year 2 Day 179

Year 2 Day 179

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Message - Alan Burke

The imagery that Hannah uses here in her prayer, coveys the wonder of who God is. Imagery of creation in verse 8 of how the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, is followed by the knowledge of how the Lord God can take care of his people, as he will guard the feet of his saints (9a). Whereas the wicked, for them they will be silenced in darkness (9b). For the Lord is judge of all people, and Hannah knows that like all people, she is reliant on is the Lord himself. 

It is not the might and strength of individuals or the nation and that surround that are important, but God and his presence that gives success (9c). Here in this imagery of judgement, we are reminded that ultimately what matters to us as individuals, as nations, as the world is the Lord God, he is the one whom all people will have to give an account to, he will judge the ends of the earth (10). 

Hannah foresaw how the Lord would bring forth his king, how he would exalt the horn of his anointed (10d). As the people heard this prayer of Hannah, they would have known that God was speaking though her of the promise to Adam in the Garden of the serpent crusher. These words of Hannah look forward to the Lord’s king, and the Lord was using this family to bring forth a godly leader for his people. For God was sending a prophet to the very place of spiritual wreckage of His people. 

The son of Hannah, Samuel would anoint the first king of Israel Saul. Yet this king, Saul would fail. A new king would come after him David, he was a man after God’s own heart, he oversaw the greatest periods in Israel’s history but all the kings that came would only ever foreshadow what he would do in his great king the Lord Jesus Christ. 

God was at work in redemptive history, working out his purposes, bringing forth a king, of whom he would give strength and exalt so that we might become the children of God though him. Hannah although she did not know it was one small part of redemptive history. Her lament that turned to praise set the stage for what God would then do, she may have give up her son Samuel, leaving him behind but she knew God was going to bring forth a king for his people, the promised messiah of Genesis 3:15. Even though Hannah had suffered much, God was using her, even though she suffered it did not mean that the Lord had stopped loving her, nor was the proof of God’s love just that her prayer was answered in the way she desired. 

For us in life, as we face living in a fallen world, as we are liable to all the pains and miseries of this life, know that what we face does not mean that we are not loved, our suffering does not mean that the Lord has stopped loving us rather it is an opportunity for us to reveal ourselves as “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” For God has promised us that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:37-39). 

God is surely with us, even if what we face is painful, hard, even if it leads to death, in the midst of what we face though Christ Jesus God is there and having been raised with Christ, we will love forever (Rom 6:5). We may face many things, awful things, but for you the believer, nothing can overpower the love of the living God. 

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q63 Which is the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exod. 20:12)
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