We are supposed to hold to this life, but not. Go overboard in our love for this life. God looks, of course, far beyond it. He says, listen, location, location, location. That's what's most important.
Where will you be when you leave here?
So, when we read about somebody who has championed the cause of murdering the unborn and dying, the first question is: where are they now? Because there is A judgment. You're listening to Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 2 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. stark contrast. And that's uh what we have here in this second chapter. Of course, many of us know that Hannah's prayer is one of the highlights of this book of Samuel.
and it is placed at the dedication Of her son to the temple, as she had told God she would dedicate her son. To his work, and that is where it is placed in the story, though. The putting together of this prayer. Very likely There's no time close to The events that took place. She may have actually written.
This prayer because she prayed it and of course uh Put it into print. After having her sixth child, and perhaps even now. carrying her seventh child, And you're going to probably say, where did you get that from?
Well, from the Bible. And we'll come to that in a moment. But it is of course A Poem A psalm. of praise to the Lord. Samuel is the one that publishes this.
After he's established as a leader in Israel and he begins to write. This book of Samuel, there were others that did contribute to it, but he is the one that started it off. And Putting this into print, he no doubt recognized just how spiritual His mother was. You knew that already, but just to put it into print Had to have moved his heart. to see just how close to the Lord she wanted to be in her life, which is his life also.
And I think many, many adults and youth Alike often don't recognize how spiritual maybe their parents are. Her theology draws largely from Deuteronomy 32.
Now, theology is what you learn and think about God. That's your theology, what you believe. And much of this prayer is based on Psalm 32. It is okay. to write out your prayers.
Not all of them, of course. I mean, just not realistic. I write many of my prayers out. And for example, her prayer for a male child that we read in chapter one: well, she was praying there at the temple, her lips were moving, but no words were heard. Eli was witnessing this, but she wasn't writing it down as she was praying.
She had to have. Gone back and put it into print, and that's how we have it, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Mary Well by the time we come to the New Testament, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Not the mother of God. But her her wonderful prayer is largely influenced by Hannah's prayer. Is and Hannah.
Very well educated. We'll see that in this. Psalm If I can call it that.
Well, I can, I just did. Verse 1. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in Yahweh. My horn is exalted in Yahweh. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.
Well, she had prayed in bitterness of soul in that first chapter, and here she is, of course, speaking her praises to the Lord. She says, my heart rejoices in Yahweh. Of course, God granted her prayer, but she was the type of servant that she was going to adhere to the Lord and pray to him and be faithful whether her prayers were granted or not. But this rejoicing came um out of conflict. It was not Something she easily arrived at.
My horn is exalted in Yahweh. And a horn, of course, and. Scripture is a metaphor for strength. And so she is saying, I am strengthened in Yahweh, and my God, and my Lord.
Now, where it says here in verse 1, I smile at my enemies, literally the Hebrew is, my mouth is enlarged.
Now, some of the translators taking that as bold speech, that it is. They come out and say that her mouth is, or she is against her enemies in her speech. She's speaking against her enemies. She's bold. towards those who uh had come against her.
Panina was the one in Chapter One. Panina may have also influenced others against her. That would be all speculation, except the part about Panena. We know she was up to no good. Hopefully she repented.
of her hateful heart. But she was, when Hannah writes, I smile at my enemies.
Well, now that she's had Samuel and other children, likely, yeah, she can say, well, The Lord has blessed me now. She is saying, You got to me once, but you don't get to me anymore. Panina's health, according to verse five, if that is who May have been deteriorating. She says, Because I rejoice in your salvation.
Now we speculate about the names, but not the facts. She is talking about real events in her her life. And that's what her prayer is born out of. And if not, Uh Panina, then Other People that were up to no good in her life, but she says, I rejoice in your salvation. That again, that salvation came out of conflict, her determination.
