Fellowship in the Word

Jason Gebhardt: Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: The prayer will change you. You see, that’s one of the great things about prayer. Prayer is designed to change me because it puts me into the presence of God. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says come boldly into the Holy of Holies. You don’t have to wait like a high priest once a year; you can come right in here. Paul writes in Romans we don’t have to be in utter fear of Him. He said we can cry out to Him Abba, which is Aramaic, which means in English, Daddy. In a sense, he says come boldly, walk up in front, jump on Daddy’s lap, and He can change you. He may change the circumstances, but He will change you if you let Him. That’s the most important thing about prayer.

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Elkanah now does a typical man thing. And women, you may not understand this, but this sounds just like a man. Watch this: "Then Elkanah her husband said to her, 'Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons? You've got me!'" How could you possibly be upset? "You have me!" Really? Yeah. She knew that.

Now, here's something about this. The next action is he might have actually gotten through to her with this, or in my opinion, she actually thought, "I'm getting nothing here. He's not going to help me. I need to go to the Lord." Because that's exactly what she does. Notice then: "Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest, the high priest, was sitting at the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. And she, greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly."

You can just imagine what she's going through. She's just pouring out her heart to the Lord. And she made a vow. She made a vow. You see, the first point I want to make is that pain produces really powerful prayer. I don't know what your life is like, but I know at the lowest points of my life, the most intense prayer I've ever had is under a lot of pain. That's what pain does. It drives you to the Lord. There's no question, and she's in despair. She is really upset with the way everything is going. She can't stand it anymore, so it just drives her to the Lord.

Remember David said, "It is good for me that I was afflicted so that I might learn Your statutes," so I could get closer to You, Lord. I love C.S. Lewis's line I heard from many, many years ago: "God whispers in our pleasures and He speaks in our conscience, but He shouts in our pain." And that's exactly what happened. God is drawing her to Himself. That's what God is doing.

And so consequently, she makes this vow. At that time, a vow was an extraordinarily serious thing. Now, New Testament Jesus says don't make vows. Let your yeas be yeas, your nays nays. We are not to make vows, but in those days, making a vow was a very important part of the culture. You're making a promise. Now, we may not make vows, but have you ever had something so serious in your life you said, "Lord, if You would do this for me, then I'll do this for You"? That's a vow. If You do this for me, then I'll do this for You.

Well, that's what she does. She makes a vow. And it says she made a vow and she said, "O Lord of hosts." That was written in the first verses I looked at. She's the first person in the Bible that ever used that term: *Yahweh Sabaoth*. She's the first person to ever use it. The Lord of the angelic armies, the Lord of the innumerable armies of God. She calls Him the Lord of hosts.

Notice the first person to ever say that in the Bible wasn't a patriarch like Abraham, wasn't a prophet, and it wasn't a priest. It was a woman. She's the first one. What's she saying? "You are so big and I am so small. I understand that." That's her humility when she comes to Him and calls Him Lord of hosts. Now, notice what she asks for first. "If You will indeed look at my affliction. Father, just look at it. See my affliction of Your maidservant."

Again, New American Standard translators love that, but that's *amah*, female slave. Maidservant just seems so much nicer in English, but she said, "I'm Your slave. I'm Your female slave. Look at me," she says, and it's an expression they used often. "Look at me, remember me. Please, remember me. Do not forget me." Just don't. That's all I'm asking, Lord. "I'm giving You this vow." Now, she's going to say, "I'm going to tell You what the vow is."

She says, "But will give Your maidservant—if You give me a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head." This is quite a deal. What is she saying? "If You give me a son, I'll dedicate him as a Nazirite. I will do that." What does that mean? He'll be forever the Lord's. That's the way this works. That's her vow.

Keep your place here and go with me to Numbers chapter six. I want you to see what it means to be a Nazirite. Verse one: "Again the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, "When a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord..."'" In other words, a man could dedicate himself to the Lord or a woman could dedicate a man as a Nazirite to the Lord, which is exactly what Hannah does.

"He shall abstain from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat any fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grapevine, from the seeds or even the skin. And all the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled which he separated himself to the Lord, and he shall let the locks of his hair on his head grow long. All the days of his separation to the Lord he shall go near no dead person. He shall not make himself unclean for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister when they die because of his separation to God is on his head."

Three things he has to do: he can't take anything from the vine at all, no strong drink. He cannot have his hair cut, and he cannot go anywhere near any dead body, even his parents. He cannot do that. Now, understand about the haircut thing. I know you have images in your mind that Hollywood and the Renaissance produced to you, but they're not accurate. A Jewish man would never let his hair get long enough to be pulled in any way to cover his eyes. If it could cover his eyes, that would be considered violating the law.

