Trust in Him, Worship God

Have you ever had something happen to you that seems so unfair, so unjust, that it made you sort of give up on God? You know, how could God allow this to happen? You know, why doesn't God intervene? Why does this unfairness just seem to go on and on? I mean, you're the one that's honest. You're the one that shows up to work on time every single day. You're the one that's worked for that company for 20 years, but it's the boss's nephew that just got the raise, and he doesn't even know what he's doing. We struggle with those kinds of things all the time. How come? Why do I have to deal with someone I don't even know lied about me, and all my friends believe it? You ever have something like that happen to you? Or maybe you think, why am I so sick? This is unfair. I have all these health problems. My cousin over here, I mean, his main diet is bacon and Snickers bars. He's 50 pounds overweight. He's a chain smoker. He drinks three beers a day, and he seems to be in perfect health.

It's just not fair. You know, when you suffer for doing what's right, or you're oppressed because someone's doing something, it's just unfair. It's easy sometimes to begin to feel a certain anger towards God because why aren't you stopping this? You know, God reveals Himself as the God of justice. Well, how come there isn't more justice? God, why aren't I getting justice here? And so we struggle. The emotional anger, the hurt, and unfairness can sometimes drive us to the point where we don't even pray. We just cut ourselves off from God because, God, I don't understand. You say you love me, but I really can't believe it because this isn't right. It's not fair for this to happen to me in my life. You know, what I like to do on a regular basis, at least once a year, I like to go through a prayer in the Bible. Just look at a prayer that someone prayed and what happened around it and how God responded to it and what the person had to learn or what we learned from that person in their prayer. This is a sermon I gave a couple weeks ago in Murphy's room. We're going to look at a person today whose life was in many ways unfair. Not only was her life unfair in some ways, she was oppressed by others and it wasn't just, it wasn't right. And she was in despair because God seemed to not care. Now what happened in her prayer? It's a very important part of the Scripture. We're going to look at a woman named Hannah. Let's go to 1 Samuel. Hannah is one of my heroes in the Bible. David is one of my heroes, Barnabas. We all have different people in the Bible we connect to more than others. Maybe because of life experience or maybe just personality or something in that person that seems so real to you. But Hannah is a very interesting person to me. In verse 1 of chapter 1, it talks about how she was married to a man named Elkanah. At verse 2 of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 2, and he, this is about Elkanah, had two wives. The name of one was Hannah. The name of the other one, Peninah. Peninah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now, we've got to stop there for a minute to understand what this meant for a woman at this time. You know, you can, some of you may have not been able to have children in your lives, and you know the hurt that can be. A husband, a wife, want to have children and can't have children. You see what people do today with artificial insemination, all kinds of different things that they do, scientific things, to try to have a child. Because we're designed to have children.

We're designed to produce families, both not just physically, but emotionally, mentally. We're designed by God to have families. Well, in that day and age, if a woman did not have a child, her whole sense of self-worth was tied up into that. Now, women today, if you don't have a child, you can't have a child, or you decide not to have a child. That's not your entire concept of self-worth.

But they lived in a society where a woman's worth was partly based upon how many children she could produce. The more children she had, sort of like the greater worth she had to society. And when a woman could not have a child, the husband could marry someone else. He could divorce her. He could not divorce her because she could not have a child. But he could marry another woman so that he could have children. And you have to understand how important that was. God had set up a land system in which all the farmland was passed on from family to family through the children.

If you had no children, your land, your house, everything when you died was passed on to another segment of the family. Well, they didn't want that. They wanted it passed on to their own children. They would create wealth so that it would be passed on to the next generation. Well, if you had no children, you couldn't do that. So it's hard for us to step back into this and see the enormity of this problem, maybe.

I mean, we would understand it emotionally, but this goes beyond the emotions of not being able to have children. This is at the core of what society is. This is how they look at society. And she couldn't have any children. Her husband had another wife so that he could have children. Now, he didn't need it. He didn't love Hannah. It didn't need he took another woman because she wasn't good enough. It all had to do with children. I mention that because I want you to notice that through this, Hannah never says, God, my husband is a bad man for having two wives.

She understood the social necessity. But as you women, which you think as women, what you think about, that still would be painful, wouldn't it? On an emotional level and on a value level. I can't have children. She can. And believe me, if you were the woman having children, you would let the other one know. I mean, guys, if you want to live miserable, have two wives.

