Phil Beach Jr. explores the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel, emphasizing her deep travail and desperation for a child as a response to the spiritual lawlessness in Israel. He highlights that God's answer to the nation's condition was not a new system or religion, but the birth of a man, Samuel, who would restore God's order. Beach encourages listeners to recognize their own self-centeredness and to seek God's preeminence in their lives, illustrating that true transformation comes from a heart that is desperate for God. He draws parallels between Hannah's longing for a son and the need for Christ in our lives, urging the congregation to embrace a spirit of travail that seeks the man, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate answer to their struggles.

Father, thank you so much for your presence. Thank you so much, Lord, for your mercy and your grace, O God. Thank you, Lord, that you are the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, and that there is no variableness with you, and thank you, Lord, that you are consistent, and I pray, God, that today you would be gracious to take your word, Lord, and reveal to us your heart, reveal to us, Lord, your thought, reveal to us, Lord, give us a living word today that addresses exactly what we're going through in order to lift us out of time and out of, so often, a very human perspective into eternity and into an eternal perspective on what's going on. We look to you to do this, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. We're going to begin, and if you would turn your Bible to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel, that's in your Old Testament, that's right after Ruth, and the book of 1 Samuel is a remarkable book in many ways, but perhaps the most remarkable is that the book of Samuel is God's response, God's response to the condition in Israel that was prevailing at this time. Now, in order to understand the condition of Israel during this time, you just want to go to your left a little bit and go to the last verse in the last book of Judges, that is the setting, the last verse in the last book, in the last chapter of the book of Judges. Now, Judges is right before Ruth, and Ruth is right before 1 Samuel, okay, and now what does that verse say in Judges chapter 21, verse number 25, in those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no king in Israel at the time, and every man became a law unto himself. Now, we know that God was the king of Israel, and how ironic that in the midst of God's people, those that were chosen, those that were set aside, there was no king in Israel, and the scripture makes it very clear that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone did what was right according to his own judgment, and his thoughts, and his ideas, or her ideas, whenever the king is no longer welcome in our lives as individuals, or in our families, or in the assembly that's called by his name, whenever he is no longer welcome, and recognized, and honored, and given the place of preeminence, inevitably, inevitably, we will do what's right in our own eyes. Listen, every young person here, please, every young person, it is so important to make this transaction with the Lord when you're young. The scripture says that there is a way that seems right to man. There's a way that seems right to us, but the end thereof is destruction and death. There is a way that seems right to every man and every woman, but that way the scripture is speaking of is our way, our own way. It seems right to us, but the end, the result, is destruction, and the only way that we can be kept from our own way is by giving the Lord that place of absolute preeminence and lordship in our life. Now, who is it that were the recipients of God's law? The nation of Israel, right? When the scripture says here that in those days there was no king in Israel, does it mean that there had not been given the law of God to Israel? No, they had the law. They had the ordinances that Moses gave them. They had the law. They had the letter of the law. But the letter of the law had not penetrated their hearts. It had not penetrated their minds. It had not penetrated into the depths of their being, and so though they had the law externally, there was no king. The kingship of Christ, the kingship of who God was, was not in their midst, and so again, I want to emphasize before we move on to every young person here, please be sure that you settle it with the Lord. Every young person here, settle it with the Lord. You come to the Lord by faith and you say, Lord, I don't want to do what's right in my own eyes. I don't want to live my life based on what's right in my own eyes. I don't want to go through life saying, what is best for me? I want to come to the place, Lord, where my life is governed by you. My thoughts are being brought to you. My plans are being brought to you. Everything I am is laid before you so that you can be the one that's governing my life. You can be the one that is guiding me in all that I do and all that I lay before you, because without that, then we end up doing what's right in our own eyes, and that's a disaster. Okay, now, that's the setting of 1 Samuel 1. There is a condition of lawlessness, a condition in many ways of anarchy, a condition where there is no king in Israel. Listen, there's no cohesion in Israel. There's no unity in Israel. There's nothing uniting the nation of Israel together as one people, as one company. And so the question that we want to ask this morning is, what is God's response to the condition of Israel? What is God's response? The word Samuel means asked of God, asked of God. The name Samuel means asked of God. And as we look into the story of the first chapter, we see that there is a woman by the name of Hannah, and she was in great, great turmoil and travail because she was without child. She was without child. Now these circumstances, listen closely, please, these circumstances reveal to us God's response to lawlessness, God's response. It is not, God's response is not the setting in motion a new religion. God's response is not setting in