The God Who Cares And Knows

There was a certain man from Ramatham, a Zephite, the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Elu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth and Ephraimite. He had two wives, One was called Hannah and the other Penanna. Penanna had children, but Hannah had none. Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hopfney and Fearnus, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife, peninnah, 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. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's 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. 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? Once, when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, hannah stood up. Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. Eli, the priest, was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. In her deep anguish, hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly, and she made a vow 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. As she kept 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 are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine. Not so, my lord. Hannah replied I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring my soul out to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my deep anguish and grief. Eli answered, no longer downcast.

Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah Elkanah, made love to his wife, hannah, and the Lord remembered her. So in the course of time, hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying when her husband Elkanah went up to all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfil his vow, hannah did not go. She said to her husband after the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord and he will live there always. Do what seems best to you. Her husband Elkanah told her Stay here until you have weaned him Only may the Lord make good his word. So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed. They brought the boy to Eli and she him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli and she said to him Pardon me, my Lord, as surely as you live. I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord, and I prayed for this child, and the Lord had granted me what I asked of him, so now I give him to the Lord. Had 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 and he worshipped the Lord there.

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. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one beside 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. 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 are hungry are hungry no more. She who is barren has born seven children, but she who has many sons pines away.

The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he 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 he has them inherit a throne of honor. 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. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.

We all know that we need a leader. Our nation needs a leader. Companies know they need a great leader, so they pay huge amounts of money to their CEO. Every sporting team needs a captain, a leader. Even families need a leader, for without a leader, even families need a leader. For without a leader, how do you know where to go or what to do, what to change, what the priorities are and how to achieve them? But we need the right leader, and our expectations of leaders, it seems to me, have never been higher. We expect our political leaders to know how to manage the economy, to speak into every issue, to make just the right decisions and to comfort us at the right time and when they don't quite get it right, as our Prime Minister found out at a rally this week, we criticise them. Our expectations of leaders have never been higher, and yet our expectations of leaders have never been lower, for we think they are just after feathering their own nest. Feathering their own nest. Where can we find the leader that we need? Who will provide him or her?

1 Samuel is about God's people in dire need of a leader, and it is the story of God's provision and it points us to his provision of the leader that we really need, when God's people needed a leader. Does he know and does he care? Right at the beginning of the Bible, the people that God had made are in crisis. They've rejected God, punished by him, and they hurt one another another, and God promised a rescue, a leader of sorts, through Abraham. His people will be blessed and they will be a blessing to other people, but we find them oppressed in Egypt, and God provided leaders Moses and Joshua to deliver them. And then, in the book of Judges, as they sin against God and are oppressed by their enemies, they cry out to God, and again and again, god provided them with leaders. We saw it last year. Yet at the end of Judges, they reach a new low, a new low of idolatry, of gendered violence, gang rape, domestic abuse and civil war. That's where we ended in the book of Judges. Why was it like that? What did the people need? The book of Judges ended with these words In those days, israel had no king.

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. There was a leadership crisis, but what sort of leader would they need? Where would they find this leader? Who would provide the leader? More importantly, where is God in all of this? Does he care? Does he know? Here is the answer, verse 1.

There was a certain man from Rephathim, a Zophite, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jehoram, the son of Ehu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph, an Ephraphite. Well, done reading, jen. Do you know the names of any of these places? No, neither do I. Do you know the names of any of these people in Elkanah's family? No, neither do I.

As the text says, a certain man, which is another way of saying he is a nobody from nowhere. He is the last person, this is the last family that you would expect would provide a leader, especially since we read in verse 10 that Hannah had no children. Hannah had none, and surely there is a world of sadness in those simple words. Do you ever feel like a nobody, especially compared to the leaders of our world? Do you ever feel forgotten, that your life is just full of sadness? Do you wonder whether God knows and God cares? Is he at work in your life? Are you really part of his plan? Well, here is Hannah, a barren nobody. Though here is more than a barren nobody.

In Deuteronomy 7, god had promised that if his people obeyed him, there would be no one childless amongst his people. She is a microcosm, a symbol of the plight of God's people under his judgment. Yet if you know God's track record in the bible with childless women, if you remember Sarah and Isaac, rebecca and Jacob and Esau, manoah and Samson, if you remember that God is a God of surprises, that he loves to bring something out of nothing, hope out of hopelessness, then you suspect something is about to happen, don't you that he's about to show Hannah that he does know, that he does care, more than that, that he's about to do something for his people. Secondly, knowing the God who knows and cares changes how you respond to misery, this nobody family. Every year they would go up to Shiloh, to the tabernacle, to offer a sacrifice, and it was then especially that the dysfunctional nature of their family, the cruelty of their family, became obvious.

