Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1-20
As most of you know, I was on vacation for the last two Sundays. Did you enjoy our guest preachers, Jamie and Don? I know you did! Usually, I come back from vacation you’re like, “Oh, we missed you so much!” This week you’re like, “Don’t you have some more vacation coming up?”
My family and I went to a beach near Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa area. The best part was that all of my kids—including my new son-in-law, Brian, and my new daughter-in-law, Lydia, joined us during the vacation.
But also… another good feature of the vacation was that, for the first time ever, we took our beloved dog, Ringo, on vacation with us. That’s right… Ringo, who is scared of most things, including car trips—not to mention nine-hour-long car trips—he went with us on vacation. Not to worry, though: our vet prescribed anti-nausea medicine along with anti-anxiety meds. And those did the trick, I’m happy to report. The car trip was easy! Ringo slept most of the way.
But get this: Ringo is also scared of water… including the water of the swimming pool at the “Airbnb” we rented. He’s afraid of water… but he loves fetching tennis balls. Which meant he faced a uniquely challenging situation whenever he dropped a tennis ball in the pool, as he so often did… and the ball floated out of reach.
What would Ringo do now? Would his love of tennis balls overcome his fear of water?
I’m happy to report that, yes, it did… eventually! The dog is a spaniel, after all; he’s made for swimming. He’s a natural born swimmer! He would enjoy swimming if only he had the courage to do it!
But it took some time to figure this out. It also took a few timely and fortuitous shoves from people outside the pool—people like me and Townshend… We pushed Ringo into the pool to give him that shot of courage that he needed… to enable him to see that, yes, he will be okay… More than okay, actually. He’ll have a lot of fun… that he will not only survive the water, but thrive in the water.
And indeed, after being unhappy at first, Ringo ended up having a blast
Believe it or not, something like that is going on in today’s scripture to this remarkable woman named Hannah. She is a woman who is miserable at the beginning of today’s scripture… but whose life gets turned around. Why? What happens to her?
Let’s explore that…
First, by noticing that she is a wife of Elkanah. And notice I said a wife, not the wife. Because her husband is married to two wives—which, in the Bible, is always a recipe for disaster. Every single time! Every single time the Bible portrays husbands marrying more than onewifeat a time, it ends in misery. Think, for instance, of Abraham’s wives, Sarah and Hagar. Think of Jacob’s two wives, Leah and Rachel. Think of the many, many wives of King Solomon!
Next notice in verse 5 and verse 8 that, like Jacob’s love for his wife Rachel, Elkanah loves Hannah more than his other wife. And I’m sure Peninnah notices the favoritism that Elkanah shows his other wife… Surely this favoritism is unavoidable in a polygamous marriage—which is why it’s disastrous.
So how do you suppose Peninnah feels? Jealous? Of course. She doesn’t have her husband’s love… She’s missing something she thinks she needs for her ultimate happiness, for her contentment, for her sense of self-worth. Hannah, meanwhile, has that love. So she resents Hannah… and acts out.
Because she does have something that Hannah wants… which is children. So she uses that fact to make Hannah miserable.
So Hannah is in the same boat as Peninnah! She’s not so different, at least at first. She’s jealous…
Let’s look at Hannah and Elkanah in verse 8, where he says, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
That’s kind of sweet and romantic, isn’t it?
And it’s an insightful question because again and again and again—through Hallmark movies and rom-coms and love songs and romance novels—we’re told that, in fact, there is one person who has the power to bring us lasting happiness, or fulfillment, or joy. And if only we can find that one special person, thenwe’ll be truly happy.
But remember Solomon, whom I mentioned earlier? He married 700 wives and 300 “secondary wives,” known as concubines… Not even one in a thousand, apparently, was “the one” for him. He was disappointed every time. I get it: A lot of those marriages happened for reasons of political expedience; others happened for reasons of pure lust. But surely he was deeply in love, like Elkanah, with at least a small fraction of his spouses and concubines—maybe a couple of hundred of them, right?
Yet he never found “the one.”
No… I’m sure Elkanah was a loving husband—I’m sure he did the best he could—but when he asked, “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” the answer was clearly no. But of course it’s no! It’s not because there was anything wrong with Elkanah… It’s just that no amount of romantic love—and no amount of sons and daughters, for that matter—and no amount of any treasure other than the treasure we have in our Lord Jesus Christ—can ever truly satisfy us!
That’s why Hannah is miserable. And that’s why Pininnah is miserable. They both think they know what they need to be happy; but what they really need is God.
And this gets to the very heart of the Tenth Commandment, and the sin of covetousness: Hannah has something that Peninnah wants; and Peninnah has something Hannah wants. Each looks at the other and feels miserable. Which most of us can relate to, right? Aren’t we often miserable not so much because we don’t have something we need; rather, because we don’t have something that someone else does have.
I can certainly relate… Think about the Lord’s Prayer and the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That petition stands for all of our daily necessities, whatever they may be. At age 55 and some months, I have lived at this point for 20,218 days. On at least some of those days I’ve prayed the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” God has answered that prayer every single time with a resounding yes. He’s always faithfully provided for all my needs; that’s why I’m able to stand here! I wouldn’t be here otherwise. How about you?