When you have an image of Jesus, what do you get? Oh, really long, beautiful... some of them have blue eyes and blonde hair. Wow. Like a lot of Jewish men. It's terrible. Jesus did not have long hair. He did not, no matter what. That's one thing I can say categorically. And in fact, when it comes to a Nazirite, there are only three men at times mentioned in the entire Bible. The first one was Samson, and an angel had to dedicate him. Samson, and that's why his hair was such an important part of the whole thing.

Then we have Samuel here. So you have Samson and then Samuel. And then thirdly, you have John the Baptist. Those are the only three we have that were all Nazirites. There may have been more, but it doesn't say. But that's the way it works. Now we can go back to First Samuel. She's going to make him a Nazirite. Now, what's interesting about this is as you read on the story, if she gets her little boy, she's going to keep her little boy for three years because from a Jewish point of view, that's when he's weaned.

Once he's weaned, she brings him into the tabernacle and gives him to the Lord as a three-year-old. Now, if you follow the story up, she visits him on a regular basis. And as he grows, she provides more clothes for him. But at this stage, she's just asking for it to be answered. That's all she says. Now, what ends up happening here is that she goes in and she begins to pray.

And as she does, it came about in verse twelve, "as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard." I think we can all do that at times. Why do I have to say it out loud? I can, but I can just make my lips move and she's doing that. Now, Eli the high priest—and he is a terrible high priest, I mean just terrible. Worse father, but a terrible high priest—he's watching her.

So here's his conclusion, next part of the verse: "So Eli thought she was drunk." Yep, that woman's drunk. "Come in here crying and doing that stuff." You know what I think? I think he's seen a lot of drunk women come into the tabernacle through his sons, and that's why I think he thinks she's drunk. So Eli said to her, "How long will you make yourself a drunk? Put away the wine from you." And that's his insight.

However, now once again you're going to see something about Hannah. How would you respond to that if you were going through what Hannah is and you're entreating the Lord? We could be pretty sharp with our speech. But the whole time, by the way, the other wife was aggravating her, she never speaks a word against her. Not one word. And notice what she does now. She says, "No, my lord. I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord."

"That's all I'm doing. I'm just pouring out my soul." She said, "Do not consider your maidservant as a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation. I'm pouring my heart out to God here." Now, then Eli seeing that said, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked Him." He doesn't even know what it is. "I just hope whatever it is, He gives it to you."

And she said, "Let your maidservant," same word again, "find favor in your sight." What a humble woman. And so the woman went her way and ate. Now notice the most important part: "her face was no longer sad." You say, "Well, what's so important about that?" That's the most important thing and one of the most important things you need to ever learn about prayer. Prayer can change the circumstances, but prayer should change you. She's changed.

Nothing has changed. The circumstances haven't changed. She changed. Prayer was designed by God to change me. And sometimes God changes the circumstances. That's what prayer is. And see, we have had this sort of narrow myopic view of prayer. "Well, if I don't get my circumstances changed, then I'm not changed." You're missing the point. You see, she was changed because she was in the presence of God. She went into God's presence. She changed. Such an amazing thing that she does. And it's a fascinating deal.

Well, there's something else though. It says after that, I said God can change the circumstances and He does here. "And then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord and returned again to their house in Ramah, and Elkanah had relations with Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her." Remember what she asked Him? "Would You remember me?" He said, "Yeah, I've got you."

"And it came about in due time after Hannah had conceived that she gave birth to a son and she named him Samuel." Samuel has two different possibilities and one I think I like a lot better than the other. One of the names for him could be "Samuel" means "Name of God." But another possible Hebrew interpretation is this: "Samuel" means "Heard by God." And that would make sense in this situation to me. She names him Samuel.

"And then Elkanah the husband went up with all his household to offer to the Lord his yearly sacrifice and pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she had said to her husband, 'I will not go up until the child is weaned and then I will bring him, and that he may appear before the Lord and stay with the Lord forever.' And so Elkanah the husband said, 'Do what seems best to you. Remain until you've weaned him. Only may the Lord confirm His word.' And so the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him."

What ends up happening here is that God answers and yes, sometimes God does change the circumstances. He should change us, but He will change the sometimes the circumstances, but not always. And I'll show you how much He changed them. Read on chapter two, her prayer. It's a wonderful prayer, by the way. Incredible prayer. It's a prayer that Mary uses a lot in the New Testament when she's giving her prayer to the Lord. She uses what Hannah says.

Look at chapter two and verse twenty-one: "The Lord visited Hannah and she she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters, and the boy Samuel grew up before the Lord." She had six kids. She ends up with six kids, notice, three more sons and two more daughters. So He answers that completely. He visits her and that's the way it works. So she gets all of her children.

