The Birth of Samuel, Part 2

Thank you, Kristen. If you've got your Bible, 1 Samuel chapter 1. 1 Samuel 1 will be here this week and next week looking at this chapter because there's so much here. I would like to spend six or seven weeks on 1 Samuel chapter 1, but that's not going to be possible, but we'd love to do that because there's so much here. The relevancy of Scripture is astounding to me, to be able to understand exactly what God has to say for us and how He says it in such a very practical kind of way, even though it was written thousands of years ago, and we understand how it is God is working.

Samuel was that prophet of transition. He transitioned from the time of the judges to the time of the kings, and God used him in a great and mighty way. But everything begins with his birth and everything surrounding his birth because of what takes place with his mother, Hannah, and how it all comes about that God will use her in a mighty way to come before the throne of God and to pray, and the answer to that prayer, what God does, is astounding. God always works in great and mighty ways. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man does avail much, and so we see this in the life of Hannah.

And so what we're looking at is three points you need to see. We're looking at the record of his birth, and then we're looking at the results of his birth, and then we're going to see next week the remembrance in his birth. Last week it was the record of his birth. I want to review that with you just real briefly because it brings us up to speed as to in terms of where we are. The record of his birth is seen in two ways. Number one, the context and the content.

The context for the prayer and the content in the prayer. The context, we told you last week, was severe because of where the nation was. There was a problem nationally and there was a problem personally, and the problem nationally was the moral and spiritual corruption in the nation. We're coming out of the book of Judges. We're coming out of the time of Judges. Four hundred years where the Judges reigned supreme. God used them to rule over the people, and yet the theme was that every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

And we read that in the book of Judges, and we realize that that's the theme of 400 years. That man pretty much did what he wanted to do, and yet we look at that and say, well, that's just such a bad thing.

But you know what? Think of it this way. So many times we do what is right in our eyes as well, and it might not be really bad, but it's still wrong. The Bible says that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death, not life.

Now, it could be a death-like existence because we did our own thing. I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 12, verse number one, when he said, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

That's just so true, and that kind of like happens across the board in the history of man. When we think of every man did that which is right in his own eyes, if you just go back to the book of Ruth, you remember that Naomi's husband, Elimelech, he did that which was right in his eyes. And it wasn't real bad. It's just that there was a famine of Bethlehem. And it doesn't say that he was an ungodly man, not at all. In fact, Elimelech was a man who loved the Lord, and he was married to Naomi. And yet there was a famine in the land, and so he moves to Moab, Moab of all places.

And he takes his boys with him, and yet he dies. His boys marry Moabite women, which was against the law of the Lord. They did it anyway, and they die. You see, Elimelech did that which is right in his own eyes, and the end thereof was the ways of death. Now, the providence of God would override all that, and Ruth would marry one of Elimelech's boys, and then he would die, and she would go back to Bethlehem with Naomi, and then you got the whole Ruth Boaz story, the kids with the Redeemer. It's a great story.

But we forget that Elimelech did that which is right in his own eyes. How often does that happen in your life and mine? We make decisions without ever consulting God. That's what Elimelech did, didn't consult God. And then that was the history of Israel during the period of the judges. They kind of did that which was right in their own eyes. Some people were really, really immoral. Others just made bad choices, because they didn't seek the will of the Lord. And how many times does that happen in your life and mine?

We make decisions about college, where our kids go to college, never thinking about how much it's going to cost. And then all of a sudden we find we're hundreds, thousands of dollars in debt. And we think, how are we going to get out of this? We did that which is right in our own eyes. We thought it was the right choice to make, only to realize that now we're in debt. It's going to take us years to get out of this. We just make choices because we lean on our own understanding. The Bible says, trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.

But we do, don't we? And so when we look at 1 Samuel chapter 1, the period is every man doing that which is right in his own eyes.

And the relevancy of that for you and me is that there are many decisions that you and I make every single day, whether it's buying a house, or sending our kids off to college, or getting married to somebody, or getting a new job, or whatever it may be. We make decisions because we think that we're smart enough to make them, only to realize that four or five years down the road we look back and think, what on earth was I ever thinking? Because we never sought the will of the Lord. And so we talk about a problem nationally.

