KNOWN FOR BEING A LOVING WIFE
AND GIVING MOTHER
1 Samuel 1 & 2
IMAGINE: After years of barrenness, God gives you a son who becomes the last Hebrew Judge and the first of the Prophets who began to prophesy inside the Land of Promise. He would also anoint the first two Kings of the Kingdom of Israel, Saul and David.
Hannah was the favorite wife of Elkanah (El ‘kena), a Levite. Although a Godly man, he followed the common custom of polygamy. Elkanah and Hannah lived in the time of the Judges where people did “what was right in their own eyes”.
Hannah was apparently following the same barren path as Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. Hannah was in much anguish year after year with want of a child. Seeing other women with their children, hearing the little ones laugh, or a baby cry, hurt beyond measure.
Being barren was believed to be disfavor from God, since He was the one who could open or close a womb. It was considered shameful not to produce children for your husband as this was a woman’s divine purpose on earth.
Children were to be born so as to help support the family. They were to continue the family name, line, and inheritance. If a woman did not have children, then she had not fulfilled her responsibility. Most women of child-bearing years would have one child after another so any social event, or trip to the market, or out to the well for water would have caused great grief and embarrassment for Hannah.
Although it is not recorded, Hannah may have urged her husband to take another wife so that Elkanah’s name might be perpetuated, just as Sarah had done with Hagar. It is recorded, however, that Elkanah did indeed have a second wife. The second wife was Peninnah of whom we know nothing save she bore Elkanah several children, and grieved Hannah with her cruel tongue.
This did not make Hannah’s life any more enjoyable seeing her husband’s second wife with their children as Peninnah would taunt her because of her barrenness.
Instead of retaliating toward the other wife and treating her as she was being treated, Hannah poured her hurt and her heart out to God allowing him to vindicate her.
As if this was not enough to bear, Elkanah loved Hannah very much but did not understand her grief at not having children. In asking her why she was troubled by these circumstances and trying to convince her that he was better to her than ten sons, would have had to have been frustrating to say the least.
Even though Hannah was childless, she was not prayerless. She prayed day and night for a son, promising God she would give him back to Him for his exclusive use. She bargained with God, as she took her fretful sorrow to Him.
Every year Elkanah, Hannah, Peninnah and Peninnah’s sons and daughters would go to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. Yet, even in God’s house, Hannah did not find sympathy or understanding. While she was praying there her lips were moving but no sound emerged.
Eli, the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Tabernacle. Now Eli was old and was used to people coming to Shiloh to celebrate the feasts, eating and drinking more than they should. Eli took her praying and pouring out of her soul to the Lord as that of being drunk. He scolds her for coming to the Lord’s house in such a condition.
First Hannah is taunted and provoked beyond measure by Elkanah’s second wife and now this old priest has accused her of being drunk in God’s house. How humiliating. Hannah, however, does protest her innocence, declaring she has never drank strong drink but that her desire for a child was intense.
Finally, a break. Eli believes her and told her to go in peace, her petition would come to pass. For the first time, in a long time, Hannah goes home content for she believed Eli. God gave her comfort in her disappointment and strength to face her situation.
What with the second wife taunting her, a husband that thinks he is better than ten sons, and a priest that thinks she is drunk, Hannah could have been bitter, hopeless, or vindictive. She chose to not go that route but turned instead to speaking with God, Himself.
Hannah prayed and promised. God does indeed answer her prayer in the person of Samuel. After her prayer of petition being answered she expounds on her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In her prayer she gives thanksgiving to God for answering her request. She praises him for his delivering a son to her that she will be giving back to Him as promised, even though there was no promise of another child to come.
So, when Samuel was weaned, he was taken, by his mother, to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. She gives him to Eli and surrenders him to God. According to Jewish Rabbinical traditions, even though the Bible is silent as to Samuel’s age, he was likely weaned around three years old.
High infant mortality rates existed in ancient cultures. Because of the risks that infants faced, the celebration of a child’s weaning was a natural and important part of the culture showing that the child’s longevity of life had greatly increased.
Every year Hannah took the fifteen-mile journey, from Rahma to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, to worship and sacrifice to God as the family had done for so many years past. Each year at that time she would visit her son and present him with a robe she had made for him. Just a little something he could remember her by. The Lord paid attention to Hannah’s need and she conceived and was blessed with three more sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, it is recorded, Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord. (2 Sam. 2:21). Samuel became a man of prayer and intercession all his days.
Hannah did the one thing we should take note of and do ourselves. She did not demand something from her husband that he may not have been capable of giving. She did not call a friend and cry on their shoulder. She did not go in a corner and pout and feel sorry for herself. In her deepest distress she called on God, realizing only He could answer her questions, provide consolation, give purpose to her life.
She prayed and confessed her hurt and anguish. She petitioned. Se praised God. She offered up immediate thanksgiving when He answered her many prayers for a son. Little could this humble servant of the Lord have a way of knowing that the mother of our Lord and Savior would one day echo her prayer a thousand years later as recorded in Luke 1:46-55, Mary’s Magnificat.
Hannah knew and realized Samuel, even though a small child, belonged to the Lord and she had no claim on his life. As mothers, it is hard to get our head and our heart working together in a way that we remember children are not ours, but ultimately belong to God.
God has the final say for our children’s lives and there comes a time when we have to let go. Hannah, as with all parents, was given the privilege to care, guide, and train her child, but the time came when he needed to be released into his God-given destiny.
We must all be a Hannah where our children are concerned: keep praying, keep the faith, keep remembering this is more God’s child than yours.
Something to consider:
We make a living by what we get.
We make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill
BIBLICAL PEOPLE 