Sermon: Lessons from the Life of Hannah (1 Samuel 1) 

Thanks Helen. We are glad it was a helpful and encouraging for you and your group.

Good question. I don't know why God directed their lives the way He did, but I do know that God used it for His glory.

Brother, as a father this question bothered me for a long time. Are you open to an unorthodox idea? Two mothers in the Bible offered to give their young sons to another person, Hannah and the true mother of 1 Kings 3:16-28. That "true mother" offered her son to the lying prostitute to save his life. I think Hannah offered Samuel to God to save Samuel’s life. According to 1 Sam 2:5 “The barren has given birth to seven.” This “barren” couldn’t have been Hannah because she gave birth to only six. But it could have been the spiritual woman Leah, who was temporarily barren at Gen 30:9, and eventually gave birth to seven. The jealous sons of Leah, the unloved wife, nearly murdered Joseph, the son of Rachel, the loved wife. God then protected Joseph by removing him from the reach of his half-brothers. I think Hannah, the loved wife, worried that if Samuel were to be raised at home, he would be murdered by the jealous half-brother sons of Peninnah, the unloved wife. When God accepted Hannah’s request to remove Samuel from her home to be raised at Shiloh, I think God recognized that doing so would not only protect Samuel, it would also provide a replacement for Eli’s wicked sons. I think God prioritized saving Samuel’s life over the requirement for parental training of Deut 6. From this I think we can start to understand how much God, as a parent, cared about the life of his precious son, Jesus. How does that sound?