To serve the Lord no matter what, and here she is rejoicing in victory, she's a liberated person. Because she was Abused. Romans chapter 12 has, you know, Romans is such a theological masterpiece, but within it there are these flashes of. you of just the you know these outbursts of Plain speak Christianity. He's not only dealing with doctrinal issues in Romans, Romans, all of it is doctrinal for sure, but here's an example.
Here, Paul says, not lagging in diligence. fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. That's what's happening here because I rejoice in your salvation. She lacked not in diligence, and she was fervent in spirit, so fervent she was accused of being inebriated.
In verse two, she continues, No one is holy like Yahweh, for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. is sound doctrine. Our God is unequaled, He is unrivaled, there's no match for Him. And of course, this is something that's echoed throughout the Old and the New Testament. Anytime you hear the name Michael, it is that statement, that statement is being made: no one's like God.
Who's like God? Nobody. Isaiah declares it ten times like that. He really puts an emphasis on it because he was dealing with all of these false gods creeping into the land. And Isaiah's like, well, what is that?
Nor is there any rock like our rock. And now she's drawing from Deuteronomy 32 again. Our God is an invisible God. and he is alive. And that is a stark contrast to the pagan gods.
Who were, you know, stone and metal, or wood covered in metal, or whatever it is, and they were dead. But her God. Nothing is compared to him Uh God's people have to be, we have to strive to not be like everybody else. It does not come easily. In verse 3, Talk no more so very proudly, let no arrogance come from your mouth.
For Yahweh is the God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.
Well, you can see how you wouldn't need a shoehorn to fit that into the experience you have with Panina. Panina was proud and arrogant. And would not shut up. And her abusive speech, the hate speech against Hannah. Did she have Fanina in mind?
Well, as far as we know, the shoe fits. Maybe there were others, fine. And maybe in our own lives we come across people like this. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. Arrogance is, you know, thinking Taking onto yourself things you don't deserve about yourself.
good things, of course, thinking you're better than everybody else. And so here in the prayer, it's don't be the troublemaker. Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth. Sounds almost like a mother sort of rebuking her child.
Don't talk this way. Don't let me hear this. Where did you pick that up? My mom used to say to me often, Did you pick that up out in the street? One of your friends tells you that?
Where'd you get that? And of course, if you're in a loving home, the contrast is made very quickly. You know, that I think Samuel and his siblings could very quickly say we were in a loving, believing home. Between Elkanah and Hannah, they had a really big head start. She says here in verse 3.
For the Lord, that is Adonai, the master, as opposed to Yahweh. For the Lord is The God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
So God is sovereign. She is saying, and he is the judge, he sees all things. This is a big God. A lot of people, they have a tiny God. And to them, your definition of God.
Look at the New Age movement. Their definition of God is people evolving into. A God state.
Well, what is that God state? Where does that end? What does that become? What happens?
Well, you get to gouge the guys out of the other gods you don't like, or some goofy thing. goes back to the Romans and the Greeks before them. Romans, they couldn't come up with their own gods. They stole the Greeks. They stole the Greeks' gods.
So Zeus became Jupiter, for example.
Well, verse 4. The bowls of the mighty are broken. And those who stumble are girded with strength.
So here you have the archers. Aiming at you. Joseph's bow abode in strength, held by the mighty hand of God. The arches sorely sought you, Joseph. The assassins were trying to take you out, Joseph.
But God made your bow stronger. And so here, she says, the bows of the mighty are broken. It takes their missiles from them, and those who stumble are girded with strength. What a relief. Stability is given.
If you're wobbly on your legs, you're compromised. I'd rather fall in my backyard than fall out in public. And give me stability. Verse 5, those who were Full have hired themselves out for bread. And the hungry have ceased.
to hunger. Even the baron has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble.
So there are great reversals. Those who were sort of comfortable are no longer comfortable financially, they have to now work. And those who were in great need, they're doing much better.
So there are these reversals in life that we watch out for and we don't take things for granted. The righteous would know that reading this. We would nod our heads at this. The arrogant would pass over it. But here she says, Even the baron has borne seven.
