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Treehouse Homegroup Meeting 1 – 1 Samuel 1

Amplified says Hannah was grieved and embarrassed from Penninah’s provoking. Spurgeon pointed out that Hannah did not retaliate against Penninah. Good aspects and joy came from Hannah’s sorrowfulness.

Dad’s thoughts – The goal is not to feel better … when going through grief and sorrow. What blessings sprung for Hannah and the whole nation of Israel from Hannah’s hurt and difficult situation!

Hannah’s thoughts – Through the sorrow she learns how to pray, to have faith, to go to God, and that God fulfills her hopes and answers her prayers, and through the process realizes that it is GOD who fills her (not children or circumstances).

Mom’s thoughts – Hannah didn’t have an angel or special sign or anything that God would answer her prayer for a baby … she just believed God heard her prayer.

Discussion about Elkanah’s comment – ”Don’t I mean more to you than 10 sons?”
- Perhaps not connecting with Hannah emotionally – doesn’t he know why she would be sad?!
- Shows Hannah is the one really following God … her husband loved her but doesn’t seem to understand God or connect with Him as much … and he was a polygamist … Hannah connected more with the Lord … other examples in Scripture of woman connecting more than her husband – Samson’s parents, Elizabeth (Zechariah’s wife)

Spurgeon:
” I do not think that Hannah would have been a fit mother for Samuel if she had not, first of all, been of a sorrowful spirit. It is not everybody that can be trusted to educate a young Prophet. Many a fool of a woman has made a fool of her child. He was so much her “duck” that he grew up to be a goose! It needs a wise woman to train up a wise son and, therefore, I regard Samuel’s eminent character and career as largely the fruit of his mother’s sorrow and as a reward for her griefs. Hannah was a thoughtful mother which was something and her thought induced diligence. She had slender space in which to educate her boy, for he left her early to wear the little coat and minister before the Lord. But in that space her work was effectually done, for the child Samuel worshiped the very day she took him up to the Temple.”

Dad – in some ways, Hannah gave up what Abraham was only tested in … extremely sacrificial! Full of faith!
Mom – She gets him back in the end – Samuel would always come back home to Ramah
Mom – Hannah’s faith was not tempered by the faults of the temple culture – drunk people, Eli’s sons, etc. … She still believed God
Reviewing Dad’s sermon from 2009 – God blocks and delays His children’s desires so that it’s not normal, but special! If you want a normal life, don’t follow God!

Thoughts about heaven – If we there is a need and purpose for grief and sorrow on this earth, then what is there in heaven?
Scripture says we will reign with Christ, so it seems we will have a job … just the start of the adventure … but what is an adventure without bad stuff?
physical bodies and physical things in heaven for all eternity … Jesus is physical for all eternity …
1 Corinthians 6 – We will judge angels
Things in this life will prepare us for our life in the eternal.
Events (like tests in school) are a speck in the grand scheme of the eternal.