Because they will fight. They will find ways to scratch each other's eyes out if they can. And we're going to see a little bit of the problems that Hannah would have. So he has two wives. Verse 3, This man went up from the city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophany and Phineas, the priests of the Lord, were there. So Eli is the high priest. He has two sons that are running the tabernacle.

And whenever the time came for a Canaan to make an offering, he would give portions to Pena, his wife, to all her sons and daughters. Because they would bring this offering, they would offer this up, and then they would serve part of the meat to the wives and children. So he made sure, this was a good man, he worshiped God, he served God, he made sure his wife and his children got the best he gave to them. He was really concerned about them. Verse 5, But to Hana he would give a double portion, for he loved Hana, although the Lord had closed her womb.

Now two important things here. This is the wife he loved, and he did all the little things for her, which we'll see a little bit later. Pena did not like. You can imagine, I'm the baby machine, and you get all the attention.

Well, that's, sorry, I'm worth a whole lot more than you. So you can see where Okana is a little bit caught in a problem here, too. Now the woman he loves can't have children. The second thing that really jumps out of this verse is it says, the Lord had closed her womb.

In other words, God had either allowed or caused this to happen. This wasn't an accident. You know, she could have been born with some internal deformity where she couldn't have children. And, you know, that just happens. In a world cut off from God, biology happens. You and I are born, every one of us have defects that are part of biology that God did on originally attend. But God was involved in this, allowing her to be this way. Now, there's nothing here that shows that she knew that. We don't know if she knew that. But there's one thing she knew. Only God could fix it.

And so here she is with an unsolvable problem. Verse 6, And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb.

So, Pinnada made her life miserable. Hannah might be loved by her husband, but the other woman did everything she could to put her down, to show off the kids. You know, yeah, oh yeah, this is Al Cana, my children. Yeah, look at all of them. Yeah, we probably have another one next year. Oh, Hannah, yeah, that's his other wife. That's the other woman that stays here, you know. But I'm the one who just, I'm the bathing machine. All of society, every time she had a baby, all the women had a big party for her. And everybody said, wow, this is great. God is blessing Israel. The whole nation is blessed. Another Israelite, another child of God, another follower of Yahweh has been produced. And Hannah had to go to all the parties. So you have to realize what this woman is going through. And then I love these next couple of verses. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. This seems so unfair that Hannah got to the place she became depressed and she would eat. You know, you get depressed over things. Eventually, it will affect your physical health. In fact, they have tied in that many, many of the sicknesses that we suffer, part of the catalyst for it is stress and depression. So she wouldn't eat. And then verse 8, I understand as a man. Then Ocala, her husband said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better than ten sons? See, I understand that. Well, you got me. What more do you want? I love you. You're the apple of my heart. I'm the one that, you know, I spent my time with you. And of course, that just made it worse. And he can't figure out why. I thought she would say, yeah, you're my hunk of a man. But that's not what she said.

Like that's supposed to help. And he just dumbfounded. Yeah, I don't understand. You got me? So I get a kick out of that because that's just sort of typical guy. Right? Well, you got me.

I have found that that doesn't seem to mean a lot to my wife either at times. Well, you got me? What do you need a new house for? What do we need a car with a transmission for? You got me?

It just doesn't seem to produce a lot. Okay?

So now Hannah goes to the tabernacle. She gives a prayer. We're going to look at two prayers by Hannah. Hannah is a very important person in the Bible.

She wrote part of the Bible. That's important. When you get to write part of the Bible, you're important. Okay? She's important here.

Verse 8.

Verse 9. So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on the doorposts of the tabernacle of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. I want you to notice, you go through the Scripture and you'll see certain descriptions of how a person felt or what a person was thinking. What's amazing about Samuel chapter 1 and 2 is the overwhelming amount of description to how she's feeling. Now, I have a theory about that. This is my opinion. Okay? I believe that Samuel probably wrote for Samuel.

And he's talking about Mom.

So he goes on. She was bitterness of soul, praising the Lord and wept in... See what I mean? I'm talking about Mom. This is what Mom was like. How does he know this? Because she told him. She told him how she felt. Then she made a vow and said, O Lord of Hosts, if you indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, and remember me and not forget your maidservant, what will give your maidservant a male child? Then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon. He said. So she finally in this depths goes to God and says, God, I can't really make deals with you, but I'm allowed to bring a sacrifice. I tell you what I will do. You give me a son so that I am no longer worthless, so that I have value among the women of Israel, and I will give the son. I will sacrifice it. I will give the son to you.

