Sermon - Will God do something? - 1 Samuel 1:1-20

So in verses 1 and 2, we get a picture of a family.

The certain man that was talked about was named Elkanah.

He had two wives, Hannah, who had no children, and Peniah, who did have children.

As we're given Elkanah's hometown and his family history, what's really worth noting is there's not much we recognize here.

Ramathane most of us haven't heard of in his family tree.

Well, there's no Moses, there's no Joshua, there's no Abraham, there's no big names.

It's just a normal family.

However, despite the lack of star power in this family, we are shown a link that Elkanah has with a place called Ephrathah, which is better known to us as Bethlehem, which we probably know will become important as the story goes on.

So first things first, the two wise things worth noting.

It's a description.

It's not a suggestion, guys.

But the focus here is really on the lack of children for Hannah, which for many of us is actually going to hit us rather personally because we know this pain.

So infertility, miscarriage, or children lost way too young.

For many of us, this story, reading this story, opens up wounds.

And even if this is not the case for you, as we read this story, surely we can't help but grieve for her.

The beginning of verse 3.

Year after year, this little family went up to Shiloh to worship God.

It's a beautiful picture of faithfulness in a nation that had gone off track.

And year after year, Hannah would go up childless.

As the story evolves, it's obvious that this weighs heavily on Hannah.

Hannah has a deep desire for children, but also the grief is multi-layered.

So at this time, in this culture, there was a shame that went with being a childless wife.

And to make that shame feel worse, her rival wife, Penn and I, she loved to rip into Hannah about her lack of children.

Elkanah, to his credit, he has a genuine love for Hannah, and because of this, when the time of sacrifice came, he gave a double portion of meat to her.

In verses 5 and 6, we get an explanation for why Hannah, up until this point, was childless.