1 Samuel 1

Well, good morning, Saylorville Church! Good to see all of you guys here. My name is Josh Daggett, and I’ll be your preacher this morning.

If you have a copy of God’s Word, open it up to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 1, and we’ll be reading some select verses from 1 Samuel chapter 1 and 1 Samuel chapter 2. So we’ll start with God’s Word. This is starting in 1 Samuel chapter 1 and verse 1.

1 Samuel 1:1-2, 4-7, 9-10, 22

1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim (Now this is a word salad, okay?) whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. (Did pretty good! All right)

2 He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Verse 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.

5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb.

6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.

7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.

Verse 9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Verse 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the LORD and dwell there forever.”

In [1 Samuel] 2:1-2

1 And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.

2 “There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides You; there is no rock like our God.

Praise God for the reading and hearing of His word. Amen? Amen.

Well, good morning, and greetings from South Des Moines. My name is Josh Daggett. I’m the lead pastor at Living Waters Fellowship there on the south side. Here’s a quick picture of my family. I bring you greetings from them. It’s my wife and my five daughters, and yeah… I have five girls. And so my oldest girl Marie, she’s getting married in two weeks and I… here we go! Right? Here we go. And I have five daughters, so we will start up a separate GoFundMe… (audience laughing) if you can give to a poor pastor who has to fund a lot of weddings in his future. So, so that’s our family. Saylorville has helped plant us in 2008. We are so thankful for this church. We love this church! We’re so grateful. I stood on this platform nearly 18 years to the day, and I pitched a vision on a Sunday night for a church plant in South Des Moines. And God has done great things! But we owe you guys a lot of love, a lot of gratitude for your support over us over the years. The Engage Network is one of the great joys of my heart to see churches planted all over Central Iowa and beyond.

Just to give you a little snapshot of our church on the south side, we’ve raised $3.2 million towards the debt-free purchase and renovation of a grocery store. Can I get a “Fareway Amen?” All right! Yeah, Fareway Amen. And we have $400,000 yet to raise and then we’ll be all done with that. We have 27 different countries represented in our church. The nations are at our doorstep on the south side. It’s a beautiful place to be! And we’ve started a third Spanish service that has been wildly successful so far. We’re really excited about what God’s doing there. Attendance is thriving! God has been really good. We have 15 people giving their testimonies here in a couple of weeks to get baptized, so we praise God for that. Yeah, you can praise Jesus for that! Also, this is probably also worth some applause. We are mothering our very first church, Rob Pearson and his wife Holly are planting Atlas Church in Waukee, Iowa. Let’s put our hands to Jesus for that! That’s an amazing thing! So God is really good there. Obviously, Saylorville, you’re a big part of that, as well. But man, we are so excited to mother for the very first time! And that is a great joy of our hearts. I’ve said it often that it is divine humor that a south side church would plant a church in Waukee! Amen? (congregation laughing)

So I’m honored to be preaching to you guys as part of the Unsung sermon series. So just this week in my devotions, I actually read Ecclesiastes chapter nine, and in that there’s this little parable. If you see it, you’ve read it, it sticks out. Sometimes you read it and you miss it, but this is a little parable of a city that’s in trouble. There’s a city that’s in trouble and there’s a poor wise man that God raises up to save the city out of their trouble with all of his wisdom. And as soon as the city is out of trouble, they forget him. And you’re reading like, ‘That dude is unsung. He’s an unsung hero.’ But the Bible is filled with such people. And certainly, that is, there’s many unsung heroes.

I would guess that a majority of you on some levels, you feel at times unsung. You’re faithful. You’re walking with the Lord. You’re grinding it out for Jesus and the Gospel, and you just don’t see it all happening with glory and power. Can I get an ‘Amen?’ That happens sometimes. I think maybe one of the greatest populations in heaven someday will be believers who were unsung and broadly unremembered. And that’s how the Lord works.

This morning we’re going to work through a passage of Scripture, and we’re going to see one of these unsung heroes in the person of Hannah. Some of you are familiar with Hannah’s story. Some of you have never heard of Hannah’s story before, and I am excited to share from God’s word Hannah’s story.