Verse 12, it has not happened as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she was drunk. Now, she's just pouring it out to God, probably trembling, her mouth moving. She's telling it all. She just, this is it, God, I'm just bearing an interesting, main servant. I am nothing more than your slave. I have nothing to bargain with here, except the child itself. So I'll give you the child.

And that child can be special to you, can be a special servant to you.

So verse 13, now, Eli said there, how long will you be drunk? Port your wine away from you. Okay, now the unfairness becomes the ultimate unfairness. Not only is she in a hole where she's constantly put down by another woman, where she can't have children, where her self-value is attacked all the time, but now, praying before God, the great man of God, the high priest, falsely accuses her.

I wonder how many of us would have got up and walked out about that point. Sorry, God. If this is what you're all about, I don't have anything to do with you anymore.

How many of us would have said, I suffer this much, and the man who represents you treats me this way? Falsely accuses me?

What if she would have turned to the high priest and said, you liar?

Think of all the things she could have done.

Here's 15. But Hannah answered and said, no, my Lord, I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor a cost-intoxicated drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief, I have spoken until now. Then Eli answered and said, go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your partition, what you have asked of him. Some commentators look at this. You know, it sounds like he's making an edict, but it may actually be a prayer. Go in peace. And then he prays, and God grant her this.

He implores God for her. He actually goes to God as, which is what the high priest was supposed to do, intercede. He intercedes for her. Either way, he says, may God do this for you.

And she said, let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way at eight, and her face was no longer said.

Now, she did have a baby, right? But something had changed in sight of her. The unfairness did go away. I mean, Hinnina was going to make fun of her. She was always going to share her husband with another woman.

Those children running around that she helped take care of weren't hers.

Now, Eli may have said, I pray with you. But he didn't say, I'm sorry, did he? It's not like he just gave her this great big apology.

It'd be so easy at this point for her to say, this is still unfair, but it's not what she does.

She's happy now. She has presented her case to God, and nothing yet has changed. But she's happy now.

We know what happens here, verse 19. Then they rose early in the morning of worship before the Lord, and returned and came to their house at Rehma. And now Hinnah knew Hinnah his wife, and the Lord remembered her, so Hinnah passed in the process of time that Hinnah conceived a boorish son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked for him from the Lord. That's an amazing story of a prayer and an answered prayer. What can we learn from that?

There's a lot more about Hinnah here we're going to go through. But what can we learn from what we've covered so far?

First thing, when feeling crushed by what seems to be unfair or unjust, we must respond with a humble attitude of worship towards God. Now that's counterintuitive. That is, wait a minute, someone's treating me unfairly, and you're saying the answer to that is to go worship God.

Yes. That's what we see with Hinnah.

Now I don't know about you, but every time I feel like something's unfair, I get upset.

And what I want to do is take action.

Oh, it's time to strap on my sword.

Right? No. When something unfair is happening, what did Hinnah do?

It doesn't say Hinnah oppressed her rival. It's called rival, right? She did it. It doesn't say Hinnah became the worst wife she could to make Elkanah as unhappy as she could. She didn't start a lying campaign and all the people of Rama about Hinnah, so that all the women would turn against her. She didn't go around gossiping. What? I mean, she didn't take all the actions that you and I would have taken.

She simply went to the house of God, worshiped him, and brought her problem to him.

And at this point in the story, that's all that's happened. Now, we, then it says, well, over time, she became pregnant.

And when she walked out of the tabernacle, she didn't know she was going to get pregnant. It's so easy when you know the end of the story, isn't it?

When we are faced with what seems unjust, what seems unfair, we must approach God with a humble attitude of worship. Now, remember last week when I went through the Second Commandment, which I said was a commandment about worship. But worship isn't praise. Those are two different things in the Hebrew. Worship is about bowing down and prostrating yourself before God. It is literally about getting down on your face. It is about who do you serve. That's what worship is about. Who do I pay homage to? Who do I show absolute respect to? And she went into the tabernacle and showed absolute respect to God, so much so that when Eli misjudged her, she didn't attack Eli. How could she not attack Eli? I'd have jumped up and punched him in the nose. No, I would have wanted to jump up and punched him in the nose. Thirty years ago, I might have jumped up and punched him in the nose. Why did she not do that? Was she not in pain? Was she not hurt? But she said, look at all the word anguish and bitterness. This woman looks at being abused and says, not so, my lord. Not so, my master. Not so high priest of God. Instead, I'm just pouring out my heart to God. I'm not drunk. She did it in such a gentle, honest way that Eli immediately knew, oh, she's not drunk. He knew it because he could see her attitude towards God.

