For This Child I Prayed
Text: 1 Samuel 1
(Audio Podcast Link)
(PowerPoint Link)
Introduction:
Last week in the Book of Ruth we shared a love story. A love
story of Boaz and Ruth that was a type, a symbol of Jesus love for us. This
week we look at another love story, Hannah and her little boy Samuel. In it we
will also see a reflection of God’s love for us.
Having children changes your life, it changes the way you
see things, it put things in perspective. Take this little article entitled,
Before and After Children - Priorities have changed!
Before children: I was thankful to have been born the USA,
the most powerful free democracy in the world.
After Children: I am thankful for Velcro tennis shoes. As well as saving valuable time, now I can
hear the sound of my son taking off his shoes --which gives me three extra
seconds to activate the safety locks on the back seat windows right before he
hurls them out of the car and onto the freeway.
Before children: I was thankful for the recycling program
which will preserve our natural resources and prevent the overloading of
landfills.
After children: I am thankful for swim diapers because every
time my son wanders into water in plain disposables, he ends up wearing a blimp
the size of New Jersey, on his bottom.
Before children: I was thankful for fresh, organic
vegetables.
After children: I am thankful for microwaveable macaroni and
cheese -- without which my children would be surviving on about three bites of
cereal and their own spit.
Before children: I was thankful for the opportunity to
obtain a college education and have a higher quality of life than my ancestors.
After children: I am thankful to finish a complete thought
without being interrupted.
Before children: I was thankful for the opportunity to
vacation in exotic foreign countries so I could experience a different way of
life in a new culture.
After children: I am thankful to have time to make it all
the way down the driveway to get the mail.
Before children: I was thankful for the Moosewood Vegetarian
cookbook.
After children: I am thankful for the butterball turkey
hotline.
Before children: I was thankful for a warm, cozy home to
share with my loved ones.
After children: I am thankful for the lock on the bathroom
door.
Before children: I was thankful for material objects like
custom furniture, a nice car and trendy clothes.
After children: I am thankful when the baby spits up and
misses my good shoes.
Before children: I was thankful for my wonderful family
After children: I am still thankful for my wonderful family.
Having a family was the thing that Hannah wanted more than
anything else. Turn with me to 1 Sam 1:9
I. For This Child I Pray 1 Samuel 1:9-18
9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and
after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the
temple of the LORD. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the
LORD, and wept sore. 11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou
wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not
forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I
will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come upon his head. 12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the
LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. 13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only
her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been
drunken. 14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy
wine from thee. 15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a
sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured
out my soul before the LORD. 16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of
Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken
hitherto. 17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel
grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. 18 And she said, Let thine
handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and
her countenance was no more sad.
A. Hannah Prays for Samuel
1. Hannah,
or Anna whose name means grace, was childless and in her culture this was a
terrible shame. Her
husband had taken a second wife probably due to this problem with Hannah. Hannah is
in deep turmoil and sorrow of the soul and goes to the tabernacle to pray. So
intense is her prayer that she does can only move her mouth in prayer no sound
comes forth. (It was and is common in the Middle East to pray aloud.) In her
prayer she makes a vow. “but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I
will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come upon his head.” She vows
two things, One she will give the child to the Lord for life and He will be a
Nazarite from birth.
Samuel
father Elkanah, was a Levite and the Levite tribe from the age of 25 to 50 were
dedicated to the Lord. They would serve in the tabernacle and later the temple,
fulltime if necessary but usually only during the festival times and as the
Levitical tribe grew, only in a rotation. But Hannah vows to give her son to
God from birth unto death.
In
addition, her son would be a Nazarite. The word means separated one. He would
be separated from the world unto service to God. To mark that separation the
Nazarite would not cut his hair, not touch anything from the grape vine
especially wine and would not come near a dead body. Samuel joins only Samson
and John the Baptist as Nazarites from birth.
As she
prayed Eli who was also the judge of Israel and sat in the judgment seat saw
her praying and thought she was drunk. “How long wilt thou be drunken? put away
thy wine from thee.” Hannah
responded, “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” Literally,
she says, “I have had neither wine nor strong drink poured out to me but I have
poured out my soul before Jehovah.”
