Word of Salvation – April 2025
A God Who Cares
Sermon by Rev. John Zuidema on Lord’s Day 10 Q&A 27-28
Scripture Reading Matthew 6:25-34; 1Samuel 1:1-18
Congregation, those of us who are interested in history, will soon realize that God can use certain individuals and events to bring about great change and even the establishment of nations. In 1770 Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Britain. On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, established the colony of NSW with the arrival of the first fleet of eleven vessels. Hence, we have Australia Day.
Much more ancient are the Old Testament books of Samuel, with the account of the first prophet and the rise of King David and Israel’s kingdom. 1 & 2 Samuel are true historical narratives, 3000 years ago. They form a part of the unfolding story of God’s salvation which is the greatest fact of all. It shows us that we serve a God who cares for his people.
Now you may be wondering, what can 1 Sam 1:1-8 teach us today? Well, Paul in Romans 15:4 reminds us that, “For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we might have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.” (CSB). So, these books are useful, and for our encouragement. Now some background and context. Samuel was born around the year 1050 B.C. He is considered as the last of the Judges and first of the prophets.
If we were to flip back to the closing of the book of Judges, we would read. “In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (Judges 21:25 (CSB). Israel faced a leadership crisis for they forgot that their covenant LORD was their King. This presented a spiritual crisis which affected them politically and militarily.
And the basic reason for this crisis is recorded in Judges 2:10, which reminds us that after Joseph died, “That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel.” (CSB) Forgetting or turning your back on your creator God, the One in whose image you were made, who gives and sustains your life, is the greatest evil that can befall any person, generation, or nation. When people forget the Lord and what he has done, they will inevitably follow their pagan ways and worship idols of their own making as Israel did.
The birth of Samuel saw the transition from the days of the Judges to the days when an earthly king would rule them, first king Saul and then king David. And if we were to flick back to the previous book of Ruth, the closing verses list the genealogy of king David. So that is some of the background and context.
Now the historical significance of Samuel begins with the story of his birth. Samuel enters history as the child of godly parents, Elkanah and Hannah. Despite Israel’s lack of faithfulness as a nation to their God, we do see Elkanah going up to the temple every year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord (1 Sam 1:3).
Elkanah prioritized the place of God in his life and gave his attention to the Lord. Likewise, Hannah is a testimony of someone seeking God’s grace. In fact, Hannah is the spiritual powerhouse in this narrative. She understood the true power of undivided faith in the Lord. And the one thing that dominated her present existence was her inability to bear children (1 Sam. 1:2), for the LORD had closed her womb.
To circumnavigate that, Elkanah, like the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob before him, took a second wife, for not to have children, threatened both economic hardship and cutting off his name and lineage. No doubt, Hannah’s emotional distress over her barren womb would have been enough grief to bear. Month after month year after year Hannah is reminded of her failure to bear children. Whenever she went to socialize with other women of similar age, the sound of infant voices would have only increased her anguish.
Furthermore, children were considered as a sign of God’s favour (Deut 7:14; 28.4), and the Mosaic law listed barren wombs as a sign of God curse for covenant breaking (28:18). In fact, childless women were often scorned in society. Even today, when a young couple marry and don’t have children, people with lose lips say some terrible things. And Peninnah, Elkanah’s second wife, aware of Elkanah’s affection for Hannah, never seemed to miss an opportunity to provoke and inflict misery on her (vs6-7). Yet, Elkanah loved her.
Note vs 4-5; “On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb.”
Now the question I have is, “How does this story, help our endurance and encourage us today in our Christian faith?” Well, note three signs of hope and encouragement. The first sign of hope and encouragement lies in the very statement about God’s involvement that many today dread about their afflictions. “The LORD had closed her womb” (vs 5).
So, since God is the one who closed the womb, our encouragement is that he can surely also open it. Rather than assuming some unholy, spiteful, or condemning purpose in God’s afflictions, believers need to remember that God is holy, so all his deeds are holy. God is not only good when things turn out the way we pray or hope for. God is always good, and therefore he intends our sorrows, our afflictions and even our sufferings for good, ultimately to make us more Christ like.
We need to keep being reminded that God is merciful to the broken-hearted. God does not seek to destroy us through our trials and sufferings but to save us, to mould to be more Christ like, ultimately, unto eternal life. Hannah testifies in Ch 2:8: “He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap.” In Hannah’s case, God was using her plight to orchestrate Israel’s deliverance from the dark era of the Judges as we know from the song she later lifted up to God’s praise (1 Sam. 2:10).
And we too, may never know how God has worked through our most bitter trials. He may use our trials to bring others to salvation, or equip us with sensitivity in ministry to others, or even to launch a significant gospel advance. We can have confidence in God’s purposes in our lives. Let me give you an example from church history. There was a tearful mother named Monica who was the mother of the early church’s greatest theologian, Augustine of Hippo.