Is this autobiographical? Is she speaking of herself? You see, this is why I said earlier that I believe this is a latter prayer of Hannah after she has had all these children.
Well Only six are listed. We'll get to that later in Samuel. But here, She speaks of a seventh. Is she carrying a seventh at the time she's writing this, or is she just being poetic? I like my interpretation better.
It fits my commentary.
So I think it is a time stamp. And he continues here in verse 5, and she who has many children has become feeble. You see, it's too close to Panina. It's for me to think for me to. Not think it's autobiographical.
I believe it is. Her making a commentary on her experiences. That Panina was prolific and now she's not. Perhaps she was sickly at this time and frail. That's how it reads.
Whether it is 100% accurate or not, it doesn't really have to be because these are facts of life. There are these types of reversals. And Hannah is celebrating being on the upswing. In verse 6, Yahweh kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up.
See, when we think of a God of love, we are sort of shocked by the thought that he kills. He does. He's God. The Bible tells us he does. He doesn't do it just randomly.
You know what? I'm just in a killing mood. Today, It is a judgment of God. It is His prerogative as God. He is sovereign.
He'd be less than sovereign if He didn't have this right. This should not trouble us. In fact, it should. Serve to strengthen us in our testimony that listen, wickedness is dealt with by God.
So I have to give you some examples, but she's continuing to draw from Scripture. She doesn't make this up. Deuteronomy 32, 39. And I mentioned she draws most heavily from Deuteronomy 32. Here's what Moses said.
Now, see that I, even I, am He. It's God speaking to Moses. And there is no God beside me.
Well, Hannah echoed that. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, nor is there any who can deliver from my hand, and that is a fact. God is said to cause whatever he allows, and in a sovereign way, that is true. Otherwise, he's not sovereign. Otherwise, somebody else is overthrowing his will.
And that ain't gonna happen. Duration of this life is not as important to God as it is to us. We cling to this life. We're built that way. We're supposed to.
We are supposed to hold to this life, but not go overboard in our love for this life. God looks, of course, far beyond it. He says, listen, location, location, location. That's what's most important. Where will you be when you leave here?
And so, when we read about somebody who has championed the cause of murdering the unborn and dying, the first question is: where are they now? Because there is A judgment. And God is able to kill. Jesus said it this way. Actually, I'm not going to quote that just yet.
I'm going to save that. Let me go. in this direction. Luke chapter 16.
So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, The rich man also died and was buried. One was carried by angels, the other one was. buried in the dirt. And that's it. No more.
That's what he got. From not being rich, but from being indifferent or against God, God's wrath is not the same thing as murder. Ever. Ur and Onan in the book of Genesis, God slew them. Hophnai and Phineas will be judged because of their actions.
We should get to that this evening. But God slew them. God was going to kill Moses. Because Moses messed with the very foundation of his calling. That that Emblem of distinction between God's people and everybody else, the circumcision.
He wouldn't circumcise his own child as leader of Israel. In its fledgling stages. Exodus 4.24 And it came to pass on the way At the encampment, that Yahweh met him and sought to kill him, and his wife saves his life. 1 Chronicles chapter 10, verse 14. Speaking of King Saul, Israel's first king, who was anointed by Samuel.
But he did not inquire of Yahweh, therefore he killed him. And turn the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse. Just like that. Frankly. Put.
And so we know And Jesus said, Listen, don't fear the one that can kill the body and after that can't do anything else. You better fear the one that can kill the body and the soul. That can banish the soul to an eternal judgment separated from God. Uh this is uh Anything less would make our God a clumsy God, would be like one of the others. there would be nothing to fear.
there would be nothing to be concerned with. The righteous have no concern. David did not walk around wringing his fingers, for example. I hope this isn't the day that God decides to kill me. Verse seven Yahweh makes poor and makes rich.
