Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Hannah’s Prayer for Family

Episode Date: May 10, 2025

Hannah is a woman in enormous pain. At the beginning of 1 Samuel, she is roaring with pain, roaring with grief. And yet, in Hannah, we have a case study of a woman at prayer, a woman who has a spiritual encounter with God. Hannah eventually becomes the mother of the prophet Samuel. And we can all learn something from her fascinating account. To understand this passage, we need to see 1) the anatomy of Hannah’s pain, 2) the change in Hannah’s heart, and 3) the secret in Hannah’s song. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 21, 2007. Series: Real Spirituality – Prayer and Beyond. Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:4-11; 2:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to the Gospel in Life podcast. Today we have a special episode in which Tim Keller teaches from 1 Samuel on the encounter Hannah had with God in which she eventually became the mother of the prophet Samuel. In this sermon, Dr. Keller highlights the cause of Hannah's pain, the change she experiences in her heart, and the secret in Hannah's song. Today's scripture reading comes from the book of 1 Samuel, chapters 1 verses 4 through 11, and chapters 2 verses 1 through 10. Whenever the day came for Elkena to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife, Penena, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.

And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her until she wept and would not eat. Elkena, her husband, would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted?

Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? Once they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow saying, O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son. Then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." Then Hannah prayed and said,

My heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly, or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry, hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children,

but she who has had many sons pines away. The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's. Upon them He has set the world. He will guard the feet

of His saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." This is the word of the Lord. Now the culture we live in is very positive about prayer and spirituality. Many, many people say they are spiritual even though they're not religious

so they don't go to church or synagogue. They still value spiritual connection. They still want to find ways of praying or finding connection to God. So what we decided to do is take a look at a series of case studies in the Bible about prayer and spiritual encounters. And we begun a few weeks ago, and tonight we get to the first case of a woman at prayer, a woman having a spiritual encounter with God, and it's going to teach us a lot. Even the men might learn something here tonight.

Let's take a look at this case, this fascinating account of Hannah, who eventually becomes the mother of the prophet Samuel. And we take a look at chapters one and two. We take a look at the whole account. I think we're going to see three things. We're going to learn three things. Or another way to put it is to understand the message we need to look at three things. We need to see the anatomy of Hannah's pain. Then secondly the change in Hannah's heart. And lastly, the secret in Hannah's song. The anatomy of her pain and the change in her heart, which we can trace to the secret in Hannah's song.

First of all, the anatomy of her pain. There's a lot of places in the text that shows us that Hannah is very, very, very miserable. And actually the text in some ways, probably unwittingly, the English translation mutes this a little bit. So for example, verse 10, it talks about bitterness of soul, and that's a word that means pain. Bitterness is pain. But it's pain of soul. It's interior pain. And the passage or the phrase that says she was in bitterness of soul and she wept much. But actually, it's a Hebrew word that means to wail loudly. It means she wept aloud. She was crying out. She was crying, shrieking perhaps, or at least moaning. And in verse 6, when we're told about how Paninna, and we'll get back to this in a second, rubs her nose, rubs Hannah's nose into her condition and is so cruel to her,

it says she was provoked and irritated. And that word irritated actually means to roar with anger. And that word irritated actually means to roar with anger. Here's a woman in enormous pain, roaring with anger, roaring with grief. Why? Well it says she's childless. She wants to have children and she can't. And almost all, right away, everybody feels a little bit sympathetic and says, oh yes, we, you know, you may be someone who says, I know a woman who wanted to have children but can't and that's very painful.

Or you may be a woman who's wanted to have children and can't or were in that situation at one time. It's very painful. With all due respect, the way childlessness is seen now in our Western society is nowhere like the way it was seen at former times. And if you really want to understand her grief and her pain, you've got to get it into context. And here's the context. First of all, in ancient societies, your family's economic status, wealth, was directly related

to how many children you had. See, it doesn't matter whether you're a farmer or whether you were a, you know, maybe you were bakers or you were, you know, shoemakers or whatever you were, the more children you had, the bigger your labor force was, because everything was done through families. And the more of a labor force you had, the more children you had, the more production you had, so the more money you made, it was as simple as that. More children, more money, higher economic and social status. Less, fewer children, less. Simple as that. Lots of children you made, you know, you did well. Very few children, you were poor. Secondly, since only four out of ten kids grew to adulthood, only four out of ten children survived to adulthood in those days, and since there was

no such thing as social security or retirement benefits or anything like that, you literally starved to death at an old age if you didn't have a lot of children. So lots of children was the key to economic health, lots of children was the key to economic health, lots of children was the key to future security, but not only that. If your tribe or your nation had a lower birth rate, then some other tribe or nation had a higher birth rate. It was as simple.