Pharaoh Cana had two wives. Polygamy was not forbidden in the Old Testament, though the ideal was clear in Genesis 2, a man and one woman, and every time we read of it in the Old Testament, the results tell the story. It was about the dumbest thing you could do. It was not that Elkanah was greedy in this case, I think Verse 5, he loved Hannah, his first wife. But verse 2, she had no children and so he had taken another wife. Why was it that she had no children? Did you notice the very striking words? The reason that she has no children, verse 5.

The Lord had closed Hannah's womb. Science could explain the how. Perhaps she was not producing eggs, they were not being fertilized, they were not implanting properly. These days, science, with enough money and heartache, can produce surplus fertilized eggs and open the womb. That's true. But there is an ultimate question in every misery of life the who and the why. This is a product, certainly, of the fall, our sinfulness in this world. This is a product of the general disobedience of God's people. But though we struggle to accept this truth, the Bible says that God works in everything in accordance with the purpose of his will. So the Lord had closed Hannah's womb. Penina, the other wife, knows this. Verse 6. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, she did not think to herself well, I am no better, I am no cleverer. The Lord has simply opened my womb from his grace. And so instead of being gracious to Hannah Hannah's name means grace instead she kept provoking her to irritate her to irritate her.

Elkanah verse 5, knows this truth too, that the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, and he sees Hannah's disability, he feels his own disappointment, he experiences the conflict that is there between his wives every day and he experiences Hannah's emotional distress. And he experiences Hannah's emotional distress Unlike Peninnah and unlike many husbands. He loved Hannah and he spoke tenderly to her. Verse 8. Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? His words I don't think are perfect. They're a bit self-centred, aren't they? Like many husbands, I know this to be true myself. He struggled to say the right thing. Many wives know this too, don't they? But Elkanah was only a man after all, doing his best. He was trying. He saw her weeping and he spoke. He knew that affliction comes from the Lord ultimately, and he trusted the Lord and loved his wife.

How did Hannah respond? She knew also that the Lord had closed her womb, but she did not respond with fatalism and do nothing. And she did not respond with resentment wanting nothing to do with God. No, she knew that the Lord was sovereign and that he knew and cared for her. So what does she do?

Verse 7. She wept and would not eat. Her faith did not take away her distress when she is partially comforted by her husband's poor attempt to comfort her. Verse 10, she prayed. How does she know that the Lord knows and cares for her and is worth praying to? You see it in her prayer, I think. Verse 11. Lord Almighty, he is the Lord, saw the misery of his people and remembered them. Not that he had forgotten them, and suddenly a reminder went on his phone and it popped into his mind. No, he deliberately bought, brought his people to mind and acted upon his promises. Hannah knows his track record, that he sees and remembers because he knows and cares. And so she prayed and, as we suspected, verse 19, the Lord saw, he remembered and he gave Hannah a child.

How should we respond to the misery of others? Children are often like Penina, aren't they? Until we teach them otherwise, they provoke in order to irritate when someone is not doing well. It's not politically correct for adults to do that. But we do look down on those who are less fortunate, naturally, I think On those who can't work, especially people with mental illness. We still struggle with that. We easily forget that other people are not to blame for their disability and we shouldn't take the credit for our ability.

Whatever your politics, whatever you think of the NDIS, when you know the Lord knows and cares, we must be generous to those with disability and, like Elkanah, even when someone else's misery creates a toll upon us, or we too experience misery in it, it can be easy to blame or reject or resent other people, but when you know the Lord is sovereign and that he knows and cares, then we will love and allow people to weep and endeavor, to listen and to speak. How do we respond to our own misery? Well, hannah shows us, us that, doesn't she? You know that god is at work in all things for the good of those who love him, and so faith expresses its anguish. It needs others to listen and to care, but ultimately, in anguish, it cries out to the Lord because you know he is the one who has given this situation and he is the one who knows and cares and can answer.

There are important lessons here for us about responding to misery, but these are not the main lessons of 1 Samuel 1 and 2. The Bible, primarily, is not full of examples for us to copy. And it's not true that if we respond rightly to our misery, god will deliver us. No doubt there were other barren women at this time who no doubt prayed like Hannah did and God did not give them children. Now there is a bigger crisis going on for God's people, a crisis of leadership to deliver them from their misery. And the main character of 1 Samuel is not Penina or Elkanah or Hannah or even the boy Samuel as we'll see. It is the Lord. And Hannah can see that God's answer to her barrenness is actually the answer to his people's need for a leader. And when she sees that God does indeed know and care, it changes how she sees everything. Finally, knowing the God who knows and cares changes everything. The Lord did indeed remember Hannah. He answered her prayer and gave her a son and, as she promised, she brought him to Eli to worship, to serve the Lord at Shiloh.

