Hope: Presumption
Hope in What We Do Not See
1 Samuel 1:4-20
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. November 14th, 2021
Hannah was a woman with no future. She was the beloved wife of Elkanah. She received the double portion of the sacrifice. But unlike Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah the Lord had closed her womb. And, in those days, that was a matter of shame. She longed to have a child of her own, a son to carry on the family lineage. That is, that she would have a future.
Eli was the priest at Shiloh. In those days the Ark of the Covenant was placed at the shrine at Shiloh. It was Eli’s duty to perform the appropriate rites and sacrifices. He was a man of high honor because of this service. He also appeared to have a future. Two sons who would succeed him when he died. The line that began in Aaron the first priest would continue through Eli and his sons.
This is the story of a woman without a future, and a man with a future. And how faith and hope make all the difference.
Hannah’s husband Elkanah would go to Shiloh once a year to offer sacrifice. It was on one of these journeys that Hannah approached the Tabernacle and prayed before the Lord. She was deeply distressed and weeping bitterly. She so longed to have a child of her own she prayed, “O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” A nazirite was a vow that a man could take in different circumstances. Say when they’re going off to battle, or preparing for some great task. To offer up a child to live as a nazirite was a different matter, it was not a vow someone took on for life. She so longed to have a son that she was offering to give him up to the Lord in the most extreme way.
While she was praying and weeping Eli saw her. Her mouth moved but no sound came out. He did not recognize a woman in earnest and serious prayer. He mistook her for being drunk. (Not the last time godly women and men would be mistaken for drunkenness when they are in prayer). Eli, the great priest, the man with the past and the man with the future, cannot recognize a woman at prayer. How odd! But very telling.
He says, "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.”
Hannah replies, “"No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.”
Eli lets her go with a blessing. And Hannah left with her distress dissipated.
Hannah, we are told, would conceive and bear a son. A son named Samuel, who she gave up to live at Shiloh and serve with Eli. The woman who was childless bore a son. The woman who feared she had no future had her hope fulfilled. “The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.” She sings.
But that is only half of our story. The other half concerns Eli.
Eli, the priest who mistook prayer for drunkenness had two sons, and they were poor priests. They would take the choice portions of the sacrifice and keep them for themselves. They would even threaten to take them by force. In this way they took what belonged to God and kept it for themselves. God chose to take their future away from them. And he cut off that priestly line. Though they were born in privilege and expected to have a future because of it, God took it away. The line of Levi would be given to someone else.
Here we learn something very important about hope. Hope as a virtue belongs to those who live their life on the way. We all await a future. Sometimes that future is easier to see. Other times that future is harder to see. But in either case the future is not our own. It is a gift of God. Hope is how we live in expectation for that future, no matter how bad things may seem. Knowing we are not there yet, knowing God has made promises.
Hannah is in dire straits. It is easy for her, as it was for Naomi, as it was for Mary and Martha, to simply give up. To give in to her despair. To say “the future I thought I’d have, God has taken away from me.” But instead she perseveres. Trusting in God’s promises and grace. She asks, and she receives. She hopes beyond hope, and she finds. Eli’s sons, on the other hand, assume they’ve already made it. They presume upon God’s grace and take whatever they want. They do not hope, they presume. And because they have failed to hope in the promises of God, God revokes those promises.
So too for us today. Hope is a gift of God. By hope we do not give into despair, assuming God will not fulfill the promise of salvation, that God will not give us life. But also by hope we do not assume we have already made it. That we do not need God. That we are not, in every day, in every way, dependent on God and his grace. Jesus said he did not come to save the righteous but sinners. When he said that he warned us about the dangers of presumption. He called us to cleave in hope.
So let us cleave in hope. Knowing no matter how dark the future may seem, no matter how absent the future may appear to be, God fulfills his promises. And no matter how good things may seem, no matter how we feel we have done well, God promises ever more than we can imagine.