Yet for too many of those days, I’ve often been unhappy. How about you? Not because God hasn’t given me what I’ve needed, but because he hasn’t given me what I thought I needed… which, when I compare myself to others, I see that God has given to someone else!
It’s true! In my life, I have too often compared myself to others and made myself miserable!
This was often the case years ago, for instance, when I was an associate pastor at Alpharetta First… back in the first decade of this century. At that time, in Alpharetta, all of us pastors in the area were acutely aware of the ministry of a pastor named Andy Stanley. He was at the forefront of the “church growth” movement—the first church to meet in a warehouse. How cool was that? But at that time he was the most prominent example of a successful pastor—at least in worldly terms… He was a pastor so many of us aspired to be… in terms of numbers of people and influence and popularity. He had tens of thousands of people who would flock to his church, week in and week out. And Andy Stanley’s church, Northpoint, was just a few blocks away the church where I ministered. To make matters worse, unlike Don Martin, whom you met last week, I pastored that church’s contemporary worship service. I was in charge. I preached every week and planned contemporary worship services.
And at that time, no one did contemporary worship as well, or on as grand a scale, as Andy Stanley and his church.
And so many of my people—who attended my service—not that I should have viewed it that way; my service really belonged to the Lord… But so many of “my” flock were well aware of whatever Andy Stanley and Northpoint were up to; and more than a few of them came from Northpoint because they liked the greater intimacy that our contemporary service offered.
Sadly, that door swung in both directions: many of “my people” would go over to Northpoint. I felt like they were cheating on me!
So guess what? I was jealous of Andy Stanley!
And to be clear: I’m not saying this is good! I’m not saying I was justified in feeling this way! I have since repented; I promise! Almost in spite of myself, the Holy Spirit has done some sanctifying work in my life over the past 15 years.
But back then, you better believe I coveted Andy Stanley’s success!
Also, you may recall that I was adopted… And around that same time I was pastoring at Alpharetta First, I met my birth mother, Linda, for the first time… or at least the first time in 40 years or so… Maybe she said “hello” when she gave birth to me; I don’t know… But Linda really thought the world of me, and she laid it on thick about how much she loved my preaching, whenever she heard it. She lived in North Carolina at the time, so she didn’t hear me that often. But when she did, man, she thought I was the best thing since sliced bread!
So imagine my surprise, one day, when she called me out of the blue to say she had just heard the best preacher she’d ever heard… she watched him on television…
Now… this confused me because, after all, I wasn’t on television… She said: “This preacher is in the same town that your church is in! In Alpharetta. Maybe you know him? His name is Andy Stanley.”
Because everybody loves Andy Stanley. It could have been the title of a TV show!
Listen, here’s the truth: First of all, I’m not saying anything against Andy Stanley. I’m not… My best friend from college, Mike, goes to a Northpoint satellite campus in Atlanta. A dear high school classmate to whom I often witnessed about Jesus got saved—he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus at Northpoint back in the 1990s. So this isn’t really about Andy Stanley.
But it is about my sinful, covetous thought that if only I had what Andy Stanley had, then I’d be happy. It is about failing to trust that God knows what I need—for my ultimate and lasting happiness—far better than I know.
Which is the understatement of a lifetime… God knows, for instance, that if he had given me what he gave Andy Stanley—back in 2010, if not today—it would have utterly crushed me.
I can clearly see that now! I can see that my ego… my pride… wouldn’t have been able handle it!
So God rescued me from the kind of worldly success—as defined by worldly measures—that I so badly coveted back then! Thank God he didn’t give me what God gave this particular pastor, or any other pastor! Because I’m telling you, friends, that what God gave me, Brent White, instead—what he’s been giving me over these past 15 years—is far better than any kind of mere worldly success. He’s given me Jesus… more and more of his Son Jesus… more of his love, more of his power, more of his Spirit, more of his presence… more of this treasure that’s only available in him… this treasure reflected in our church’s vision statement, “Treasuring Christ above all…”
God has given me something far better than what I wanted back then… So much so that I know from personal experience what Paul is talking about in Philippians 3:8 when he says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”
Of course none of us can say, unlike Paul, that we’ve suffered the loss of all things. But I want all of us to be able to say, “In comparison to what we have in Christ, in comparison to what we have from knowing Christ, everything else… diminishes… in importance.” We haven’t literally lost all of our worldly possessions and treasures, like Paul… Yet I pray that these treasures have now lost their powerful, “magnetic” ability to pull us away from Christ. Lord, let that happen…
Let the words of the old hymn be true for us: “And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
I used to read the episode of the Rich Young Ruler—which is found Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and feel a little afraid. Remember the story? A wealthy young man—who sincerely admires Jesus and respects him—asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. This young man is pretty sure that Jesus has got it figured out—and he’s even thinking about becoming Jesus’ disciple. Sincerely. It’s not for nothing that we’re told that Jesus views this man with great compassion. The Rich Young Ruler is a good guy in so many ways…
But this man has a deadly spiritual attachment to his stuff… to his worldly treasure… and Jesus knows that. Which is why Jesus tells him that if he wants to have eternal life, he only needs to do one more thing… he only needs to add one more thing to his religious devotional practices… Just one small thing… Give it all away… Just give away all of his possessions and wealth. Sell your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Then you’ll be saved.