Eli,
realizing he was wrong then blesses her, “Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant
thee thy petition.” Hannah
returns home and about a year later God does grant her the petition and she has
a child, the child she had prayed so fervently for. She names him Samuel, which
means “His name is God.” She named her son after God.
This
child that was a special gift from God, sent through the channel of prayer. This
child that would be dedicated to God and be one of the most important prophet
and priest of Israel.
B. What can we learn from Hannah?
1. First the understanding that children belong to God.
a) Scripture:
Psalms 127:3 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the
womb is his reward.”
b) Raising a
family, nurturing a child is a spiritual exercise and it must be done with a
mind and heart towards God and the soul.
c) It
doesn’t always seem that way of course, sometimes it’s a lot more like physical
torture than spiritual exercise.
d) Laws for
Children by Ian Frasier
Law for Sitting at the Table
When at the table, and when you are seated in your high
chair or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet
below you as they were. Neither raise up
your knees nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me.
Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your feet upon the
table are an abomination and worthy of rebuke.
Drink
your milk as it is given you, neither use it on any utensils, nor fork, nor
knife, nor spoon, for this is not what they are for. If you will dip your blocks in the milk and
lick it off you will be sent away.
And
though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker, draw not with it
upon the table. And though the pieces of
broccoli are very like small trees, do not stand them upright to make a forest.
Sit
just as I have told you and do not lean to one side or the other, nor slide
down until you are nearly slid away.
Heed me. For if you sit like that
your hair will surely go into the syrup.
Laws pertaining to dessert.
For we
judge between the plate that is clean and the plate that is unclean. Saying first, that if the plate is clean then
you shall have dessert, but of the unclean plate the laws are these; If you
have eaten most of your meat and two bites of your peas, with each bite
consisting of not less than three peas each, or a total of six peas, eaten
where I can see, and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two
forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert.
But, if
you eat a lesser number of peas, and yet you eat the potatoes, still you shall
not have dessert. And if you eat the
peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten you shall not have desert, no, not even a
small portion thereof.
And if
you try to deceive by moving the potatoes and the peas around with a fork, that
it may appear you have eaten what you have not, you will fall into iniquity and
I will know, and you shall have no dessert.
The Laws on Screaming
Do not
scream. It is as if you scream all the
time. If you receive a portion of fish
from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off and the
herbal seasoning is loathsome to you, and steeped in vileness, again I say to
you, refrain from screaming.
Though
the vileness overwhelm you and cause you to faint unto death, make not that
sound from within your throat. Neither cover your face nor press your fingers
to your nose, for even if I have not made the fish as it should be, behold, I
eat it myself. Yet, I do not die.
2. The second thing we learn is that children are God’s. They have been entrusted to you and therefore you must raise them with a mind on the spiritual as much as the physical. This especially means you must pray for them.
a) Pray is
sometimes called "standing in the gap." To stand in
the gap meant that in a battle when the frontline of defenders had been
breached because a soldier had fallen, that another soldier would step up to
stand in the gap lest the enemy break through. This is
what parents do when they prayer for their children, they stand in the gap
between a world that seeks to destroy them with drugs, promiscuity, entitlement
and worthlessness. Time spent in prayer is time spent fighting for the souls of
your children.
3. You must also pray with them as well as for them.
a) The
parent who does not teach their child to pray is a parent that is dooming their
own children to spiritual blindness. Your
children should not be able to remember the first time they prayed it should be
such a part of their life that they have always prayed and always seen their
parents pray just like breathing they shouldn’t be able to remember the first
time.
Joke:
Again there will be difficulties in teaching them what to pray. Like the family
that was entertaining the pastor and his wife for Sunday dinner on a hot,
blistering day. When all were seated, the man of the house turned to his
six-year-old and asked him to say grace. "But, Daddy, I don't know what to
say," he protested. The mother flustered and embarrassed said, "Just
say what you've heard me say." Obediently he bowed his little head and
said, "O Lord, why did I invite these people here on a such hot day like
this?!"