motion a new movement. God's response is not setting in motion a new system. God's response to the state of Israel, the spiritual state of Israel. Listen, was the birth of a man. It was a man. God's response was a man, a person. And this is what Hannah represents. She was travailing and weeping and crying out to God because she was barrenless. She wanted a child. She wanted a child in whom she could find the pleasure of devoting that child entirely to the Lord's interests. Now let's keep putting the pieces together here. Let's put the dots together. God's response to the anarchy and lawlessness of his people was finding a woman in travail, deep soul travail, who was barren, who was without child, who wanted a child from God so that she could offer this child to God. She could offer this child unreservedly to God so that he would serve. This child would serve God's interests. And as we read through the book of Samuel, we see that God used Samuel to bring back into view God's thought and God's pleasure and God's will for the nation of Israel. And so what instrument does God use in order to respond to and correct a state of lawlessness? Well, we see Hannah in verse number two. This is a certain man from Ephraim. He had two wives. And the name of the first one was Hannah and the name of the second, Teniah. And Teniah had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And when the time was that Eli can offered and gave Teniah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions, but unto Hannah, he gave a worthy portion for he loved Hannah. But the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. Now, beloved, it is so important for us to see that this. This is the condition of of a spiritual. Decline. This is this this setting is in a condition of spiritual decline, spiritual apostasy, everyone doing what's right in their own eyes. And here God is in a hidden way working. What is he doing? What is what is God's way of dealing with this? He's got a woman. He's got a woman. And this woman is bearing. She's bearing reproach. She feels very, very weak. She feels very vulnerable. She's being mocked. She's being misunderstood by her adversary, her husband's second wife. She's being ridiculed and she's broken before God. Listen, Hannah is a person in whom God begins to secure the answer to the spiritual apostasy. In Hannah, we see a number of qualities. Number one, we see a woman who is bearing. A woman who is bearing reproach. A woman who is weak. A woman who is suffering, suffering woman. Dear friends, whenever the Lord wants to correct a spiritual condition like that of Israel in the day of first Samuel, he finds vessels, vessels here, vessels there, vessels here. And he works in them weakness, pain, suffering. He works in them a quality that results in, listen, being desperate for God. Desperate for God. Desperate for God's touch. Desperate for God's intervention. Now remember, the desperation of Hannah is for a son. It is for a son. It is for a man. Because God's thought in restoring Israel is a man. It's bringing a man on the scene. Okay? And so let's read on here. And verse number eight. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to Hannah, Why are you weeping? Why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to you than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord. She was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord. She was desperate. She was desperate for a son. She was desperate for a son. This travailing woman was desperate for a son. That captures, right there, the heart of God in the circumstances, the method, the way in which God addresses spiritual apostasy. Not just in nations, but the way God addresses any kind of spiritual problems or decline in our lives. Do you have problems in your home? Do you know of families who have problems in their home? Are you touched with the infirmities and struggles and feelings of spiritual decline and spiritual insensitivity and spiritual blindness that maybe is in your own life, in the life of your family members, in the life of your immediate family, your outstretched family, your church family? Are you burdened? Do you see? Do you see that in so many instances we are inclined to do what's right in our own eyes? Do you see that? What's God's answer? What is God's response to that? Is it criticizing? Is it becoming critical and cynical and judgmental? Absolutely not. God's response to this condition of spiritual decline is finding a vessel, a vessel who will weep and who will be burdened and who will cry and who will be desperate for God. And all of that is gathered together. All of the weeping and the travail and the desperation is gathered together and focused on one object. One object. A man. A man. A man to be born in whom God, in whom and through whom God can restore order back to the nation. Or in whom God can restore order back to your home, back to your heart. Have you yourself felt that the eyes of your heart have become dim and that you're so prone to be led astray and so prone to lose focus on what God is doing? Are you burdened about that? Does that concern you? What's the answer? What's the answer to this? A travailing, burdened heart for a man. A man. Brothers and sisters, these spiritual truths can be carried right over into the New Testament. I don't think we'll get there today. But lives can be transformed. Families can be changed. Churches can be revived. If we see God's way of dealing with spiritual decline and offer ourselves to Him. Now watch. Verse 10, And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sorely. It was the Lord who made her barren because He was making her desperate. Don't despise the circumstances. Don't despise the situations. Don't despise the sovereignty of God in your life when He begins to make you desperate. And brothers and sisters, in desperation we go through two stages. Two stages in desperation. It's important for us to see this. Two stages in desperation. The first stage in desperation and you'll find this to be true in the life of Job. What was Job's primary concern during most of his trial? Himself. Himself. Right. So