In this sermon titled 'Hannah - Smiling at Her Enemies' by Paul Carrington, the focus is on the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 2. The sermon explores how Hannah's ability to smile at her enemies is rooted in her theology and personal experiences with God. The comprehensive summary covers three sections of Hannah's theology: the goodness of God, God's authority in the realm of men, and the conclusion of the matter. Hannah's song also points to the coming Messiah. The sermon encourages listeners to have a theology that enables them to smile at their enemies and find strength in God's sovereignty.

Well, good afternoon. If you could please open up your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2. We'll be looking at the first 10 verses, 1 Samuel chapter 2. And we're going to be looking at the song of Hannah and specifically how she was able to smile at her enemies. And the last time we were we were talking about keeping the heart, we were here in in 1st Samuel, we had looked at the the crime of Eli and the sad telling of his two sons.

Well, we're back in the same book, and if you recall that we were living in the time, or we're in the time here, during the time of judges when there was no king in Israel and every man was doing what was right in his own eyes. But what we have in the life of Hannah is a woman who knew her God. She had peace with God and we're gonna see her peace with God in living color here in a moment. What we're gonna be looking at is her prayer. You could call it a prophecy also.

There's elements of a prophecy. There's a declaration here as well. It's a hymn, it's a psalm, it's all of these things. It's one of the most beautiful in the Bible. You can find other songs like the song of Moses, the song of Mary, even Hezekiah, Deborah has a song.

And all of these songs, they all have one thing in common. And that is that these songs that are put forth by these different saints, they really all spring from personal experience with this God and then they branch out into the glory of Christ and the magnificence, the triumph of the kingdom of God. Really just so beautiful. And the things that these people speak about, including Hannah, before us today, are things that she would never have learned through books. Or even through just going through and listening to a sermon, but God had to take her through certain experiences and out of that, we get the riches that we have here.

You know, I remember years ago reading a statement, The statement went like this, that the safest place for a ship is the harbor, but ships are not made for the harbor. Meaning ships are made to traverse the oceans and the seas. And really the strain of her song, it really all has to do with the fact that God is sovereign in the affairs of men, big and small, and in it, whatever it is, even through the bitter ones, you get a sense of this woman being able to say that I have tasted and I have seen that this God is good. And so here's a woman, she kept her heart with diligence, she was brought very, very low, as you all know, this is not an unfamiliar account, but not so low that it prevented her from constantly looking to God, even when she was at her lowest points and her darkest hours. And so out of her heart really kind of flow the words of the song, and I'm gonna read them to us and then we'll pray.

It says in chapter two, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. No one is holy like the Lord for there is none besides you nor is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly let no arrogance come from your mouth For the Lord is the God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble. The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them. He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces.

From heaven he will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Father, we come to you here this afternoon. We thank you for your word, oh Lord. We thank you for how you work in such a way in the lives of men and women.

Oh Lord, you do wonders and you Use even the most harsh and difficult circumstances to dry out the good and to get glory for your name, Lord, that even here we're reading this song of this woman from over 2,000 years ago as she recounts your goodness and mercy, oh Lord. And many of us can say the same thing that we have seen and tasted, that you are good. Lord, you've been merciful to us, and we revel in that today. We thank you for peace with you, O Lord. Thank you for your kindness toward us, and may this time, Lord, be a blessing.

May it give honor to you. Lord, you are worthy and we thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen, amen. This is really one of my favorite accounts in the Bible. There's no swords here, there's no great exploits, there's no battles or things like that, all you have really is a simple village woman who happened to know her God. And if you fast forward to the New Testament when the Lord Jesus is talking and he's having this discourse with different people that are attacking him, he kind of interrupts the whole frame of thought and he just breaks out in praise and he says, oh Lord I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and you've revealed them to babes.

And this is what we have here before us today. A simple woman, just like many here, who knew her God and she is about to give such magnificent glory to God. What we really get out of this song is her theology and it's heart-keeping theology. It's theology for hard times is what we have before us. And a good question to ask yourself or ask myself is, what's your theology?

Not so much what I believe if you ask me certain questions or catechize me, but what is the way that I regard God when it comes to day-to-day living and life? Is it kind of in the same frame as this? Because remember, even last week we heard that you're about to go into a trial, you're in a trial, or you've just come out of a trial. And so a song like this is just so so helpful. And in the ingredients of our theology as you as you look at this here really kind of I broke it into three different sections you find in the first two verses the goodness of God And then in verse three to eight, you see God's authority in the realm of men.