So my sermon title this morning is When God Gives the Unsung a Song. When God gives the unsung a song. So let’s set the scene. The nation of Israel is at a low point in 1 Samuel 1. It’s the time of the Judges ‘… when everybody does what’s right in their own eyes.’ [Judges 21:25] So there’s a lot of darkness going on. There’s these pockets of revival and judges. If you read Judges, you’ll be like, ‘Whoa…!’ ‘Whoa…!’  ‘Whoa…!’ ‘Whoa…!’ We’re going like this a lot! There’s these pockets of revival with Gideon and Samson and there’s this really cool story of Ruth and Boaz. But broadly speaking, it is a dark moment for the nation. And when the nation is at its lowest, at its darkest point, there is a huge turnaround that happens and God shines His light on this guy named David. He is the king that everybody loves, “a man after God’s own heart.” [1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22] Have you ever heard of him before? Well before you get to shining David, you have to go to the guy who anointed David, and that would be the powerful prophet/priest named Samuel. And before you can see powerful Samuel, you have to look back before there and see an unsung, barren, heartbroken, desperate woman named Hannah.

Hannah had a difficult life. She didn’t have a song to sing for a very long time in her life. In fact, Hannah’s name means “woman of grace.” Isn’t that a great name? Her name means “woman of grace,” and she had to live up to that name, and she did live up to that name. Hannah had a lot of grace poured out on her unsung life. And where would we be this morning without grace? Where would you be without grace this morning? Are you thankful for grace? The grace of God is amazing. It is how we live and breathe this morning. You are here by grace. You decided to come here, but God was gracious to move in your mind and your heart to bring you here to Saylorville Church. Isn’t that good? Every breath that you breathe, every thought that you think, every single gift that you have from God comes from a God of grace. Grace is unmerited, favor. Hannah’s name means wonderful grace. Think about the Scriptures. What the Scriptures say about grace has a lot to say about grace. Ephesians chapter two verse eight says:

Ephesians 2:8

8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

1 Corinthians 15:10. (Think about what Paul said in that text)

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, (so everybody can just chill out, okay? You are who you are this morning by the grace of God. And Paul says) and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

To live a life, even as an unsung person, you have to have a ton of grace dumped all over your mind and heart. And I pray that you can receive that this morning through Jesus. Hanna’s  name meant grace.

Here’s my big idea as we come into the passage of Scripture. God’s grace carries the unsung person through life and gives them a song to sing. God’s grace carries the unsung person through life and gives them a song to sing. We’re gonna see four gifts of God’s grace to Hannah.

Gift number one is this, God gave Hannah the grace to suffer. God gave Hannah the grace to suffer, verses 1-8. So if you look with me in verse one, Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah. So who is this Elkanah guy? Many of you guys don’t know who he is. He’s this pretty godly guy, right? He is a godly man who goes to the temple every year. His family worships the Lord. What’s the problem? Polygamy. Right? How many times do you describe somebody like that lately? He’s a really godly dude except for the multiple wives thing, right? That was supposed to be funnier than it was… okay? The polygamy of Elkanah’s life was a sin. It was a thorn in his side. It was a thorn in his situation. And may you hear it clearly. God’s Word never approves of polygamy, never! — because it goes against His design of one man, one woman, in covenant relationship for life. And this sin of polygamy really, really hurt the family of Elkanah because Hannah was in pain! She couldn’t have babies. She was broken-hearted and Peninnah, she has kids. And that is going to add some drama to this story. Hannah was loved by her husband. Verse 5, Hannah would get a double portion. So when they go to the temple, Elkanah gives out the food and stuff, the sacrifice. He gives to Peninnah and all the kids. And then he comes to Hannah and gives her double portions. So he loves her. In verse 8, Elkanah also is recorded as saying:

1 Samuel 1:8

8 “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?”

He’s trying hard. Can I get a “husband, Amen?” He’s just being really foolish. He comes to his broken hearted wife and he says, ‘Here’s a bunch of food and an encouraging sentence. “Am I not more to you than 10 sons?” And there’s no recorded response from Hannah ’cause she probably just looked at him… wives. Husbands, let me just… let’s just talk real quick. Let’s just have a fireside chat. Okay? You can grab a shovel and dig yourself in a way deeper problem with your wife, with some of your words that you mean well, but they’re not landing. They’re not landing with her ’cause she has a broken heart. And that’s exactly what was going on with Hannah. She was loved by her husband. It was still not enough. It was not sufficient.