when God is sovereignly preparing us as He did in Hannah's life to be a vessel through whom travail and desperation is born, the first thing that begins to happen is we are awakened to how self-centered we are. And our trial and the pressure that comes upon us from God's sovereign hand causes all kinds of emotions to come forth. All kinds of emotions, anger, bitterness, resentment, and a number of other kinds of emotions. And really, it is happening because what the trial and what the pressure is doing is surfacing the essential principle of our own life. Remember last week we talked about the old Adam and the new Adam? Or the first Adam and the second Adam? The first man and the last man? And we saw that if you gather together all that we are in ourselves, both the bad and the good, no matter how you present it, God rejects it all because every bit of it is connected to self-centeredness. We know that open sins are obviously wrong. We know that being a liar and a thief and a murderer and an immoral, greedy person and an idolater, disobeying our parents, disrespectful to authority, we know those things are not good. But we can gather up all the best in Adam and like we did last week, we made a list, being loving, being gentle, being kind, being righteous. But those qualities are tainted and they're connected to self-centeredness so that our love can turn to hatred overnight. Our kindness can turn to unkindness overnight. Our giving can turn to bitterness overnight. And all of the nice qualities and all of the nice things that we can generate out of our own selves, out of the humanity that we got from the first Adam, no matter how nice they might look, Paul said that his were blameless. All of his good qualities were blameless as to the law. They looked perfect. But when he got a revelation of the last Adam, the last man, the second Adam, he saw the truth about himself. And he saw the truth about all that he was. And he saw that it was all connected to self and that it was not acceptable to God because God only accepts a righteousness that is what? He only accepts a righteousness that is equal to his. Did you know that? That God doesn't accept human righteousness? You say, well, how can that be? What do I do? God won't accept our righteousness. You can't get into heaven on the grounds of your righteousness. You can't present to God all of your good deeds that come out of your own heart and all of your good works. You can't present that to God. That's like filthy rags in my eyes. And so we gather together all this kind of humanity and we realize that it's self-centered. Now how do we come to realize this? We come to realize this when the pressure of life and God's discipline and God's child training begins to work upon us. Just like it did in Hannah. She was barren. God has a way of making us feel barren. God has a way of making us feel very, very, very empty. God has a way of bringing us to the place where we have no hope on earth and no hope in heaven but God himself. And so the first step when God begins to cause vessels to become fashioned in a posture where they're desperate for him is the first step as we see how self-centered we are. Like Job. Job, when he went through his trials, was so concerned about himself. And then we can turn there. We can turn to Job for a moment and we'll read the scripture. Job is right before Psalms. Now, beginning in chapter 40, something is beginning to happen. Job has gone through his intense trial. He's many chapters into it, many months into it. And he is just unloaded on God and all of his self-centered life is being exposed. And then all of a sudden he begins to make some comments. Verse 1, chapter 40, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproves God let him answer. Then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. Who has another translation? Huh? Insignificant, nothing, little. Unworthy. Wait a minute. Job is saying he's unworthy now. What's he seeing? What's Job seeing? The truth about himself. He's unworthy. And so God allowed this horrible test to come into Job's life and it resulted in Job starting to see he was so self-centered. He was so self-centered. All of his goodness and all of his righteousness that was according to the law was just being exposed. And he just realized he was unworthy, insignificant. He just was guilty before God. He was guilty. Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Uh-oh, something's happening to Job. He's starting to realize that it's better to keep his mouth shut because when he's in the midst of this terrible trial many of the things he says is not true. He accuses God. He gets angry. He accuses other people unjustly. And so what's beginning to happen? This man is starting because of the pressure of adversity and trial he's starting to see the true nature of who he is in himself and he's saying, God, I'm unworthy. God, I'm insignificant. God, I'm going to close my mouth. I'm going to stop trying to justify myself in your presence. I'm going to stop trying to make myself right. When you're corrected, do you try and make yourself right or do you accept that correction? Huh? What do you do? Are you so full of energy trying to prove to others how right you are? Well, Job said, Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. Now go to verse number 42 or chapter 42 and this is where God was wanting to bring Job. This is the final place where God wanted to bring Job. Then Job answered the Lord, chapter 42, and said, I know that you can do anything. Now, brothers and sisters, when Job made this confession, he was not just referring to God, I know you can do anything in the world. It wasn't just a statement of God's omnipotence. God, you can do anything. Listen, here's what Job was saying, and this is when we know that God has broken us. God, I know that you can do anything to me. Oh, my. We can look and acknowledge that God has the right to do whatever he wants in the world, but when God begins to take us at our word and do what he wants in our life, that is when the roots of who we really are in ourself begin to come out in full color. And so what Job had been brought to was a place of desperation where he said, God, you can do whatever you want in my life, and you remain just. You remain just in what you do in my life. And no matter what you do, you are just. And I am always undeserving, unworthy, and will be found in myself undone. God has to get us to that place before we can truly know the joy of living in the good of the righteousness of another. All right. Now watch what's happening with Job. God, I know you can do whatever you want in me and that no thought can be withholding from you. