CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF 1&2 SAMUEL
Message Two
The Hannah Ministry
Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 1:1—2:11, 18-21, 26
I. We have to realize what the Lord's recovery is; the Lord's recovery is to build up Zion, which typifies the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ to consummate the holy city, the New Jerusalem:
A. Zion was the city of King David (2 Sam. 5:7), the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple as God's dwelling place on earth was built (Psa. 48:2; 9:11; 74:2; 76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18).
B. In the Old Testament there was the city of Jerusalem with Zion as the center; in typology the church life is today's Jerusalem; within the church life there must be a group of overcomers, who are the perfected and matured God-men, and these overcomers are today's Zion—cf. Rev. 14:1-5.
C. As the highlight and beauty of the holy city Jerusalem (Psa. 48:2; 50:2), Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church (48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2).
D. The characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem come from Zion—1 Kings 8:1; Psa. 51:18; 102:21; 128:5; 135:21; Isa. 41:27; Joel 3:17.
E. The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the ultimate Holy of Holies as God's dwelling place in eternity (Rev. 21:16; cf. Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20); in the new heaven and new earth the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as the overcomers (Rev. 21:1-3, 7, 16, 22).
F. In the book of Revelation what the Lord wants and what the Lord will build up is Zion, the overcomers; this is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God; we surely need to be desperate to pray at any cost and to pay the cost just as the apostle Paul did—Eph. 6:17-18; Col. 4:2; Phil. 3:8-14.
G. Our response to the Lord's calling of the overcomers in this age is for us to be vitalized; to be vital is to be living and active in oneness with our living and acting God; God's move on the earth for the accomplishment of His eternal economy is ultimately through the overcomers.
H. On this usurped earth there is the mountain of Jehovah, Mount Zion, which is absolutely open to the Lord and absolutely possessed by Him; the overcomers, who are typified by Zion, are the beachhead through which the Lord as the King of glory will return to possess the whole earth as His kingdom—Psa. 24:1-3, 7-10; Dan. 2:34-35; 7:13-14; Joel 3:11; Rev. 11:15; 19:13-14.
I. There is no other way to reach the high peak of God's eternal economy, the reality of the Body of Christ, except by praying; our becoming the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ to be the bride of Christ will close this age, the age of the church, and will bring Christ as the King of glory back to take, possess, and rule over this earth with His overcomers in the kingdom age—vv. 7-9; 20:4-6; Psa. 24:7-10.
II. The first book of Samuel shows us in typology the bringing in of Christ as the King (typified by David) with His kingdom:
A. Under Eli the old Aaronic priesthood had become stale and waning (2:12-29), and God desired to have a new beginning for the accomplishing of His eternal economy:
1. The content of Judges consists of the children of Israel trusting in God, forsaking God, being defeated by their enemies, and repenting to God in their misery; when they turned to the Lord, He raised up a judge who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors, yet when the judge died, they returned to their evil ways and again became corrupted (1:1-2; 2:11—3:11); this became a cycle repeated seven times in Judges.
2. For many years the church has just been repeating the history of Israel under the judges, but today God wants Samuels, overcoming Nazarites (Num. 6:1-9 and footnotes), who will bring in Christ, the real David, as the reigning King with His kingdom of one thousand years, in which the overcomers will "shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matt. 13:43).
3. Today we need to look to the Lord for something new, a new revival that will turn this age from the age of the church in the midst of the satanic chaos to the age of the King with His kingdom of one thousand years.
B. For Samuel's birth God initiated things behind the scenes; on the one hand, He shut up Hannah's womb; on the other hand, He prepared Peninnah to provoke Hannah "bitterly to irritate her, because Jehovah had shut up her womb" (1 Sam. 1:5-6); year after year, when Hannah went up to the house of Jehovah, Peninnah provoked her to the extent that she wept and would not eat (v. 7).
C. This forced Hannah to pray that the Lord would give her a male child; Hannah's prayer, in which she made a vow to God, was initiated not by Hannah but by God; God was pleased with Hannah's prayer and her promise, and He opened her womb (vv. 10-11, 20); Hannah conceived, bore a child, and named him Samuel (meaning "heard of God," or "asked for of God").
D. God could motivate Hannah as a person who was one with Him in the line of life; the line of life is a line that brings forth Christ for the enjoyment of God's people so that on earth God may have His kingdom, which is the church as the Body of Christ (Matt. 16:18-19; Rom. 14:17-18; Eph. 1:22-23), the very organism of the Triune God; as long as God can gain such a person who is one with Him on the line of life, He has a way on earth (1 Sam. 1:1—2:11, 18-21, 26).
