter two, verse one, Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord, my horn is lifted high. That means my strength is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one beside you. There is no rock like our God. I don't know about you, but I can't even imagine what that's like to pray and earnestly ask for a child from the depths of her soul. And then when she gives Samuel back, she's not in anguish, she's not in sorrow because she doesn't get to raise her baby. She's rejoicing at God's goodness and his faithfulness. I think if it were me, I would be so sad to give up my baby that I had just prayed and prayed for, and God finally answered my prayer. And okay, yeah, he's he's yours. That would be so difficult to do. The difference between my reaction and Hannah's reaction is that Hannah knows that that baby, it doesn't belong to her, that that baby belongs to the Lord. Did you catch that when I said I would be so sad to give up my baby, like my blessing that God answered me with? It's mine. I made it. But truly, he's the one who makes it. He's the one who opened Hannah's womb. He's the one who blesses her with a child. And yes, it's a blessing that she gets the steward, but Hannah knows that that blessing actually belongs to the Lord. Ultimately, our blessings don't belong to us because we never made them. We could never make it happen on our own. Our finances, blessing from the Lord. Our jobs, blessing from the Lord. Our children, blessing from the Lord. God blesses us with so much because his heart as a father is that he wants to bless his children with good things. He desires to bless us with great things, but the blessings are from him. They are by him. They are through him. And he's calling us to be faithful stewards of them. Hannah is walking in faithfulness. She made a vow to God. He answers her prayer. And now she's in this state of abundance and great blessing with this child that he's answered her with. And it's so incredible seeing her fulfill her vow to the Lord by giving Samuel back. The story just beautifully highlights two things, for me at least, personally. The first thing is that blessings are from the Lord, they belong to him, and they're for us to faithfully steward and glorify him through. There are so many examples of how we can do this, but just related to this story. I've heard a mom talking about walking through the loss of her child, of her eight-year-old daughter. And she said she was never mine in the first place. She was always God's. I just got to steward her here and be a part of her journey for eight incredible years. I mean, what an eternal perspective to have. In the Bible, King David, he loses his infant son. He has many children, but this was his first. And in 2 Samuel, he's talking about his son who had just passed, and he's mourning him. And he says, I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. He knew he would see his baby again someday. When he went to heaven, when he went to that great place, he knew he would get to see his baby someday. He had that eternal perspective. And Hannah, after giving Samuel back to the temple, back to God, she went to see him every year at the temple when they go up for that annual feast. She knew she'd see him again. And this is just one area, one category, one example of stewarding our blessings well. But overall, the blessing belongs to the Lord. And it's important to not lose sight of that in order to steward it well, to not let the blessings we prayed for become burdens. I think the flip side of this coin is that we pray for a child or any kind of blessing. It could be a job, it could be a raise, it could be a significant other, it could be a relationship, it could be getting into a certain school. I mean, whatever the blessing is that you're praying for, when God calls us to step into that, it's not necessarily easy. Yes, it's a thing that we prayed for. Yes, it's an incredible blessing, but relationships are hard. They take work. Raising children is hard, it takes work. Getting a bigger income, that's hard. It takes work. Your workload usually increases. So the blessings that we prayed for, man, sometimes we just have to look back and say, ah, these burdens that I'm complaining to God about. I actually was praying for them. I think that perspective of going back to where we were when we prayed for this blessing, it can just give us a heart like Hannah's. With the difference of just a year or two, Hannah went from sobbing, crying inconsolably, pouring her grief-filled heart out to the Lord in the grounds of the temple, so much so that Eli thinks she's drunk and says, You need to put away your wine. And she says, No, no, I'm in anguish. I am praying out of the depths of my soul right now. And a year or two later, she goes to bringing that very blessing that she prayed for back to the Lord because he answered it. And then she prays to him and says, I just want to glorify you, God. I can say nothing but thank you for this huge, huge blessing that you've given me. And then the second thing that the story highlights is that Hannah demonstrates faith in action. She calls on the God who is almighty, all powerful, who fights on her behalf, knowing he can handle not only her grief, but also her biggest asks, her greatest request to try to have children, despite the inability to in the past. Eli sends her off with a blessing and she continues to try, despite not being successful in the past. In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 1, it says there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. God had an appointed time for Samuel to walk on the earth. And we're going to talk about Samuel's story and his time because he really did have really big stuff to do while here on earth. He had a purpose for such a time as this. He needed to be born at this perfect time so that he could do all the things that he did. And we're going to talk more about his story. But God's divine timing might look like slowness or unanswered prayers to us, but it can also be his preparation of what's to come. There's a verse in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. It says, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hannah shows confidence in God's ability to answer her prayers and continues to walk in assurance that God will deliver her from distress. In the end, she glorifies him who fights on her behalf. This story is such an encouraging reminder that God hears the cry of his children. My prayer this week is that we would take account of all of our blessings and remember where we were, where our heart posture was, if you will, as we prayed for these blessings that we are living and walking out today. And then not only to thank the Lord for them, but also to ask him how to steward them well in ways that honor and glorify him, how to reflect him while at work, how to point our children to him and walk in his ways, how to honor him in every area of our lives. He is the greatest teacher, but more than that, he is the greatest dad. And he's here to walk alongside us through it all. I hope this message encouraged you this week as it did me. I will be praying for you as always. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. And I can't wait to see you here next time. God bless you.