That was across the board for a nation. Yeah, they were morally and spiritually corrupt. They were. The nation was bad. They were run by a priesthood that was corrupt. Eli was getting old, and his boys. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse number 12, the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. How would you like somebody to come to you and say, hey, you know, your boys are worthless. That's what God called the sons of Eli. Worthless. Because they did not know the Lord.

And you read on, and we'll talk about this more as we go through our study of Samuel. It says in verse 17, the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men despised the offering of the Lord. Not only were they worthless men, their sin was great before the Lord. And these were the sons of the priest who was leading the nation spiritually. Then it says down in verse 22, now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.

And spiritually, it was a mess. These were the spiritual leaders of Israel. There was a real problem when you come to 1 Samuel chapter 1 nationally. So much so, the Bible says in 1 Samuel 3, verse number 1, and word from the Lord was rare in those days.

Visions were infrequent. God's not going to speak to people who want to live in sin. Just not. And the word of the Lord was rare. So much so that when Samuel is older, in 1 Samuel chapter 7, verse number 3, Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying, if you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone, he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. Your problem is your sin. Your problem is your idolatry.

Your problem is your immorality. This was the problem of a nation that did that which was right in their own eyes. This was God's chosen nation. This is how they lived. And inside that nation were families. One family was the family of Elkanah and Hannah and his second wife Peninnah.

And there they were. So not only was there a national problem, there was a personal problem because Hannah had marital issues, emotional, mental, relational issues with her husband and with her husband's other wife. Just put yourself in Hannah's shoes for a moment and thinking, you know, she would see her husband if you would just pray with me about not having children and give this to the Lord. But we don't read of Elkanah doing that with Hannah. Elkanah did that which is right in his own eyes, right?

He's like every other man. He's in the line of the priesthood. And so what does he do? Well, can't have any children with Hannah, so I'm just going to get another wife and I'll marry somebody else and we'll have kids. And sure enough, he marries her and she has sons and daughters. Must have been the right choice, right? Must have been the will of the Lord, right? Must have been the greatest thing, see? But it only brought major problems to the marriage. He did that which is right in his own eyes because that's what we tend to do.

See how relevant the scripture is? We read a story in the scriptures and we think, well, you know, this woman's barren, poor woman, you know, but it goes way beyond her barrenness, way beyond the physical problems that she had. There were real spiritual problems in the family. Elkanah wasn't leading his family spiritually. Could have sat down with her and prayed, let's commit this to the Lord. Let's really truly look to the Lord. You're barren for a reason. I don't know what it is, but let's pray about it.

Let's ask the Lord to give us real wisdom. But the man of the house, the spiritual leader, didn't do that. He should have, but he didn't. So he takes matters in his own hands and marries Panina. And that was all kinds of problems because whenever they went up to worship, the text says, 1 Samuel chapter 1, when they went to the tent of meeting, that's when Panina was the worst on Hannah. That's when she mocked her the most, when they went to worship in the tent. I mean, that's like going to church.

And every time you go to church, someone's mocking you and poking fun at you. And who wants to, who wants to go to church anymore, right? Who wants to go worship the Lord anymore? Especially not at that place. But what else was she going to do? She'd weep bitterly so much so she wouldn't even eat because she was so distraught. So you need to understand the context because when you read the context of the story, you realize that this goes across the board to every one of us in the room. None of us are left out here.

We all have issues and most of them are in our marriages. Ladies, you're married to men who don't lead, right? Don't answer that out loud. But you're married to men who don't lead. You don't sit down and say, you know what, honey, we got to pray about this. We really seek the Lord's face on this. What do you do? You're married to men who take the matters into their own hands and they make really dumb choices, dumb ones. And you're like, wow, Lord, did you really give me this guy? And so you, and now, Lord, you want me to submit to that kind of leadership?

See, we all have those issues. And we as men, we're thinking we're doing the right thing. And then they go up to worship and he gives her, Hannah, the double portion that says the first Samuel chapter one.

And he says, honey, you have me. Look, you have me. I'm better for you than 10 sons. Not really, because you're making bad choices all the time. You're leading your family further away from the Lord, not further toward the Lord, even though you would go up to the tent of meeting to worship. It was more of a show than it was a real thing. And so the mental anguish on the wife, sometimes we told you, you can always tell how a wife's doing by looking at her eyes, when she's with her husband or not with her husband.

