Hannah: Prayer of Pledge

Sunday Morning Message by Our Worship Pastor Stewart Young

Series Title:  Prayer, the Difference Maker

I Samuel 1:9-20

I. Hannah’s Sorrow. v. 1-10
*Hannah had a loving husband but could not give him a child. In those days a woman found her worth in her children. That is still the way it is in some parts of the world today. A man finds his worth in what he does his work and how he provides for his family. A woman on the other hand finds her worth in taking care of her family and her home. In those days if you couldn’t bear a child, other women looked down upon you. Not only that the husband would sometimes look down upon his wife. That was not the case for Hannah though, her husband loved her dearly. (v. 6-8)
*Like many us, Hannah was sure that she had the right to be bitter. Life hadn’t been fair to her. And every day, people reminded Hannah of her sorrow. Hannah was one of two wives of a man name Elkanah. The other wife, Peninnah, had children. But Hannah had none. In Hannah’s case her childlessness was a burden.
*Apparently Hannah was his first wife, and when she proved barren, he married Peninnah so he could have a family. We don’t know why Elkanah didn’t wait on the Lord and trust Him to work out His plan, but even Abraham married Hagar (Gen. 16) and Jacob ended up with four wives! While bigamy and divorce were not prohibited by Jewish law according to Deut. 21:15-17; 24:1-4, God’s original plan was that one man be married to one woman for one lifetime (Mark 10:1-9.)
*According to v. 7 every year the whole family went to Shiloh to the annual festivals and every year Hannah went to the house of the Lord to pray asking God to give her a child. Because God had not given her a son she had become filled with sorrow or bitterness.
*Now you and I can definitely understand why Hannah felt bitter. She was denied something that she wanted desperately. This was her sorrow. And like many of us when she didn’t get what she wanted, she started to wonder if God heard her prayers and if He did, was He able, after so many years, to answer this request?
*We can see that Hannah was downhearted. We can tell it in her prayer. Hannah spoke of her condition as misery. How tragic it is when we don’t get what we want so we sulk and we get so wrapped up in our sorrow that we’re unable to experience the simple joys that enrich our lives.
*Hannah’s depression was so great that she could not even recognize evidences of the grace of God. Hannah had no child. But she had a husband who loved her and who was sympathetic. We can sense Elkanah’s love in his words encouraging Hannah to eat: “Don’t I mean more to you than 10 sons?”
*So many times when we don’t get what we want we feel bitter or sorrow and when we allow that into our lives so many times we are unable to see the gifts God has blessed us with. We become blinded to the evidence of His love and grace. Hannah’s perspective was so totally distorted by her personal tragedy that she could not sense the beauty, the good, or grace with which God infuses in every believer’s life.
*Another thing that I see happening in the lives of Christians is when God doesn’t answer our prayers right away or He doesn’t give us what we want we stop asking, feel sorry for ourselves and we begin to give up on God. How many times have we just given up on God? We stopped asking and because we stop asking, we never get to see the fruit of answered prayer. Like Hannah, we may be sorrow stricken, but let us never give up on God, for He never gives up on us. Did we ever think that perhaps in our time of waiting, waiting on God’s answer, he is preparing us, strengthening us to be used greatly by Him?
II. Hannah’s Supplication.  v. 11-18
*So burdened was her heart that Hannah left the feast without eating and went to the tabernacle to pray. We read that Hannah, in her bitterness, took two vital steps. First, she took her bitterness to God. And second, in prayer she began to reorder priorities. Hannah made a commitment, a vow, and a promise to dedicate the son she prayed for to the Lord. She no longer wanted a child just for herself. She began to look beyond her one needs, and to envision the good that meeting her needs might do for others.
*Hannah’s prayer was a desperate one, it was so heartfelt that her lips moved but no audible words came out (Rom 8:26). Hannah was praying from the heart. The high priest at the time, Eli, thought she was drunk and rebuked her. Why did Eli think she was drunk? In those days, silent prayer was not a characteristic of early Hebrew praying. However, when she explained that she was praying out her anguish and grief, Eli blessed her and assured her she would have a son and Hannah went away with a strange assurance. That prayer of Hannah’s was answered she conceived and bore a child whom she named Samuel. A child who would grow up to become one of the most significant of all Bible characters.
*Earlier Hannah had been discouraged to the point of being physically sick and unable to eat. At this point, she returned home well and happy. The change in her attitude may be attributed to three factors: 1. She honestly prayed to God. 2. She received encouragement from 3. She resolved to leave the problem with God. This is the antidote for discouragement: tell God how you really feel and leave your problems with him.