Yet even
a bad prayer is better than no prayer at all. There are no excuses for not
praying for and praying with their children.
Deuteronomy
6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest
up.
Transition:
It was not enough for Hannah to pray for Samuel she also would sacrifice for
her child
II. For This Child I Sacrifice 1 Samuel 1:19-25
19 And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped
before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah
knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. 20 Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was
come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name
Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. 21 And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went
up to offer unto the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. 22 But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her
husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him,
that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever. 23 And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do
what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD
establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned
him. 24 And when she had weaned him, she
took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle
of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child
was young. 25 And they slew a bullock,
and brought the child to Eli.
A. Hannah did more than pray she sacrificed for her child.
1. She sacrificed her time vs. 22.
She did
not make the annual trip to Shiloh. A trip the entire family went on. A trip
which was much like a festival and a celebration. She put
these off until the child would be weaned, in Biblical times about 3 or 4 years
old.
2. She sacrificed her family’s wealth Vs. 24.
Wealth
was measured in those days not by money but by possessions of land and cattle. When
Hannah made the trip to Shiloh she and her husband, they sacrificed 3 bullocks,
one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine. This
would represent a significant amount of wealth on the part of the family for
Samuel.
Later in
chapter two she continues, long after Samuel is giving to the tabernacle, in
her sacrifices by taking him a coat every year that she goes to see him during
the family pilgrimage to Shiloh.
B. Parents are you sacrificing for you children?
The
greatest priority God gives you after your relationship to Him is your wife and
children. It is expected that you sacrifice deeply and completely for them. This once
was understood by parents but in a world that has become self-centered and
selfish it is not even a consideration anymore. In a world where children are
not prayed for and longed for but instead are the unwanted side effects of
immorality there is often no sacrifice but resentment.
William
Bennet the former Sec of Education recalls watching a woman on Oprah trying to
justify the fact that she had left her children alone all night at home. She
said, “I’ve got to have some time for myself.” He thought to himself, “I am
watching the foundation of our nation crumble.”
Let me
tell you as a parent your time must be sacrificed for your children. Even more
than your money or anything else it should be your first and greatest
sacrifice, because when you give your time to your children you are actually
giving yourself to your children.
Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them,
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is
the kingdom of God.
If Jesus
could sacrifice His time to be with children then shouldn’t we understand how
important it is, as parents?
C. Illustration: A Day Fishing
1. In the
book, The Effective Father, Gordon MacDonald wrote: "It is said of
Boswell, the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, that he often referred to a
special day in his childhood when his father took him fishing. The day was
fixed in his mind, and he often reflected upon many things his father had
taught him in the course of their fishing experience together. "After
having heard of that particular excursion so often, it occurred to someone much
later to check the journal that Boswell's father kept and determine what had
been said about the fishing trip from the parental perspective. Turning to that
date, the reader found only one sentence entered: 'Gone fishing today with my
son; a day wasted.' "
D. Finally, the day came when Hannah would fulfill her vow and dedicate Samuel to God’s service.
III. For This Child I Dedicate 1 Samuel 1:26-28
26 And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I
am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 27 For this child
I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28
Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be
lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.
A. Hannah took Samuel to the Tabernacle and Gave him to God.
The day
came when Samuel, 3 or 4 years old, was taken to the Eli and given into God’s
service for life. Hannah
could not know how God would use such a dedication. Years later when Israel had
lost their high priest and the ark of the covenant had been taken by the
Philistines, during one of the darkest times in the nation’s history, God would
raise up Samuel to be the judge and priest of Israel.
Later, Samuel
would begin schools for the prophets, Samuel would anoint the first king of
Israel, Saul and it would be Samuel who would anoint the shepherd boy David to
be the greatest king of Israel. All this
could happen in God power and time because Hannah dedicated her child to God.
B. Have you dedicated your family to God?
We don’t
dedicate our children now as Hannah did then. (In fact if you bring them here
at 3 years old for this old preacher to raise we are all going to be in a lot
of trouble.) but we still need to understand the principle of dedication.