I can remember the first day at school for each of my children, after five years of watching them grow up and now handing them over. There were tissues on hand, but not for the children. Hannah wept as she longed for a child. She is now handing over her child, not just to go to school but for the rest of his life. And yet she does not weep.

1 Samuel, chapter 2, she prays again. My heart rejoices in the Lord and it's striking not just that she goes from weeping to rejoicing, but how extraordinary or extravagant is her rejoicing. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. She's been delivered from having none, having no children and yes, she did have an enemy it's the other wife, but it's a little over the top, don't you think? My mouth boasts over my enemies plural for I delight in your deliverance. There is more going on here, according to Hannah, than just a baby given to her.

In her first prayer she speaks of the God seeing her misery and remembering Exodus 3. And in this prayer it's just like the triumphant song after God had delivered his people in Exodus 3,. And in this prayer it's just like the triumphant song after God had delivered his people in Exodus 15, and they prayed to the Lord then. What we suspected was happening, hannah is now sure, has happened. This baby given to her anticipates. He guarantees God's deliverance for his people. Do you see verse 9? 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. And then comes a great surprise in Hannah's prayer. He will not just save his people, deal with the crisis and give them a leader, he will give the ultimate leader. Verse 10. Yes, at the end of Jud of judges there was that refrain. Why were they in such a state? Because in those days there was no king in israel. But god had barely mentioned a king before that. And now god reveals the plan through baron nobody. Hannah. He is going to give a king, and this baby Samuel will appoint Saul and will appoint King David.

God brings down and raises up, and that changes how Hannah sees everything. Verse 2, there is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one beside you. There is no rock like our God. There is no one like him. There is a God who knows, verse 3, and he weighs the deeds of men. And so she has a word for the proud. Verse 3. For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds await, and not only human pride, but every source of human pride, human strength verse 4. The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength, human wealth. Those who are full have become empty verse 5 the rich have been brought low and made poor verse 7. And the poor have been raised up. And then the big one, life itself verse 6 the Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up everything in human life that seems powerful and secure and makes us feel independent. The Lord brings down. We are not independent, but dependent. The world is not ruled by mankind or even by scientific laws. No verse 8,. The foundations of the earth are the Lord's. On them he has set the world. Hannah is not saying here that he always brings rich people down and always brings poor people up. It's not that he always does this, but that he can and that he does. And for Hannah, that changes everything about how she sees the world. I wonder whether it changes everything about how we see the world. Can we see the world as Hannah sees it?

I think we find pride ugly, don't we, when people sprout off their achievements. Yet we are proud of our own achievements and we hope that people will notice them. How do you feel when you go unnoticed? We are impressed by human strength. We feel safe when we are strong. Do you believe that God can and might break your strength? Indeed, if you live long enough, he will, as you grow old. And human wealth, the money that you have does it make you feel secure? You would it, would you say, if only I had a little more, like other people. Do you really believe that whatever money you have has been given by God and that he could take it away in a moment? And the big one, life itself? We all know that we will die and that Jesus brings hope beyond the grave, but we so rejoice in life that we find death so confronting and old age so confronting that we distract ourselves and pretend it is not happening. Do you really believe that God can bring your death at any age? But do you not fear it? For God is the God who raises people up. Does seeing the God who knows and cares change everything for you?

In 1912, the world's largest, most luxurious ship was launched. It was a great symbol of mankind's strength and wealth, but, as you know, it never reached New York and 1,500 people, from the very rich to the very poor, died suddenly. Immediately, the Titanic became the world's largest metaphor, a metaphor for human pride and human strength and human wealth and human life brought down in an instant by an iceberg. By an iceberg. The world learnt an important lesson that day, which we immediately forgot when human pride and strength and wealth led to the destruction of 20 million lives in World War I. Two years later, our confidence in human power had not changed. We could not see what Hannah saw all those years ago.

But 2,000 years after Hannah, another woman could see For her son she had been promised would be God's ultimate leader. She prayed like Hannah. My spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour. He has scattered the proud. He has brought down rulers. He has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty. We know his name jesus. He proclaimed an upside down kingdom, where god turned everything upside down. God has provided the leader we need, and that changes how we see everything.

Let's pray now. Heavenly father, we thank you that you see our great need for a leader, a leader who will do what is right. Father, we thank you that you did this for hannah and through hannah, we pray that we might know that you are the God who knows and the God who cares, and so that we would respond rightly to those in misery and to our own misery. And, father, we pray too that we might see human strength, the strength of others and the strength of ourselves, that we might see it compared to your strength, and that you are the one who raises up and brings down. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.