And then finally, the final two verses are the conclusion of the matter. And I just want to start us here in verse one. And it says, in Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. And if you recall when we first meet Hannah, she's a very unhappy woman.

She's a mournful woman, and in her eyes, her life is a total failure. Things hadn't gone the way that she had expected it all. All her dearest hopes, her dreams had all been dashed because in those days a woman's entire identity was as a wife it was to bear children, to bear offspring for future generations but it wasn't enough that this woman was barren. On top of that, she had a rival that was sent to aggravate her, her woe, and to further confuse her. In chapter one, verse six, we find these words.

It says that her rival provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her room. The devil would have loved nothing more than to use her barrenness and then on top of that this rival to kind of run her over the cliff and have her dashed on the rocks below. He's constantly after her. And on top of the barrenness and the provocation of her rival, there's no relief at all in sight. It's not like you're gonna go through this trial for a few months and then it'll be over, but long, long delays.

You see those words also in chapter one. It says, so it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her, meaning Panina. Therefore she wept and did not eat. This is a year by year long trial. Doesn't tell us if it's five years or eight years or 10 years, we can't figure that out from the text.

But put yourself there for a moment, right? The stigma of being barren, it was the equivalent of being cursed by God. And people would look at you in that way back then. And then, of course, she had the daily reminders. Every day she's home, a child cries or laughs.

She would hear that in the household, but they weren't her children. There would be times around the table. She never had the joy of tucking a little one in at night. And every year they'd go up, and it would be not just their family going up but whole villages would go together and then there would be this massive reunion in Shiloh of all the different people coming to worship God and life seems to be going on so well for everyone else, at least on the surface. Thousands of people all feasting and then people would greet Alcana and they would see Panayana and her big brood of children and maybe they would ask Hannah still nothing Or maybe they would just look at her, maybe those little whispered glances behind the hand.

This was her lot, and it went on for a long time. There was this massive social pressure that she was under to have children, but it was the Lord, it says, that had closed her womb. And she had this great husband, his name is Alkan, as I mentioned, and he tries to console her. He's kind of this prototypical husband, perhaps like many of us, he's the fixer. If you've been a husband for any longer than five minutes you you can relate to this man here And you might have fallen for the same ploy when he makes that statement in chapter one, and I'll just paraphrase Hey, it's not so bad Get over it after all you've got me Am I not better to you than ten sons?" That's his statement to his wife as his consolation.

He tried his best. You know, I never noticed this before, but that might have been the thing that pushed her over the edge because immediately after you read the verse, it says, so Hannah arose. She goes to the tabernacle. And she didn't know it then, did she? But all those things that God had put in her life, all of them, were sent to draw her unto himself.

It's just an amazing thing. And here she is, she's praying, she's weeping, her heart is bleeding before the Lord. And in due season, like it always does, the sun comes out. And there's great jubilation in this whole song at how God deals with men. And she just says this, my heart rejoices in the Lord.

My horn is exalted in the Lord. And I love this. This is the thing, this verse, this one alone, I don't know if I've quoted a verse when we were over in Turkey going through difficulties. I don't know if I quoted a verse more than this. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

And what is this matter of smiling at your enemies. If you can lodge just one thing in your heart today from this afternoon, try to lodge this in your heart. You know, her eyes are turned towards God's salvation. This is what she's regarding. Is it salvation now that He saved her from her trial of barrenness?

Is she referring to her ultimate salvation? The answer is probably yes, both on both accounts. She's just rejoicing in the God of her salvation who saved her out of her predicament. Her enemies, her plight, all the stigma that she had attracted over the years, they were sent. They were like darts that were shot out at her.

Fear, doubt, impossibility, all these things that were assailing her. But all the while, God was at work. And now she's looking back, and she's looking back in amazement. You mean Panina? You mean all those people that looked at me, all those thoughts I had that God had abandoned me?

All of these things she could now see. These enemies so to speak were really messengers from God. Unbeknownst to them, Penina didn't think she was used by God, but they were used by him to bring about huge blessings in her life. And you know, it reminds me of what we read in Hebrews chapter 12 where it's written, now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

And she'd been trained by it, and she says, I smile at my enemies. Amazing, amazing. And then it goes on, and we read in verse two, no one is holy like the Lord. For there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God." And right back to back you get these three negatives. No one is holy, none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.