E. Actually, no human being was the origin of Samuel; God was the real origin, who motivated His people sovereignly and secretly; Hannah's prayer was an echo, a speaking out, of the heart's desire of God; it was a human cooperation with the divine move for the carrying out of God's eternal economy:
1. Hannah's prayer indicates that God's move with His answer to her prayer was to produce a Nazarite, an overcomer, who was absolute for the fulfilling of God's desire—1:10-20.
2. A Nazarite is one who is consecrated to God absolutely, one who takes God as his King, Lord, Head, and Husband, and one who has no interest in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures; even before he was born, Samuel was consecrated by his mother to be such a person.
III. The first book of Samuel stands for a ministry that brings in the King with His kingdom; we may call this "the Hannah ministry":
A. Peninnah and Hannah represent two fundamentally different principles and two fundamentally different ministries (1:2, 4, 7); Hannah's ministry was just to bring in the King, not to have many children; Peninnah's ministry was to have many children, that is, a ministry with much result; Peninnah and her children represent the majority of God's people, but none of them has anything to do with turning the age to bring Christ back as the King of glory (Psa. 24:1-3, 7-10).
B. Hannah's way was not an easy way, and it was made even more difficult because of Peninnah's comparisons and tauntings; those who want to be Hannahs must prepare themselves for persecution, scorn, weeping, and fasting.
C. It is not merely a matter of how many we can save but a matter of God getting His company of overcomers; God wants to get a people who are able to pray and bring in the kingdom with Christ as the King and His overcomers as the co-kings.
D. Hannah's prayer was the means for the birth of Samuel; our prayers should result in the bringing forth of overcomers; we need to pray in oneness with the ascended Christ in His heavenly ministry in the stage of intensification for the producing of the overcomers—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5-6, 12-13, 21-22.
E. Hannah came to the point where she could not go on without a son; she came to a point where she had to have a son; the son in 1 Samuel 1 typifies the overcoming, corporate man-child in Revelation 12, the one who turns the age to bring in the King with His kingdom:
1. God's most important dispensational move is seen with the man-child in Revelation 12 composed of Christ as the leading Overcomer and us as the following overcomers; because God wants to end this age and bring in the age of the King with His kingdom, He needs the overcoming, corporate man-child as His dispensational instrument.
2. The rapture of the man-child brings an end to the church age and brings in the kingdom age; after this rapture there is a "loud voice in heaven, saying, Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ"—v. 10.
IV. Hannah's experience shows that we need to pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness (1 Sam. 1:6, 10, 15-16); in Exodus 15 the children of Israel came to the bitter waters of Marah; when the people murmured against Moses, he "cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet" (vv. 22-25):
A. The tree that the Lord showed Moses signifies the tree of life; Revelation 2:7 speaks of "the tree of life"; in Greek the word for tree here is the same word used for tree in 1 Peter 2:24:
1. The tree of life in Revelation 2:7 signifies the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood—1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the life of God—John 11:25) Christ; thus, we may say that the tree that Moses cast into the bitter waters was the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life.
2. When we cry out to the Lord in prayer, He shows us a vision of the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life; through our prayer by pouring out our soul before the Lord, we are casting this tree into the bitter waters of our being; then these bitter waters are changed into the sweet waters of His presence.
B. Hannah's prayer came out of her bitter circumstances and her bitter being (1 Sam. 1:6, 10); she told Eli, "I am a woman oppressed in spirit…I have been pouring out my soul before Jehovah…Out of the greatness of my anxiety and provocation I have been speaking all this time" (vv. 15-16); Psalm 62:8 says, "Trust in Him at all times, O people; ? Pour out your heart before Him; ? God is a refuge to us. Selah"; such prayer to contact God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart.
C. Whenever we are in bitter circumstances and are bitter in our being, we need to pour out our soul with our heart to the Lord by being real and honest with Him; such prayer produces the overcomers, who will bring in the King with the kingdom.
D. When we come to "bitter waters," we have to realize that God is sovereignly and secretly motivating us to pray in a desperate way not only for our inner healing (Exo. 15:26) but even more for the producing of overcoming Nazarites, who will cooperate with Him to bring in the King with His kingdom—when the name of God will be excellent in all the earth (Psa. 8:1), and the kingdom of the world will "become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).