Bigger army, smaller army, you lose, see? They come and they colonize you, they invade you, they kill you. So, having lots and lots of children was a matter of life and death. And therefore, the women who had lots of children were heroes. They were heroes. They were heroes of their tribe. They were heroes of their nation. They were patriots to have lots and lots of children. They were heroes of their family. Having lots and lots of children was a matter of life and death. It wasn't, see when you and I look at childlessness and somebody says, oh I wish I had children,

we're talking almost completely about I emotionally would be fulfilled with a child. This is different. We're talking about life and death. We're talking about enormous cultural pressures to have children or we die, we literally die, your family dies, your tribe dies, your nation dies, and therefore women who had lots of children were heroes and women who couldn't have children were considered worthless. They were worthless in their own eyes and they were worthless in everybody else's eyes. They were disgraced. Now when you understand these enormous cultural pressures that you go along with the ordinary

desires that a woman might have for having children, you realize that in those cultures women were essentially forced into an idolatry of family and children. What is an idol? As we often say, an idol is a good thing become an ultimate thing. A good thing that you ought to enjoy becomes the very center of your life. The thing that you say, because I have that I have honor, because I have that I'm worthwhile, because I have that I have meaning. More than a relationship with God, that is the thing that actually becomes your functional salvation. That

is a thing that is your real functional salvation. That is the thing that is your real hope. And in ancient societies, women were essentially pushed by the culture into making an idol out of children and family. You're nothing unless you have children and family. Well, some of you say, yes, wasn't that awful? Weren't those ancient cultures awful and oppressive to women? Well, yeah, yes they were. Yeah, they were. But I don't like your attitude. You sound like, oh, thank goodness we don't live in oppressive culture now.

This morning or today in the New York Times magazine there was an interview, you know, the beginning of the New York Times magazine was a one‑page interview of interesting people near the beginning. And this week there was a woman being interviewed who was Iranian, she was raised in Iran but lives in Paris now. And she was a graphics artist, very interesting intellectual. At one point the interviewer was saying you left Iran for Paris and you escaped the oppressiveness of those religious institutions where women had to wear a chador and where women were put down. Here's what she said.

She says, quote, wait a minute, it's a problem for women no matter what the society. In Muslim countries, they try to cover women. In America, they try to make them look like a piece of meat. And the interviewer pushes back, but boy, she pushes back too. You know what she's trying to say? She says, okay, here's a collectivistic culture. And in collectivistic cultures, family is everything. You only find status through your family, and in therefore a collectivistic worldview, culture comes to women and say, you're nothing unless you

have kids. But in an individualistic culture like ours, in which you find meaning and significance through competition, through being better at this or that or this or that, as individuals, our culture doesn't come and say to women, you have to have kids. Our culture comes to women and says,

you've got to be hot. You got to be slim. You've got to be beautiful. You've got to be slim. You've got to be beautiful. You've got to be attractive. Do you think they had eating disorders in ancient cultures? No. Why not? Because the oppression of women in those cultures was just different.

There is no such thing as a non-oppressive culture. Now I'm not talking about women at all. Every culture puts some things in front of men and women, and older men and younger men and older women and younger women, puts things in front of culture, every culture puts certain things in front of people, things that aren't God,

and says, you've gotta have that or you're nothing. You've gotta have that or you're in disgrace. You've gotta have that or you don't have a self. You've gotta to have that or you're in disgrace. You've got to have that or you don't have a self. You've got to have that. And that whatever that is, if you accept what the culture says, it'll drive you into the ground. If you build your life on having children, then you'll crush your children with your expectations of how much they're gonna make you happy. If you build your life on romance and love, oh somebody loves me, that's how I know I'm okay, you'll crush

that person under the weight of your expectations. Anything that person does right or does wrong will just destroy you. If you build your life on money, achievement, whatever, it doesn't matter. There's no such thing as an unimpressive culture. The only way to escape the cultural idol systems of your particular culture is by having God more important to your heart and God's love more important than anything else. That's the anatomy of Hannah's pain. That moving question, Hannah, why are you weeping? That's why. A natural desire to have a child has become an idolatrous thing, a distorted self-image, and Panina is rubbing her nose in it, and Hannah is in misery. Point two. How does Hannah escape?