On top of that, Hannah was provoked by Peninnah. She had a lot of suffering in her life. Her rival in verse six used to provoke her grievously to irritate her. So that word for provoke in the original language is very powerful. It means “to be thundered down” upon like a storm. That means the words of Peninnah came down on Hannah over and over again, day by day, year by year, like a storm, and they weren’t nice words. We can imagine maybe some of the sentences that were told to Hanna that just ripped her heart apart, but she was irritated by the words of her rival day after day in their home. Sometimes if you’re having a bad day at work, you can come home and get some relief, right? But what about when the problem is at home, when suffering’s at home? That makes it a whole new ball game. And then year after year at the temple… and this is the reality of Hannah’s life… God literally poured out His grace on Hannah day after day, year after year in a heartbroken fashion. Sometimes grace comes to you in tears. And that’s exactly what was going on as Hannah said, ‘I feel unsung. I’m barren.’

Certainly pastoring for the last 20 years, I’ve seen the pain of barrenness among many women who earnestly desire a child. Think of names, and faces, and prayer circles, and weeping that has happened over and over again. And some of you ladies in this very room are struggling with this barrenness suffering. You are crying out to God, and God is going to have to give you the grace to suffer for His Name.

But barrenness is not only physical. It’s spiritual and emotional. Some of you are walking through life right now, and you’ve got spiritual barrenness. You’ve got prayers that you’re praying to God, and you’re like, ‘God, when are you going to answer these prayers?’ Any of you Christians, like, wandering around right now, daily, every single day, asking God for the answer? — and God’s answer is ‘you’re going to have to endure suffering by My grace.’ Remember what Jesus said to Paul when Paul said, ‘I’d like this thorn to be gone.’ In 2  Corinthians chapter 12, He said:

2 Corinthians 12:9b, “… My grace is sufficient for you and my power is perfected in your weakness.”

Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 3 verse 12:

2 Timothy 3:12, ‘All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution for the name.’

Suffering is a part of our lives, whether we like it or not, and we need God’s grace to empower us to suffer well for His glory.

Can we talk about Jesus for a second? Did anybody suffer more than Jesus? Think about Christ who was perfect from heaven to earth to live a perfect life, and on that cross He suffered separation from God the Father. He suffered physically. He suffered spiritually to forgive your sins, to bear on Himself the weight of sin. God gave Hannah grace to suffer.

Secondly, God gave Hannah grace to speak. Now this is very powerful! Versus 9 through 20. God’s grace gave Hannah the ability to speak. So Hannah rises up in verse 9 and verse 10. She is deeply distressed. She prays to the Lord and she weeps bitterly! She goes to the temple where Eli is and she begins to pray to God. She goes to the prayer room. She takes her suffering to the prayer room. That is a great place to bring your suffering. Amen? Bring your suffering to God’s prayer room. This is her spiritual maturity on display. Her prayer was submissive and passionate and sorrowful. She didn’t take her pain or her irritation to her husband. She didn’t speak to Peninnah, all the words I’m sure she thought about saying to her. She took all of her suffering and all of her pain, and she took it to God in prayer. She took her pain to the Lord of hosts. You ever prayed where you’re just crying? — you’re weeping? Church Planters do it all the time.

In the Engage Network we’ve talked over the years and I can remember very specific times when all I could do… we don’t have a church building. We don’t have nice seats. We don’t have this enduring, awesome, amazing church. We just are really, really getting the Gospel out and suffering for it. And I remember so many times just getting on my knees and weeping to God… weeping! — asking the Lord to do something great in south Des Moines.  And so, if you’ve ever been there before, it’s a good place to go… grace to speak to God about what’s on your heart. And she says, God of armies, O Lord of hosts in verse 11. A mighty fortress is our God.

[1 Samuel 1:11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”]

This is the first time that the phrase LORD of hosts is mentioned in the Bible. Did you know that? It’s really cool! She says, ‘Lord of armies, would you please come down? God of heavenly armies come upon my aid.’ And this is where Martin Luther got the song A Mighty Fortress is our God. [from Psalm 46]

Now I listened to your Saylorville podcast this week. And Colton Willey said that his spiritual favorite song is a Mighty Fortress is our God. I can’t remember what his secular one was… some 90s band or something, you know? (Can I get a “Salt N Pepa, Amen,” or something?) Okay, but listen… she’s calling out on the God of Armies. Why is she doing that? Why are you calling out on the God of Armies? I think several reasons. Right? She wanted to get victory over Peninnah. I think that’s just a practical thing. She wanted victory over her adversary, the one who was making her life horrible! She wanted victory over that. She also wanted honor for herself. Because it was a very honorable thing in that culture especially to be pregnant. It was a sign of God’s blessing. There’s a sign of future generations. But most of all, I think she wanted to just simply glorify God with her prayer. She asked for a son. She made a vow and said, ‘If you give me a son, I’ll give him back to you, God.’ That is an amazing promise! –– and one that this unsung prayer warrior says with her mouth. She’s getting the grace to speak and she’s speaking big things to God. How big are your prayers? Hopefully, they’re big enough to fit the size of God.