Most important thing you learn from her is simply this. I want you to understand something. She was depressed before she prayed, and she was not depressed after she prayed. And this was before God ever answered the circumstances. You see, that's exactly the way this should work. Remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians, you know? If you have any real problems, ask. Pray. Pray to God. Pray to God with great supplication and thanksgiving. Pray. Just pray. And what did he say? "And you'll get what you want"? No. What did he say? "And the peace of God that is beyond all comprehension will guard your heart."

The prayer will change you. You see, that’s one of the great things about prayer. Prayer is designed to change me because it puts me into the presence of God. That’s why the writer of Hebrews says come boldly into the Holy of Holies. You don’t have to wait like a high priest once a year; you can come right in here. Paul writes in Romans we don’t have to be in utter fear of Him. He said we can cry out to Him Abba, which is Aramaic, which means in English, Daddy.

So in a sense, he says come boldly, walk up in front, jump on Daddy’s lap, and He can change you. He may change the circumstances, but He will change you if you let Him. That’s the most important thing about prayer. There's something else though about this whole study and that's this: God gave tremendous grace to to Hannah. He took her the whole way through this. The first grace He gave her was the grace to suffer. Boy, you don't like that one, do you? There's a grace to suffer.

Remember Second Corinthians twelve, Paul? Remember what he said about what had happened to him? He said, "I was caught up in heaven. I actually saw things I couldn't believe and all that, but in order to keep me from not talking about it too much or too full of myself, I got a thorn in the flesh." He said it was so agonizing and remember Paul had been through so much pain it'd be unbelievable. He said, "I entreated the Lord three times. I kept going back and praying and praying and praying."

What did God say? He said, "No, no, no." Why? "My grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient for you. When you are weak, Paul, I'm strong." So what Paul say? Gladly then. He never prayed again about that. He took that affliction probably to the grave. What happened in that prayer? It changed Paul. It didn't change the circumstances. So she had the grace to suffer.

She also had this grace given to her of her speech. In Colossians, it says that we are to season our speech with what? Grace. Ephesians says let no unkind word come from your mouth. That's a grace thing. Do you think she had a good reason to fight back with her antagonist in the household? Yes. But she didn't. Did she have any good reason to say to Eli, "How can you be the high priest of Israel and be this dumb? Like how can this be the case?" But she doesn't. He gave her that grace.

And then thirdly, He gave her the grace to sacrifice. What a sacrifice on her part. She got her prayer, but notice what she did. She's prayed her whole life for a boy. She gets him and says, "I'm giving his whole life back to God." She wasn't selfish at all. What a sacrifice. What's interesting about that, if you look in the book of Second Corinthians chapter eight, Paul is going around and looking for ways to raise money for the poor saints in Jerusalem.

So many stayed there after Jesus Christ was raised and ascended, and they're starving. Paul was going to the church saying we need a collection. And he's trying to get the Corinthians to finally give some money because they said they would but they're a little reluctant now, and they're wealthy. So he said, "Don't you remember the Macedonians?" These are the poorest Christians in the Gentile world. They've got nothing. And he said, "You know what they did? They kept begging us, 'Can we give more? Can we give more? Can we give more?'"

Why? It says because of the grace that we received from God. We want to give because we receive the grace of God. And that's what God provided for her. She had the grace to suffer, the grace of speech, and the grace of sacrifice. That's what I want to tell you this morning. That's the great thing about prayer. Any time you pray to God about something when you're in great pain, think about this: is this prayer changing me? Or do I want no change at all but I want my circumstances to change? That's it.

Now, I started out with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Pretty pessimistic that he wrote. But you know when he was writing that poem, that was a prayer. And you know where he got to that point? "This is a mockery, 'Peace on earth, good will to men.' That's a mockery." But when he wrote it, he changed. Here's the last verse that he wrote in that poem: "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth and good will to men."

You see what happened? Longfellow changed. He changed as he was pouring out his heart, and to think you had a son that was paralyzed, your wife was burned to death in your presence, but it changed him actually as he wrote these words. So the next time you find yourself in real pain, and when you do, I know it'll drive you to the Lord. And when it does, just remember that: "Lord, remember me. And I'm praying for the circumstances to change, and if they do, I'll give You the glory. But Father, change me whether the circumstances change or not." That's what real prayer is. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for this time. Thank You for this story of Hannah. What an incredible woman, what a gracious woman. Thank You for Samuel, one of the greatest men of the Bible, a man who becomes a prophet and priest to his own people, a man who becomes the most important person in his entire nation, is the answer to one woman's prayer for a son and then her vow to You. Father, I just pray for all of us that the next time we find ourselves in pain, that we take it to You in prayer. And we are free to ask You to change those circumstances. But Father, may we throw ourselves on You and say, "But Father, no matter what, change me. Make me have peace and joy and hope whether the circumstances change or not." Father, thank You for this incredible truth for all of us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well.

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