The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 96: Hannah's Prayer (2024)

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

As we begin to read the first book of Samuel, Fr. Mike highlights the miraculous birth of Samuel and how Hannah's deep longing for a son never became an idol in her heart. Today's readings are 1 Samuel 1-2 and Psalm 149. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 96. We just finished Judges yesterday. We're now starting a new that story today. It is day 96. We just finished Judges yesterday. We're now starting a new book. The new book is 1 Samuel. Actually,

might remember this from yesterday, or the day before. Can't even remember when I said it. But we only have three days of 1 Samuel. We'll be reading Samuel 1 and 2 today, and then 3 and 5 tomorrow, then 6 through 8 the next day. But after that, in just four short days from today, or I guess three days, I don't know how to count, we are starting the Gospel of John. And we're going to be reading through the Gospel of John in seven days, which I am just absolutely, I'm pretty stoked about that. If I can use the word stoked, I will, because I'm pretty stoked about that. But today, as I said, it's day 96. We're reading 1 Samuel chapter one and chapter two. We're praying Psalm 149. As always, I'm using the Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition.

I'm reading the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, if you haven't yet, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. in your podcast app to receive daily episodes. Today, just three chapters, which is a nice little break from the last couple of days where we've been going through heavily and quickly through Joshua and through Judges. But today, here we are. First Samuel chapter one and chapter two, and then praying Psalm 149. The first book of Samuel, chapter one, Samuel's birth and dedication. There was a certain man of Ramathizophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuth, an Ephraimite.

He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Penina. And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. was Penina. And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Penina his wife and to all her sons and daughters. And although he loved Hannah, he would give Hannah only one portion, because the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her sorely to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 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. And Elkanah her husband said to her, 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? 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. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly, and she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but will give to your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor

shall touch his head. As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you. But Hannah answered, No, my Lord, I am a woman sorely troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation. Then Eli answered, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him.

And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your eyes. Then the woman went her way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad. They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, I have asked him of the Lord. And the man Elkanah, in all his house, went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and abide there forever. Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. Then they slew the bull, and they

brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I made to him. Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord. And they worshipped the Lord there. Chapter 2. Hannah's Prayer Hannah also prayed and said,

My heart exalts in the Lord. My strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord. There is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth.

For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has born seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. seven. But she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the dung heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked

shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed. Eli's wicked sons. Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, and the boy ministered to the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They had no regard for the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot, all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.

So they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw. And if the man said to him, Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish, he would say, No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force. Thus, the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. The Boy Samuel The Boy Samuel

Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod. And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, The Lord give you children by this woman for the loan which she lent to the Lord. So then they would return to their home. And 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. Eli tries to correct his sons. Now Eli was very old, and he

heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings with all the people. No, my sons, it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to slay them. Samuel's Virtues Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. A Prophecy Against Eli's Household

And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, Thus the Lord has said, I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of God, to Eli and said to him, Thus the Lord has said, I revealed myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh. And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the sons of Israel. Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel? Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promise

that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares, Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then, in distress, you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The man of you, whom I shall not cut off from the altar, shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart, and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men. and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men.

And this, which shall befall your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you, both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind, and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, Put me, I beg of you, in one of the priest's places, that I may eat a morsel of bread. Psalm 149

Praise for God's goodness to Israel. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in His Maker, let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to Him with timbrel and lyre.

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with victory. Let the faithful exult in glory. Let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands to wreak vengeance on the nations and chastisements on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written,

this is glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the Lord. Father in heaven, we do give you praise. We do lift up your name and we want you to be glorified. Father, you, God, you are good and you are glorified this day and every day, whether we acknowledge it, whether we even notice or recognize your great glory. Lord God, you are, you're the source of all goodness and all goodness on its own gives you praise. Every beautiful thing praises you because you are the source of all beauty. Every true thing praises you because you are the source of all beauty. Every true thing praises you because you are the source of all truth. Every

good thing praises you even if it praises you in ignorance because you are the source of all goodness. And so help us to always, always recognize your hand and your sustaining power in goodness and truth and beauty. Come to us in our need with your power. Come to us in our brokenness with your healing. And come to us in our weakness with your strength. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Okay, gosh. First Samuel, what a gift. Now, you probably know this, but 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are two different books, but originally they're the same book, right? Kind of like 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. It's just that they were writing on scrolls and the scrolls get a little bit too unwieldy and a little too cumbersome. So they have to divide them up into separate books. So right now we're in 1 Samuel. Eventually we're going to get to 2 Samuel. But 1 Samuel starts out by telling us

