THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS ACTUALLY A SERMON I ONCE PREACHED AT A MOTHER'S DAY BREAKFAST AT MY HOME CHURCH, AND THEN ONCE AGAIN AT A BAPTIST CHURCH IN PINEVILLE, NEW YORK. I HOPE MY WOMEN READERS WILL DERIVE SOME SPIRITUAL BENEFIT FROM IT. SUCH IS MY PRAYER
God has always loved women. In the tenderest of terms both the Old and the New Testament testify to the kindness and compassion the Heavenly Father bestows upon those women whom He has called to be His own. From Genesis onward, the inspired record reveals the covenantal mercies reserved for all of the mothers and daughters whose sins were laid upon the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus died for sinful women as well as for sinful men. In bearing their guilt and shame upon the cross, Christ displayed the eternal love our sovereign Lord has for the chosen women of His wonderful covenant.
Hannah was a women whom God loved. His divine mercies cascaded upon her soul and flowed into every area of her life. According to the mystery of providence Hannah enjoyed the rare privilege of being born a Jew. Her nation was a chosen one, graciously given both the will and the way of its covenant keeping God. Hannah was indeed blessed to be an Israelites after the flesh. Yet, an even greater privilege was granted to her by the sovereign love of her glorious Lord. At some point in her life she had been drawn into a vital, experiential relationship with the Holy One of Israel. Thus, she was made an Israelites after the heart, and had been given both the passion of prayer and the willingness to worship--characteristics belonging exclusively to all true children of God. Moreover, Hannah was married to a godly man. Elkanah was not a perfect husband. As a sinner he was guilty of much, bu�t the stream of his life flowed in obedience to the Lord despite its many meanderings. A husband like Elkanah who worshiped God, who insisted that his household do the same, was a special token of divine love.
Indeed, Hannah was loved by the Lord and enjoyed every conceivable expression of His affection--but one. And the absence of that one divine blessing had flung her soul into the furnace of adversity. Her heart melted in its flames. She was barren because "the Lord had closed her womb" [v.5].
In our society, where children are considered excess baggage rather than a blessing, it might be hard to appreciate how Hannah could equate barrenness with adversity. However, in her day, children were anything but baggage. For a Jewish woman, especially one who loved God, children were a heritage to be raised up for His glory. Not only so, but as a women Hannah's identity and sense of self worth was strongly tied to being a mother. Thus, to have no children was both spiritually and psychologically devastating.
To add insult to injury, the flames of Hannah's adversity were stoked by frustrating aggravations. She shared both her husband and her home with another women by the name of Peninnah. Elkanah had two wives, which was legal under the Law but a definite liability for the home life. Peninnah, the first wife mentioned in our text, was not a pleasant woman. Either she was jealous of her husband's deeper affection for Hannah or she was very proud of her own fruitfulness. Maybe it was a combination of both, but in any case Peninnah tormented Hannah terribly over her inability to conceive children. Verse six vividly tells the story. Hannah's rival "would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb."
Maybe the futility in your life is not barrenness. In this church that hardly seems to be a problem. But the heart of each woman here suffers in the heat of some sort of trial. Day by day your soul agonizes in conflict and cries out for consolation. Adversity in the context of aggravation encases your whole being like a coffin. You scream for help and wonder if anyone, especially God, hears you. What can you do? What will you do?
Because He loves women, God recorded how Hannah handled the long dark night of her soul. Hannah was a woman faithful in the furnace of adversity. Notice first of all that she did not allow sorrow to sidetrack her from the public worship of God. According to verse three, her husband, Elkanah, "would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh." Hannah would go with him. During this particular year, perhaps the worst of all in terms of her terrible trial, Hansnah appeared before the Lord in His temple at Shiloh. She accompanied her husband to the public worship of Jehovah, giving no evidence at all that she did so begrudgingly. Quite to the contrary. While in the house of worship she seized the opportunity to pour out her heart to the God who cares. I beg of you not to allow your adversity to absent you from the public worship of God. Many people do. Hannah could have, but chose not to. She was faithful in spite of her feelings. Possibly self pity or the thought of a respite from the ridicule of Peninnah anchored her heart at home, yet Hannah went to the Temple to worship her Lord. The call to worship is rooted in the command of our Creator; it is not contingent upon convenience of any kind. A suffering woman is faithful, like Hannah, when she answers the call of God's command instead of the cry of her own emotions.