Because he seemed so counterintuitive. I mean, if I have faithfully tithed and I have kept the Sabbath and I've lost three jobs in the last year because the companies went belly up, but my fault, but my brother over here doesn't tithe. He's an agnostic, doesn't go to church. And not only does he make lots of money, he just won the lottery. What does that prove to me? Don't tithe. Don't keep the Sabbath and start buying lottery tickets.

Because it's not fair. And he's lost. I read something the other day that said, thinking life will be fair to you because you're a good person is like standing out in the field and thinking the bull won't charge you because you're a vegetarian.

That bull doesn't care whether you eat meat or not. Life is unfair, but what do we do with it? I will tell you this. Going periods of time and refusing to talk to God because something's unfair doesn't work. And I can only tell you that because I've done it. I've actually done that. Okay. You and I just won't talk. Like God's all upset over that. You know. Well, I'll show you. I just won't talk to you for a while. That'll make it fair. You'll sooner or later you'll say, I want to talk to Gary so much, I'll go down to make it fair. Doesn't work.

So the only solution to your problem, and you're not going to talk to me. Oh, let's see how that works out. You know, after a while you show up and he says, oh, where you been?

I've been on that end of the conversation, too. Well, no. Here I am. Because it's not fair. It's common for you and I to become offended by things that are unfair, or just perceived unfair. They don't even have to be unfair.

Somebody treats us the way that we think is unfair. And sometimes it's not even on purpose. Well, we automatically think it is. And we become obsessed. And when we become obsessed, we become bitter. She was becoming bitter. Now, what happened to her is interesting, though, because her bitterness did not turn her against God, it drove her to God. If you stay bitter, there are people I met who are just bitter over life. Everything in life is just bitterness to them. A bitter person will draw away from God and get farther and farther and farther away. We can't let life's unfairness make us bitter. Jesus gives a parable about this. Leave a marker here because we're going to write back to 1 Samuel. But let's go to Luke 18.

I see people sometimes struggle a little bit over this parable, but it's quite obvious when you go through it.

Verse 1 of Luke 18, that he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now, it seems a little strange here that this guy is sort of almost the hero of the story, but he's not. The point here is what God's going to make about himself. Now, there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me for my adversary. Now, what's important here is she was asking for justice. She was being oppressed and mistreated by another person. Now, this is her request of the judge. Would you bring some fairness and justice into my life? And, Keaton, from being oppressed, she was in the right. Her adversary was in the wrong.

The judge didn't care. She's a poor widow. She can't pay a bribe. Just leave me alone. Get out of my courtroom. So he ignored her. He would not, for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God to regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wearies me. Now, you've got to think, that is the weirdest parable? What in the world does that mean? So, just go... the secret to life is to go badger the unjust judge to who he gives in. But that's not what Jesus says. Then the Lord said, verse 6, Hear what the unjust judge said, And shall not God avenge his own elect, Who cry out day and night to him, Though he bears along with them? He said, If an unjust, unrighteous judge gives in, because someone he doesn't care for, someone who has no value to him, keeps badgering him, then he says, Do you really believe that God isn't going to eventually respond to you because he loves you? The problem is the timetable. But it's not fair! It's not right! Yes, it's not. In this case, the woman was right. In Hannah's case, she was oppressed.

It wasn't fair. And yet, the point is, he says, Keep at it. But he says, verse 8, I tell you he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Do we really believe in the face of injustice and the face of things that are not fair, that if we wait, if we adore, God will take care of it? Hannah did because she walked out of the tabernacle, not having received a baby. She was not pregnant. And her whole approach to life had changed. Everything had changed. What is our response to the unfairness of life?

Like I said, our first response is usually to take justice into our own hands. Pray about it if God doesn't act fast enough. Then at least let's go around to tell all of our friends and try to destroy that person's reputation or whatever. Whatever it takes to get some kind of payback, some kind of justice, some kind of fairness. But you can't make it fair. You can't make life fair. I can't either.

