WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:29.980 Thank you. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.800 It's 271. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:08.799 So 1 Samuel chapter 1, and we'll read the first 18 verses of this chapter, of this book. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:23.500 There was a certain man from Ramathayim, a Zulfite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Alkanah, son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zulf and Ephraimite. 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:30.799 He had two wives. One was called Hannah and the other Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah had none. 00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:41.840 Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:50.460 Whenever the day came for Alkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Penina and to all her sons and daughters. 00:01:51.300 --> 00:01:57.800 But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb. 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:05.140 Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:07.219 This went on year after year. 00:02:07.780 --> 00:02:13.759 Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:17.759 Her husband Alkanah would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:21.319 Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:25.159 Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:30.139 Once, when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:34.539 Now, Eli, the priest, was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. 00:02:35.519 --> 00:02:39.139 In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:47.400 And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:52.699 but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life. 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:56.500 And no razor will ever be used on his head. 00:02:57.780 --> 00:03:00.719 As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 00:03:01.399 --> 00:03:05.839 Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. 00:03:06.739 --> 00:03:11.219 Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, how long are you going to stay drunk? 00:03:11.339 --> 00:03:12.239 Put away your wine. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.680 Not so, my Lord, Hannah replied. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:18.500 I am a woman who is deeply troubled. 00:03:19.020 --> 00:03:21.360 I have not been drinking wine or beer. 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.379 I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:27.780 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. 00:03:28.379 --> 00:03:31.760 I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. 00:03:33.219 --> 00:03:38.480 Eli answered, go in peace and may the God of Israel grant you whatever you have asked of him. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:43.399 She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. 00:03:43.899 --> 00:03:49.280 Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. 00:03:50.459 --> 00:03:53.599 Let's ask God for his help as we spend time in his word. 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:58.019 Heavenly Father, we want to thank you and praise you for your word to us this morning. 00:03:58.099 --> 00:04:02.359 And we pray that it would be doing its work in our lives, in our minds, in our hearts. 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:12.640 Lord, that you'd be impressing its truth on us, making us more like Jesus as we see him more clearly this morning. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:13.360 Amen. 00:04:15.260 --> 00:04:22.520 Back in 1856, a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon, who some of you may have heard of, he was preaching. 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:29.560 And he was preaching in a packed Royal Surrey Gardens music hall. 00:04:30.019 --> 00:04:33.399 And somebody in the middle of the crowd shouted out fire. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:39.699 And this was before the days of fire regulations and fire safety and so on. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:41.419 And it caused this deadly panic. 00:04:42.219 --> 00:04:46.419 There was a stampede and many people died as a result. 00:04:46.579 --> 00:04:48.959 Seven people lost their lives in that incident. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:53.000 And it severely traumatized Spurgeon. 00:04:53.639 --> 00:05:00.379 He suffered from depression and what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life. 00:05:01.180 --> 00:05:09.039 And even though it was 150 odd years ago, more 170 years ago, you hear that even from a distance. 00:05:09.159 --> 00:05:11.620 And you think, why would that happen? 00:05:11.620 --> 00:05:15.980 Here is a man preaching God's word to people. 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:27.699 And there is this awful tragedy that occurs, this awful grief for not only the families of those who lost loved ones, but also for Spurgeon himself. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:37.480 It perhaps was one of the reasons why he wrote that the mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits. 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:49.600 The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in 10,000 ways and die over and over again each hour. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:54.340 When Spurgeon said that he wasn't making light of physical suffering. 00:05:54.340 --> 00:06:05.580 But what he was saying was that there was this mental or emotional suffering or grief that can sometimes go along with physical suffering or can be separate from it. 00:06:05.580 --> 00:06:07.860 That is quite profound. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:16.980 And for Hannah in verse 10, as we encounter her, she is in a place of deep anguish, deep anguish. 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:26.360 And you start to realize that God's people, children of God, can go through times of deep anguish, deep grief. 00:06:26.500 --> 00:06:32.980 And it may be similar to Hannah's circumstances that cause us that grief. 00:06:33.060 --> 00:06:34.980 Or it may be for other reasons. 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:39.020 It may be as a result of losing a loved one. 00:06:39.740 --> 00:06:44.060 It may be as a result of losing work or a home. 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:46.620 It may be a broken relationship. 00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:59.540 And Christmas is a time when it seems to raise these things, whether they are memories from years gone by or whether they are fresh in our minds. 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:04.480 Our griefs and our sufferings don't get paused over Christmas. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:12.480 And as we head into the new year, we want to learn from Hannah, in a sense, what it is we can do with our grief. 00:07:13.460 --> 00:07:14.360 How do we cope? 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:15.280 Where do we turn? 00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:18.540 How do we find God in grief and suffering? 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:25.240 And what we want to acknowledge first is simply that deep grief can be poured into God's people. 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:28.819 Deep grief can be poured into God's people. 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:33.939 In verse 1, it seems that we're being set up to expect a king. 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:40.599 There's this family tree given with all these unusual names that are hard to pronounce. 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:46.839 And often when a family tree like this is given in the Bible, you're expecting a king at the end of it. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:48.680 Somebody powerful, somebody influential. 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:53.899 And yet at the end of this, where we settle, where we are settled, is with Hannah. 00:07:53.899 --> 00:07:58.739 At the end of verse 2, Panina had children, but Hannah had none. 00:07:59.679 --> 00:08:06.659 And what we realize is that Hannah is living in a world where it is not as she would want it to be. 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:13.359 And her life is not what she had expected when she married her husband, Elkanah. 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:24.439 And for her it is deeply upsetting, is this place of deep anguish as this deep grief is poured into her soul through this experience. 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:31.699 We had friends some years ago who lost a baby son. 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:37.000 The son passed away and they were such godly people. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:39.920 They were such godly people. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:47.719 And I realized, we realized in that moment that this deep grief can be poured into godly people like our friends, like Hannah. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:53.419 And in Court Baptist Church, as I look around on a Sunday morning, we're not a big church, 00:08:53.559 --> 00:09:03.579 but there are very few people who you could say that they have not experienced suffering or grief of one form or another. 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:12.720 For Hannah, what adds to her grief is the fact that there is this other woman, Panina, who is also married to Elkanah. 00:09:13.280 --> 00:09:21.100 They are in this polygamous relationship and we're told about it because it happened, but not because it was good. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.940 It was not according to God's design. 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:30.180 And Panina, what she did was she rubbed salt in the wound for Hannah. 00:09:30.179 --> 00:09:37.779 In verse 6, her rival, that is Panina, kept provoking Hannah in order to irritate her. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:43.120 And so Panina is intentionally hurting Hannah. 00:09:43.339 --> 00:09:47.979 She's intentionally adding to Hannah's grief by her words. 00:09:48.079 --> 00:09:54.259 And you can imagine what it would be like for Hannah to see this or to hear this from Panina. 00:09:54.259 --> 00:10:00.519 For Panina, who has children, the temptation would be that Hannah, looking on at this, would be thinking, 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:03.620 here is a lady who is not pursuing God. 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:05.059 She's not a kind person. 00:10:05.179 --> 00:10:07.179 She's not a godly person. 00:10:07.539 --> 00:10:10.480 And life is going better for her than it is for me. 00:10:11.220 --> 00:10:19.460 And this would add deeply to Hannah's grief as Panina tries to provoke her in this way. 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:27.060 Not only does Panina add to Hannah's grief, Elkanah adds to her grief as well. 00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:34.600 In verse 4, whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife, Panina, 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:36.620 and to all her sons and daughters. 00:10:36.759 --> 00:10:40.180 But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her. 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:47.019 So Elkanah is doing his best to be kind to his wife, Hannah. