church

INI
The Sunday after New Year
January 3, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S
I Samuel 2:1-10

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, Amen. Today the Holy Spirit directs our
attention to the Word of God in the First Book of Samuel, chapter two,
beginning with the first verse, as follows:

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. 2 "No one is holy like the LORD, For there is none besides You, Nor
is there any rock like our God. 3 "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. 4 "The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength. 5 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.
6 "The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings
up. 7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. 8 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. 9 He will
guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. "For by
strength no man shall prevail. 10 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. "He will give strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His
anointed." Here ends our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Anointed King, the promise of whose coming
was fulfilled in the birth of our Savior at Bethlehem, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Pillars are an ancient architectural device for supporting the weight of a
structure or building. The more massive the pillars, the larger the structure you
can trust them to support. The noble men and women of the Philistines no
doubt were very trusting of the sturdy pillars that supported their temple, on the
day they gathered to celebrate a feast to their false god, Dagon. Three thousand
of them gathered on the flat roof of the temple, and looked down upon their
prisoner Samson, whom they had captured and blinded. They made fun of him,
enjoying their triumph over him. Then Samson prayed to the God of Israel, "O
Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God,
that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!"
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple,
and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
Then Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he pushed with all his
might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the
dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.-- Jdg
16:28-30.

Yes, the princes of the Philistines trusted in their mighty pillars. But they failed
to understand one thing – they failed to understand that that the Lord was in
control. That day Samson won a great victory by toppling the pillars of the
Philistine temple. But God was the one who gave Samson his victory. You may
have things going on in your life that frighten you and cause you anxiety. You
may sometimes feel like the very pillars and foundations of your life are
shaking, and threatening to fall. But in our text for today, a godly woman named
Hannah reminds us of something important: that God has His hands on the
pillars of our life, and nothing can happen to us outside of His gracious will. As
we step into the new year of 2010, we consider the theme:

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S

I. The LORD is exclusive and unique.
II. The LORD brings low and lifts up.
III. The Lord protects and preserves His saints.

You’re probably familiar with the Old Testament story of Hannah. She was the
wife of Elkanah, a devout Israelite of the tribe of Ephraim. She had a problem
in her life. She was barren; she couldn’t have children. And in that society
childbearing was central to the wellbeing and posterity of the family. So to be
without children was considered the worst thing that could happen to a person.
“Poor woman,” you might say, “what a bad break.” But Hannah’s situation was
no accident. In fact, chapter one reveals that it was the Lord who had closed
Hannah’s womb. She went to the temple and prayed, "O LORD of hosts, if
You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me,
and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child,
then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall
come upon his head. …And the LORD remembered her. 20 So it came to pass
in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his
name Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked for him from the LORD." -- (1Sa
1:11; 19-20.

Our text for today is the second prayer. It’s the prayer Hannah prayed after
God had given her a son. It’s a prayer of praise and thanks to God, and it’s very
revealing. Here’s a woman who has been through great turmoil of soul and has
learned an important lesson: God is in control. God is in control. Or, as Hannah
herself puts it in verse eight: THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE
LORD'S. Hannah had learned first-hand that, no matter what hardships and
challenges may face you in life, it is the Almighty God who is in control. He is
the one who is supporting you and all things at all times! 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.

Hannah makes some interesting claims about God in her prayer. For one thing,
she says that the LORD is exclusive and unique. You may have noticed that
exclusivity is not a very popular concept in religion these days. To claim that
the God whom you worship is the only true God - and that every other god is a
false god and an idol – is considered politically incorrect and in very bad taste.
Evidently we’re all expected to mimic the popular view that every religion is
equally valid, and that there are many different paths to the same God. And if
we refuse to do so? If we have the temerity to point out the logical absurdity of
thinking that all these wildly varying theologies could be equally true? What
happens then? Then we are condemned as narrow-minded bigots.

But what does Hannah say in our text? That all gods are the same? That all
religions are equally valid? No, Hannah says that the true God is exclusive and
unique: "No one is holy like the LORD, For there is none besides You, Nor is
there any rock like our God.” To the humanistic skeptics, to the unbelieving
speechifiers of her age and of every age 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.” Thankfully, we don’t have to
please everybody. We are responsible to only one Person: the Lord. We
recognize only one source of truth: His Word. There is only one criterion by
which every person will be judged on the Last Day, and our Lord Jesus tells us
in no uncertain terms what that is: "He who rejects Me, and does not receive
My words, has that which judges him-- the word that I have spoken will judge
him in the last day. -- Joh 12:48.

As the Apostle John reminds us, All things were made through Him, and
without Him nothing was made that was made. -- Jn 1:3. THE PILLARS OF
THE EARTH ARE THE LORD'S. The second thing we notice in Hannah’s
prayer is that it is the LORD brings low and lifts up

Our text says, "The bows of the mighty men are broken, And those who
stumbled are girded with strength. 5 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.” Hannah had
experienced this personally. In a matter of nine months – with the birth of her
son Samuel – her greatest sorrow turned into a dream come true. And it can go
both ways – sometimes the Lord humbles us and allows us to experience a
reversal of fortune. Perhaps you’ve experience that as well. The world says,
“That’s the breaks. It’s the luck of the draw.” But we know better. God wants
us to understand that the events of our lives – even the huge changes we
sometimes have to go through – are not mere random events. For THE
PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD'S. Random events? You think
God’s not paying attention to what’s going on in your life? You’re wrong! Jesus
said, Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to
the ground apart from your Father's will. 30 "But the very hairs of your head are
all numbered. -- Mat 10:29-30.

