Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: So it says, when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and all her sons and daughters. She has a whole bunch of children. One commentator gave her a nickname: he calls her Fertile Myrtle. She has a lot of kids.

But Hannah, he would give a double portion to her. You see, you eat part of the peace offering. Everyone gets a part of what's sacrificed to God; each of the family members take a part and you eat. When it came to Hannah, he gave her double. Notice, for he loved Hannah. Hannah was his love.

Announcer: Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bil Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. 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: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the great American poet of the 19th century, his was a life of triumph and tragedy. In 1863, his oldest son, serving in the first Massachusetts artillery, was shot in the back in the Civil War. They believed that it would have severed his spinal cord and he would be paralyzed the rest of his life. So he was hospitalized and eventually, over a long period of time, he did regain use of his legs.

In that same year, his wife, her dress caught on fire. He tried to put it out with water and he couldn't, so he threw himself on top of her. Wadsworth himself was so burned, that's why he wore a large beard the rest of his life; his face was severely burned and his wife was burned to death in that same year. In that year, when it came Christmas time, Wadsworth heard the bells of Christmas ringing, and in the state he was in, he wrote this poem.

He said, "I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth, good-will to men! And thought how, as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom had rolled along the unbroken song of peace on earth, good-will to men! Till ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day, a voice, a chime, a chant sublime of peace on earth, good-will to men! Then from each black, accursed mouth the cannon thundered in the South, and with the sound the carols drowned of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent the hearth-stones of a continent, and made forlorn the households born of peace on earth, good-will to men! And in despair I bowed my head; 'There is no peace on earth,' I said; 'For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!'"

Wadsworth felt just like all of us do when you're going through the worst times of your life. When you're going through unbelievable anguish or grief or suffering and that's happening to you, the thought that you have is, where's the peace? Where is it? I don't feel any peace. Where's the peace? Where's the joy? Where's the hope? Where is this stuff? Because I can't find it in my life at all.

Well, that's what I want to address this morning because it's there. One of the most extraordinary women of Scripture once again is going to teach us this important lesson. I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 1, and we're going to be introduced to Hannah. We’ll begin in these first few verses, just giving ourselves a context to all of this.

Verse 1 says, "Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim." Ramathaim is the name of the town. Zophim means the watchmen. Sometimes it was hyphenated that way. It was from the hill country of Ephraim. Ephraim is the part of the land that it’s in; it’s about five miles north of Jerusalem. It says, "And his name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite."

Now understand something here: he is living in Ephraim. He’s not an Ephraimite; he is not. His name is Elkanah, and it means that God will provide, which is an interesting name in light of this story. Now, what's interesting, he's a Levite. He is one of the lineage of the Levitical priests. Not just a Levite, he is from his ancestor, Kohath. You might know a couple other guys that were from Kohath as Levites: one was named Moses and the other was named Aaron. They come from the same tribe.

So this is Elkanah, and it seems like that's a good start. God will provide; he's got a name; he's a Levite. And then I'm going to conclude: he might be a stupid man. I only say that because of the next words in the next verse: he had two wives. Yes, he had two wives. Now understand at this time in Israel's history, there was no law against having more than one wife. The reason for it was very important: you have to understand the importance of what a legacy is, the idea of your heirs. This becomes an absolutely crucial thing.

So I want you to hold your place here and go first with me to Deuteronomy 21:15. This just shows you this idea. Moses is writing, remember he wrote the law, but he's talking about two wives and he gives one condition here. In 21:15 he says, "If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then it shall be in the day that he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved firstborn before the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn."

That's just a rule: if you have two wives and you really love one and you don't love the other, but the one you don't love as much, that son's the eldest, well then, the problem is you still have to give your inheritance to that son. That's the way this works. Now let me show you how serious this gets. Go with me to Deuteronomy 25:7. Moses again writing, and in verse 7 of Deuteronomy 25, Moses says this: "But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife," his brother dies.

The duty you have if you're in a family, you must then take his wife as yours, so that his name can go on, the legacy. If he doesn't desire to take his brother's wife, "then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he's not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'" Go to the elders.

Then it says, "Then the elders of the city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, 'I do not desire to take her,' then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off of his foot and spit in his face and shall declare, 'Thus it shall be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.'" This is serious stuff, this idea of you've got to have a legacy.

Now we can go back to 1 Samuel. So I think that the point here is he has two wives and he says the name of the one is Hannah, and that means gracious. And boy, is she! She's an amazing lady. And the other's name is Peninnah. Peninnah is interesting: the name Peninnah itself means against. That's her name. She's an antagonist. That's her name; that is exactly what she is. And Peninnah had children and Hannah had no children.

And here's the problem. I remember, I don't know if this is true or not, but I actually heard this many years ago—maybe if you're Chinese you can correct me—but when Chinese writes in images, different things that they can express in Chinese, there's an image of the word trouble, and it's an image of two women living under one roof. And that's exactly what happened here. That's exactly what happened here.