Look at the stronghold that this woman, she has. She talks about God, she says that he's holy. He's set apart, he's the holy one. There's none like him, there's none besides him. You stand alone and you are the only rightful object of all worship and praise.

And then she says, neither is there any rock like our God. So beautiful. She's almost drawing from Israel's pilgrimage through the desert, the desert wilderness for those 40 years. And if you've ever been in a desert type situation, the only thing oftentimes that you want, the only thing you want is a little shade and something to kind of shield you from the glaring sun. And here she finds a true defense.

She finds a fortress, a refuge in her God. She finds herself hiding in God. Neither is there any rock like our God. Men will fail, people will fail, job, health, you name it, is gonna fail and falter. But God never fails and never falters at all.

And then she goes on with her theology and she speaks about God's authority in the realm of the children of men in verse three to eight. And what she's doing here, she's not only describing her own life, but she's really describing the general laws of God's economy. How does God's world work? And all through scripture, we really see the same theme. And Jesus says it himself right when he opens up with the Sermon on the Mount when he says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth the world doesn't think like that or believe that but history shows that an eternity will declare that very very clearly you know there's a there's a book actually the first book that Francis Schaeffer ever wrote, it was called The God Who Is There, and he makes a statement in that book, just a simple line, but he says, regardless of man's system, he has to live in God's world.

This is God's world. God reigns and this is what Hannah is actually saying and so she makes a statement she says talk no more so very proudly Let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." And we've really got this call to humility and to be a base before God. And when you think about it, every man, even at his best state, you know your brain? Your brain weighs about three pounds. And it used to be said, people used to say, well, you only use 10% of your brain.

You actually only use 35% of your brain. You use about a pound of your brain. And what a thing it is when we are so proud and lofty and I'm including myself in it, it's almost embarrassing when men begin to exalt themselves and think so highly of themselves and use their tongues even to wag against God. You know there's a man by the name of Christopher Hitchens or was a man by the name of Christopher Hitchens. He took it upon himself to write the opposite of what Hannah's writing here.

The title of his book was God is Not Great. And he waged war and an entire tome on why God is not great. Of course he died a few years later. He got cancer in his throat and his tongue rotted in his mouth. Even then he mocked God as he was dying.

Sam Harris, another one of these men, he says, either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes or he doesn't care to or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick and choose wisely. George Soros. It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself to become, to be some sort of God, the creator of everything.

But I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out. Could you imagine? But aren't you glad you don't suffer from pride and proud speech? Well, Jonathan Edwards, that great doctor of the soul, he actually said it like this, pride is the main handle by which he has hold of Christian persons and the chief source of all the mischief that he introduces to clog and hinder a work for God. And he goes on in this catalog to outline all the ways that we as Christians, not forget the atheists, but how we can offend this God with our proud speech.

He goes down the line and he's so good in what he does. He talks about the fault-finding spirit. He says, Spiritual pride causes one to speak of other person's sins, their enmity against God and his people, or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. Are you easily offended? He says spiritual pride takes great notice of opposition and injury that are received and is prone to be often speaking of them and to be much in taking notice of their aggravation, either with an air of bitterness or contempt.

And so what is Hannah doing here? She says, talk no more so exceeding proudly. She's calling us to humble estimation of ourselves and and what she's saying also is that by him actions are weighed. God he puts the correct value on every action. You could look and see something I've done and say, wow, that guy, he's a good guy.

But God, he doesn't just judge by appearance, does he? He puts the act and the motive and everything in the balance to come up with the weight of what has been done. It's a very humbling thing. Remember the Lord Jesus when he was teaching his disciples and they were sitting in the temple and they were watching everyone come and put in their money in the treasury? And he called their attention, he said, hey guys, look at this, this widow has put in more than all of them these two mites, because she had cast in all her living.

He wasn't doing math in the way that we would do math, but he was looking in a much deeper, in a different way, because he judges so differently. And then we come to these great reversals, there's seven reversals, and she's really saying the same thing, and why does she have to say the same thing so many times, because she's driving home a great and important point that God is the actor on the scene of human affairs and he's bending events, he's bending history to the counsel of his own will. The fact that he is sovereign no matter what things look like on the surface, he overrules all things that are mortal. And she wants to just bring glory to God in this very, very thing here. In verse four, the bows of the mighty men are broken.