- A child is dedicated to God to seek God’s grace and help in raising that child.
- A child is dedicated to God to show commitment by the parents to raise this child in a Godly home.
- A child is dedicated to God to keep Satan and this world from gaining a foothold in that child’s life.
2. How then do you dedicate a child to God today?
Just as
Hannah did, First by prayer, then by sacrifice and then by an act of
dedication. It may be
at a church service or it could be simply a time of prayer at home but however
you do it, it should be done.
You also
dedicate your child by bringing them to God’s house just as Hannah did. There is
no dedication, there is no protection without your children being in church.
2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
C. Illustration: My Mom getting us to church in the pastor’s VW bug
1. One
Sunday morning dressed in our Sunday best we walked out to the driveway got in
the car, turned the key and nothing. It was dead. Without hesitation Mom called
the Pastor, Bro. Jack Elam. He sent his faithful wife that we only knew as
Sister Elam to pick us up in their car a VW Beetle. In the front seat was the pastors wife, and my Mom. Me with my
sister Crystal sitting on my lap, my brother Cory and my sister Shanna sitting
in his lap in the back seat and in the tiny storage compartment in the very
back we stuffed our youngest and smallest little brother Vince. He by far was
the happiest of all of us. We were cramped, we were late and we weren’t in a
great mood but we made it to church. Not just that Sunday but every Sunday
because Mom knew her family needed to be in God’s house.
IV. Conclusion
omeone is Waiting Up
John Todd was born
in Rutledge, Vermont, into a family of several children. They later moved to
the village of Killingsworth back in the early 1800s. And there, at a very
young age, both John's parents died. The relatives wondered what they would do
with so many children, how they could parcel them out to other friends and
relatives. One dear and loving aunt said she would take little John. The aunt
sent a horse and a servant to get John, who was only six at the time. The
servant, Caesar, came and put the little boy on the back of the horse. On the
way back the little boy began to ask questions:
John: Will she be
there?
Caesar: Oh, yes,
she'll be there waiting up for you.
John: Will I like
living with her?
Caesar: My son, you
fall into good hands.
John: Will she love
me?
Caesar: Ah, she has
a big heart.
John: Will I have
my own room? Will she let me have a puppy?
Caesar: She's got
everything all set, son. I think she has some surprises, too.
John: Do you think
she'll go to bed before we get there?
Caesar: Oh, no!
She'll be sure to wait up for you. You'll see when we get out of these woods.
You'll see her candle shining in the window.
When they got to
the clearing, sure enough, there was a candle in the window and she was
standing in the doorway. She reached down, kissed him, and said "Welcome
home!" She fed him supper, took him to his room, and waited until he fell
asleep. John Todd grew up to be a great minister of the gospel. But it was
there at his aunt's, his new mother, that he grew up. It was always a place of
enchantment because of his aunt. It awed him that she had given him a second
home. She had become a second mother to him. Years later, long after he had
moved away, his aunt wrote to tell him of her impending death. Her health was
failing and she wondered what was to become of her. This is what John Todd
wrote her:
"My Dear Aunt,
Years ago I left a
house of death not knowing where I was to go, whether anyone cared, whether it
was the end of me. The ride was long but the Caesar encouraged me. Finally, he
pointed out your candle to me, and there we were in the yard and you embraced
me and took me by the hand into my own room that you had made up. After all
these years I still can't believe it--how you did all that for me! I was
expected; I felt safe in that room--so welcomed. It was my room.
Now it's your turn
to go, and as one who has tried it out, I'm writing to let you know that
Someone is waiting up. Your room is all ready, the light is on, the door is
open, and as you ride into the yard--don't worry, Auntie. You're expected! I
know. I once saw God standing in your doorway--long ago!" -James S.
Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988),
p. 377.
That is
what we as parents are aiming for, it is what we pray, sacrifice and dedicate
for, so that our children will first see God’s love for them in our love for
them. There is no greater task, there is no greater calling given to God’s
people than raising your children in a Godly home.
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