Tell a lot about a woman, by how she's treated and what God or what her husband's doing in her life or not doing. And the emotional and the mental stress upon her was great. So what does she do? She prays. She truly prays. And there's a difference between saying prayers and praying. We talked about this last week. She really prayed. And when she prayed, she prayed humbly because she saw herself as a maid servant. She saw herself as a bond servant. She saw herself as a slave to the living God. She came before him humbly, not arrogantly.

And her prayer was not only marked by her humility, but it was marked by her earnestness because she would come and weep bitterly and she would pour her heart out to God. There was an earnestness behind her prayer. And on top of that, there was persistence that was there. She continued to pray and cry out to the Lord, a persistency that for the most part, we don't possess. We just give up. We pray once and think that should do it or pray for a week and that should handle it. But God wants you to be persistent.

And that's what she was. Knowing that her prayer was sacrificial and solemn because she made a vow to the Lord. Lord, if you give me a son, her prayers were specific, right? They weren't general. Give me a kid, give me a child, give me a son. Lord, you give me a son, I'll give him back to you. And knowing that if she gave him back to the Lord, she would be putting him in a corrupt priesthood, having to trust the Lord to do something great for him because he would be outside of his mother's presence.

That was a sacrifice. That's how she prayed. See? And we tried to help you understand this last week because most of us just gather together and just throw up a few prayers. And they're usually the same old prayers. You ever notice that?

We say the same thing. We don't say anything different. It's just the same old thing. It's almost like it's vain repetition of Matthew chapter 6. It's the same old words, said the same way, the same tone. And the earnestness that should be there, the persistence that should be there, the humility that should be there, the specifics that should be there, they don't exist because we're just saying a prayer. Isn't it interesting that the Lord really hit on these issues? Forget your Bible term. We'll be back to Luke chapter 11.

Luke chapter 11. Oh, by the way, isn't it interesting that when Hannah prayed, she prayed expecting God to answer. We don't pray expecting God to answer. We pray like the believers in Acts 12 prayed when they prayed for Peter's release. Remember that story? They prayed for Peter's release. Peter shows up, knocks at the door. Rhoda goes to answer the door. And there's Peter. She goes back to the prayer meeting where they're praying for Peter's release. And say, guess who's at the door? Peter's there.

No, no, Rhoda, he can't be there. He's in prison. Get back and pray for Peter's release. But no, no, he's at the door. He can't be at the door, Rhoda. He's in prison. So get back on your knees and pray for Peter's release. Because they didn't believe their prayers were going to make any difference anyway. So Peter just kept knocking at the door, knocking at the door. Finally, they let him in and they were astonished.

They were astonished. You see, when you pray and you're astonished, it's because you never expected God to answer in the first place.

He just never did. Because if you expect him to answer, you're never astonished at what he does. You expected him to do that because you prayed expectantly. Hannah prayed expectantly. She wasn't astonished at what God did because she went and went before the throne of God and prayed humbly, sacrificially, specifically, earnestly, persistently, expectantly. Wanting God to answer, knowing that he would. Most of us, we don't pray expectantly. We just hope a prayer and we hope it makes it past the ceiling and God hears it some way somehow.

And yet the Lord would teach his disciples how to pray. Luke 11. Remember that? Luke chapter 11. They said, Lord, teach us how to pray as John's disciples were taught how to pray by John. So he taught them the disciples prayer. But on the heels of that, he gives a parable because he knows, he knows that they are going to have a hard time praying like you and I do. So it says in verse number five, suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, friend, lend me three loaves.

For a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I had nothing to set before him. And from inside the answers and says, do not bother me. The door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. The very first thing that Jesus addresses in the lives of his men is persistency because he knows that they're going to pray and they're going to use prayer as a rabbit's foot.

And it's not going to work immediately. And therefore they're going to stop praying. But God wants you to be persistent in your prayers. And so he talks to them about persistency and prayer. And then he says in verse number nine, so I say to you, ask or keep asking. It will be given to you. Seeks, keep seeking and you will find, keep knocking and it will be open for you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds into him and knocks, it will be open. But you got to keep asking. You got to keep seeking.