Notice, too, that Hannah handled her adversity by seeking the Lord in prayer. While in the Temple, because of her distress, she "prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly" [v.10]. She so desperately wanted a son that she held nothing back from the Lord, but threw her whole soul into His sovereignty. Prayer of this caliber was not a flash in the pan for Hannah. We have recorded for our edification but one instance of the many times this poor woman must have laid bare her soul before her God. Her prayer in public was a natural extension of her prayer in private. Pain should produce petition. It did in Hannah�s life. She was faithful in prayer because only Heaven could heal her breaking heart. Does your pain produce faithful petitions to God? You may not always get the answers you want, but what is the point of prayer--to get what you want, or to get what you need? One of them petitions found in the Lord's prayer is, "Give us this day our daily bread." It is a petition which embraces all that is needful for the day and one which our Father in heaven gladly answers. But it is a prayer which must be prayed daily. Does your pain produce faithful daily petitions to your Heavenly Father? He does hear you. He may not give you what you want, but He will definitely give you what you need. Hannah prayed. She made a vow. She sought the Lord and said, "O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy maidservant and remember me, and not forget Thy maidservant, but wilt give Thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come upon his head" [v.11]. The Lord heard her prayer and gave her a son.
Hannah's faithfulness would soon be tested to the limit. I do not know what was? harder for Hannah--to not have a son or to give up the son she had. Hannah had made a vow: if God would give her a child, she would give that child back to God. God did not--and does not--take vows lightly. Would Hannah? The Lord requires that a vow must be kept. Would Hannah keep hers?
Can you imagine the struggle this women went through? Day by day she weaned Samuel, her long sought after son. And as the milk flowed from her breasts, the tears flowed from her eyes also. Those tears represented a profound range of emotions, from joy over the baby she held in her arms to sorrow over the thought of having to take him to the Temple all too soon. Can you blame her? What mother who truly loves her child could give him up with gladness, even to the Lord? Hannah loved her son, but she loved her Sovereign more. And so, she faithfully kept her vow at a cost so great to her own soul that no one could fully fathom it but the God whom she loved, the God who loved her. Is the Lord really lord over your life? Faithful obedience, regardless of the cost, is the only way you can answer "yes" to that question.
Are the flames in the furnace of adversity ever completely extinguished? Not in this life. The Lord will dampen them for awhile, for a time of much needed relief, but then He providentially fuels the fire once again. Hannah received relief for a time. She got her son. But once again she was thrown into the oven by the hand of God. She had to give up that son. Was God mean, was He cruel? How can it be said that the Lord loved Hannah when He gave her a son whom He would take away, not for a day or a week, but for a lifetime?
Hannah moved from one struggle of the soul into another, from having no son to having a son she would soon have to lend to the Lord. Both struggles were prokvidentially executed by the God who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Had Hannah focused strictly upon the pain of either trial, particularly the second, she probably would have questioned the love of God. Although the pain of both trials was undeniably great, Hannah chose not to focus upon her pain but upon God's purpose instead. She was faithful to Jehovah by obediently fulfilling her vow and by not castigating either His character or His counsel, even in the severest struggles of her life. She knew God was inherently holy and did all things justly. She knew that God loved her, therefore He afflicted her. Does that sound strange to you? God has a purpose for His people. His intent is to purify them on earth in preparation for heaven. He does this only for those upon whom He has sovereignly set His affection. In the furnace of adversity God oburns away the dross of depravity to reveal the gold of godliness. Hannah saw this redemptive love in the divine summons for Samuel. As she reconciled her self will to the will of Jehovah in the matter of obedience to her vow, the gold of godliness in her life grew a little brighter. Redemptive love did not make the loan of her only son to the Lord easy; it made it possible.
The pursuit of God is the meaning of life. The furnace of adversity has been lovingly ordained to melt life down to its essential meaning by provoking all true believers into a faithful pursuit of God. It did so for Hannah. She faithfully pursued the Lord amidst all her afflictions by means of public worship, prayer, persevering obedience and a perceptive look upon His redemptive love and purpose. Hannah was, indeed, a woman faithful in the furnace of adversity. The question is, are you?
�copyright 2000, Perry Fuller
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