Women of the Bible – Hannah (part 2)

For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 1 Samuel 1:27 

Hannah’s prayer was answered (I Sam 1:20). She greatly rejoiced over the birth of her son. I’m sure she loved and cherished him, but a promise was a promise. Hannah kept her boy home until she weaned him, probably between 3-5 years old.  During this time she taught her son about the Lord. The NYU Child Study Center says, “The first five years create the foundation for the child to accomplish key developmental advances in mind and body. .... It is during these years that the brain undergoes its most dramatic growth.”  Hannah keeping her son home and working with him was a long time before this statement from NYU, but she knew and trusted her Lord. When the time was right, Hannah took her son, Samuel, back to the temple with an offering. She gave her son and the offering to Eli, the priest.

As I was reviewing the scriptures about Hannah I noticed I Samuel 1:27-28 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there. “He worshipped the Lord there”, is a perfect picture of what Hannah had taught Samuel. During his very young years she was teaching him about worshipping God.

Hannah’s main objective in life was to have a son to give “back to the Lord”. The Lord gave her the desire of her heart and Hannah kept her promise to God. She was greatly blessed with five more children.

Hannah’s prayer of praise and thanks is recorded in I Samuel 2:1-10.

Lessons from Hannah’s life:

·        God knew Hannah’s sorrow. God knows our sorrows.

·        Hannah found comfort in the house of God. Do we find comfort in God’s house and His word?

·        God answered Hannah’s prayer. God will answer our prayers.

·        Hannah kept her vow. When I make promises to God, do I keep them?

·        Hannah taught her son about God. Do we teach our children/grandchildren about God?

·        Hannah praised God for answered prayer. Do we praise God for answered prayer, even if it is not answered “our way”?

Have a blessed day, 

Donna

Women of the Bible – Hannah

And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. 1 Samuel 1:10 

What would it be like to have no children? This is a question I cannot answer. I was blessed with three beautiful and healthy children, if that was not enough God gave me four wonderful grandchildren to hold and enjoy.  I have never been childless; I do not know the ache, sadness or emptiness that others feel.

Hannah was a childless woman. She dreamed, yearned, craved, and spent every moment wishing for a child. The Bible says, “children are a heritage from the Lord” and more than anything else Hannah wanted a child. She was married to a man with two wives. The wife that shared the home with Hannah was named Peninnah and she had children.

Not only did Peninnah have children but she “rubbed it” in Hannah’s face whenever she had a chance. We are told that she provoked Hannah. I can picture Peninnah as a bully who would not stop no matter what. We are told this went on for years (I Sam 1:7). Imagine living in the torment of not only being childless but someone reminding you in a taunting and aggravating manner day in and day out. Talk about being discouraged and depressed, I’m sure that is how Hannah must have felt.

Hannah was in deep anguish (I Samuel 1:10) and prayed to God. The only place she could find solice was the house of God. She cried and prayed to God. In the prayer she vowed to God, “if you will give me a son, then I will give him back to you.” (I Samuel 1:11) Hannah knew a vow should never be made unless it was to be kept (Num 30:2). She had every intention of keeping the vow even when she knew it would make her childless again.

Join me the next time for the answer and results of the prayer.

Have a blessed day,
Donna

Women of the Bible – Sarah (part 2)

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Genesis 18:14 

As the years pass Sarai still doesn’t have children. Meanwhile she had her own ideas. She suggests to Abram to take her maid Hagar and have children with her. This was a common practice during this time, the results, hopefully, was to give the man a male heir. Hagar does conceive but it causes problems. The main problem was it is not God’s plan.

In Genesis 17 God changes their names from Sarai and Abram to Sarah and Abraham (Gen 17:13, 15-16). Sarah means princess while Abraham means ”father of many nations”. Changing their names was God’s way of sealing His promise with them.

We can learn much from Sarah’s life. One of the things that “jumped” out at me, was the way she handled the “heir” situation. Sarah knew what God had promised but she had a hard time believing it. Instead of waiting on God and His time table, she ran ahead of God and made her own plan (the wrong way). She spoke to Abraham and said, “God is “restraining” me from having children so go and try with my servant, Hagar. (Gen 16:1-4) Almost immediately, Sarah realized her wrong and lashed out at Abraham. (Gen 16:5)

Do we ever lash out at someone for our mistakes? Is that the right way to handle the situation? Are our emotions controlling us or are we controlling our emotions? I can only answer for myself and sad to say many times I let my emotions control me.

