Word of Salvation – April 2025

 

The God Who Knows

 

Sermon by Rev. John Zuidema on 1Samuel 2:1-11

Scripture readings: Luke 1:46-56; 1Samuel 2:1-11

Congregation, I am sometimes amazed how many people use the phrase, “Who knows?  God knows” when they don’t even acknowledge there is an almighty God who upholds and sustains all things. But for those of us who truly believe in God and especially what he has done for us in Christ, this throwaway phrase provides us with a lot of comfort.

When the pressure is on and we don’t have the answers, it is good to be able to hand it over to our loving God who cares and hears and knows.  Now if you don’t remember anything else from this message this morning, try and remember these four words, “Who knows?  God knows!”

Congregation we have an omniscient God. This is what we see in Hannah’s prayer in 1 Sam 2:1-10. It’s a prayer of praise and thanksgiving based on the knowledge that God knows.   This prayer or song of Hannah has three sections.  Vs 1-2 speaks about the beauty of knowing that God knows us and our needs.  In vs 3-8, Hannah knows that God knows what’s going on around us and acts. And vs 9-10, speaks about the God who knows the outcome of the final judgement.

In vs 1-2 we can soon see that Hannah had a great world and life view.  She had a deep personal faith in almighty God, reflected in the phrases, my heart, my horn, my mouth.  Previously when Hannah prayed in Ch 1, she had been “deeply distressed” and “wept bitterly,” not only because of her childlessness, but because of the taunts of her rival, Peninnah (vs 10).  But even in her distress she knew God saw her affliction and she turned to him in prayer.

And here in Ch 2 Hannah’s downheartedness in soul has been transformed. “My heart rejoices in the LORD.”   In Scripture the heart is the center of the person.  Our emotions, thoughts and plans, and decisions come from the heart.   Hannah’s heart is rejoicing.  Her rejoicing is not just in having a son, but she has experienced the Lord’s goodness to her.

Sometimes we rejoice in the gifts of God and forget the giver.  Not Hannah.   She even uses a biblical animal metaphor to describe her wellbeing and confidence in the Lord. “My horn is lifted high.”   The size of an animal’s horn was a sign of its strength and power.  You see the horns or antlers of an elk, or the horn of a rhinoceros.  Hannah is not strong perse, but her strength is in the Lord’s knowledge and what he has provided.   She is like a triumphant animal ready to devour its prey because she has been delivered from barrenness and the taunts of Peninnah by the Lord and that’s her reason for rejoicing as the last line of v1 tells us.

Now we may wonder whether this isn’t a bit over the top and even whether having a child is a salvation issue.   Well for Hannah it is, and its two-fold.  From being childless to now having a son.  From being mocked and distressed she was now filled with joy.  God had answered her prayer.  He had saved her from the embarrassment of being childless.

But Hannah’s prayer also draws also on Israel’s history as she did in Ch 1 when she prayed.   She seems to express the same sentiments as Moses and the people of Israel did after they were rescued from the Egyptians.

Remember the song they sang after God’s deliverance from Pharoah and his army in Exodus 15? We have a song describing that in our BoW – 377 “I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphant gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea’ The Lord my God my strength my song is now become my victory. The Lord is God … and I will exalt him!”

Hannah’s praise and rejoicing in God is because he had seen her affliction as he had seen the affliction of his people and he has done something and is going to do something, for the birth of Samuel is the beginning of a greater story of God’s salvation of his covenant people.

Now at the core of Hannah’s faith was an appreciation of God’s utter uniqueness.  There is only one true holy God who can help Hannah.  In v2 Hannah makes this point three times. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you, and there is no Rock like our God!

Congregation, do you embrace and know God like that?  Is your joy, your delight, your confidence and security in the God that has delivered you in Christ?  Anything or anyone else we might be tempted to place our hopes, our confidence, or our dreams in cannot compare.  Nothing compares to him!  He is the incomparable God!   He is the God who knows and it is in that we can have joy, strength, confidence and security.  Who knows?  God knows!

Now vs 3-8 flows out of vs 1-2 for we serve a God who knows.   To know that God knows is not just an abstract or religious idea.  There are no secrets from him; there are no mysteries and no unknowns to him. There is no possibility of deceiving him. He knows our heart (Lk 16:15).  There is no room for being proud or being arrogant as though you only know best.  In fact, the proud and arrogant are those who have a little view of God.    All human actions and talk should be seen in the light of the fact that they are weighed by the God of knowledge. God judges the secrets of men (cf Romans 2:16).

Hannahs anguish and grief were known by God.   Peninnah’s hateful cruelty was known by God.  Hannah’s rejoicing heart in God’s goodness is known by Him. Do you ever think about what you say and do, even this day as being weighed by the God of knowledge, indeed the God of judgment? Well may you ask the question, “Who knows?  God knows.”

Consider the human abilities, achievements, triumphs, and successes that lead to pride and self-confidence.  It such an easy trap to fall into thinking you did it all!  But when we realize that our actions and words and even our thoughts are weighed by the God of knowledge, the arrogant mouth is silenced.