You got to keep knocking. You must remain persistent because if you do not do that, you'll never see the answer that you expect. So he says, now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, you will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then being evil, meaning that you're depraved, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

And that's so important because, because the Jews knew that when Messiah would come, he'd bring the spirit of God. And when the spirit of God would come, he would lead them into all truth. And so the Lord says, you keep asking, you keep seeking, you don't pray for the Holy Spirit because he comes as a by-product of your relationship with the living God. But he gives you everything that you need in the spirit of God. You pray for comfort, he gives you the comforter. You pray for guidance, he gives you the ultimate guide, the spirit himself.

You ask for strength, he gives you the spirit of strength. He gives you everything you need in the spirit of God. But you got to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, remain persistent. Because persistency is such a key part to our prayer life. And that's what made Hannah's prayer something more than just saying a prayer. How do you know you're praying and not saying prayers? Because you don't give up on your prayer life. You don't stop praying. You take the unjust situation, you bring it before the Lord and ask the Lord to take the unjust situation and make it just.

And that's what happens in Luke 18. Got your Bible, turn to Luke 18. Luke 18. And we've gone over these in our study of the gospel of Luke in great detail. But it says in verse one of chapter 18, now he was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, not to faint. Saying in a certain city, there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in this city. She kept coming to him saying, give me legal protection from my opponent.

For a while he was unwilling, but afterward he said to himself, even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection. Otherwise by continually coming, she will wear me out. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

In other words, is this the kind of faith that's going to be exemplified in God's people? What kind of faith is that? The kind that looks at an unjust situation and says, God, this isn't right. And I'm going to appeal to you as a righteous judge, not an unrighteous judge, but as a righteous judge, that you take an unjust situation and make it right. Christ says, I wonder if when the son of man comes, that kind of faith will be evident on the earth.

Do you have that kind of faith? To plead with God for an unjust situation that he would intervene and make it right. And then he goes on and he says these words. He says, he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others as contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself. Isn't it interesting that for a lot of us, we just pray to ourselves and not to God?

Pray to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pray tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.

In other words, Hannah was one who prayed humbly, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will exalt you in due time. Hannah's exaltation was coming in due time, in God's time, but she was willing to humble herself before the Lord persistently, perseveringly, continually offering up her prayer to God, specifically asking God to intervene, knowing that the birth of a son would change the course of a nation. This was Hannah. This is the record of her prayer and the results. That's point number two.

We began to hit on them last week. What did she experience? Great tranquility because the text says in first Samuel chapter one, these words says, the woman went her way, verse 18 and eight, her face was no longer sad.

Sad. She was not pregnant. She had not conceived, but yet her whole countenance changed because she would cast her burden on the Lord. How do you know you have truly cast your burden on the Lord? Your countenance will change. If your countenance is the same, you're still carrying the burden. You ever notice that when you carry a burden, your face is red, you begin to sweat because it's so heavy and you begin to grimace, right?

When you're carrying a burden, that's what happens. And the more you sweat, the more you smell. You ever notice that?

And the more tired you become, that's because you're carrying your burden. But when you release the burden, when you give it to the Lord, when you cast your cares upon him because he cares for you, you can take a deep breath. The burden's been relieved and your remorse turns to rejoicing. Now it's Hannah. Her and her husband had not had relations. She had not conceived. She was not pregnant, but she'd given her burden to the Lord. And even Eli, you know the story we read last week, he thought she was drunk.

Because you see, when you're really committed to the Lord, you're really praying to the Lord. You're really sold out to the Lord. Those who don't walk with God, they don't get it. They don't understand it. What's wrong with you? You're just going to pray about this? There's got to be something else you could do about this. No, there's not. I just pray. Then that's like Hindu. And Eli thought she was drunk. Because Eli, he didn't walk with the Lord anyway. What did he know? Just because he was a priest didn't mean he was an accurate representation of God to the people.

Although he did say to her, may the word of the Lord be confirmed in you. And God would use Eli, even though he was corrupt, in the life of Hannah. Because Hannah had committed her life to the Lord. And she truly was a woman of prayer. This was a godly woman. She loved the Lord. And so she experienced great tranquility. She experienced great timing. That was a result of prayer. Because at the right time, God gives her Samuel. Why had God not given her child up to that point? Because a whole period of the Judges had to wear down.