And I have read that story over the years and felt afraid because I really like stuff. Don’t you? If you follow me on social media, you know I’ve really gotten in to collecting 8-track tapes, for instance—among many other possessions that I tend to collect or accumulate. I like stuff!
What if Jesus said the same words to me that he said to the Rich Young Ruler? “Give it all away”?
Could I do it? Could I do it any more successfully than this Rich Young Ruler? Could you?
I don’t feel smug about the question at all… No… I feel the pinch of Jesus’ words. Don’t you?
I think we’re supposed to feel that way. I think Jesus wants us to.
But let me tell you the wrong way to respond to the story of the Rich Young Ruler… The wrong way is the way I often responded… See, I usually breathed a sigh of relief, and thought something like this: “Thank God that God hasn’t asked me to do what he asked this young man to do!” Whew!
You know what I mean? I breathed a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to face the temptation that this young man faced… the temptation to abandon Jesus… to walk away broken-hearted because, as scripture says of this young man, “he had great possessions.” 1
But I used to feel a sense of relief…
Why is that the wrong response? Because, brothers and sisters, what Jesus asks of this Rich Young Man he asks of all of us. He does ask us to give it away… He does ask us to give away our worldly treasures… in a sense he does… Not by selling them necessarily… rather, by exchanging the value that we often place on them for something infinitely more valuable… by treasuring something far more… which is… treasuring our relationship with Christ far more than we treasure anythingor anyone else!
That’s what Hannah had to learn in today’s scripture: she learned that the Lord was far more valuable to her than any worldly treasure… that the Lord was worth everything.
Why do I say this? Because of her prayer in verse 11: “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” Just like Samson a few weeks ago, this child will live as a Nazirite, set apart for service to God. Except this time, God’s not dictating that the child do this; her mother is choosing this for him.
So in this prayer, what is Hannah really saying? She’s saying, “This child is the most precious gift you can give me, Lord. You know how many times—how unceasingly—I’ve prayed for a child… you know the tears and the bitterness and the heartache… Yet now I willingly offer him to you, Lord. Because you are worth it. You are worth everything. You are worth any treasure this world has to offer.”
We see in chapter 2 that Hannah continues to love her child and have a relationship with her child, but this child, Samuel, will go on to be raised in the tabernacle by the priest Eli, who will prepare Samuel to prepare Israel for the coming of King David… who will play an important role in preparing the world for a future king in the line of David, King Jesus.
But Hannah couldn’t have understood all that… What she understood was reflected in her prayer of verse 11, in which she says, in so many words, “Give me this precious gift of a child, Lord, so that I may give him back to you.” That’s what we’re supposed to do with all of our worldly treasures. Because Hannah was learning that the treasure she had in her relationship with the Lord is far greater than treasure she has in anything or anyone else!
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must spend a lifetime learning that same lesson…
And yes… this can be a painful process of learning… and, yes… it often happens slowly over time… and, yes, this is a process called “sanctification,” and it’s a process that all of us are in the middle of right now… if we are indeed Christians at all…
It’s not optional. But it is worth it… Because it’s worth everything…
Think about poor Ringo again… He really treasured “solid ground” last week in Florida… Ringo treasured the solid ground of the concrete patio above the scary-looking swimming pool… He treasured the solid ground of the firm sand on the seashore… But he was made for something better. He was made for something more. He was made to be a spaniel… whose webbed paws and whose floppy ears and whose hind legs and whose forearms are God’s masterpiece—a masterpiece of mechanical and electrical engineering, if you want to think of it like that… a masterpiece of design that puts Apple Computer and Mercedes Benz and SpaceX to shame… a masterpiece—God’s masterpiece—for gliding effortlessly through water… like it’s nothing at all! Ringo could do that… yet for too much of his life he didn’t even know it!
“Don’t settle for dry ground, Ringo! Swim! God made you to do this, my sweet little boy.”
And maybe our Lord, through today’s scripture, is saying something similar to us: “Don’t settle for less than Jesus! You were made for him and the things that belong to him! You were made to enjoy this treasure that you have in him! Don’t settle for less! For the sake of your soul don’t settle for less! For the sake of your happiness and joy don’t settle for less! For the sake of your contentment don’t settle for less. For the sake of your peace don’t settle for less. For the sake of your friends and neighbors and classmates and coworkers to whom God is sending you to bear witness, don’t settle for less!”
Belonging to Christ, possessing his gift of eternal life, will cost you everything in the long run, and it takes nothing less than a bold and risky kind of faith,but Jesus is worth it! He’s worth everything!
You were made for Christ… Don’t settle for less!