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:53.099 But Hannah is not in a place where she has any interest in food and eating. 00:10:53.279 --> 00:11:00.159 She is experiencing grief at a level where she has lost interest in eating and food 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:03.539 and just going through the normal things of life. 00:11:03.539 --> 00:11:10.219 And so for Elkanah to be giving her this double portion as though this could make it up to her, 00:11:10.599 --> 00:11:17.500 the grief that she is experiencing is unintentionally adding to her grief. 00:11:19.459 --> 00:11:24.519 For those friends of ours who lost their son, their baby, 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:31.939 people would say things that they intended in a kind way, in a well-meaning way. 00:11:31.940 --> 00:11:36.260 When they had another child some years later, they would say things like, 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:39.080 well, that kind of makes up for your loss, doesn't it? 00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:48.360 And they meant well, but it actually added to the suffering and the loss of this dear brother and sister. 00:11:48.980 --> 00:11:52.360 Because, of course, nothing could make up for their loss. 00:11:53.420 --> 00:12:00.440 And for Hannah, the grief she's suffering is not going to be solved by Elkanah giving her more food. 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:04.400 And so year after year, this is going on for Hannah in verse 8. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:07.000 Her husband is asking her, why are you weeping? 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:09.920 Why don't you eat? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? 00:12:11.040 --> 00:12:13.780 Year after year, Peninnah is provoking her. 00:12:16.160 --> 00:12:20.100 And what adds to her grief is that Hannah has a big view of God. 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:23.360 Hannah has a big view of God. 00:12:23.780 --> 00:12:30.140 Hannah doesn't see God as somebody who just wound up the universe like a clock and just let it go. 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:31.500 And take its course. 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:35.379 The Lord is mentioned time and time again in these verses. 00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:37.659 In verse 3, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:39.899 In verse 5, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:41.679 In verse 6, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:43.740 In verse 7, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:43.939 --> 00:12:45.639 In verse 9, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:48.100 In verse 10, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.360 In verse 11, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:52.819 In verse 12, the Lord is mentioned. 00:12:52.820 --> 00:13:01.540 but the question for Hannah is where is the Lord in her suffering, in her grief? She has a big view 00:13:01.540 --> 00:13:07.480 of God. She knew that God knits people together in their mother's wombs but she also knows that 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:16.140 if she didn't have children this was not somehow an exception to God's providence. It is spelled 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:24.319 out for us in verse 6. The Lord had closed Hannah's womb and for Hannah this big view of God is going to 00:13:24.319 --> 00:13:30.679 add further to her suffering. How can she make sense of what God is doing here? 00:13:33.139 --> 00:13:40.720 When that friend and his wife were going through the grief at the loss of their son I heard a song 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:45.460 that captured for me something of what they must be feeling. The song goes like this 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:54.000 there are moments that the words don't reach. They're suffering too terrible to name. The moments 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:02.840 when you're in so deep it just feels easier to swim down and perhaps for you you can relate to Hannah's 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:11.440 suffering and grief. It may be because of a similar relationship or dynamic to what Hannah is 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:19.040 experiencing or it may be for other reasons. The temptation for us in that moment is to think 00:14:19.040 --> 00:14:26.200 well I'm pursuing God but where is God in this? The temptation for us in that moment is to think 00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:32.440 that God doesn't love me or he must be punishing me for something. Why is my life turning out the way it is? 00:14:32.440 --> 00:14:40.740 The temptation for us in that moment is to distance ourselves from God. To start skipping time with God's 00:14:40.740 --> 00:14:48.020 people. To start neglecting our prayer life. And there is nothing that Satan would love more than to 00:14:48.020 --> 00:14:56.540 allow our suffering to separate us from the sense of God's presence in our lives. But what we're shown 00:14:56.539 --> 00:15:05.740 clearly here is that there is this deep grief that can be poured into the lives of God's people. But God 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:12.559 sees that. He draws our attention to Hannah. Not to the powerful, not to the mighty, but to this lady who 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:18.639 is grieving. Deep grief can be poured into godly people. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:29.059 What we see secondly is that we can pour our grief out to God. We can pour our grief out to God. In verse 9, 00:15:29.179 --> 00:15:36.899 once they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. I don't know if you had Christmas 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:43.720 dinner with family or friends. I don't know how many extensions you had to put on the table to house the 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:49.960 turkey or the ham. There's that moment when somebody stands up in the middle of Christmas dinner and 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:56.879 you're thinking, why are they getting up? And maybe they're going to get a drink or whatever it might be. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:03.279 Hannah standing up in the middle of this was a significant move on the part of Hannah. Everybody 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:10.360 else is maybe finishing up eating and drinking, putting stuff away, washing up the dishes. Hannah gets up. 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:17.580 Hannah knows that even though eating and drinking and having time with family or friends is a good 00:16:17.580 --> 00:16:26.220 thing, there comes a moment when she just has to get to God. That getting to God in her grief is more 00:16:26.220 --> 00:16:35.800 important than eating and socializing. That although those things can be helpful, at times she needs to get 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:44.019 to God. To paraphrase an old author, don't you know that from every town and every village and every 00:16:44.019 --> 00:16:50.979 hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London or in our context, a road to Cork 00:16:50.979 --> 00:17:01.639 and rightly so. The author goes on, from every grief, there is a road towards Christ. My dear brothers 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:06.779 and sisters, when we experience grief, when we experience grief, we need to say, where is the road 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:14.920 to Christ? I will go over hedge and ditch, but I would get at my master for I will know no good in my 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:26.619 grief, in my suffering, unless there is a savor of Christ in it. Hannah realizes she needs to get to God in 00:17:26.619 --> 00:17:34.779 her suffering. And what draws her to God is that she knows she can be honest with him. In verse 10, 00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:42.299 she is feeling this deep anguish as she prays to the Lord. She feels that, and sometimes we shouldn't 00:17:42.299 --> 00:17:49.579 trust our feelings, but sometimes our feelings are absolutely bang on. Of course she's feeling deep 00:17:49.579 --> 00:17:58.379 anguish. And she prays that distress to the Lord as she weeps bitterly. She prays that anguish 00:17:58.379 --> 00:18:07.460 to the Lord in verse 11 as she reflects on her misery. What draws her to God is she knows she can be 00:18:07.460 --> 00:18:15.799 honest with him in her grief. What draws her to God is she knows that she is to be humble before him. 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:23.419 In verse 11, she refers to herself as your servant. Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your 00:18:23.419 --> 00:18:32.139 servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant. She knows she can't heal her own heart. 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:39.919 She knows she is out of her depth, that she is at her limit. Grief and suffering is a humbling thing 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:48.779 for us because we want to be able to change it, but we can't. But if it draws us to God with this 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:57.420 realization that he is God and I am not, then that grief can work good in our lives. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:08.000 Like the psalmist who says, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Hannah knows that 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:14.000 she needs to get to God in her grief and in her suffering. And as she does that, she doesn't 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:21.339 really care what other people think. In verse 13, Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were 00:19:21.339 --> 00:19:29.200 moving, but her voice was not heard. She doesn't care so much about what other people think. She cares 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:36.740 about getting to God. Sometimes it can be the case that our concern about will this be, how this will be 00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:44.539 seen, is what restrains us from going to God. But Hannah realizes she needs to get to God in her grief. 00:19:45.259 --> 00:19:51.380 She needs to get to God in her suffering. For Hannah, God is everything in this moment. 00:19:52.579 --> 00:20:01.599 Verse 14, sorry, as she prays, she is just conscious that he is the one who can bring about change in her 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:08.899 heart and in her life. And so she pours out her grief to God. And you wonder why, for Hannah, she's going 00:20:08.899 --> 00:20:15.099 through this. And we don't have all the answers. But what we do know is that he has brought her to a place 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:22.819 where she experiences God in a way that Elkanah and Penina never experience God, as far as we know. That it's in 00:20:22.819 --> 00:20:29.919 the midst of her grief that she has this honesty and this humility before God and this profound intimacy 00:20:29.919 --> 00:20:38.500 with the Lord that Elkanah and Penina and many others never have. That she has this depth of 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:48.220 relationship where he meets with her in her prayer as a result of her grief. That doesn't answer all our 00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:55.600 questions about why this is