And then she uses her speech to be very gracious to Eli. Now Eli enters into the program here in [1 Samuel 1] verses 14 and 15, and he’s a really interesting guy because he thinks she’s drunk! She comes in, he comes in, looks at her, he’s like, ‘Man, she’s drunk! She’s wasted! What is going on?’ And he rebukes her! He totally misreads the situation, and he says, ‘Hannah, you’re drunk, woman!’ Now, Hannah could have risen up there and given him a little sermon. Can I get “a woman praying, Amen?” ‘Listen here, Eli. Let’s talk about your life for a little bit, shall we?’ Eli was a terrible high priest. He was full of lots of different indulgences. His kids were ungodly. They were satanic. They were really, really struggling. And here he is. She could have lit him up like a Christmas tree, and she would have been very justified in doing so! But… that’s not what she does. Grace empowers her speech to say, ‘I’m not drunk. I’m a woman with a broken heart. And listen, I’m your servant, I’m the servant of the Lord. [1 Samuel 1:12-16] In fact, in verse 18, she even addresses herself as a maid “servant,” and she says:

[1 Samuel 1:18] ‘Look, I’m the lowest of all servants.’ God was gracious to Hannah’s mouth.

So to summarize, Hannah spoke no words to her husband and rival. She didn’t respond. Sometimes it’s best to just not say anything at all. That’s grace in your life. She spoke all of her heart words to God. And that’s a wonderful thing to do with your speech. And then she spoke humble words to a man that didn’t deserve it. She was very gracious in her words.

And so it is with us as we give our lives to Christ. God gives us grace to say what needs to be said and to not say what doesn’t need to be said. Praise the Lord for Jesus who hangs on a cross. ‘Father, they don’t know what they’re doing.’ [Luke 23:34] Who, when He was reviled, He didn’t revile in return. This is our Jesus. This is why He’s worthy of our praise.

God gave Hannah the grace to speak. Quickly, God gave Hannah grace to sacrifice in [1 Samuel] 19 through 28. So God opened up Hannah’s womb in [1 Samuel] verses 20 and 21. It’s a miracle! She gives birth to Samuel. ‘The Lord has heard me!’ She is really excited, but she’s determined to ween Samuel. So in [1 Samuel] verse 22, Elkanah says: ‘Let’s go to the temple.’ And she’s like, ‘No, I’m not going. I’m weening this kid.’ For the next three years of her life, she dedicates herself every single day to Samuel’s upbringing. And God gave Hannah the grace to not only make this promise, but to follow through with her sacrifice to God. In fact, in [1 Samuel] verse 26, she comes excitedly back to Eli and she says: “Lord, I am the one who was standing. I’m the woman that we… we had that conversation a few years ago. I am the one. I prayed for the son. I have Him! — And here he is… the sacrifice of grace.’ She gave up what meant the most to her, her one and only son at that time. She knew the promise of Psalm 127:5:

[Psalm 127:5, “Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”]

… that she was bending her arrow and she was releasing the arrow of her child, not just for a couple years or just for a season of time. She was letting go of Samuel forever! And this was the power of Hannah’s resolve. Warren Wiersbe said, ‘The future of the nation rested on this godly unsung woman’s prayers,’ and yet how much of history is dependent on the prayers and sacrificing of people, especially mothers? This is amazing grace that she lent Samuel to the Lord and to Eli. If you think about Eli, she’s not handing him off to a faithful high priest. Her trust is completely in the God that she prayed to. And she had the power to sacrifice.

And so it is with us as Christians today. ‘We have been crucified with Christ,” Paul says. “And nevertheless, It’s not us who live but Christ who lives within us.’ [Galatians 2:20]  Amen? So we give up our children, and our money, and our time, and all of our idols, and we give them to Jesus, because Jesus gave His all for us. And we give the grace of sacrifice. God gave Hannah the grace to sacrifice.