How does Hannah change? That's what we read about in this fascinating short little account. Robert Alter who is a great, he teaches at Berkeley, he's a professor of Hebrew literature, quite an expert in understanding Hebrew narrative. He points out in his book on this subject, 1st Samuel, 1st 2nd Samuel, he points out something very interesting. First of all, notice the broken family dynamics. Elkanah says to Hannah, I love you best. That's why I'm giving you the extra portion. I love you more.

more. That of course infuriates and wounds like crazy Paninna, who then takes Hannah and does everything she can to rub her face in the fact of her childlessness. So Alcana, by favoring Hannah, destroys his other wife, her heart. She then turns and makes Hannah miserable. And Robert Alter points out that there is not a single place in all of the Bible where polygamous family is ever depicted as anything other than absolutely miserable. And Robert Alter says, listen, from the first page to the last page, the Bible does everything it possibly can to say polygamy is a horrible idea. It's exploiting women especially, but it just destroys everybody. But that's not enough to understand this point.

Robert Alter says it's important to understand the narrative significance of these two characters in Hannah's life. Paninna and Alcana, look what they're offering her. Paninna, first of all, represents the hope of her society, a collectivistic society that says, I have children and you don't, huh, huh, huh. In other words, Paninna represents the offer of her society to say, build your identity on having children. It's a sociological hope, you might say. It's a trap, of course, but that's what's offered. Alcana, on the other hand, interestingly enough,

Robert Alder points out, Alcana actually represents the psychological hope, because Alcana very well meaningly comes and says to Hannah, I love you. That should be more important than having children. My spouse will love. And ironically, Elkana actually represents what individualistic modern societies offer to women. They say, oh, you don't build your identity on having children.

Build your identity on being hot, being attractive, romance, see? Having a man love you. So here's the sociological hope and the psychological hope. Here's build your life on children. Here's build your life on romantic love and Hannah will have none of it. And what's interesting, and I only got this as I really thought this through. Verse 9, notice it, verse 9 it says, and Hannah after she had eaten stood up. Stood up. So why is that in there? And the answer is literally it says, and then Hannah arose. The Hebrew word is arose and that word arose in Hebrew narrative doesn't just simply mean that she got up.

It means she took action. To arise means I'm going to do something. To arise means I'm going to stop being passive. At this spot, Hannah decided by arising and going in to pray to God, she set behind herself. She rejected the idols that were offered to her. And real spirituality always starts there. Recognizing not just your bad things, and so I'm sorry for my sins, but representing the good things that are being offered to you as ultimate things,

representing, recognizing that the cultural idol systems are being thrust upon you. She realized what they were. They were meaning well. There's nothing wrong with having children. There's certainly nothing wrong with having a loving husband. But she arose and she went to God. She realized that these idols were traps. They were forms of slavery and she arose and she rejected and that's the first thing she did.

The second thing that she did was she began to pray. And when she began to pray, look at the beginning of this prayer. It's a short prayer, but the first part is all about God. And in it we have a remarkable picture of the biblical God. She pours herself into the reality of who God is. She pours herself into the doctrine of God. She pours herself into the attributes of God. Look what she says. First of all, she says,

"'O Lord Almighty.'" That's the term Yahweh sebeoth. That means, O Lord of hosts, the Lord of multitudes, the Lord of armies. And it's a phrase that refers to, she's remembering his majesty, his infinity, his omnipotence, he's all powerful, he's all controlling, he's all sovereign. So it's remembering the transcendence of God and the justice of God and the greatness

of God. But then she says, remember, look upon the misery of your servant." And Hannah in that statement is assuming something about God. She's remembering something about God. She's assuming that the broken heart of a single rural obscure woman matters to this Lord to whom even the galaxies are nothing but dust on the scales. God has worked through Tim Keller's teaching to help countless people discover Christ's redemptive love and grow in their faith as they learn how the gospel is the key to every aspect of life.