the origin of this young man, Samuel, which is just phenomenal, right? We have Hannah. Hannah and her husband who continually go up to worship the Lord in Shiloh. Now, here's an important thing we haven't yet noted, that when the Israelites were wandering throughout the wilderness in the desert, in the wilderness, in the desert, that they would worship the Lord at the tabernacle, right? At the tent of meeting and anywhere. But God said that when you go into the promised land, there is a place you worship me that I will point out to you. And that place immediately was Shiloh. Shiloh ultimately changes to be the place is Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the only place that sacrifice is able to be offered later on. But right now, the tent of meeting, the

tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant is kept and where the menorah, the altar of the showbread, those are kept at Shiloh. So here's Hannah and Elkanah, and they go up to worship God, like you would, at Shiloh. So as we have seen a number of times already, there is a wife who is loved by her husband, and yet she desires to have a child.

Now, keep this in mind that Elkanah has two wives, Penina and Hannah. And again, once again, the Bible never endorses polygamy. In fact, the Bible makes it really clear that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they should become one flesh, not one flesh and then another set of one fleshes. Almost every time that there is this polygamy, almost there's always something wrong. Actually, not almost, always there's something wrong. In this case, Penina would be cruel to Hannah. So moving on, Hannah in the temple then, in the tabernacle of the Lord, in the tent of meeting, she's praying. And it's so interesting how the Bible reveals that Eli sees her and thinks she's drunk and how

reminiscent that is, or actually maybe even foreshadowing that is of another story. Later on in the history of the church, there's a woman named Monica. Monica has a, this is in the third or fourth century. Monica has a young son, a son whose name is Augustine. And Monica was a Christian. And Augustine was raised in his mother's home. His father was not a Christian. His father was a pagan. And Augustine was captivated not only by his own wisdom, but he's captivated by praise. He's captivated by popularity, by fame, and by influence, and by his own intelligence.

And he turned away from Christianity, never embraced it himself. And his mother, Monica, would continually bring him things to read. I remember reading the story about how Augustine first read the gospels and which were written originally in Greek and threw him across the room essentially because it was kind of really rudimentary and rustic Greek.

And he was accustomed to incredibly rudimentary and rustic Greek. And he was accustomed to incredibly eloquent Greek and beautiful Greek. And he said, how could this possibly be God's word? You know, it's not even that great in human words. So Monica knew that Augustine's great mind would not be something she could change because he was super smart. He was incredibly intelligent and she was of average intelligence was super smart. He was incredibly intelligent and she was of average intelligence, I imagine. She couldn't convince him. So what she did was she just prayed. She prayed, God, you're the only one who can convince him. You're the only one who can save the soul of my son who is rejecting Jesus Christ. He's rejecting the truth.

She goes into the church in Milan and there's a bishop there named Ambrose and a similar kind of situation where Monica is praying and weeping over her son. And Ambrose at one point, when Monica tells the story, Ambrose says, there is no way that the child of so many tears could ever possibly be lost. And just gave her that confidence to continue to pray for her son, just like Eli had given Hannah the confidence to pray for a son. Ultimately, Augustine came to faith and he met Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, the one who had prophesied that Monica's tears would not be wasted, her prayers would not be wasted,

but they would be heard. And since Ambrose is quite the smart cookie, he helped lead Augustine closer and closer to the Lord. And Augustine had a massive conversion and basically was one of the most, maybe if not the most influential theologian in the history of 2000 years of Christianity. There's others who are incredibly influential, but it all started with a mother's prayer. It all started with a mom's prayer, but it didn't end with a mom's prayer here with Hannah and with Samuel. What happens? Hannah gets everything she prayed for. Hannah gets everything she longed for. Hannah gets the son that she wanted. And then what does she do with her son? This is remarkable.