I can't make it fair. You can't either.

Stand patient, and the face of injustice is really hard. Not being bitter in the face of injustice is really hard. Staying calm and positive in the face of unfairness is counterintuitive to human nature.

Now, if you want to take it a step further, Jesus said that we are to pray for those who have despitefully used us. They didn't say, go pray that God would make him get hit by a car. Now, we should go pray to be protected from evil people. We need to be, God, please protect. It is okay to pray for justice.

But do you pray for justice out of bitterness? Or do you pray for justice out of a love of God's law? We tend to pray for justice when it involves somebody else. We tend to pray for mercy when it involves us. So if I've done something wrong, please show me mercy. If somebody else has done something wrong, let's have a little justice here, God. We tend to judge those two things differently.

So it's interesting that Hannah did not pray for God to punish her rival or her husband. She simply went to God and said, your maidservant. This is an attitude of humble worship. I am in trouble. There are no answers. The only answers can come from you. And therefore I come and I bow down before you. Not knowing what his answer is going to be, but in trust in him. That's the first lesson we learned from Hannah. The second one is that we must stay focused on God, His ways and His promises, and not on the injustice or the unfairness. We have to stay focused on God, His ways and His promises, and not on the injustice or unfairness. If you stay focused on the injustice, you'll become obsessed with it. If we become focused on unfairness, we will become obsessed with it.

So how many times you can be talking to somebody you know, and they'll say, oh, I can remember, you know, that guy took advantage of me. My neighbor one time took advantage of me. And it is just, it just, I can't believe what he did to me. When did that happen? Oh, 1963. I think about it every day.

If we stay focused on that, then we will not be focused on God's plan. Notice what it, you know, back here in Luke 18 verse one. Luke 18 verse one. It says, He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. That's the purpose of the parable. Sometimes you're going to be like that widow over and over and over and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting some more. I don't like that anymore. You do. I really don't.

That's why I find Hannah an encouraging story.

Who knows how long she waited? How many years did she go up to the tabernacle and say, please give me a child before the events that we're reading happened? All it talks about is your years of bitterness. And her husband's saying, hey babe, you got me?

That's all it records?

And when she walked out of that tabernacle, she didn't know what the answer was going to be, but she had been before God and God was going to take care of it. She was now zeroed in on God in His way. So much of the outcome of your life and my life, so much of our happiness depends upon what we concentrate on. If you concentrate on the unfairnesses of life, if you concentrate on the injustices of life, that's all life will be to you. That's all it'll be.

How you get treated badly, how nothing works out your way, how everybody around you has better jobs, how you work so hard and can't get ahead, that's all life will be.

But if we stay focused on God, then we see where He's going. It's a lot bigger picture, a lot bigger picture. Let's go back to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 1, though.

Now go back to verse 17. I want to read this again.

And Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel, grant your petition which you have asked of Him. And she said, Let your maidservant find favor at your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. It's only when she focused it on God that she could deal with it. Now, did all the pain go away? Of course it didn't. Did all the hurt go away? Of course it didn't. Was she suddenly happy that she couldn't have children? Of course she wasn't. But had life changed? Yes. What had changed? She was focused on God. She was focused on God. She was focused on what He does. She was focused on His ways. What we focus on, what we concentrate about, what we think about, what we put our energies into, what we put our energies into. That's who we will become.

And that's how you determine your life.

And that's where we'll go. You know, it's funny, a person who thinks about injustice all the time, who thinks about unfairness all the time. If that's what you think about all the time, guess what? You will become an unfair person. You will treat others unfairly. You will treat other people without justice because we become what we think.

So if all you do, if all I do is concentrate on the injustices, you eventually will do that.

So let's go down to our third point. Let's go to 1 Samuel 1, verse 21.

To pick up the third point here.

Third of the three points we have today. Now the man, El Cada, and always house, went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice that he's vowed. This is after Samuel was born.

Now, can you imagine telling a man, now remember, Hannah is the wife he loves.

He knows she's gotten pregnant because of a miracle. And she says, this is because I went to the tabernacle. I prayed. Eli heard it. He prayed. God bless us. And then you're excited because you're going to have a son from the woman you love. And then she says, but we have to give him away. We have to give him up.

El Cada was a very remarkable person also, because look what it says next.

Verse 23.