The right way is to wait on God and search His word. Waiting for anything is extremely hard for us, but waiting on the Lord, sometimes, is almost impossible for impatient humans to do! A few verses that come to mind:

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Psalm 27:14 

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: … Psalm 37:7

Search His word for answers to your problems. As we are waiting on the Lord for a clear answer to a problem we need to be looking in His word for the answer. He will give us comfort as we wait for His lead in the next step.

 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Psalm 130:5 

To know how to wait is the great secret of success. ~ Joseph De Maistre

As the story unfolds we find that Sarah’s faith is increased. Hebrews 11:11 says, Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Sarah is just one of two women mentioned in the “hall of faith” chapter in the book of Hebrews.

At the age of 90, Sarah had a son, Isaac, meaning laughter. Abraham was 100 years old. It was certainly a miracle that she had a child at this age but another phenomenon was her ability to nurse him. 

Sarah died when she was 127 years old. She is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded.

Faith is to believe, on the word of God, what we do not see, and its reward is to see and enjoy what we believe. ~ Augustine

As we travel through life we need to wait on Him in all situations and have faith that nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Have a blessed day,
Donna

Women of the Bible – Sarah (part 1)

So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. Genesis 12:4 -5

Have you ever been given an order and blindingly obeyed? Sarah did, God spoke to Abram, Sarah’s husband, and said “pack up and move”. Without a question Abram moved and his wife and extended family moved with him.

Sarai was the wife of Abram. We learn right away that she had no children (Genesis 11:30). Lockyer says, “To a Hebrew woman, barrenness was looked upon as a gnawing grief, and sometimes regarded as a sign of divine disfavor.”

Imagine being 65 years old and your husband is 75 years old (Genesis 12:4). One day he comes home and tells you he received a divine word from God. God told him to get out of his country and leave everything he knew, family, friends and the area (Genesis 12:11) God told him to leave and He would show him where to go. What would your reaction be? Ok honey; let’s go I had an oil change yesterday and new tires last week.

Wait a minute, there were no cars, as a matter of fact, no “real” roads were in existence either. The mode of travel was camel, donkey or walking. The roads were dusty, dirty, and hot which made the journey very, very tiring. Oh and did I mention they did not have comfortable sneakers or walking shoes but handmade sandals.

Sarai and Abram lived in Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was in Mesopotamia, it is now modern day Iraq. Being a city of trade, it was advanced for its day. Ur was between the Euphrates River and a canal deep enough for merchant ships to sail in. Ships sailed up and down this canal to transport goods such as timbers, gold, silver, ivory and alabaster to name a few.

God was asking Abram to change his entire pattern of life. They would leave a fairly comfortable city to be semi-nomads of the desert. Don’t forget they had no scriptures, no sermons and read no books about God.  God spoke and Abram listened and obeyed. That is faith. Sarai picked up and obeyed her husband. When they left they took everything they owned with them. Think of some of the things they took: household goods, servants, livestock, a caravan of people and animals. Genesis 12:5 says, “… all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran…”

God gave Abram a promise with the order of leaving his country. Genesis 12:2 “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:”

Sarai was an obedient wife and traveled with her husband. Twice she lied because Abram asked her to, (Genesis 12:13; Genesis 20:2) saying she was his sister (a half truth, since they both had the same father). The Bible says she was a fair woman (Genesis 12:11). Fair in this verse means beautiful. She must have been a stunning woman, remember she was 65 years old when she left Ur (this was before plastic surgery). It is recorded two different times that kings wanted her in their harems; both times she was protected by God.

I’ll look more at the life of Sarah in the next blog.

Have a blessed day,
Donna

Women of the Bible: Eve (part 3)

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:18 

As I end my “mini” study of Eve please review the outline and “dig deeper” as you answer the questions for yourself.

I.  A Closer Look

    A.  Eve created as helpmeet Genesis 2:18

               1.  What is a helpmeet? Hebrew means aid

               2.  Do we hinder or help our husbands/ others?

Hinder – to make difficult for; …

Help – to make it easier for (a person) to do something; …

‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after’   ~ Shakespeare

  B.  Eve’s Problem

               1.  Discontented Genesis 3:6

               Eve could eat from every tree of the garden but one. The more she had the more she wanted.