In vs 4-8 Hannah catalogues a series of things that generate human pride and shows how different they look when the incomparable God of knowledge is considered.  “The bows of the mighty are broken” (v. 4a) Sure, “the bows of the mighty” can be powerful, and in Israel’s day, the Philistines were always a threat.

Today people become concerned about the bows and missiles of Russia, or China or even America or some other rogue nation.  Who knows what is going to happen? God knows.  Let us know that the Lord can undo them in a moment. Their leaders are but a heartbeat or breath away from the final judgement.

Do you see human power in that light?  Our God and Saviour is on the throne and he knows!   People get all wound but about the federal election.  Who is going to win?    Will they use their power for good and the advancement of the Gospel?  Who knows?  God knows!

The other side of this reality is that those who stumble are armed with strength.  A little like a shepherd boy with a slingshot and a pebble defeating a Philistine giant.  Humanly speaking he had no chance. But God the great solid Rock had other ideas and the giant Philistine is defeated with one small pebble.  Human power and for that matter human weakness look completely different if you believe in God as Hannah believed in God.  We have nothing to fear with God on our side.

The same principle is true when applied to human plenty and want (v. 5a).  In 1 Samuel 25 there was a rich man who was too stingy to give food to those in need.  But his full stomach didn’t save him.   In same story, the strangers who were hungry were provided for by God’s providential care!  People who have plenty can seem as though they could never be in need, and people with little may always seem in need, unless, you see them with eyes like Hannah and what they may appear as in God’s eyes.  Again, I wonder whether you believe in God as Hannah did? Is he your security, your solid Rock, your provider?

Hannah mentions her recent experience: “The barren has borne seven.” (v5c) Perhaps the perfect number, or emptiness has been replaced with fullness. (cf v21).   But life and security are not about how many children one has.   On the contrary, Hannah pressed the logic of her faith to the limit by mentioning that the LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up (v. 6).

Hannah’s grasp of reality was extraordinary.   Hannah knew that the Lord changes life to death, and death to life.   In our culture today, people don’t like mentioning death even though it is a reality.  They always speak about wellness because we need to be the centre and be around as long as we can be, for we are needed!  Really?  But the ratio of death is still 100%.

When people think of life and refuse to think of death, or when people think of death and ignore the God who raises the dead, our understanding is a distortion of the reality.    Hannah believed in the resurrection, not often spoken about in the OT.  We also believe in the resurrection for our Saviour has risen from the dead!

A little less dramatic, Hannah mentions that the LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts (v. 7).   Poverty and riches are in God’s power, just as are fame and humiliation. They are not under our control at all.  Nor are they under the control of others, or of social and economic forces.  Not even under the control of President Trump or Prime Minister Albanese, or the stock market.

Furthermore, God raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honour. (v. 8a-c)  Interestingly, our risen Lord was sent outside the city gates to be crucified, the ash heap if you like, so that we, the ash, who repent and believe may be raised up and given life!

Let me ask you once again, do you see life as Hannah did, in the power of an almighty God who knows?  When we know God and the God who knows, it changes us!  We see human power differently. We see those who place their security in wealth differently.   We don’t fear being weak or poor.   We know that we don’t have the power to hold on to life or to avoid death.

There is great comfort from believing in the God of the bible who was Hannah’s God!  At the end of verse 8 Hannah mentions what we confess every Sunday.  Our help is in the Lord who made the heavens and the earth! Everything and everyone is utterly dependent on him.  That is our biblical world view!    The winners in the end will not be the strong, the powerful, the wealthy, the famous, the popular, the successful.  He who has most toys in the end will also die!

The winners who the Lord will bring through life are “his faithful ones,” those who trust of Christ alone.    Those who are not “his faithful ones” are those who do not trust in Christ and they are lumped together and called “the wicked” in v9.

It does not matter what the wicked do or what they become; without the Lord who set the world on its pillars they cannot prevail.  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces.  Against them he will thunder in heaven (v. 10a, b).

Hannah ends her prayer with a prophecy.  The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed (v10).  Hannah’s God, who knows all things and by whom deeds are weighed, will certainly judge the ends of the earth.  It is astonishing that Hannah should speak of God’s “king” his “anointed.”

The Hebrew word is Messiah; translated into Greek it becomes “Christos.”   Hannah’s recorded words simply tell us that the Lord will give him strength and raise his “horn” (ESV).  He will have almighty power and it will never change!

Many years later another woman named Mary, the mother of Christ prayed a prayer that sounded astonishingly like Hannah’s prayer.  Mary knew what Hannah knew and more.  Mary had been told that the child she would bear was to be the greatest King, whose kingdom would never end (Luke 1:32, 33).  Hannah’s prayer in 1 Sam 2 is an anticipation of Mary’s song.

I leave you with two things.  I pray that Hannah and Mary’s God, is your God!   That he is your reason for joy, your security, your Rock, your provider.   May each person here believe in our Saviour God with the same clarity and truth we have seen in Hannah’s marvellous prayer.

Second, is the anointed King Jesus your Saviour?  He died on the ash heap and rose from the dead for all who would repent and believe.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?  Our God and Saviour knows, and they have us safe in their eternal hands, more reason for rejoicing.   Amen!