So, this is your decision. My wife got it. She said, hey, we're giving up our son. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. God told me.

He said, do what's best. Then he says, here's all that I ask or request. He said, we will not give him up until he's weaved. They usually kept the child I've read anywhere from three to six years. I can't imagine nursing a six-year-old. But, you know, they kept them longer than what people nurse today. He's still a little guy, right? That's a little guy. That's your child. He said, you wait till he's weaved. Then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever. Oh, I'm sorry. Let the Lord, I'm sorry, second part of verse 23. Only let the Lord establish his word. In other words, let's do what God says.

Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bulls, one ephoth, the flower, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord and Shiloh. And the child was young. They slaughtered a bull and brought the child to Eli. And she said, oh, my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by you, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition, which I asked him. Therefore, I also have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord. So they worship the Lord there.

This is an important concept that we're going to understand. We pray to God, and we're dealing with injustices in life. We're dealing with being oppressed.

So our third point is to receive God's full blessing in our lives. We must stay dedicated to the commitments we make to Him.

Hannah made a commitment to God, absolute commitment to God. And she was going to take that baby and give Him to God. And Al-Qaeda said, yes, this is what we must do. You think, wow, she must have been so depressed. No. Now, does that mean she did not feel bad at times? There had to be times where she woke up and says, I wonder what my baby's doing now? Do you realize Samuel would be nine years old next month? You can hear the conversations that would have gone on, right? And Al-Qaeda would have said, well, I'm working. Fifteen sons, right? You can hear the conversations they would have had about Samuel. You wonder what he's doing. I hope he doesn't turn out like Phineas, you know, Eli's two sons, because those guys were just rogues. I hope he doesn't turn out like them. No, no. God gave him to us. God's going to take care of him. But the thing is, she gave him up because she said she would. How many times have we told God, you know, I'm going to start praying more. I'm going to start doing more Bible study. You know, I'm really going to start keeping the Sabbaths better. You know, I'm going to start being a better wife. I'm going to start being a better husband. Just fill in the blank. We make these commitments to God, and then we don't do them. But we wonder, well, where is God when anything, everything's unfair? We don't fulfill the commitments.

Hannah fulfilled her commitment at great price.

Enormous personal price. And how did she feel about it? We know. You know why we know? She gave another prayer, but this one got written down. All of 1 Samuel 2, or most of it, through verse 10, 1 through 10, is Hannah's prayer. As I said, she wrote part of the Bible. Her prayer is written down that this is what she had to say to God and wrote it down. I just want to read the first part of it.

It says in verse 1, And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Lord, my horde is exalted in the Lord, I smile at the enemies. Well, we know who her enemies were. I'm smiling at her. Oh, I don't say much. I'm beyond that. You know, you did just a little... I don't pay back here, maybe. I smile at my enemies. I don't have to say anything. I have to do anything. Oh, this is Samuel. Oh, where's Samuel? Oh, he's serving with the high priest. But he's only five years old. That's right. Now, there's nothing more important you can do in Israel than serve the high priest. That's what Samuel's doing. At age 10? Oh, yes. They have him. I mean, they've already taught him how to kill the bulls. Not yet, but he's learning how to do it. He'll do it someday. He couldn't do it to your certain age.

I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in what? Your salvation. She was zeroed in on God. No one is holy like the Lord, for there is not beside you, nor is there any rock like our God.

I talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. I'm not sure who she's aiming that at. It may be the other woman, maybe just in general. I don't know what she's talking about there. I'm not going to go there. I just know the first two verses. The first two verses are, I am so happy.

Why? Because I've carried out my commitment to God.

He gave me what I asked when everything was unfair. And he didn't have to do that. There's nothing that says God has to make everything fair. That was hard for me to come to the grips of that in life. I have to admit that. God doesn't say he's going to make everything fair. No? He doesn't?

Oh, but Hannah did that. God didn't have to make this fair. But God did something. And now she gave him back her son and was joyful for him. Once again, that doesn't mean she didn't have time. She would have felt bad. There were times she would have, at night, struggled with, probably cried. Al-Qaeda tried to comfort her. Probably both of them crying. Him saying, I miss him too. I miss the little guy. He's not little. He's more than fortunate. He's 14. I miss him.

Now, God blessed them even more. Let's go back. We'll look at one last scripture here. 1 Samuel 2.