Like this is something that we need to stop and just marvel at. Hannah gets the desire of her heart, which is to have a child. And she says, even before he's conceived, that if you give me this child, Lord, I will give him back to you. And she actually follows through. She follows through with this. I mean, think about how, you know, and we've talked, we've prayed so many times as a community here in this Bible in a year for moms who are longing to get pregnant, for couples who are longing to get pregnant, for those who are in crisis pregnancies. And there can be such a desperation. And I'm not making light of that in any way, shape, or form. But I know that there can be almost a single-mindedness that can overtake

families or overtake couples when they desire to have a family. And everything becomes about charting and everything becomes about the latest test and everything becomes about everything we can do to achieve pregnancy, everything we can do to have a child. And in some ways, and again, this is someone from the outside, so please forgive me. In some ways, when we have a desire like that, it can sometimes become the new God in our life.

It can sometimes become the only thing we want in life. And so that's all of us, right? It can sometimes become the only thing we want in life. And so that's all of us, right? But here's Hannah, who just like so many couples as part of this community, she prayed and she did everything she could and God blessed her with a child. And her response was, God, this child is yours. It wasn't to possess. It wasn't to grasp. It wasn't to own.

It wasn't to say, okay, God, now wasn't to to own it wasn't to say okay god now this child is mine and no one else gets him her response was to say god this blessing the blessing of this son of mine is actually your gift and so i'm merely a steward of him until he's weaned and then i'm giving him back to you which is just just heartbreakingly heroic, heartbreakingly loving, heartbreakingly incredible. How many of us, because we all have longings of our hearts, we all have these things in our lives that we desire so much to possess that when we finally get them, we no longer see them as being on loan from the Lord.

We no longer see them as being a gift from the Lord. We see them as, on loan from the Lord. We no longer see them as being a gift from the Lord. We see them as, you know, quote unquote, ours. And we can cling to those things in such a way that what was meant to be a gift ultimately can become a curse. What's meant to be a gift can ultimately become the thing that makes our hearts smaller, not larger. And so for all of us, whether it's with a child or in family or work or whatever that thing is, as we've said before many times, the heart is an idol making factory and we can make an idol out of anything, especially out of really, really good things. And so we are checked by Hannah today and we recognize that, okay, here's Hannah who

prayed for a son, prayed for a child. Like so many are praying. We're praying with you too. We're supporting you in this, but she didn't hold on. She didn't grasp. She received the gift and loved the gift with all of her heart. And she kept God center. One of the things that we last thing we have here today is, is that Eli, Eli, we're going to see him as we move forward, but Eli is not necessarily a great guy. Eli has his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and Hophni and Phinehas and the other priests there, what were they doing? They were taking from the sacrifice that belonged to

the Lord and stealing the best parts, essentially. Instead of saying, yes, we'll do it according to what was prescribed in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus. And after the gift is offered, we'll take the portion left over. That's what belonged to the priests. They would claim the best portion before it was given to the Lord. And not only that, they would also, as it's very, very clearly said in scripture today, Hophni and Phinehas would lay with women and have sexual relations with them before the tabernacle of the Lord. Remember, there was an earlier Phineas in the book of Numbers who, when the priests, well, not the priests, but this man and this woman were having those relations in front of the tabernacle of the Lord, he speared them to the ground.

This is a very, very, very serious thing. And in doing so, he stopped the plague from wiping out the people of Israel. serious thing. And in doing so, he stopped the plague from wiping out the people of Israel. What Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, were doing was awful. And what Eli does is he just corrects them and then lets them be. He just says a word to them and then goes on his way. He doesn't actually follow through with his discipline, his charge, his responsibility. And so what happens is the man of God, this unnamed anonymous man of God comes to Eli and says, here's because of what you're doing, not just because of your sons

but because you had the responsibility to stop your sons from doing this and you didn't. Now, the blessing will pass away from your house and in your family and your father's family and will go to a different family and that's what's going to happen in the next couple chapters as we move forward in this first book of Samuel. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. Please pray for each other.

Again, whenever we bring up these, these deep, deep heart things like Hannah and her desire for a child and so many, so many, I've gotten so many messages, so many letters, so many emails from couples who, since we prayed, you guys, since this Bible in your community prayed for those moms, for those husbands, for those couples that many of them have achieved pregnancy. Now, not all, obviously, not all, but we can, we can rely on prayer and we do rely on the prayers of each other. So do not stop praying for each other. I will not stop praying for you. Please do not stop praying for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.