And finally, God gave Hannah the grace to sing. God gave Hannah the grace to sing, [1 Samuel] 2:1-11 Hannah prayed, and she says:

1 Samuel 2:1, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.”

Now this is an amazing moment! She is singing, people! She’s singing! She dropped off her kid… and she’s singing! — and this song is not just some random song. This is a deep, theological confession of joy and worship to the King of Kings. This is amazing grace, how sweet the sound! This unsung woman finally has a song.

Now, this reminded me of my wife, Danielle, and I dropped off our oldest daughter to college a couple of years ago, seven hours away. And for those of you who have dropped off your first kid to college, you know exactly what you didn’t know. Right? That was the craziest experience of our lives! We were buildin’ furniture, filling up her dorm room, and then all of a sudden it’s time to say ‘goodbye,’ and we fall apart! We fell apart! And our daughter is like, ‘I love you, Mom and Dad!’ We’re walking down this dorm room bawling our eyes out! And I’m like… ‘Give me your hand, honey!’ And I’m sure we looked ridiculous to all the college kids. But we were bawling! We got in the van. We couldn’t say anything for like two hours… just weeping. And then… we got ahold of ourselves. Right? — and we prayed, and we sang, and we worshiped, and we remembered 18 years of history. Right?

Well, I would like to think before the song came that Hannah bawled her eyes out when she dropped off her son. But her song is quite amazing! She exalts God’s righteous character, the humble… being victorious over the strong, the poor becoming rich, the sovereign God of the universe getting victory over His enemies. It’s a beautiful song! We don’t have time to go into it all, but Hannah finally had a song to sing. God gave her the grace to sing… and Hannah would go on to have five more kids! [1 Samuel] 2:21 tells us that God was very gracious to her in that way.

[1 Samuel 2:21, “Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.”]

But Hannah learned that her song was God, Himself. Her song wasn’t mainly about her son. Her song was about God. Her joy was God. Her satisfaction was God. And that is ultimately the song that led to Jesus. This song of Hannah ultimately was almost repeated, certainly read by Jesus’ mom Mary. Some of the phrases are almost identical in Luke 1 to Hannah’s song.

So as we close this sermon, by grace as Christians, our song this morning is Jesus. Our song is Jesus. The point of our unsung lives and the point of all the things that are just normal, faithful things that we do all the time as Christians that nobody else sees, we sing because Jesus sees us. And we sing because He is our reward.

Here’s what I mean. We will sing this morning, and some of you are kind of in a suffering stage. And we’re not going to judge you if you don’t lift your hands up in the closing songs and if you can’t sing because you’re just bawling your eyes out because circumstances are hard. That’s okay. May God give you grace to suffer, and to speak, and to sacrifice this morning. But if you’ve seen God be faithful to you and it is well with your soul, then you can sing this morning. Amen? — and you can sing aloud, and you can sing joyfully, because our reward for singing as a church, as a body of Christ, is Christ Himself. He is the reward. And secondly, you can sing because our song will be Jesus. There will be a day in Revelation 7:9, we’ll all, every tribe, every tongue, and every nation will gather around the throne of Jesus and we will sing our song together. Every unsung believer who has not recognized publicly for anything but has been faithful to Christ, from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be around the throne of God. Every wrong will be made right in that space. Every story will have its final end, and every unsung believer who dies in faith in Christ will join in the song. And we will look at Christ, and we will say, ‘He’s enough! He’s enough! He’s enough! Praise and honor and glory to His Name!

So as I close, if you don’t know this Jesus, let me just introduce you. Jesus loves you more than you will ever know. Your sin has separated you from God, and suffering is the result of sin. And some of you this morning need to understand Christ is ready to forgive you. He’s ready to pour His compassion out on you. He died on the cross to give you new life. And for those of you who know Jesus, I want you to picture yourself around the throne of God. And I want you… to picture yourself walking up to a woman named Hannah, and grabbing her by the hand, and worshiping Jesus with her for all eternity. That’s our future as believers. Let’s pray.

Father, thank You for this time in the Word. Thank You for this opportunity to look at Hannah, one of your most beautiful unsung believers. God, thank You for her life, for her example. Thank You for her suffering, for her sacrifice, for her speech, and Lord mostly for her song. Lord may we join in her song this morning. And God, if there’s anybody in here that doesn’t know Jesus, would you save them this morning? Would you bring them to faith in Christ in repentance? God, we will trust You for those things, in Jesus’ name. Amen.