It's an incredible example. But we also realize that Hannah is this example of this faith, example of this commitment. But you know, faith costs us something. Sometimes we think, well, if I have faith and I do all my commitments, nothing, everything will be just right. There'll be no unfairness. There'll be no injustice. That's not how it works. Her injustice stopped, but there was a price to pay for her commitment to God because she worshiped Him. Look what it says starting in verse 18.

But Samuel ministered before the Lord even as a child, wearing a linen ephod, a priestly garment, where over his mother used to make him a little robe and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Think about that. Think about not seeing your child all year long and then coming to do this and seeing him. And there he is. It's a year later. He looks a whole lot different than he did last year. All you hope is he recognizes you, right? But you don't see the words anguish, bitterness, she won't eat. That's gone from her life. How can that be? Because she dutifully, willfully, obediently, and joyfully gave her son to God because she said she would. It was a privilege to give her son to God. What a prayer! We get two prayers by one person in two chapters.

Two prayers by one person in two chapters. What does it tell us? It's amazing.

Verse 20, "'And Eli would bless Ocana and his wife and say, "'The Lord give you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord.' Then they would go to their own house. And the Lord visited Hannah." In other words, God said, "'I'm going to give you more than one.'" You know, there was nothing in the agreement between Hannah and God that she would have more children. The simple agreement was, if you will show mercy on me, I'm your servant, you don't have to do this, but if you'll show me mercy, I'll give the child to you and he'll serve you. And God did what she did. That's all that had to be done.

That would have been fair, by the way. If we want absolute fairness, that's fair. She agreed to do one thing, God agreed to do one thing, they had an agreement, they had a contract, it worked out. If you want fairness, that's fairness. Let's be glad God isn't always fair, by the way. And let's really be glad he's not always just.

Well, he's always just. Mercy is an act of justice if he forgives. In other words, if he doesn't forgive, you're still responsible for your sin. Sin has a penalty, but mercy can forgive a penalty. Mercy doesn't do away with the law. It forgives penalties. That's a totally different thing. Totally different. And it says, And the Lord visited Hannah so she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters, meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the Lord. And from this point on, Hannah fades from the story. She fades from the story because now her son Samuel becomes the focal point of what God is doing. There was no way for her to know that.

Now, you think about what we know. Yes, isn't Hannah. That's a wonderful story. She's the mother of Samuel, one of the greatest men of God in history. She didn't know that. She would have known it before she died as she watched what he became. But think about it. There was no way for her to know when she took that little get in by his hand and gave him to the priest and said goodbye and got in a wagon and cried all the way home. There's no way for her to know that.

She fulfilled her commitments to God.

We don't fulfill our commitments to God because we're not thankful to God.

We only look at what's not fair. We don't look at being thankful because you can see how Hannah could have gone down the road. Wait a minute, God, this isn't fair. I gave up my son, I go home, and I sit around, and I still don't have any children because I gave mine away.

She didn't go that route either, did she? And God, in his mercy, gave her a lot of children.

And the story is just one of many biblical examples of how God interacts with people in prayer. The answers always aren't what they expected.

The results are always what they expected, but they're what God is doing. You know, we look at Hannah now as having a part of God's salvation plan. How many people do we know in history are part of God's salvation plan? Not very many. Hannah is. And why? Because God didn't let her have babies. And her response was such he could use her to bring about Samuel.

So he could have him where he wanted him to be. So she had to be where she wanted to be.

In other words, probably the unfairness she went through was part of the training she had to go through to become the woman she became. I don't like that either. Wait a minute. I mean, I've got to go through injustice and unfairness to become the man you want me to be. Yeah. Hannah did.

But she became who God wanted her to be.

So we learned three things. But feeling crushed by what seems to be unfair or unjust we have to respond with a humble attitude of worship towards God. We must stay focused on God in His ways and His promises and not on what is unfair or unjust. And to receive God's full blessing in our lives, we must stay dedicated to the commitments we made to Him. I mean, think of the commitments we made at baptism. We committed to God.

And then we wonder why we're not blessed because we're not fulfilling those commitments.

Hannah was a common person. She was just a common person in Israel. She had no idea of her part that she would play in the plan of God. She had no idea how God would answer or deal with her problem.

But she did trust and she did worship. And we see what God did. Trust in His plan. Worship God. Your life's not going to be fair, but He will help us through that unfairness so that we become the children He wants.