What can you do with a broken bow? You can't really do anything with it. You're now enfeebled and you're gonna be overrun by your adversaries. Meanwhile, the weak, those that, the word, that word there, it says those who stumbled, It means tottering or weakness in the legs. They can't quite, you know, they can't quite get themselves, but now they're girded with strength.

God does that. In verse 5, those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, And this obviously just means, you know, those that were previously full, enjoying the life, they're now the ones begging on the side of the road. God brings us about. And it may take 100 years before you see a nation that was once exalted, brought low, fallen from plenty. Meanwhile, those who were in line at the soup kitchen, so to speak, no longer suffering hunger pans.

God did that. It says even the barren has born seven and she who has many children has become feeble. Well the barren, you know, Hannah, she ended up having more children by the way. At this point she only has the one she has Samuel and she's giving him to Eli but she had confidence that God is gonna provide and she ends up having three sons and two daughters she doesn't quite make it to seven but meanwhile Those that were previously fruitful have become feeble. I don't know if she's referring to Panina or she's just making a general declaration, but you never see Panina on the scene again.

She was a tool and that was it. In verse six it says that he kills, the Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up. And you just begin again, think about how we ought to be before God, that we are so limited as men, that even if you were to accumulate all of the brains that have ever lived, all the people that have ever lived and their brains, you get all the riches that have ever been dug up out of the ground, everything, and you put them all together and you try to marshal their power just to raise an ant, a simple little ant, after you've stepped on it as a little boy or girl, man still can't do a simple thing like that. We're so limited, but God is the one who he puts down and he raises up.

He makes poor and he makes rich, all of these different things that it says, and it talks about the fact that he raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap. And it's as clear as a bell, what we're seeing here is what God does for Hannah, he also does for us. You were in the ash heap, so to speak, you were in the dust, and God has raised you up to the most unbelievable heights to set you among princes, your way out of your depth. But God has done that for your good so that you would inherit the throne of glory. And this is what Spurgeon observes, he says this, it seems that Jehovah's way is to lower those whom he means to raise up, and to strip those whom he intends to clothe.

That's God's way. And this is how to keep our hearts in difficulty and trial, to have these lofty thoughts of God and his sovereignty in the world. She goes on, she's not finished, halfway through verse eight, she says, "'For The pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them. And all you have to do is just think about how a house is supported with pillars underneath it to keep it. In the same way, she's saying that the earth is upheld by the Lord, and this is the reason, really, for all the rest of what she had just said in those previous five verses.

He's the one that established the world. He's the one that upholds the world. He supports the world and everything in it. He is God ruling over everything And so how could it be otherwise that all the inhabitants of the earth are in his power, and that he does whatever he pleases with them, and that he raises some down and he raises some up. He brings some down and he raises some up at his own pleasure.

And all you have to do is think of the alternative, the alternative to this, the worldview really that's put forth in our day, is that the world is kind of, it's hung on nothing, you know, it came out of an accident, the Big Bang or something else, it's heading nowhere, everything is random and out of control. You know, one of those other atheists, I mentioned Sam Harris and Hitchens, there's another man called Dawkins and he wants people to just come to terms. There's no God. And he wants them to understand one thing. This is his theology.

I'll quote, at bottom, there is no design, no purpose, No evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. That's his theology. How sad can it be when you look at the world like this? But the fact that Hannah, This woman from the village somewhere in northern Israel knows God She knows all that's important and God is at work. What she's saying is he's advancing and he's reducing He's raising and pulling down.

He's the one preserving and destroying He is sovereign in everything And so we come to the conclusion of the matter here in verses nine and 10, and this is where she draws such great confidence. She says, he will guard the feet of his saints. See, she had peace with God, and she's able to make this statement that God will do the thing that is for my good. That's the great comfort really of all the saints here. Not just that he reigns, not just that he's sovereign in the world, but he reigns in the circumstances of the everyday lives of his people.

That he's not an absent God, he is the God who is there every single day. And why are we reminded of this so often, all through scripture? I think it's because it's the thing that we're often most prone to forget. That God is there, he's active, and the things that you're going through that are happening to you aren't accidental, or not just random turns of events, but it's the mighty hand of God that is working. This is the enabling force that allows Hannah really to smile at her enemies, even in calamity and setback, he's at work.