happening in Hannah's life. But if our grief, if our suffering brings us 00:20:55.600 --> 00:21:04.460 to God, if it draws us to God, then it can be a good outcome for us. And so we want to learn from 00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:10.259 Hannah to get to God in our grief. And we want to realize this isn't a given. So sometimes we will 00:21:10.259 --> 00:21:17.440 think and we will say, well, it's at your wit's end that you will pray. It's as a last resort that you 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:23.100 will pray. It's when you're at rock bottom that you will pray. But that's not a given. Actually, 00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:29.920 sometimes it can be the hardest time to pray when you're feeling at rock bottom. I remember having 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:36.660 COVID back when COVID was at its peak. And I had never been sick the way I was sick with COVID. Three 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:44.160 days of just being absolutely flattened. Some kind of mild hallucinations, heart palpitations. 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:53.220 I was just floored. That was the moment I needed to get to God in prayer. But it wasn't easy to do that. 00:21:54.759 --> 00:22:01.320 Hannah teaches us here we need to get to God in our grief. And what will draw us is to realize, 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:08.440 as Hannah did, that we can be honest with him, that we can be humble before him, and that actually 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:15.539 it's more important to get to him than what other people think about us in that moment. We don't need 00:22:15.539 --> 00:22:21.279 to blow our nose. We don't need to put on a brave face. We can come into the presence of God with our 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:30.259 grief and experience this profound intimacy with him. And if that is one outcome of the suffering that 00:22:30.259 --> 00:22:40.819 we experience, it is a good thing. And so a question for us as we head into 2026, are you getting to God in 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:48.119 your grief? Or are you staying at the table eating and drinking or finding whatever it is that will numb 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:59.579 the grief or the sorrow? We want to think lastly about how God will pour peace into our hearts? 00:23:00.779 --> 00:23:06.219 Hannah has poured out her grief to God. God will pour peace into our hearts. 00:23:06.220 --> 00:23:17.100 So if you know the story of Hannah, don't short circuit it by thinking immediately of the answer 00:23:17.100 --> 00:23:25.059 to her prayer in the form of Samuel. So God does give her an amazing answer to prayer. But that isn't 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:33.880 the case for everybody. But look at what happens before Samuel is born. First of all, what happens is 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:40.900 that life isn't perfect for Hannah. Everything is not sorted for Hannah. She's still misunderstood in 00:23:40.900 --> 00:23:48.760 verse 14. She's accused of being drunk by the priest in the house of God. So she's just had this profound 00:23:48.760 --> 00:23:55.740 experience of prayer with the Lord. And then two minutes later, the priest is accusing her of being drunk, 00:23:55.740 --> 00:24:06.779 possibly in front of others. As she has poured out her grief to the Lord. It doesn't make everything 00:24:06.779 --> 00:24:09.220 perfect and neat in her life. 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:20.079 Amazingly, she gives this gracious response to the priest, to Eli. Not so, my Lord, in verse 15. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:28.319 I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I've not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:40.279 Now, Eli doesn't deserve this response. You could have forgiven Hannah for shaking her fist at Eli and 00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:48.159 saying, I've enough of you and your lot. But she graciously responds to his accusations. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:59.320 She actually reflects God, in a sense, to him. And maybe that gracious response on the part of Hannah is rooted in this 00:24:59.320 --> 00:25:09.740 experience that she has of the Lord. This experience of prayer that has been so precious to her that she will not 00:25:09.740 --> 00:25:20.920 allow herself to be accused of this in this way. And so she invites Eli to be what Eli should be to her. 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:25.740 And thankfully, he responds in verse 17. He says, go in peace. 00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:30.660 And may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him. 00:25:30.660 --> 00:25:43.400 And so Hannah goes her way. In verse 18, she went her way. She ate something in her face, was no longer 00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:51.540 downcast. And you can kind of rush through this verse and not think much of it. But for Hannah to now eat 00:25:51.540 --> 00:25:58.160 something where she had not been able to eat, for her face to be no longer downcast, where she had been in 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:05.900 deep anguish, you realise that before there is ever a concrete answer to her prayer, that God has 00:26:05.900 --> 00:26:14.060 actually poured a substantial amount of peace into her heart as she has poured out her grief to him. 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:22.800 That she has experienced God in a way that Eli and Elkanah and Peninnah don't seem to have. 