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not. Here I beseech you, and I will speak. I will but demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Verse five, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. The difference between knowing about the Lord and then seeing him by the by revelation in the eyes of our heart, seeing the Lord for who he really is. This is what's happening. Job said, I've I've known about you in the hearing of my ear. I've talked about you. I have had great conversations with the elders of the city about you. I've taught, I've taught my sons and my daughters all about you. But now, but now my eyes see you. Verse five, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Here is a, here is a picture of a Hannah, a Hannah brought to the place of desperation brought to the place where Job clearly sees who he is apart from God and repents and sackcloth and ashes abhors himself detests what he sees about the law of sin that's working in the humanity that he inherited from Adam. And now Job is at a perfect place for God to make a transition in Job's life from being so preoccupied with what he was in the first Adam to what God has secured in his lovely son, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ and the kind of humanity that's in him. Oh my, what an emancipation, what a deliverance, what a glorious time to be able to be brought to God, brought to God and brought by God to the place where we can hear John the Baptist say behold the Lamb of God the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that takes away all the sin of the first Adam that emancipates us from it that delivers us from it that turns our eyes from trusting in it, that turns our hearts from trying to be just before God on the grounds of anything that's in us. Oh happy day oh happy day when we say behold the Lamb of God it's a man, the man Christ Jesus, He's the answer, the man it's the man Christ Jesus He's the answer He's the answer to my problem He's the answer to Israel's problem, He's the answer to Job's problem He's the answer to our problems today, it's the man Christ Jesus, it's seeing Jesus beloved and so back in 1 Samuel here's verse 11 here's the kind of prayer that comes when God works this Hannah spirit in us, when God works the Hannah spirit that we see in Job when God works the Hannah spirit that we see in Paul who said what when he gathered together all of his righteousness and all of his humanity, what did he say I count it but dung trash, rubbish that's what Paul said in comparison to what knowing Christ Jesus my Lord knowing his righteousness knowing his glory okay so watch this and she vowed a vow and said oh Lord if you will indeed look on the affliction of thy handmaid oh may God give us this kind of affliction that delivers us and emancipates us from having hope in anything having hope in ourselves having hope in our friends having hope in our circumstances having hope in our money having hope in our character, having hope in our integrity, having hope in anything, bring us to the point where in our affliction we cry out without any more hope we have no hope in anyone else I know this isn't popular, I know this won't appeal to the masses but who's looking to appeal to the masses don't we want to satisfy God's heart if you will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thy handmaid but will give unto me a man child how amazing that God puts a woman in travail to desire a man child as God's response or may I say reaction to lawlessness then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head and we know the story as we read on that God answered Hannah's prayer and that Hannah had a baby called Samuel and Samuel became the man through whom God began to restore back to Israel a vision of who he was a vision of his desire for them to open up their lives so he could be king now go to chapter 2 this this is a prayer prayed by the Holy Spirit and this is the effects that this man has when he reveals the glory of God this prayer is a picture it's a type it's a shadow pointing us to what happens when the man in heaven the glory of God deity revealed in humanity the Lord Jesus Christ when this man is seen when this man comes on the scene when people begin to travail in the church the church is a woman the church is called a woman the church is called the bride of Christ but God is looking for a travail a travail woman corporately a woman who has no hope on earth no desire for earth a woman who recognizes that in her self and in the lives of those she knows and in the world she lives in there is utter lawlessness there is a condition equal to that of judges every man is doing what's right in his own eyes a woman who because being subject to the discipline of God Hebrews chapter 12 the scourging of God the child training of God has come to see like Peter depart from me I am a sinful person you've come to see that gathered up all of your humanity the good and the bad is all together rejected by God you've come to see it you're no longer trying to find in yourself a reason or the grounds to offer anything to God you've come to the place where you have said oh God like Job oh God I abhor myself I repent and sackcloth and ashes you are just and I'm at your mercy I'm at your mercy and when that kind of travailing heart comes then all of our prayers and all of our desires are reduced to one thing one thing beloved not many things one thing that a man the man the man Christ Jesus may be given more and more and more a place a preeminent in our lives because he's the answer to our struggles it's that