BACKGROUND:
The Proverbs 31 woman is involved in weaving and sewing. She uses wool and flax, and linen made from flax. With eager hands is literally, “with the delight of her hands,” suggesting that she enjoys her work. She is a hard worker, not a shirker.
The noble wife also does shopping. She is like... merchant ships that brought unusual and fascinating merchandise from other places. She too brought interesting and unusual items home from her shopping.
Though she has household help she herself gets up early, before daybreak, to help prepare breakfast and food for other meals, and to delegate work (portions) to her servants.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Moms – we love you and honor you and thank you for the life-changing impact you have made on us.
I want you to listen to a true story this morning! It's right out of the Old Testament in the Bible. A man had two wives -- polygamy was rampant in many of the Old Testament cultures; God didn't like it but men did it any way -- but a man had two wives and one of his wives had many children. And for whatever reason, the man didn't love this particular wife very much. His other wife he loved with all his heart, but she was barren – she couldn’t have kids!
There was a strain between the two wives and the woman with children found great recreational delight in ridiculing and taunting and making fun of the barren wife. And, of course, as you can imagine the barren wife, whose name was Hannah, felt diminished and broken in her spirit about not being able to have children and being taunted above and beyond the pain.
Finally, Hannah, in the middle of her pain, breaks down before God and pours her heart out to Him. The Bible says she just wept bitterly over her disappointment of it all. Later on she took a different approach and she made a vow before God. And she said, "God if you give me a child, I will give that child back to you. I will raise that child and put that child back in your service for the rest of his life." And she kind of registered and left that concern with God.
Later God answered her prayer and gave her a son, and he was named Samuel. She dedicated Samuel to God, raised him and then brought him to the temple, handed him over to a priest named Eli and said, "Here is my child. I made a covenant with God that I would bring him up and then put him in God's service for the rest of his life, so he's yours."
Samuel grows up to figure prominently in the unfolding history of God's people. He is the one who anoints the first King. He is the one who, later, anoints King David to be the new King. And, of course, from the genealogy of David came Christ the Savior. It's a dramatic story. It's registered in the Book of I Samuel & 2. You can read it for yourself later. From that story, I want to look at three lessons we can learn from the life of Hannah!
LESSON #1 - No matter what anybody says, if you aspire to be a mother, it's a noble aspiration.
If a woman aspires to be a mother it is a noble aspiration. Hannah wanted to be a mother. She felt it would be an honorable investment of the substantial years of her life. All throughout history, men and women have affirmed the importance of the role that mothers play in giving and shaping human lives.
All throughout history, certain women have searched their souls and found what they really wanted to do with their lives was to give themselves to the ministry of mothering. Throughout history, God has heartily affirmed the choices of women who have committed themselves to the child-rearing challenge. God has known all along that without quality women making the courageous choice of motherhood, the whole human race is in big trouble.
Now, in the last 30 years, a strange shift has occurred that has resulted in the serious undermining of the role of mothers. Let a woman announce her plans to pursue law or medicine or politics or business and cheers break out from the grandstands. But don't expect much applause for a woman who pursues the ministry of mothering. In fact you're likely to hear a heckler cry out, "You're throwing your life away!"
I don’t need to tell these are trying times for mothers. So much so that these days in societal settings I often hear women lower their voices and then hang their heads and reluctantly reveal that they are just mothers, just homemakers. "No, I don't do anything important," they say, "I just raise kids." The nobility has been slowly stripped away from the challenge of child-rearing. It's not even deemed as honorable anymore.
There was a time when men and women carried the conscious notion that diligent mothers had a powerful effect on society and the church. "She who rocks the cradle rules the world," the old adage affirmed. But these days, values are different.
It was a lot easier in Hannah's day to see the nobility in motherhood. It was a part of the culture. It was an honorable investment of a woman's life. Hannah was not apologetic whatsoever about wanting to be a mother. We see her desire to be a mother in 1 Samuel 1:20, which says “So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the Lord for him." She yearned to be a mother. She felt it was a perfect fit for her. She saw the value and the nobility in it. It seemed like the most significant role in the world to her. And I just want to say to you women, young and old, if you feel that you aspire to be a part of the ministry of mothering, it's a noble thing that you aspire to.