As a devoted Christian mother, Monica was grieved by her brilliant son’s disdain for the gospel, and even more so for the sexually self-indulgent life that she witnessed him leading. Night after night she pleaded with the Lord for Augustine. One night was especially trying, for in the morning her son planned to board a ship bound for Rome, where a young man could be expected to plunge deeply into sin.
All night she prayed, and when Monica arose in the morning to find her son gone, she wept bitterly before the Lord. Little did she know that in Italy her son would come under the influence of the noted preacher Ambrose of Milan, and that during his stay there he would be converted to faith in Jesus Christ.
Moreover, the very wickedness over which this faithful mother grieved provided Augustine with a keen appreciation for God’s grace in salvation. His teaching of salvation by grace alone had a profound influence on generations of later Christians, including the men used by God to lead the Protestant Reformation.
And there are others who have had a deep sense of God’s grace. John Newton, the slave trader. He was an evil man until the Lord changed and graciously saved him. As John Newton remarked, “I know two things, one, I am a terrible sinner, but I now serve a greater Saviour. Congregation, take heart if you grieve under afflictions, to know that God has willed them for you.
Even when we are suffering grief and pain, or the trouble seems insupportable to us, or when we cry out, why God, why me why us, let us not be anxious or beside ourselves but wait on God’s providence and timing.
He is aware when the time for what is causing us grief or suffering or even depression is to be removed. In fact, he may use it to call us into his eternal presence! In Hannah’s case, God did not close Hannah’s womb because he hated her, but for the nation’s benefit and her personal benefit, and for our encouragement.
When we read of Hannah’s plight may we learn from her and appreciate the richness of her faith to keep trusting in God, even after years of not being able to bear children, and God’s faithfulness. Instead of resenting God’s sovereignty in our trials, we should remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and love, not least by sending his own Son to die for our sins, thereby meeting our greatest need.
The second cause for Hannah’s hope was the tender love displayed by her husband, “Elkanah, her husband, said to her, ‘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?’” (1 Sam. 1:8). We should not overlook the simple fact that Elkanah went to his wife who was suffering. How comforting it is simply to be present with those who suffer!
Our mere presence with the sick, the troubled, and the grieving is often more powerful than any words. And sadly, many Christians in today’s world are just too frightened to visit and speak with those who are sick or suffering or even grieving the loss of a loved one. We of all people should be the first to respond. Elkanah loved Hannah. He reminded her that she would not lose his love. Mind you his words were somewhat self-centred.
Notice that he asks her, “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” He should have told her she was worth more to him than ten sons. Typical husband. But sometimes, the most well-meaning friends may not know what to say, and they may say it imperfectly (or worse), but to not go and not speak is worse.
The final cause for Hannah’s hope lay in the Lord. Hannah continued to trust in Him. Great as Elkanah’s love for Hannah was, there was a greater love who could answer her plea and grant the desire of her heart. Sometimes people scorn a good knowledge of God’s character and his ways, but that is what we need when trials come our way, and they do, and they will.
Perhaps Hannah remembered how God had so often granted special sons through the barren wombs of believing women. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, though she was not barren but well beyond childbearing age was blessed with a son, Isaac, in her later years.
Isaac prayed for his barren wife, Rebekah, and she gave birth to twin boys, including Jacob, the father of Israel. Jacob’s wife Rachel suffered in a situation like Hannah’s, because of the malice of her sister and co-wife, Leah, who though little loved, was prolific in childbearing. But God remembered Rachel and answered her prayer by giving her Joseph, along with Benjamin.
The biblical theme of God’s blessing on the barren womb makes the important point that God saves not by human capability, achievement, or invention. God saves by grace and causes the barren womb to bear children, just as he causes the lifeless heart to believe. God calls his people not to trust human wisdom and human effort, and not to despair in the face of human failure, but to trust God, who gives life to the dead and salvation through the barren womb.
Hannah’s affliction, like our afflictions, is not a time to become bitter and resentful but a call to faith in God. Her weakness was a call to reliance on God’s power. Her barrenness was a call to believe in God’s faithfulness. And her grief was a call to seek for God’s grace. No doubt Hannah was grateful for her husband’s love, but her true hope lay in the Lord, who cares for the downcast and broken hearted by providing grace.
Likewise, our true hope, in all our trials, whether it be illness, the guilt of sin or suffering of some other kind, or even dealing with death, is that same God, the God has revealed his love forever by redeeming us through his own Son by his blood. Indeed, when the time was right for our Saviour to be born, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit not in a barren womb like Hannah’s but in the virgin womb of Mary, proving that nothing is impossible for our God. When God’s people are without strength, without resources, without hope, then [God] loves to stretch forth his hand from heaven and he provides in ways that just amaze us. Give us eyes to see Lord.
In Psalm 43:5 King David once asked himself, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” His answer? It is the answer that we will see revealed through the faith of Hannah, that we can embrace in every trial. “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psa. 43:5).
Congregation, we have a God and Saviour who cares. May we never forget to the praise of his glorious name. Amen.