It had to come to an end. Every man doing that which is right in his own eyes had to run its course. And then God would intervene. And then God would step in. If you know the story, there had to run 10 generations from Perez until David. For him to be the 10th king that would not be cursed in the line of Judah. Right? So when you see what God is doing, He is orchestrating all the events for the right time. All the while, Hannah, whose name means graced one, was experienced how her grace would be at its best in the most trying time of her life.

And sure enough, it was. And God did a mighty work. So the result of her prayer was great tranquility for her personally, great timing for the nation because the nation was faltering. Her family was failing. At the right time, God would give her a son. Not only that, we told you last week, there was great triumph, great triumph for her in terms of her bitterness, in terms of her sadness, in terms of Penea's pettiness, in terms of all the things that were going on. There was great triumph for her, but there was also great thanksgiving because if you read 1 Samuel chapter 2, wow, she bursts into great song as to a thankful spirit.

And it all deals with exalting the worthiness of God and the work of God. And there's great thanksgiving on her part because that's the result of answered prayer. And she gives God all the glory. And we'll go into great detail in the weeks to come as to that prayer and what it means and how it relates to you and me because it's a prayer of thanksgiving and how our prayer should be shaped by her thankful heart that we might know how to praise God. Oh, it's just a marvelous study. But on top of that, on top of that, there was great trust, great trust.

She learned to trust God even all the more as she would go to the Lord and ask God to do a great work because she prayed expectantly. She prayed trusting God to answer, believing that God would answer. So many times we pray, but we just don't really believe God's gonna do anything anyway. And so we pray just to go through the motions, just to tell the people at church we prayed, but really they're just not much substance to our prayer. But God wants to do a great work. Remember the story when Christ came walking to his men on the water, he tended to pass by them because they didn't expect him to show up.

So they perceived him as a ghost because they really, this is in Mark chapter six, they never expected Jesus to show up. They didn't pray believing that God would do anything. But Hannah did see. There was great trust on her part. And that was a result of her prayer. It would cost her to trust God all the more because now she has to trust God for a son and what God was going to do. On top of that, number six, there was great training, great training. So let me take you back to first Samuel chapter one.

Let me show you something here. This is really rich. It says in verse 21, verse 19, then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord and returned again to their house and Rama and now cannot have relations with Hannah, his wife and the Lord remembered her. Oh, you won't want to miss next week. What does that mean? The Lord remembered her. We will turn your entire life upside down by that phrase. The Lord remembered her. It's just a great phrase, but let me, let me move on.

It says, and it came about in due time because it was great timing that the son came after Hannah can see that she gave birth to a son and she named him Semuel or Shemuel. Shem, name of God. He is the God who hears. He's the God who hears because I have asked him of the Lord. Then the man Elkanah went up with all his household to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. Notice it very carefully, but Hannah did not go up.

Well, why not? You would think she'd want to go up now because every time she went up before Penina would make fun of her, mock her. That wouldn't happen now.

She's got a son, but she's not going. Think about this. She's not going. I will not go up until the child is weaned. Then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever. Do you understand the significance of the statement? She's got a newborn son. She's not going to go to the tent of meeting with her husband, with her family for three years because she is going to invest her life into the life of her son nonstop because that's all she has. She's got three years and then she's going to release him to Eli and maybe see him once a year at best.

But she is not going to do anything to hinder her involvement in the life of her son for those formative years. Folks, this is valuable, valuable because she was going to train her son from the very moment he was born for those three years until he was weaned because it would take anywhere between two and three years to wean your child. Very formative years. Remember Psalm 128? Psalm 128 says these words. It says, How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you should eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. Isn't it interesting that the Bible uses olive plants to symbolize the blessing of your children? Why is that? Why does the Bible do that? Because you need to understand olive plants to understand how to raise your children. If you understand how to grow an olive tree, you know how to raise your children. That's why. Let me give you a few pointers because it's important.

Do you know that olive plants grow best in rocky, hard soil? Did you know that? In other words, your children do not grow well in comfort. They grow well in rocky, hard soil. They grow best when there's discipline in the home. They grow best when they don't always get their way. They grow best when life is hard, not easy. How many times do we want to make things easy for our children? I live to make them hard for my kids as hard as I possibly can. I want them to experience real life at a very early age.