man coming forth in our lives individually in our families in our church it's that man coming forth that is the answer now watch what happens when that man comes forth and Hannah prayed and said my heart rejoices in the Lord my horn is exalted in the Lord my mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation see Samuel is connected to God's salvation and it is it is a type of the man Christ Jesus who is God's salvation there is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee neither is there any rock like our God listen listen when you when you come into the presence of this man something begins to happen and brothers and sisters as we bring this to a close I pray that you will ask God where is your soul in relation to Hannah's soul are you sharing in that travail are you sharing in that travail do you see the answer to you your family your loved ones your friends your church do you see the answer reduced down to one thing we need the man in glory do you see it listen to what happens when you do talk no more so exceeding let no arrogance come out of your mouth oh my God when we see the man in glory God begins to put a bridle on our tongue arrogance and pride in the presence of the man of glory is detestable in the sight of God do you know why so often we love to run at the mouth because the eyes of our heart have lost their sight and seeing the man in glory and so often what we say and what we are occupied with is is is revealing the depth to which our heart from seeing the man in glory but Hannah begins to declare by revelation in seeing the significance of God's salvation in Samuel but seeing the bigger picture the greater Samuel the man in glory the Lord Jesus Christ she begins to see what happens stop being proud stop being arrogant the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are waived the bows of the mighty men are broken and they that stumbled are girded with strength and now all of a sudden the Holy Spirit begins to show us that when the man in glory comes in view then the bows of mighty men are broken the strength of man has no place in the presence of God God's salvation and God's plan has nothing to do with human strength it has nothing to do with the bows of man it has everything to do with the glory and splendor of the Lord Jesus Christ and as we see him as the soul travails for the Son for the Lord Jesus Christ to be birthed in our lives didn't Paul say Ephesians 4 or Galatians 4 19 he said I am again in travail for you he was talking to the church in Galatia that Christ might be fully formed in you there it is brothers and sisters away with the glory of man away with the pride of man away with the arrogance of man away with the strength of man away with it God says away with it in light of my son it's like it's going to fade like Colette was sharing this morning the glory of man is going to fade they that are full have hired out themselves for bread oh my God what incredible language here they that are full have hired themselves out for bread didn't Jesus say woe unto you that are full you shall be what empty full full of what full of our self full of confidence in our self God says woe unto you that are full you're going to end up begging for bread and they that were hungry ceased all but blessed are the poor in spirit right blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who know that in God alone is their health in Christ alone is their righteousness all right let's read on so that the barren hath born seven and she that hath many children is waxed evil the Lord kills and makes alive and brings down to the grave and brings up this is the confessions of a of a heart that has been emptied of self and sees the man in glory verse number six that's that Job's confession right Lord you can do whatever you want the Lord giveth the Lord makes alive the Lord brings down the Lord makes makes poor and makes rich he brings low and he lifts up he raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he hath set the world upon them he will keep the feet of his saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces out of heaven shall we thunder upon them the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth and he shall give strength to his king see Samuel the king but Samuel was only representing the king of glory and the real king is the Lord Jesus Christ so this is really prophetically talking about him he'll give strength to the king and exalt the horn of his anointed so there you see a beautiful picture of the glory of the Lamb of God and what happens when we see him as God's answer and God's solution to what we're going through and so now as we close let's ponder for a few moments let's make this practical let's make this practical what is it that we're going through what is it that we're going through today that is pressing us that we feel the pain of we feel the difficulty whatever it is whatever it is and ask the Lord to show you how many times have you or I said Lord the answer is this and you began to think about different solutions to the problem but in doing so you missed entirely the message of this story instead of Lord change the circumstance we should be praying Lord change me in the circumstance change me so that the image of your son the last Adam is formed in and through me during this test during this trial I want to see the man in glory as the answer to what I'm going through Lord I want you to give me a hand of heart I want you to use what I'm going through to produce desperation such desperation Lord that the travail of my soul ends up desiring one thing and one thing alone and that is Lord Jesus more of you more of the man in my life and trust him by faith to do this no matter what you're going through God loves you he is with you he has not forsaken you he is not punishing you he's not being mean to you he's not being cruel to you he is simply giving you the blessed opportunity the blessed opportunity to partake more and more and more by faith simple faith in Jesus Christ and his righteousness and set aside all that we are in ourselves so let's bow our hearts now before the Lord and let's pray