He's keeping my feet from ruin. It's kind of what it means, he will guard the feet of his saints. You know, there's so many things that if God were to not guard your feet, could you imagine if he were to let you go even for a moment? I'm personally, I'm so liable to every fatal sin and I'm not just saying that, that's a fact, but God is my keeper and He's the one that's preserving me, He's preserving you, but meanwhile, look at this, how sad, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. Their lamp is put out, they have nothing to say.

It's like the man at the wedding feast without a wedding garment, and the Lord comes in and says, why are you without a wedding garment? He doesn't even have a word to say, but it's too late to get things right with God. These people are gonna be finally vanquished in the rebellion against God. And I'll quote Spurgeon again on this verse. He says, I hardly know of a more dreadful picture than that of a spirit sitting amidst the clammy damps of the thick darkness of desolation forever and ever silent.

Could you imagine? Well she concludes the matter like this. She says, for by strength no man shall prevail. It's all of God. You know, Panina, she trusted in her strength but she didn't recognize that the blessings she had gotten were from God's hand.

She used that as a weapon against Hannah. And you know it's very important, by strength no man shall prevail. Have you come to see this yourself personally? You know, homeschooling is good isn't it, but it's not sufficient. Catechizing is good, but it's not sufficient.

Exercise is important, but it's not sufficient. Healthy eating, wonderful, but not sufficient. See, no formula that excludes God, acting will actually prevail. I'm not saying don't hear me, don't eat healthy, don't exercise, don't home-stay. All these things, we do it in light of following after God, but rely on those things as though they are the means that we can somehow create a formula for salvation or for whatever, when God controls everything at the end of the day.

By strength, no man shall prevail, is how Hannah concludes. And we can go back to Romans and ask the question well where is boasting then it is excluded there's no one who can boast and so verse 10 this is where we get introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ. How will God go about his plans? It says here, the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces. From heaven he will thunder against them.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth." And you could say, well isn't Hannah getting a little bit ahead of herself? She's living in the time of the judges where there's not even a king and she's talking about the ends of the earth. They're still wrestling with the Philistines and the Aites of the land, the Jebusites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and she's talking about the ends of the earth, you know? But look what she says in the last word of her song. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

The last word of Hannah's song, anointed, this is the first time in the entire Bible where the word Messiah is used. She's looking forward, just like all of those great songs, look forward to the time when Messiah will come. And what we read there is that he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. How will God bring about this conquering of the entire world even to the ends of the earth? It's through Jesus Christ that she's pointing to.

And so, like all the great songs of the Bible, she's seeing the Messiah far off, that he would be the judge, and she's saying all of these things so that we, the recipients of this, and those who heard her that day, would have a settledness in our hearts, that these words, the words of this song would produce a stability, a soul-stabilizing stability. In our case, he isn't coming in the future in the sense of his first coming. He's gonna come again. And he's king over all. He's over all angels, over all principalities, but he's particularly king in the lives of his saints and specifically in his church.

And he's the king that was set up and anointed from eternity past. All these truths that we've just read in Hannah's song should cause you to be able to smile at your enemies when they come. And I just want to end here with a hymn, and you might have heard of this hymn, it's by a woman by the name of Elizabeth Prentiss, and she was the wife of a pastor. She spent most of her adult life as an invalid, and she never had a day without racking pain. She was always in pain.

And yet, she was described by her friends as a bright-eyed, cheery woman with a keen sense of humor. And you know the song, More Love to Thee, O Christ, but there's one verse in there where it says this, Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain. When they can sing with me, more love, O Christ, to thee. More love to thee, more love to thee.

Through grief and pain, This woman, Elizabeth Prentice, was able to see the goodness of God and smile at her enemies just like Hannah. Well let's pray together. Heavenly Father, We thank you so much for your word, for your soul-stabilizing word, oh Lord, we thank you. It is, Lord, you are a rock. We have found that to be true, that as we go through this desert wilderness, Lord, so many times in perplexity and difficulty, Lord, you are the one that we need.

You're the fortress and refuge. Lord, I pray that you would help us, each and every one of us, oh Lord, as we go through this life with travail and difficulty. Lord, I pray that you would help us all to be able to smile at our enemies. Not just because we rejoice in difficulty, no Lord, but as Hannah said, she rejoices in your salvation, in your hand, in your presence, in you using all things to bring about our good. Lord, we praise you.

We thank you and we ask you to be with us now for the rest of this day. Lord, get glory from us and be honored among us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.