He brings low and he lifts up.
So much of this life is out of our control. Why do some people just get to be born, you know, with the proverbial silver spoon? They're rich. And they're not denied any carnal pleasure. that money can offer.
They live securely. They don't worry about paying bills. They worry about how much fun they're going to have. before they have to buy the next thing that brings them fun.
Well, these things are out of our control. Hannah lived that. She understood this, and she's poetically expressing that this is how life is, and much is out of our control. When the rich are doomed, it is their own doing. The money did not do it, they did it.
Nabal was a fool. the rich man with Lazarus. He was a fool. By choice they behave that way. The state of the poor, is not necessarily their doom.
Just because they're poor doesn't mean, of course, they're judged. And thus, Lazarus, the angels. carried him And the rich man was buried. Verse 8. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap.
To set them among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth. Are Yahweh's? And he has set the world upon them. Of course, this is very poetic.
The metaphor of setting the world on pillars, there is no turtle holding up the earth. And there are no rolled columns either. Uh He raises the poor from the dust. The old King James, more poetic here, and the beggar from the dung hill. The word dung rings bells when we hear it.
It's supposed to ding, but it's dung, and it has a different meaning. And we know it. But it is broad meaning. And here it gets a trash heap. It was easy to handle the waste from animals if you lived out in the country, but when you started moving into the city, now you had issues.
And these piles, these heaps would Certainly be something that you did not want to be around. But it is where some people found themselves. as do many. The ashes is not an unfortunate interpretation. Ashes are things spent.
Things that have been consumed or sacrificed. They're things that are gone. And this is uh the imagery here is is uh spoken by one that knows what she's talking about. This verse pictures the gospel, the rescue of sinners from this pile of ashes of a life, this waste of a life. You hear the unbeliever lament this life, they are those who lament without a hope.
All they do is wring their fingers, oh, it's so messed up. The news, the politics, the world's going crazy.
Well, what's going to happen when you die?
Well, I just made something up, and it's got to happen, right? I just made it up. It's me, after all. How could I be wrong?
Well, this change in Hannah's social position was one that changed her from. shame to dignity. Fraught with poetic metaphor. Is this Poem of Hannah, this prayer. Demonstrating she was well educated and not only well educated, she knew what to do.
It was one thing to be an A student. And we would like all of our children to be A students. It's something else to know what to do with being an A student. You can be a Lex Luther character where you have all this genius, and you just do evil with it. Verse 9.
He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked. shall be silent in darkness, for by strength no man shall prevail. Let's just take two New Testament verses that comment on this. 1 Peter. The first five.
uh chapter one verse five. Speaking of the righteous who are kept by the power of God through faith or salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. I mean, I love, you know, when the saints go marching in, I'm going to be in that number. When the saints are gathered around the throne. That is going to happen to us.
That is on the calendar. You keep calendars, you check them, that one's coming. Um I remember when I got out of boot camp, they give you a calendar, you know, and a bunch of other stuff, a toothbrush, too. Uh random. Anyway, I I still have my calendar and I would count down the days when I'm gonna be out of here.
Uh well The day did finally come. It was a little underwhelming. But It ain't going to be underwhelming when this calendar date comes. It is going to be the most glorious thing we've ever experienced. Anyway, Ephesians chapter 2 comments on this.
Remember her comment. For by. Strength no man shall prevail. fundamental before the presence of God.
Well it works with man to man perhaps, but not with God. Ephesians 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not by works. lest any man should boast.
No boasting to God. Verse 10: The adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken in pieces from heaven, he will thunder against them. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. No fear in this woman.
No, who got kills? You know, let me tell you, God is sovereign, and He does kill, and He does make alive. And you have every bit of a choice in this matter. Uh Um Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia.
Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreference radio.com. Here, you can also listen to interviews with Pastor Rick to learn more about his life and ministry. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss another edition. All you have to do is find us on your favorite podcast app.
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