But so many parents want to make life so easy for their children, all the while not understanding that if they do that, it's going to hinder the development of that child. Olive plants grow best in rocky, hard soil. Two, olive plants are very, very slow to grow. Very slow to grow. So you must be patient because there is no fruit until after the seventh year of the olive plant, but only if you cultivate it properly in the first seven years.

Very important. The most formative years in the life of your children are years one to seven. And the fruit-bearing years of the olive tree come between the 10th and the 15th year. The same is true with your children. Quite ironically, I was walking by my television the other day and Dr. Phil was on. And Dr. Phil was trying to explain to this family that the first seven years of a child's life are the most important years because they're the most formative years.

And if the parents are absent in the first seven years, or sporadic at best in the first seven years, and don't discipline their children in the first seven years, they're in for heartache after the 15th year.

This is Dr. Phil. I don't know if he knows anything about olive trees or not, but that's exactly, exactly accurate. We have forgotten that. On top of all that, on top of all that, once properly rooted, olive trees can last for 2,000 years and beyond. They live long. You go to Israel today, you go to the Garden of Gethsemane, you can see trees that were there during the time of Christ. They're over 2,000 years old because they were cultivated properly. As the Bible say, when children obey their parents, their life will be long on the earth.

On top of that, the olive tree is an evergreen tree, an evergreen tree, meaning that evergreen trees are trees that truly display their beauty no matter what the season. Truly, you want your children to portray beauty no matter what season they're in, whether it's a hard season or a nice season? You begin at a very early age, training them, knowing that those first seven years are the most formative years, and that fruit will be seen between the ages of 10 to 15 because their personalities are set.

That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 22, 6, train up your child in the way he should go. What's the way? The commentators will give you all kinds of different translations of, well, the way means this, or the way means that, or the way means this, or the way means that, and they miss the whole point of Proverbs 22, 6. The way is the way of wisdom and righteousness in the book of Proverbs. It's always the way of wisdom, the way of knowledge, the way of understanding, the way of righteousness. Train up your child in the way of wisdom, train up your child in the way of righteousness, train up your child in the way of knowledge, and when he is old, he shall not depart from it.

But if you don't spend those first seven years investing in the most formative years, you're going to miss out.

It's going to be difficult. Something that can't be done, it can be done, but it becomes more difficult. And here was Hannah who said, you go up to the tent of me, I'm not leaving. I have three years. That's all I have. And guess what? She had no videos to watch that would help her with her baby. She had no books to read about parenting, nurturing as a mother. All she had was the law of God, because that's all you need. That's all you need to invest the law of God in the life of your son, to teach him, to train him, to discipline him, to help him understand the importance of walking with God.

Wow. Great training was a result of her prayer. She would not do anything but what was best for the son that God gave her, because the son was a gift, right? God gave her a gift. What is she going to do with the gift God gives to her, but give the gift back to the Lord, right? Give the gift back to the Lord. Remember, we wrote a book a long time ago called God's Hope for Your Home. Our Young Families class is going through that book. There's a chapter in there called Priority for Parents, God's Priority for Parents.

If you haven't read it, you need to read it. Talks about how parents need to dedicate their children to the Lord, because that's what Hannah did, that's what Mary and Joseph did. That was a Jewish way to dedicate their children to the Lord. We need to dedicate our children to the Lord for the sake of His kingdom and His service. And you dedicate your children to the Lord, and then you develop your children in the ways of the Lord. You train them, you teach them continually, conspicuously out of Deuteronomy chapter six.

You teach them completely. You teach them continually. It's all in the book. You can get it, you can read about it, but you develop your children in the way of the Lord, because you've dedicated them to the Lord. Then you discipline them according to the Word of the Lord. And then you always demonstrate to them the ways of the Lord. That's a priority for parents. Very simple, as God portrays it in His Word. And Hannah was going to demonstrate to her son, Christ, the Lord God of Israel. She was going to train him, teach him, develop him, so he'd know the right way, because there's going to come a time she's going to let him go.

It wasn't 18. It wasn't when he went off to college. No, age three. She would put him in the care of a corrupt priest and his corrupt sons. So she had to get it right real quick, early on. And God did. God did a great work. On top of that, one more thing. Number seven result. And that is great truths. Great truths. Look what happens. First Samuel chapter one.