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:31.059 And actually, as we reflect on how Hannah has poured out her grief before the Lord, it reminds us 00:26:31.059 --> 00:26:40.299 of Gethsemane. It reminds us of Jesus. When he is in the garden, praying before he goes to the cross, 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:46.720 where he is honest with the Father, where he is humble before the Father, where he pours out his 00:26:46.720 --> 00:26:55.160 grief before the Father. Hannah's relationship with God in her grief actually reminds us of our Saviour. 00:26:57.799 --> 00:27:03.460 We sing sometimes in court, Baptist churches, I'm sure you do hear that hymn with the line, 00:27:03.600 --> 00:27:09.920 he had no tears for his own griefs. And I have to take a deep breath before I sing it, because of 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:17.860 course Jesus had tears for his own griefs. He was profoundly in anguish about being on the cross 00:27:17.860 --> 00:27:26.060 and experiencing the wrath of God being poured out on him. But what the hymn is trying to capture 00:27:26.060 --> 00:27:33.580 is the fact that he went through this for us, that he went through this for Hannah, that he went through 00:27:33.579 --> 00:27:41.159 this for all who trust in him, that he was bearing our sorrows, that he sweat drops of blood for our 00:27:41.159 --> 00:27:48.439 suffering, that he entered into the suffering and the heartache of this world, that he is with us in it, 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:56.460 that he weeps over the tomb of his friend Lazarus, that he is one who can give us profound 00:27:56.460 --> 00:28:05.980 peace, substantial peace, even as we continue to navigate this world where there is real grief and real sorrow. 00:28:09.340 --> 00:28:16.120 I was chatting to that friend recently, the man who, he and his wife, they lost their baby son, 00:28:16.299 --> 00:28:22.460 and asked him, how are you doing in this grief? It had been a number of years, but I knew this leaves 00:28:22.460 --> 00:28:34.039 a deep wound in somebody. And he responded by saying, we're doing okay. And to hear him say that was a 00:28:34.039 --> 00:28:43.860 remarkable thing, because they had been through dark, dark days. And he had been honest in what they were 00:28:43.860 --> 00:28:50.980 suffering. He had been honest in years gone by in what they were grieving. But to hear him say, we're doing 00:28:50.980 --> 00:29:00.860 okay. It was this realization that God had poured substantial peace into their hearts. He had poured 00:29:00.860 --> 00:29:07.519 substantial healing into their hearts. It wasn't that everything was perfect. It wasn't that time 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:15.180 healed all wounds. It wasn't that they would ever forget their little child. But what he was saying was, 00:29:15.180 --> 00:29:25.060 we're doing okay, God is with us, as we have grieved in his presence, he has poured some substantial peace into our 00:29:25.060 --> 00:29:34.440 hearts. And reminded me, that song that I mentioned earlier, there are moments that the words don't reach, 00:29:34.600 --> 00:29:42.799 suffering too terrible to name. There's another line in that song that goes like this, there is a grace too powerful 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:52.399 to name. And as followers of Jesus, our suffering Savior, this one who has entered into our grief, 00:29:52.519 --> 00:30:03.139 entered into our sorrow, we can know substantial peace, even in the midst of our suffering. And we know, 00:30:03.740 --> 00:30:09.399 we know one day we can be assured that one day all our suffering, all our grief will be done away with 00:30:09.400 --> 00:30:18.120 when he returns. And it'll be a profound thing. It'll be a profound thing for Hannah, and for us to realize, 00:30:18.120 --> 00:30:26.660 as we see our Savior face to face, that all that the world threw at us, that all the grief, all the suffering, 00:30:26.800 --> 00:30:33.940 all the heartache, that none of that could separate us from him. That because he went to the cross for us, 00:30:33.940 --> 00:30:42.940 that he will not lose us. That even if we lose sight of him, he holds us, he has us in his hand, 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:51.140 that he watches over us, that he will get us through. And so Hannah is, in a sense, an invitation to us 00:30:51.140 --> 00:30:58.920 this morning. It's an affirmation that we do experience grief and suffering, even as God's people, 00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:06.480 in a profound way at times. It's an invitation to pour out our grief to him, to make sure we're getting 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:16.519 to God with our suffering. And it is this assurance that he will, in time, give us substantial peace 00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:22.660 as we continue to journey with him over the years. And so let's ask God now to help us with that 00:31:22.660 --> 00:31:30.940 and to respond to him. Father, help us as we look into the year ahead. We make our resolutions, 00:31:31.380 --> 00:31:38.820 and Lord, they remind us how little control we have over even our own lives. Lord, as we 00:31:38.820 --> 00:31:46.360 try and fail to fulfill them. But Lord, we're reminded in Hannah's story, Father, there are things that we 00:31:46.359 --> 00:31:54.979 experience that just leave us profoundly out of our depth in grief and sorrow. Lord, whatever this year 00:31:54.979 --> 00:32:00.699 holds for us, help us to realize, Father, that we can come to you, that we need to come to you with our 00:32:00.699 --> 00:32:08.019 grief and our sorrow. And help us, Lord, to know that you pour profound peace into us. Lord, we have 00:32:08.019 --> 00:32:16.079 experienced that in times gone by. Help us to pursue you much in the year ahead, so that we might experience 00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:19.039 time and time again. Amen.