Let's Make a Deal
1 Samuel 1:1-28
Have you ever made a deal with God? It’s a pretty funny scene, really, making a deal with God. What makes us think that we, God’s creation, can deal with the Almighty? Yet we do it all the time. I remember making deals with God when I was in junior high, specifically when I was running long distance races. I would ask God to get me through the race and there were all sorts of things I would do for Him once I got finished (secretly I think that me being in ministry now is part of the payback).
Sometimes we can be tempted to make deals with God over little, insignificant things. Then we generally sound like a toddler trying to extend bedtime with a “one more book, please, and I promise I’ll go right to sleep!” But usually the “let’s make a deal” mentality doesn’t set in until the stakes are huge.
Have you ever bargained with God like that? I know I have. I know that I have a bad track record of following through. Hannah was nothing like that. She made a bargain with God; in 1 Samuel 1:10-11, we read this: 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." The stakes were high; she wanted a son. Understand that in these times, women were not treated as women are today; they derived their worth from the men with whom they were associated. Hannah was simply one of Elkanah’s wives. Because the other wife had sons, she had worth. Because Hannah had none, she was, in effect, worthless. She cried out to the Lord, not just for a baby, but for worth, for meaning.
You can tell that this was her cry if you look at 1 Samuel 1:13-16. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."
"Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." The term she used for “wicked woman” also has the connotation of “worthless woman.” She wants Eli to know that she’s not worthless. And here she is, pouring out her soul, pouring out everything to the LORD, so that she would be given worth.
And her deal was this: if the Lord will give me a son, I will give him back to the Lord and he will be set apart as a Nazirite for his entire life. Now where have I heard that term before? Oh, yes, it was Samson, who totally stunk at being a Nazirite.
And God answered her prayer, and she, having made the deal with God, followed through by giving her son to the LORD. What makes this act significant is that Hannah’s one request was for a son, and when she received what she’s asked for, she gave her son directly to God.
Here is what separates Hannah from the crowd: when she received what she’d asked for, the one thing that she desired above everything else, she immediately gave it to God. I pose that most of us don’t understand what this is all about. We wouldn’t understand how Hannah could do this. After all, now she finally has the son. How could she now take that son and drop him off at the tent of meeting? Doesn’t she care about her son? About his well-being?
What Hannah does here demonstrates her integrity. She’s already laid it all out; she promised God that if He gave her a son, she would give the son to God. When she does indeed have a son, she could start bargaining. She could try to make another deal with God. She could go “Rumplestiltskin” on God, saying, “I know I made a deal with you, but I don’t want to uphold my side, so why don’t we have a contest to see if I can get out of my side of the deal because it’s all not fair.” She could say something like, “Well, I meant my next child.” Or she could subtly go back on her deal by saying, “Now I’ll raise Samuel to know God by bringing him to church every week until it gets inconvenient.”
This “until it’s inconvenient model” is unfortunately the model that many of us follow as we dedicate our children to the LORD. Many of us slipped away from church when we were teenagers, never to return until we have children of our own. Then we decide, “Wait, I want to bring my children up in the church.” Which in itself isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, it’s an acknowledgment of the reality that the church is where we should be bringing our children up.
When we baptize children, we ask this question: Will you nurture these children in Christ’s holy church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life? This is a serious question. Notice what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t ask, “that by the church’s teaching and example” or “by their Sunday School teacher’s teaching and example” or “by Rudy’s teaching and example,” but “by your teaching and example.”
Though we often cite how other people and other factors have gained influence over our children, the truth is that parents are still the top influences in their children’s lives. Hannah’s integrity was the first step in Samuel’s growth. And, as we read in 1 Samuel 2:26, the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.
Hannah also demonstrated an utter trust for God, a completely sold-out, on fire confidence in the LORD. She trusts God so much that she realizes that God is in control. Before we ever had children, we began praying for the children we would eventually have, not knowing at all what that would take us through. We continue to pray for our children, trusting them to God. This is one of the hardest parts of parenting, but also the most rewarding, because we don’t know the course God might have for them. A prime example is our little guy, Jason. We don’t know what his future holds, if that means reunification with his birth family or becoming a permanent part of our family. But trusting that matter to God is more important than our personal wishes. We trust that God’s will is bigger, is wiser, and is better than our will, and though we seek to understand God’s will, we know that there are some things we just might not understand this side of heaven.
Hannah also demonstrated true love. She showed that she loved God enough to give her very best to Him. She was not satisfied with giving God her second best or her leftovers. She didn’t hold anything back. She gave God her everything.
Guess what. Before we worship Hannah for giving everything to God, this is what Jesus calls us all to do. In Matthew 13:44, Jesus tells this parable: The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field.
So I wonder, what is it that you want most of all? What is it you crave? What is it you need? What can’t you do without? What is the deepest desire of your heart?
I don’t just ask this as a rhetorical question; I want you to think about it – to write it down. At very least, write down the question and think about it this week.
You’re only allowed to go to the second question once you’ve answered question #1. Question #2 is this: what’s the price you’re willing to pay?