*Looking at this conversation that Hannah had with God reminds us of two things when it comes to prayer. First, remember that whatever we ask of God or whatever we want God to show us when it comes to our prayer life the answers may not come immediately. It is imperative to remember that we are on God’s timetable and when it’s time for us to know or receive He will reveal it to us or give it to us. II Peter 3:8-9. For Hannah, it took several years to see the answer. Our answer is not always immediate. We must be patient and remember that God knows best so we must trust Him.
*The second thing we need to remember when it comes to prayer is that we must be specific with our prayers. Hannah didn’t utter a vague prayer. She was very specific. She told God she wanted a Son. Vague prayers will not change a nation; they will not bring a revival; they will not bring lost souls to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. However, a specific prayer will change a nation, bring revival, and bring lost souls to Jesus Christ.
III. Hannah’s Sacrifice.  v. 11, 19-28
*We see that in v. 11 Hannah had prayed, “Lord if You will, I will”. If you will give me a child, I will give him to you for your service. Hannah prayed about her infertility, promising that if God would give her a son, she would give him back to God for lifelong service. The pledge “…then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head” indicates she would dedicate him as a Nazirite.
*We see that as Eli had promised, Hannah had a son, whom she named Samuel, which means “ask of the Lord.” And as she had promised, as soon as Samuel had been weaned, she gave him back to God. In those days mothers usually weaned children at the age of three, and surely during those precious years Hannah taught her son and prepared him for serving the Lord. But, humanly speaking, to give her son up at the age of three to keep her promise to God must have been the most difficult task of Hannah’s life especially since she had waited for so long to finally have a son.
*Hannah made a solemn pledge. She asked God for a son, if He provided a son, she promised God that she would give her son back to Him. God gave her the desire of her heart. Since the Lord had answered her prayer Hannah was true to her pledge and gave Samuel back to the Lord as she had promised.
*How many times have we made a promise to God, and never kept that promise? The Bible tells us it’s better not to make promises to God because most of the time we don’t hold up our end of the deal. Matthew 5:33-37. Christians, a lot of times who are in a crisis, often try to make deals with God and God a lot of times will hold to His end but we don’t. I recall a movie with Bert Reynolds years ago. All throughout the movie he tried to kill himself. If we make a promise to God, we need to make sure we live up to our end of the deal.
*Now as I stated earlier, it must have been painful for Hannah to leave Samuel. But Hannah’s prayer, recorded in chapter 2, is a prayer of pure joy. Perhaps even more significant, it is a prayer that shows deep awareness of who God is. Hannah acknowledged God as holy (v.2), as One who knows and weighs human deeds (v.3). Hannah saw Him as the One who satisfies the needy (v.5), who is Master of life and death, of poverty and wealth (v.6). Her sense of the power and glory of God is summed up beautifully in these verses: I Samuel 2:8-10.
What a tremendous change of attitude! The same Hannah who was so bitter and downcast that she could not even sense God’s grace now saw the Lord clearly. In fact, she was able to praise God in a situation which some might expect would throw her back into despair-the loss of the very child she had prayed for!
*What was so different? Hannah now was able to look beyond herself and her own needs. She could sense God’s love now, and trust Him. And she could sense the future that God had for this fist child she loved so deeply. Because Hannah truly had given her son to the Lord, she trusted God to care for him and to give him a fulfilling life.