Hannah goes on: It is the LORD who makes poor and makes rich; He brings
low and lifts up. 8 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. Now this could be referring to a person’s material wealth and status.
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S, and He certainly can
and often does bestow great material gifts on people. He can make a pauper
into a prince overnight. You may have experienced this in your own life: that
the Lord can turn a financial disaster into a budgetary triumph in the blink of an
eye, and in the most unexpected ways. But Hannah’s words here are even more
true when applied to the spiritual realm. For it is in our faith life and in our
salvation that the true transformation has taken place. That’s where we sinful
beggars have become redeemed royalty.

And we are sinners. God's piercing Law leaves us no room but to despair of our
own worthiness. But the message of God's grace is that despite our wretched
condition, the Lord chose us for His own in Christ, "...having wiped out the
handwriting of requirements that was against us." --Col 2:14. One Christian
writer gave a striking illustration of this. It's long ago that I read it, but it's stuck
with me through the years: a wealthy prince announced that he would seek a
bride from among his people, who would reign with him as his queen. He
searched high and low throughout his kingdom, and finally came to a grimy
back alley, where he found a bedraggled harlot sitting in the gutter. She was so
ill-used and ugly that no one wanted her anymore, and all that remained for her
was to die. But it was to this filthy creature that the prince kindly extended his
hand and said, "You are the one I have chosen to be my queen. Come and share
the splendors of my kingdom!"

My Christian friends, that’s our story! Your transformation and mine is no less
astounding than that. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S,
and He controlled all the events of history so that you and I might be redeemed
from sin and exalted as the children of God! When the time was just right He
sent His son to be born a human Child in Bethlehem. Scripture says, He came
not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S, and it was all part of
God’s plan. The manger in Bethlehem was part of the plan, but so was the cross
on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem. Our Savior’s suffering, His pain and His
death were all part of the plan to save you and me from our sins. And when the
cup of God's wrath over sin had been drained to the last drop, Jesus said from
the cross, "It is finished." Precious words! Not, "It is almost finished," or, "it is
finished for the time being." Jesus didn't say, "Well, My part is finished -- now
good luck with your part!" No, our salvation is complete. Nothing remains to be
done. To Christ's completed work of redemption we need add nothing. In fact,
we dare not try to add anything lest we thereby deny the all-sufficiency of our
Savior's sacrifice. "If by grace," Paul says, "then it is no longer of works;
otherwise grace is no longer grace." --Ro 11:6.

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD’S. He is in control. Our
sin had brought us low, but God has lifted us up in Christ. It's a real-life rags to
riches story -- it's your story and my story. Not only has the Lord pardoned us
from the certain death our sins deserved, but we also find ourselves lifted to the
exalted position of "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people."

Yes, THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE Lord's, and the third thing
we notice is that the LORD protects and preserves His saints.

Hannah says He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent
in darkness. "For by strength no man shall prevail. To “guard the feet” means
that the Lord will be with you, every day in 2010, and every day for the rest of
your life. He will continue to protect you and preserve you. Your enemies – the
challenges you face and the forces arrayed against you – they may look strong,
but no one is stronger than God. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE
LORD’S. Paul asks a question that really needs no answer: If God be for us,
who can be against us?

And did you notice? Hannah’s extraordinary prayer ends with a far-seeing
prophesy, at prophesy of a coming judgment and a coming King: 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. "He will give
strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed." Can you guess what
the Hebrew word for “anointed” is in that verse? Messiah! Many centuries
before the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, Hannah predicted the coming of the
great King above all kings, the Anointed of God! Here at Ascension, of course,
we’ve just finished celebrating His birth. In another three months we’ll observe
His death and celebrate His resurrection. And because of His great redemption,
at some time in the near or distant future we will hear Him speak to us these
words from His throne of Judgment: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: -- Mat 25:34.
May God hasten that blessed day!

If you're interested in the history of Egypt, you've no doubt heard of the
Temple of Karnack. Its ruins lie near the ancient town of Luxor along the Nile
River. Among its many architectural wonders, the Temple of Karnack contains
the most massive stone pillars in the world. Each of the twelve huge pillars is
over ten feet thick and 66 feet high. Imagine pillars nearly half as wide as this
church and three times a high, and you get the idea. Thousands of years old, the
pillars of Karnack continue to astound modern-day visitors. My fellow
Christians, there is something more astounding still, if we will only consider it.
And that is the power and majesty of the Lord our God. The pillars He controls
are not made of sandstone, and their dimensions are so vast that they cannot be
calculated. For THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD'S, and He
has set the world upon them. As you enter the new year, one thing you can be
absolutely sure of: God is in control. He has already given His Son for you, and
His power and His love will continue to protect and preserve you through the
coming new year, and all the years beyond, AMEN.