Before she was pregnant, before she conceived, before her and Elkanah ever went and had relations, they rose early in the morning and they worshiped. They worshiped. They worshiped God, not knowing what was going to happen. They could have gone home and tried to conceive, and it would be another year, maybe two, maybe three, four, five, who knows? They had no idea. But they arose and worshiped God. Think about that. Think about that. They were concerned about the worship of the living God in their lives, no matter how long it would take God to answer or when he would answer or if he would answer or how he would answer, they were still going to worship God because he was their priority.

Because the worship of God was essential to their lives. Is it yours? Is worshiping God essential for you? It should be. And on top of that, not only was the worship of God essential, but the work of God was evident because God remembered Hannah. She asked the Lord, Lord, remember me. Have you ever asked the Lord to remember you? Lord, remember me in the midst of my plight, in the midst of all my problems. Lord, will you please remember me? And the Lord remembered her. Oh, the work of the Lord was evident in her life.

And on top of that, you realize that the word of the Lord was established because Eli said, may the word of the Lord be confirmed in you. And it was. God's word was established. And on top of that, the will of God was embraced and executed in the life of Hannah. She embraced it and she lived it out. She would raise her son. It says in verse 24, when she had winged him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah flower and a jug of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh.

Although the child was young, then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli. They would slaughter the bull. They would take the blood of the bull and put the blood on the right earlobe of the child. Then they would take the blood and put it on the right thumb of the child and then take the blood and put it on the right big toe of the child. Why? Because in the dedication, maybe we should do this with the children that we dedicate on Sunday mornings. Everything the child would hear, remember the right ear, the right arm, the right this, the right that was always the symbol of prominence, right?

That's why it says, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out and see if your left eye offends you. It's your right eye. It was the most dominant eye. If your right hand offends you, cut it off, right? It's not the left hand, it's the right hand. It's the dominant hand. So you put it on the right earlobe, the right thumb and the right big toe. Because everything the child would hear, everything the child would touch and work on and everywhere the child would walk, he would walk in obedience to the Lord.

That's why their dedication was so important. And that's what they would do. In verse 26, he said, Oh my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood here before you praying to the Lord. Eli probably forgot. It's been three years. He's an old man. Hey, I'm not even 60 yet, but I forget things happened three years ago. Eli probably forgot that he saw this woman and looks like she was drunk and he wanted to correct her and she ended up rebuking him. I'm that woman. I'm that woman. She says, for this boy, I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him.

So I have also dedicated him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord. She had made a Nazarite vow on behalf of her boy that he would be consecrated, separated under God for his life. She was barren. She wanted a son so bad, so bad that she would say, God, you gave me a son. He's yours. I'll give him back to you and I'll dedicate him to you. That's my vow. The will of God was executed because it was embraced in her life. She did what she promised she would do. She kept her word.

She kept her word. As long as I live or he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord and he, Samuel, worshiped the Lord there. And thus begins the story of Samuel, whose life was led by his commitment to God, his desire to worship the true and living God because his life was God's life. This is a great lesson on how to invest in your children, how to pray to God, to do a mighty work, how to follow through on your commitment to God and live for him. This is a great chapter and we're not even done yet because next week is better than this week.

Let me pray with you. Father, thank you, Lord, for your word and the importance of it. And our prayer, Father, is for everyone here tonight. And whatever it is they're going through, that you do a mighty work. Lord, you're a great God. You want to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think. And yet we spend very little time seeking, asking, and knocking. We just do. We give up so easily in our prayers. We say, what's the use? But in our reality, it is our community with you. It is our opportunity to pour out our hearts and to cast our burden on the Lord.

And our prayer tonight, Lord, is that you work in all of our hearts, all of us. Begin with my heart, Lord, that I would humbly bow before you in submission to your word and cry out to you persistently, consistently, sacrificially asking you to do what only you can do for your glory and for your honor. And we realize, Lord, that one woman sold out to her God would change the course of a nation. The whole nation would change because of one woman's prayer and your answering and your timing to bring about Samuel.

May we learn from this and realize what you can do in and through us as we commit our lives to the service of the King. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.