In Luke 12:16-21, when someone came to Jesus to ask him to intervene in a dispute over an inheritance, [Jesus] told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Or another way of putting it is this: a man stipulated in his will that when he died, all of his massive wealth be exchanged for gold and buried with him. His family conceded to his wishes and he went on to his reward, gold in tow. When he got to the pearly gates, someone asked him, “What’s in the box?” When he opened the box to show them the gold the cry went up, “Hey! This guy brought pavement!” His desire was for stuff, and it didn’t do anything for him.
Jesus wasn’t finished there. He had more to tell his disciples.
Luke 12:22-34: Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What is your treasure? What is the greatest thing in your life? Are you willing to give the object of your deepest desire to God? I was really impressed a few weeks ago when I was meeting with one of my pastor friends. He runs more than I do, and so I asked him about his mileage. He told me, “I haven’t been putting in all those miles; I figured out that I was giving the biggest and best part of my day to running, so I started reading my Bible and praying before I run. Which means less time running, but more time with God.”
Which means he is demonstrating that God, not himself, is his treasure.
Friends, I don’t know any other way to say it, but if there is anything in your life that is more important than Jesus Christ, then you’ve got it wrong. This includes all kinds of good things, like your job, your hobbies, Ohio State football, even your family.
In slightly different context, the Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
He said, “All of the things that the world calls important, all the things I used to call important: they are garbage.” The word that Paul uses here, skubala, is better rendered “unspeakable filth.” It’s used for dung, excrement and food gone bad, a pitiful thing, like a half-eaten corpse, or lumps of manure. If we were to translate it directly, it would most likely be an epithet or a curse word. That’s how strongly Paul felt about all of his former goals.
Why?
Because he turned it all over to God. Because he, like Hannah, realized that only by giving God everything could he attain what is really important.
Now, it would be silly to look at Hannah and miss out on the important underlying fact to this story. Of utmost importance in Hannah’s story is this: Hannah was a woman of prayer. She wasn’t just someone who prayed; prayer defined her. She was a woman desperate for God’s intervention, and she knew this would only happen if she gave of herself entirely in prayer.
Friends, prayer isn’t just something we bow quickly and do before we eat. It’s not just something the pastor does for you. It’s not just our list of prayer requests. Prayer for Hannah was like an air tank for a diver: she could not do without it. And she’s constantly praying, not for God to do the same old thing, but to do something new, to do something wonderful, to include her in it.
This is my prayer for us; that God won’t simply replicate the old things that He’s done before, but that He will do something new and awesome with us, with this church here in Millersport.
Have you ever made a deal with God? It’s a pretty funny scene, really, making a deal with God. What makes us think that we, God’s creation, can deal with the Almighty? Yet we do it all the time. I remember making deals with God when I was in junior high, specifically when I was running long distance races. I would ask God to get me through the race and there were all sorts of things I would do for Him once I got finished (secretly I think that me being in ministry now is part of the payback).
Sometimes we can be tempted to make deals with God over little, insignificant things. Then we generally sound like a toddler trying to extend bedtime with a “one more book, please, and I promise I’ll go right to sleep!” But usually the “let’s make a deal” mentality doesn’t set in until the stakes are huge.
- God, if I get this job, then I’ll…
- God, if you can get me through this, I’ll…
- God, if only you’ll spare his life, then I’ll…
Have you ever bargained with God like that? I know I have. I know that I have a bad track record of following through. Hannah was nothing like that. She made a bargain with God; in 1 Samuel 1:10-11, we read this: 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." The stakes were high; she wanted a son. Understand that in these times, women were not treated as women are today; they derived their worth from the men with whom they were associated. Hannah was simply one of Elkanah’s wives. Because the other wife had sons, she had worth. Because Hannah had none, she was, in effect, worthless. She cried out to the Lord, not just for a baby, but for worth, for meaning.
You can tell that this was her cry if you look at 1 Samuel 1:13-16. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."
"Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." The term she used for “wicked woman” also has the connotation of “worthless woman.” She wants Eli to know that she’s not worthless. And here she is, pouring out her soul, pouring out everything to the LORD, so that she would be given worth.
And her deal was this: if the Lord will give me a son, I will give him back to the Lord and he will be set apart as a Nazirite for his entire life. Now where have I heard that term before? Oh, yes, it was Samson, who totally stunk at being a Nazirite.
And God answered her prayer, and she, having made the deal with God, followed through by giving her son to the LORD. What makes this act significant is that Hannah’s one request was for a son, and when she received what she’s asked for, she gave her son directly to God.
Here is what separates Hannah from the crowd: when she received what she’d asked for, the one thing that she desired above everything else, she immediately gave it to God. I pose that most of us don’t understand what this is all about. We wouldn’t understand how Hannah could do this. After all, now she finally has the son. How could she now take that son and drop him off at the tent of meeting? Doesn’t she care about her son? About his well-being?