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She is remembering, she is meditating on, she's reflecting on God who's infinitely great, and yet infinitely tender at once. This is the biblical God. This is the attributes of God. And what is she doing? She's remembering who God is and she's taking the deepest needs of her heart. She's pouring them out into the reality of who God is. Look, secular liberal people will say, here's what you do with your deepest emotions. You ventilate them and you express them. In conservative traditional culture we'll say, here's what you do with your deepest emotions, you hide them or you deny them.

And this is what the Bible says you do with your deepest emotions, you pour them out and you pray them out into God, into his presence. You process your deepest emotions in light of who God is. You reflect and you think and you say, if God is this, if God is this, and you bring your emotions out and that's what changes them. And that's what happened to her and what happens. Look at the change. Look at the petition. She says, if you give me a son, I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used

on his head." What? He says, if you give me a son, Lord, I'll give him to full-time ministry. And again, you might say, well, that just sounds like horse trading. Wow, that's really wise of her, you know, but it's kind of, you know, it's actually kind of manipulative. She says, if you give me a son, I'll give him the full-time ministry. Again, you don't understand, unless you understand what this particular means, it particularly means to really figure out the surrender

that she's actually doing before God. In those days, if you wanted to go into ministry, that meant to be a priest, you had to be a Levite, you had to be of the tribe of Levi But if you were of another tribe and you wanted to go into full-time ministry you could You could become a Nazarite in number six It lays this out a Nazarite was a person from another tribe who wanted to go to full-time ministry as essentially essentially a lay priest who wanted to go to full-time ministry as essentially a lay priest, as someone who was a full-time assistant to the priest who lived in the tabernacle from the time he was a little boy, but he raised up there and he was a full-time assistant

priest as it were. And the two marks of being a Nazirite, which was a lay priest basically, were that you could not drink strong drink and you never cut your hair. That was your markers. Do you know what Santa's doing? Do you realize what has happened here? A Nazirite child is of no help to the economy of the family. It makes no contribution. Number two, a Nazirite child cannot take care of you in old age because the child is away. It's in ministry. Thirdly, not only that, a Nazirite child cannot take care of you in old age, because the child is away, it's in ministry. Thirdly, not only that, a Nazarete child doesn't even give you any emotional support, he's not with you. You can't carry him around into the, you know, when all the other women are walking around

with your son, your son's not going to be with you. You're not even going to raise the child. He's going to be away, I mean really away. This is back in the time when your son was away, he was away. No cell phones, no email, you know. In other words, all the cultural and emotional reasons, motivations for having a child are gone. Well then why does she want a child?

Ah, for Israelite women, there was a cultural reason to have children and an emotional reason for having children, but also a theological reason. The cultural reason, you know, status, the emotional reason, power and a feeling of worth, but there was a theological reason. You know what it was? It was always, for most Israelite women, it was definitely kind of peripheral. It was almost an afterthought. When God said to Abraham in Genesis 12, I'm going to save the world through your family. Someday through your descendants I'm going to bless all the

nations of the earth. I'm going to heal the world. I'm going to save the world. Israelites didn't really know what he was talking about, of course. All they knew was somehow God was going to do something great through their community. But you know what that meant? All Israelite women realized that when they bore a child, they were participating with God in the salvation of the world. And of course, that's not the main reason. There was the cultural and there was the emotional and there was the theological and the reason that women had their children was because of the power. You can see the way Panina looked at it. It was all about me.

But Hannah has taken that theological reason and made it the center. Because you know what she's saying? She's saying, how in my life I've wanted a child for me, but now I want a child for you. I want a child that can work in your mission. I want a child that can work in your ministry. Here's another way to put it. She says, oh my word, all my life I've wanted to be a mother.

I've wanted to bring life into the world. But now in the presence of God I realize that I really want to bring life into the world, but I want to bring real life into the world, huh? But now, in the presence of God, I realize that I really want to bring life into the world, but I want to bring real life into the world. I want to bring your life into the world. I want to bring the Word. I want to bring salvation. That's what I want to bring into the world. Before, when the main reasons you want a child were the cultural and the emotional, God was the means and having a son was the ultimate end. But now what's happening? God and his mission is the end and the son is just the means. She shifted her hope.