So it says, "Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh." Every year they would go and make a peace offering in Shiloh. Shiloh's where the Tabernacle is at this time. They took it through the wilderness; now it's at a semi-permanent place. The temple won't come until David and then Solomon. So that's where the centrality of worship is. In fact, it was such a semi-permanent state that it even had a couple other buildings around it now in Shiloh.

So he goes and he does that. And then he says after that, just to add to this: "And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord there." Hophni and Phinehas are easily the worst priests in the history of Israel. They are horrible human beings. They steal from the people; they actually bring women and have sexual relations with the women at the Tabernacle. And they never get corrected by their dad at all. Eli is a terrible father; he's the high priest at this time.

So it says when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and all her sons and daughters. She has a whole bunch of children. One commentator gave her a nickname: he calls her Fertile Myrtle. She has a lot of kids. But Hannah, he would give a double portion to her. You see, you eat part of the peace offering. Everyone gets a part, it's sacrificed to God, and each of the family members take a part and you eat it. When it came to Hannah, he gave her double. Notice: for he loved Hannah. Hannah was his love.

But notice: "But the Lord had closed her womb." Now, he didn't know why and she didn't know why, but the Scripture tells us in this case, the Lord had closed her womb. Does that mean anyone who has a closed womb, the Lord did it? No, it doesn't mean that. It does mean it in this case. Many times, just living as a sinful person on a cursed planet can create conditions of infertility. He doesn't close every womb, but He's obviously there when a child is born. But in this case, He specifically wants to let you know: I closed this womb.

And you'll see in a moment as to how this plays out. So after that happens, it says, "Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb." And what's interesting about this, there are so many interesting words in this. "Her rival" is the word 'tsarah', and it means to harass and afflict—that kind of rival. The next word, "provoke," is 'ca'as' in Hebrew, and it means to get an extreme reaction out of somebody; just to aggravate them, agitate them.

Then the word "bitterly" is 'gam', and it means to actually curse. And then "irritate," 'ra'am', comes from the root word of thunder; this is creating deep remorse in someone. She gave her the business. Every single time she gave her the business, constantly putting it in her face. Now, there's something I think she knew, though. Not only did she have all these children and Hannah didn't have any, but I think his wife also knew that Elkanah loved Hannah more than her. And he certainly did; it's obvious to everyone.

So notice: "It happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her; so she wept and she would not eat." She's depressed, probably clinically. Won't eat, flat affect. Couldn't imagine how horrible every time they go up to Shiloh it feels to her. All the, "Come on, kids, these are all my kids, look at all my... oh, where's your kids again? You got any kids? No."

Now, Elkanah now does—he's going to do 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 than ten sons? You 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 got 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 arose 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. And I don't know what your life's 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 despairing; she is really upset with the way everything is going. She can't stand it anymore. So it just drives her to the Lord. That's what God is doing. Remember David said, "It is good for me that I was afflicted so that I may learn your statutes," so I could get closer to You, Lord. I love C.S. Lewis's line, I've heard it for many, many years: "God whispers in our pleasures, 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. And at that time, a vow is 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. You see, 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." Now, that was written in the first verses I looked at; she's the first person in the Bible that ever used that term: Yahweh Sabbaoth. 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... 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 she calls Him the Lord of hosts. Now notice what she asks for first thing: "If You will indeed look at my affliction." Father, just look at it. See my affliction. She says, "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, and she uses an expression that they used often: "Look at me, remember me." Please remember me. That's all I want You to do: look at me, remember me, she says. "And do not forget me." Just don't. That's all I'm asking You, 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 Nazarite." I will do that. What's that mean? He'll be forever the Lord's. That's the way this works; that's her vow.

Now let me show you how that's—let's keep your place here and go with me to Numbers chapter 6. I want you to see what it means to be a Nazarite. Verse 1: "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 Nazarite, 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 Nazarite 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 skins. 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 any 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 for 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.

Now, when you have an image of Jesus, what do you get? Oh, really long, beautiful... some of them have him blue-eyed and blond hair. Wow. Like a lot of Jewish men. Yeah. 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 Nazarite, there were only three men at times mentioned in the entire Bible. The first one was Samson, and an angel had dedicated him. Samson. And then we have Samuel here. So you have Samson and then Samuel. And then thirdly, you have John the Baptist. That's the only three we have that were all Nazarites. Now, there may have been more, but it doesn’t say, but that's the way it works.

Now we can go back to 1 Samuel. She's going to make him a Nazarite. Now, what's interesting about this is as you read on the story, she, if that little boy—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. So 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 as he grows up.

Announcer: 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’d 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.

At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 70006.

If you would be interested in hearing today’s message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bil delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnoia.org. That’s f-b-c-n-o-l-a-dot-o-r-g. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil’s sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnoia.org. For Pastor Bil Gebhardt, I’m Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.