Lessons from Hannah

1 Samuel 1 – OH MY GOODNESS!!! God chose this section of Scripture and powerfully taught me something! Here are my thoughts below – I hope you enjoy them.

Hannah was the wife of Elkanah, as was Peninnah. Every year Elkanah would give Peninnah a portion along with her sons and daughters, but he would give a double portion to Hannah because he loved her, although Hannah was barren and bore him no children. Because of this, Peninnah provoked her grievously, because the LORD had closed her womb. This is the first thing that caught me. “Because the LORD had closed her womb.” Hannah received grief and trouble from Peninnah because of the LORD, as he had closed her womb. Does the LORD not just allow, but plan for difficult circumstances for his people? I think I’m seeing the answer as “Yes”. Let me tread carefully, because this can so easily be mis-understood or written wrongly. Look later in the book at 1 Samuel 14, where it says a harmful spirit from the LORD was given to Saul. Or we can look at the beggar who was born blind in John 9. Or Paul's thorn. Or let’s look at Jesus, whom God intended for the cross before the creation of the world. I need to make a clear distinction here before moving on, as I don’t want you to hear that God delights in bringing pain to his people. If we look at the example of Saul, the blind beggar, and Jesus, and as we are going to look at the one of Hannah, I'm seeing that God does not allow pain apart from His purpose. Everything he does is good, and that includes giving us difficult circumstances, or incredibly painful or confusing ones, so that His glory may be shown. We will see this with Hannah. With Saul, God had his divine purpose in giving him a harmful spirit. It’s been amazing to walk through the story of Israel the nation, the beginning of kings with Saul, and the coming of David to the throne. I’ve seen how God used this harmful spirit for His purposes. With the beggar blind from birth, God knew he would be born blind and chose not to stop it “..that the works of God might be displayed in him.” In this particular instance, the works of God were displayed in Jesus’ healing of the blind beggar, restoring his sight. With Paul in the New Testament, God sent him a messenger to torment him to teach him a wonderful truth that in his weaknesses is God’s strength. He didn’t “heal” Paul from his thorn, as he healed the blind beggar. He instead told Paul that his grace was sufficient for him, for God’s power is made perfect in weakness. He intended Jesus for the cross, an unbelievable atrocity, incredible amounts of pain and death, for the redemption of His people and His church. There is a divine, good purpose in everything God does or permits, both painful and pain-free.

This provoking of Hannah went on for years! Imagine it: years! She didn’t get a break, but lived with this woman, who slept with her same husband. She kept provoking Hannah because she wasn’t bearing children. And this barren womb was from the LORD. So Hannah wept and stopped eating. Her husband asked her why she was weeping and not eating, and why her heart was sad.

One day they were at the temple. Eli the priest was there. Hannah was deeply distressed, and was praying to the LORD, weeping bitterly. She was feeling very strong emotions, and what did she do? She prayed. She was weeping before her God. She was not demanding of her husband, “Give me children, or I shall die!” as Rachel was of Jacob (Genesis 30:1). She went to the LORD with her grief and struggles and pain. In her prayer to God, she asked, “If you look on my affliction and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give me a son (specific, not a daughter or a child but a son), then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” Hmmm. Interesting request. Think about it for a second. She is being plagued by this woman because she is childless. So she prays for a son. However, she doesn’t stop at just having a son. She tells the LORD she would give up this son to God if He gave her one. You would think that if you were childless, you would desire a child to actually live with you and grow up under your care. But this mother asks something very unique. She asks for a son, and promises to give him to the LORD all his life. I start wondering why. Why would Hannah ask for a son, simply to give him up? Did she just desire the first few years of having a cute baby and toddler and young one, and then drop him off to the temple and the priest so she wouldn’t have to deal with the teen years or drama later in life? Did she simply want the status of having a child? “I had a son...ha! You can no longer torment me.” Did she want her rival to stop bothering her? Probably. I’m sure it would be nice to stop being plagued by this woman every time she went to the temple to worship the LORD. But I think there is more to Hannah’s prayer. She asked God to remember her, and not to forget her. It’s not about her having a son. It’s about God seeing her affliction and showing that He remembered her.

It’s a similar request to the Israelites in Exodus, when they are in slavery to the Egyptians. When the Bible says that God heard the cries of his people, and that he remembered his promise to Abraham, God moved. In remembering their affliction, God delivered his people. I think in Hannah’s request, she is asking her God to remember her and deliver her from affliction.

Fun part to the story: Eli saw her praying (Hannah was praying silently, but her lips were moving), and he thought she was drunk. Hannah corrected him by telling him what she was doing. She didn’t share her request with him. She said she had been pouring out her soul before the LORD, speaking out of her anxiety and vexation. Eli told her to go in peace, and that the God of Israel grant her petition that she has made to him. That’s it. He didn’t tell her prophetically that her request would be granted. It was a blessing from the priest, saying “May he grant your request” but not a guarantee that God would answer in the way Hannah wanted.

This is what strikes me about Hannah: she then went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Did you get that? No promise that her request would be granted. No guarantee that the torture would cease. No tangible affirmation that God had heard her prayer and would answer in the affirmative. No promise of any change in Hannah’s circumstances. And yet she washed her face from crying, she began eating again, and her face was no longer sad. Wow! What brought this change? Hannah’s entire demeanor changed. She was no longer distressed. She was no longer living in anxiety or vexation. And she had no promise that anything would change.

This has been very challenging to me, personally. I think of how often I have prayed to God for what I believe is a good gift: a change in difficult circumstances, relief from feeling pain, etc. (you fill in the blank), and then I wait and hope for His answer BEFORE I change my perspective. After praying to God, I have waited, and I have waited still in anxiety, or sat in feelings of sadness/depression/self-pity, waiting for my circumstances to change. This is where God spoke dramatically to me through Hannah. Her hope was not in her circumstances but in the God she prayed to. However God chose to answer her prayer, her hope was in God, and she trusted him for the outcome.

I think Hannah knew something about God that I don’t. If you go to 1 Samuel 2, you see Hannah’s prayer. I would recommend reading it. The first two verses reveal Hannah’s hope: “My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD.....because I rejoice in your salvation.” The rest of her prayer talks about who the LORD is, and what He does, and what He will do. I think Hannah’s heart was meditating on the LORD. As she understood His character, she gained wisdom, insight, and comfort from who He is.

So Father, as I face what you’ve put in front of me this day, would you turn my face from my circumstances back to you? Would you again remind me of who you are? Would you open my eyes and my heart to understand as I read your Word? As I encounter you, would you change me so I will respond like Hannah when trials come? And may my heart exult in you, as Hannah’s heart exulted in you. Thank you for what hope we have in you.