                         a.  Wanted more than what she had

                                    I John 2:16 

                         b.  Ignored what was right in favor of what was appealing

               2.  Are you discontented or contented with your life?

                         a  Discontent – lack of contentment; uneasiness; dissatisfaction at any present state of things;

                         The root of all discontent is self-love.  ~ J.F. Clarke

                         b.  Content – happy enough with what one has or is;

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.  ~ Lin Yutang

He who is not contended with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. ~ Socrates

              3.  Don’t look at circumstances, look to God

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5

The best remedy for our discontent is to count our mercies. By the time we have reckoned up a part of these, we shall be on our knees praising the Lord for His great mercy and love. ~ The Quiver

C.  Eve’s influence on Adam

          1.  Influenced the wrong way -gave him fruit Genesis 3:6

          2.  How do we influence others?

          3.  Do we discourage or encourage?

Discourage – to deprive of courage; to dishearten; …

Discouragement is the common denominator of all unhappy lives. ~ W. Beran Wolfe

Encourage – to give courage to ; to give confidence to …

Encouragement is oxygen to the soul. ~ Anonymous

II.  Avoid and  Apply

   A.  Avoid

               1.  Being a hinderer

               2.  Being discontented

               3.  Being a discourager

  B.  Apply

1.  Being a help meet or helper

2.  Being content

3. Being an encourager

The choice is ours. Each one of us needs to answer for herself. We need to use God’s word as our guide.

Have a blessed day, 

Donna

Women of the Bible: Eve (part 2)

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Genesis 2:23 

As I continue my “mini” study of Eve, here is a short list of some of the “firsts” of Eve:

·        First woman to live on earth (never child or daughter)

·        First (and only) woman born without sin

·        First wife and mother

·        First attacked by Satan

·        First dressmaker       

·        First to received divine prophecy of the cross               

·        First grandmother                                                              

·        First mother to have a son a murderer, to suffer heartache, anxiety and torments because of Cain

Some of the firsts are “cool” but some are not too “cool” and caused extreme heartache for her as well as all mankind.

In the scriptures there are different names that referred to Eve: 

·        Woman – taken out of man Genesis 2:23

·        Eve – life giver Genesis 3:20

·        Adam – mankind Genesis 5:1

A brief summary of Eve’s life:

·        Created for Adam by God (Genesis 2:22)

·        Lived in a beautiful garden (Genesis 2:8)

·        Tempted and deceived by Satan (Genesis 3:1-6)

·        Punished for sin of disobedience (Genesis 3:16)

·        Thrown out of garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24)

·        She had two sons, Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-2)

·        When Cain and Abel grew older, they offered sacrifices to God. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice of the first of his flock, but rejected Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground. Cain killed Abel because of jealousy (Genesis 4:3-8) Eve was heartbroken.

·        Eve had a third son, named him Seth (Genesis 4:25). The Bible tells us that men from Seth’s lineage began to call on the Lord (Genesis 4:26) Eve had Seth when her other sons were grown men.

·        Adam and Eve had other children but it is not recorded in the Bible how many.

·        We don’t know how long Eve lived but Genesis 5:5 says Adam lived 930 years. Eve probably lived as long as Adam.

Eve had the perfect life, in the perfect place. Eve had absolutely no cares. Even with a perfect life in a perfect place, Eve took her eyes off the Perfect Creator. In a very short time, her life spun out of control and it was all downhill from there. We can learn from Eve’s life.

Join me the next time as I continue this “mini” study and take a closer look at Eve’s life.

Have a blessed day,
Donna

Women of the Bible: Eve

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27 

I thought I would look at some Bible women for the next few blogs. We can discover so much from women of the Bible. We can learn how to do things and we can learn how not to do things. The key is to apply what we learn.

Where should I start? Eve, the first woman, is the best place to start. Join me as I do a “mini” Bible study on Eve.

Eve lived “in the beginning” in a place called Eden, the exact location unknown but it may have been between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers near the Persian Gulf.

Let’s take a little imaginary journey. Pretend you just woke up. You look around, everything is a spectacular green. A few creatures on 4 legs come up to you, they feel soft and furry to the touch, and some even make amusing sounds. As you look around, your eyes start to focus, seeing objects you cannot explain, exquisite fruit, in amazing shapes and colors, in a magnificent garden. You see the absolutely gorgeous flowers with velvety pink and yellow petals. Blue sparkling water is rushing over rocks and pebbles through a garden in a little brook. Everything is new, new to you, new to everything around you. You are the first woman.

Picture a world where everything is new, colors, textures, sights, and sounds. Everything is perfect, no flaws, and no imperfections. No smog, no appliances, no cars, no stores, no houses, creation in its flawless condition. This is where Eve’s life began. God created Eve. She was a perfect woman in a perfect world. We cannot even begin to image what her life was like.

Join me the next time as I dig a little deeper into Eve’s life.

Have a blessed day,
Donna