LESSON #2. My second observation from the story of Hannah underscores the vital importance of prayer in the life of a woman.
The Scriptures tell us that Hannah's antagonist provoked her bitterly, year after year after year, shamed her relentlessly because of her barrenness. But Hannah had a secret weapon that she could deploy whenever she felt beaten down -- it was prayer. Listen to 1 Samuel 1:12-13 “As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. [13] Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard…”
It strikes me that we have many women in every conceivable life situation in this church and maybe, just maybe, a goodly number of you need to be reminded this weekend of the centrality and the power of prayer. Maybe we have some beaten down and discouraged mothers here today who need the kind of inner healing that really only prayer can affect.
Maybe we have some mothers facing the empty nest. Maybe we have some mothers of wayward children who feel like total failures. Maybe we have some single moms who wonder how long they're going to be able to keep all the plates spinning and all the balls in the air, alone. Maybe we have some women who long to be mothers but for some reason cannot be.
Maybe we have some mothers in blended families where it's not working well yet. Maybe we have some mothers of multiple preschoolers who are wondering if this season will ever pass. Maybe we have some new moms who are wondering if they will survive motherhood at all.
Maybe lots of women, today, just need to be reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28: "Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." Maybe many of you just needed to be reminded, today, about what the Scriptures say in I Peter 5:7: "Cast all your cares on Him," for God cares for you. Maybe some of you needed to receive permission from Psalms 62:8, which says, "Pour out your heart to God." Just go ahead and pour it out. Say it to Him.
This is a tough and trying time for mothers. But Hannah found strength in prayer. She felt safe and secure in God's care when she prayed. She felt understood and listened to. And Hannah would regain her perspective when she prayed. She fought off despair and found new hope when she prayed. So I would just say by means of direct challenge -- women of COV --- pray. Pray often, earnestly, authentically, about anything, about everything. Make your requests. Make them specific. Cast your cares on Him. Trust Him for what you need. In these days that are so difficult for mothers -- pray.
Lesson #3. One final observation from the story of Hannah. Hannah discovered that preparing a child for a life of service to God is the highest calling of a mother.
Probably because Hannah was barren for so long, she had tons of time to sort out the whys of wanting to be a mother. I'm sure Hannah sifted through all sorts of superficial reasons for wanting to have kids. Like to compete with the other wife who had kids already. Like to look better in the eyes of the other women in the culture who were already mothers. But eventually she came to the point where she saw childbearing and child-raising as an opportunity to give her God glory by preparing a young person for an entire lifetime of worship and service to her Father.
When she landed on that reason, she made a very simple vow to God. It was very clear to Hannah. - in 1 Samuel 1:27-28 Hannah says “I asked the Lord to give me this child, and he has given me my request. [28] Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life.”
"Oh God," she cried, "if you grant me a child, as a gift from your gracious hand, I will do everything in my power to love and nurture and model spiritual reality to that child in the hopes that some day he will be wholly available to you for a lifetime of worship and service." God saw Hannah's heart and gave her a son. He doesn't answer every request that way, but He did in this case.
And Hannah did exactly what she had committed to God to do. The point in all of that is that Hannah figured out the ultimate goal of motherhood. Hannah determined that she was not going to settle for raising a child to merely be well-adjusted.
She was not going to settle for raising a child to merely be bright or employable. Hannah shot much higher than that. She prayed that her child would serve God authentically for a lifetime.
Mothers of COV, do you have a vision like that for your kids? Do you know what the goal is? Do you know what the target looks like? Are you shooting high enough? Certainly I'm not suggesting that we all try to head all of our kids towards some kind of vocational Christian career, but why wouldn't all of us, mothers and fathers, be praying every single day that our children would come to know Christ?. And that they would want to serve God their whole lives.
Luke 9:24-25 (CEV) says “If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will save it. [25] What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself or waste your life?”
What would it profit if my kids gained the whole world and lost their souls? Hannah sorted it all out and she shot high, and God honored her goal. Let's all of us shoot high and determine to do whatever it takes to encourage our children to worship and serve God for a lifetime. Let's get behind our youth programs here, let’s get behind our children’s program and help raise a generation of kids who are sold out to God.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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