She shifted her self-image. She shifted the center of her life from having a child to being part of God's mission in the world. And you say, how do you know that? Aren't you reading too much in? No, I'm not, and I'll prove it. Because a little further down in the text, it wasn't read tonight, but we didn't print it out,

but a little further in the text, here's what happened when she was done praying. Listen, verse 17 to 19. Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home in Rama. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife and the Lord remembered her and opened her womb. Did you hear that? It didn't say she prayed, she got pregnant, and she got happy.

She got the inner peace. She started to eat. She stopped being depressed. Her face was lifted up. Didn't say she prayed, she got pregnant, she got happy. It said she prayed and she got happy, even though she had no idea that she was gonna get pregnant.

Why? That would only be the case. If she had shifted her hope to the mission of God and the son was a means to an end, not an end in itself. She'd been liberated from the cultural idol system because she said, now I've realized what real mothering is, what it means to really bring life into the world. And by the way, this isn't just for women. You financial types, you want to add value, this is real value, the mission of God in the world.

You artistic types, you want to bring beauty into the world, this is the real beauty. Do you see that? Mothers, you want to bring life into the world, this is the real life. And by turning God into the center, and now making money is a means to an end, now doing art is a means to an end, now having children is a means to an end, not an end in itself, not a way of getting itself, not a way of getting significant security. You're free. And what happened?

Hannah had a son named Samuel and she put him into the ministry and he became what? one of the great deliverers a penultimate Messiah one of the deliverers that were foreshadowed the great Messiah to come Because he rose up at a time of great crisis and he led his people to victory over their enemies and save them and if Hannah had not suffered, see if God had just given her a child when she wanted a child, she would have crushed him under the weight of her expectations and she would have dangled him before Penina and said, ha ha ha ha ha, see I am okay, I'm

alright, I'm a real woman, I had a son." And he never would have become the Savior. Would he? Never. He would have needed somebody to save him. But because of her suffering and because of her sacrifice of him by sending him away, through her suffering and her sacrifice, the people were saved. And because she accepted, not knowing how God was going to use her suffering, but simply said, I'm at peace. I've made my vow. I've changed my heart. And now do what you want. Give me a son. Now it's safe for me to have him. I don't have to be, you know, I won't make a night a lot of him. And it was safe finally. it was finally safe for her to have this thing. And because she suffered and she sacrificed and put God in the center, he became the Savior.

So God actually used the suffering and sacrifice of Hannah to bring salvation. Now some of you say, wow, Hannah, she loved God so much and she trusted God so much that she was free from the idle systems of her culture. Well, that's her. I don't have that kind of power. Yes, you do. Because you've got something that she didn't have, but she points to it in her song. And you know what it is? Here it is. In her song, she says, God has lifted me up. He's taken away my disgrace. That's because God reverses things. God reverses things.

You see in verse four of her song, the warriors now stumble and the stumblers now are empowered. In verse five, the hungry are filled, the full are empty, the barren are fertile, the fertile are barren. God reverses things. And most interesting, verse 8, God has taken the poor off the ash heap. You know the ash heaps were the garbage dumps outside the cities. They were so foul and they were burned. They just burned their garbage and any poor person who actually rooted around in the garbage dump, in the ash heap, was the poorest of the poor.

Yet God takes the poorest of the poor and sets them up with princes and takes the princes and sends them down to the ash heap. Well, you say that's very interesting. So what? So everything. Because when Jesus Christ was led outside of the gates of Jerusalem, outside to be executed over in the garbage area, ignominiously being crucified, which is the most disgraceful of all executions, Jesus Christ, as he was going out in disgrace and in weakness, everybody

said that can't be the Messiah. Why? Because if you look at the four fathers of the Messiah the penultimate you know forerunners of the Messiah the four fathers of Messiah were Samuel and Samson and David and Gideon and they all brought salvation by being strong and getting glory and So they looked at Jesus and they said that can can't be the Messiah. Messiah wouldn't be weak. The Messiah wouldn't be disgraced. That couldn't be the Messiah. But you know what their problem was? They were looking at the forefathers of the Messiah, but not the foremothers.