What Hannah does here demonstrates her integrity. She’s already laid it all out; she promised God that if He gave her a son, she would give the son to God. When she does indeed have a son, she could start bargaining. She could try to make another deal with God. She could go “Rumplestiltskin” on God, saying, “I know I made a deal with you, but I don’t want to uphold my side, so why don’t we have a contest to see if I can get out of my side of the deal because it’s all not fair.” She could say something like, “Well, I meant my next child.” Or she could subtly go back on her deal by saying, “Now I’ll raise Samuel to know God by bringing him to church every week until it gets inconvenient.”
This “until it’s inconvenient model” is unfortunately the model that many of us follow as we dedicate our children to the LORD. Many of us slipped away from church when we were teenagers, never to return until we have children of our own. Then we decide, “Wait, I want to bring my children up in the church.” Which in itself isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, it’s an acknowledgment of the reality that the church is where we should be bringing our children up.
When we baptize children, we ask this question: Will you nurture these children in Christ’s holy church, that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life? This is a serious question. Notice what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t ask, “that by the church’s teaching and example” or “by their Sunday School teacher’s teaching and example” or “by Rudy’s teaching and example,” but “by your teaching and example.”
Though we often cite how other people and other factors have gained influence over our children, the truth is that parents are still the top influences in their children’s lives. Hannah’s integrity was the first step in Samuel’s growth. And, as we read in 1 Samuel 2:26, the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.
Hannah also demonstrated an utter trust for God, a completely sold-out, on fire confidence in the LORD. She trusts God so much that she realizes that God is in control. Before we ever had children, we began praying for the children we would eventually have, not knowing at all what that would take us through. We continue to pray for our children, trusting them to God. This is one of the hardest parts of parenting, but also the most rewarding, because we don’t know the course God might have for them. A prime example is our little guy, Jason. We don’t know what his future holds, if that means reunification with his birth family or becoming a permanent part of our family. But trusting that matter to God is more important than our personal wishes. We trust that God’s will is bigger, is wiser, and is better than our will, and though we seek to understand God’s will, we know that there are some things we just might not understand this side of heaven.
Hannah also demonstrated true love. She showed that she loved God enough to give her very best to Him. She was not satisfied with giving God her second best or her leftovers. She didn’t hold anything back. She gave God her everything.
Guess what. Before we worship Hannah for giving everything to God, this is what Jesus calls us all to do. In Matthew 13:44, Jesus tells this parable: The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy, went and sold all he had and bought that field.
So I wonder, what is it that you want most of all? What is it you crave? What is it you need? What can’t you do without? What is the deepest desire of your heart?
I don’t just ask this as a rhetorical question; I want you to think about it – to write it down. At very least, write down the question and think about it this week.
You’re only allowed to go to the second question once you’ve answered question #1. Question #2 is this: what’s the price you’re willing to pay?
In Luke 12:16-21, when someone came to Jesus to ask him to intervene in a dispute over an inheritance, [Jesus] told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Or another way of putting it is this: a man stipulated in his will that when he died, all of his massive wealth be exchanged for gold and buried with him. His family conceded to his wishes and he went on to his reward, gold in tow. When he got to the pearly gates, someone asked him, “What’s in the box?” When he opened the box to show them the gold the cry went up, “Hey! This guy brought pavement!” His desire was for stuff, and it didn’t do anything for him.
Jesus wasn’t finished there. He had more to tell his disciples.
Luke 12:22-34: Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What is your treasure? What is the greatest thing in your life? Are you willing to give the object of your deepest desire to God? I was really impressed a few weeks ago when I was meeting with one of my pastor friends. He runs more than I do, and so I asked him about his mileage. He told me, “I haven’t been putting in all those miles; I figured out that I was giving the biggest and best part of my day to running, so I started reading my Bible and praying before I run. Which means less time running, but more time with God.”
Which means he is demonstrating that God, not himself, is his treasure.
Friends, I don’t know any other way to say it, but if there is anything in your life that is more important than Jesus Christ, then you’ve got it wrong. This includes all kinds of good things, like your job, your hobbies, Ohio State football, even your family.
In slightly different context, the Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
He said, “All of the things that the world calls important, all the things I used to call important: they are garbage.” The word that Paul uses here, skubala, is better rendered “unspeakable filth.” It’s used for dung, excrement and food gone bad, a pitiful thing, like a half-eaten corpse, or lumps of manure. If we were to translate it directly, it would most likely be an epithet or a curse word. That’s how strongly Paul felt about all of his former goals.
Why?
Because he turned it all over to God. Because he, like Hannah, realized that only by giving God everything could he attain what is really important.
Now, it would be silly to look at Hannah and miss out on the important underlying fact to this story. Of utmost importance in Hannah’s story is this: Hannah was a woman of prayer. She wasn’t just someone who prayed; prayer defined her. She was a woman desperate for God’s intervention, and she knew this would only happen if she gave of herself entirely in prayer.
Friends, prayer isn’t just something we bow quickly and do before we eat. It’s not just something the pastor does for you. It’s not just our list of prayer requests. Prayer for Hannah was like an air tank for a diver: she could not do without it. And she’s constantly praying, not for God to do the same old thing, but to do something new, to do something wonderful, to include her in it.
This is my prayer for us; that God won’t simply replicate the old things that He’s done before, but that He will do something new and awesome with us, with this church here in Millersport.
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