They were looking at the men who were the forerunners of Jesus, but not the women. Because over and over again, God gave a foretaste of the real gospel and the work of Jesus but not the women. Because over and over again God gave a foretaste of the real gospel and the work of Jesus Christ in the fact that he continually brought his salvation of the world through the barren, through the rejected, through the unwanted women. It's old barren Sarah, not beautiful fertile Hagar, through whom God brings the royal messianic saving seed, Isaac. It's through Leah, the girl that nobody wanted, the wife that Jacob didn't want, not Rachel, the beautiful and the wanted. It's through Leah that God brings the royal messianic saving seed of Judah. Samson is born to a barren woman who shouldn't be able to have children.

Samuel is born to a suffering, disgraced woman, but through the suffering and disgrace of Hannah, salvation comes. If you'd looked at the four mothers, you would have known that Isaiah was talking about the Messiah when he said that the one who comes to save us will suffer disgrace and will be crushed for our iniquities. Jesus experienced the reversal that Hannah was talking about. Why can we be lifted up and seated in the heavenly places in Christ? Why can we be seated on thrones? Because Jesus Christ went deeper than the ash heap.

He went literally into the ash heap. He not only was crucified in the ash heap, but he experienced the disgrace and he experienced the punishment, he experienced the justice, the divine justice that we deserve. And because we, because our sins were put on him and our disgrace was put on him, through his weakness and through his suffering we're saved. You could see it in Hannah if you were looking at Hannah, not Samuel. You could see it in Samson's mother. You could see it in Leah. You could see it in all those women.

The women in the Old Testament show that Jesus Christ is not just a coming king, but a suffering servant. And until you understand the true spirituality of women like Hannah, you won't know what Hannah knew. Hannah did not know exactly how God was going to use her suffering to bring about salvation. I have no idea whether she even lived long enough to understand that. Maybe at the very end of her life when she began to see what was going on with Samuel, she said, so that's why I had to suffer.

So that's why I had to sacrifice. But maybe she didn't know. She didn't care. She trusted him. Well, that's pretty good of Hannah, but you and I have something she didn't have we have the cross We have the cross And on the cross I see that God brings death life out of death and Through suffering his own suffering. He brings about all kinds of life in the world. And therefore, oh friends, you can trust him right now. If you are faithful to him and you just don't give up on God,

but you put God in the center, even during your suffering like Hannah, God will turn it all to gold. He'll turn it all to gold for you and for others. And not only that, one more thing. Hannah was right to reject, as it were, building her life around her husband's love, spousal love. Alcana says, I love you, and my love should be more than ten sons. She was right to reject that, because it would be enslaving to build your life on children, but it's enslaving to build your life on any one human being, love. But in Jesus Christ, when you receive him by faith and God pardons you for all your sins, you become beautiful to God in Christ. When God looks at you in Christ, he's delighted.

You're beautiful. You're perfect. You're radiant. You're without spot and blemish. Ephesians 5, and you know what that means? God looks at us, our true spouse, and says, I love you. You are beautiful. I delight in you. Shouldn't that be more important than ten sons? Shouldn't that be more important than ten billion dollars on Wall Street? Shouldn't that be more important than ten billion dollars on Wall Street? Shouldn't that be more important than anything? If you have my love, shouldn't that free you to go out and just serve and to live your life free because you're filled with the

knowledge of my love for you? Yes. That's the spousal love that Hannah, in a sense, was after. That's the spousal love that you and I must have, and in Jesus Christ, we got it. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would help us to understand the great promise that we have, that if like Hannah, we resist the cultural idols of our time and pour out our hearts into a knowledge of who you are. Our hearts will start to change. We'll start to realize that, oh, my father, in your spousal love, we have that which will

free us from our idols. And in your sacrificial love on the cross, we have the certainty that you're working through our suffering. And we ask now that we could follow in Hannah's footsteps, not by just trying to be like Hannah, but by looking to that to which Hannah points, the ultimate son of promise, the ultimate removal of disgrace, the ultimate Messiah, Jesus Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we

invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life Monthly Partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelinlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 2007. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.