On these opening pages of 1 Samuel we are introduced to a family drama. Here is the story of Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Immediately, we encounter the tension in this family which is a result of Hannah's barrenness. Hannah's husband loves her and treats her with kindness. When they traveled to Shiloh on the day of sacrifice, Elkanah would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to her sons and daughters, but he would give a double portion to Hannah, and the text tells us he did this because he loved her even though she was barren. The conflict in the story is the result of Peninnah's verbal abuse of Hannah. Peninnah would constantly chide and "provoke her severely" because of her barrenness. Every time they would go up together to the house of the Lord, Peninnah would criticize and scold Hannah for being barren. Hannah would be driven to tears by the constant belittling, feeling that she could not take it anymore. She was so upset that she lost her appetite and could not eat. Elkanah was not aware of the emotional strain that Hannah was under. He seemed to be totally out of touch with the seriousness of the situation. He reveals his lack of perception by saying to Hannah, "Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?" Sadly, both lover and provoker treat Hannah as God-forsaken.
While they were worshiping at Shiloh, Hannah rose early in the morning and prayed to the Lord. In her distress and bitterness, Hannah took the initiative to bring her case to God. She assumed that the God of Israel might care for those who are hurting and are without status and power. So in her prayer she cried out and said to the Lord: O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazarite until the day of his death.
The priest Eli was sitting near the entrance of the sanctuary and he saw Hannah at prayer. He noticed that her lips moved but she did not seem to be speaking. Thinking she was drunk, he told her that she was making a drunken spectacle of herself and that she ought to get rid of the wine. Hannah explained to him that she was not drunk, and that she did not drink wine. She declared, "I am a woman deeply troubled ... pouring out my soul before the Lord." She begged Eli that she not be considered as a "worthless woman." Then Eli made a remarkable response to her by saying, "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him." But Eli had no idea what the child who resulted from this vow would mean to his own priestly family. Hannah left the temple much encouraged and feeling as though her prayer was going to make a difference. She was no longer sad, because she had placed her future in the hands of God. In due time Hannah bore a son and she named him Samuel. When he was weaned she brought the infant Samuel to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and she presented him to the Lord, saying, "As long as he lives he is yours!" Little did she or Elkanah know that Samuel was to become a prophet, a mediator of God's word to all Israel.
Bruce Birch in his commentary states, "Throughout this drama, God is the determining power. It is God who has 'closed her womb' (vv. 5-6); it is God to whom Hannah prays and makes her vow (vv. 10-11); it is God whom Eli invokes to grant Hannah's petition (v. 17); it is God who 'remembers' Hannah and grants her request (v. 19); it is God to whom the child, Samuel, is given in service (vv. 27-28). God works providentially in the events of this story."1
At the point of our discouragement, despair, and disappointment is the place of God's beginning. It is not in getting the right spiritual discipline or the latest strategic planning process that will meet our needs. As Hannah reveals, it is in simply and straightforwardly expressing our need to God. In doing so, Hannah recognized that wholeness in her life lay beyond those things that she can and cannot control and rested in God as the larger reality in life.
In Hannah's darkest hour, she came to the house of the Lord in Shiloh and "poured her soul out to God." She defined herself as "a woman deeply troubled." She felt, because of her barrenness, that many looked upon her as "a worthless woman." She explained to Eli, "I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all of this time." She cried out in her misery, saying to the Lord, "Remember me."
Many have felt the same anxiety and vexation that Hannah felt. The barrenness that you labor under may be the lack of accomplishment and achievement. One's sense of "worthlessness" can result from the inability to reach one's goals and ambitions, instead experiencing constant defeat and setback. The unkind words and caustic criticism of others, like Hannah constantly received from Peninnah, can cause you to weep and lose your appetite, as Hannah did. How easy it is to slip into an attitude of "worthlessness." But this is a story of God's grace coming to Hannah at the darkest moment of her life. It can also be the story of God's grace for us. It is the story of a dynamic grace that can transform the future and bring hope amid despair and pain. God remembered Hannah! In her darkest moment she made her greatest discovery. God did not forget her. God heard her cry, sensed her misery, and answered her prayer. What God did for Hannah, God can do for you.
We learn from Hannah the persistence that is needed to claim God's grace. Hannah was persistent because she felt she had lost God's attention, which is reflected in her prayer, "O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me" (1:11). Jesus taught us that we already have God's attention, and God is aware of our need. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). Job felt that he did not have God's attention. Out of his pain and anguish he cried, "O that I knew where I might find him!" Habakkuk, the prophet, felt that he did not have God's attention. He wanted to know where he could find God amid such injustice and violence. He cried, "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and thou wilt not hear?" His book begins with a deep sigh and a heavy heart. God appeared to the prophet as inattentive. Both men discovered what Hannah discovered -- that God is neither remote nor reluctant.
The fact is that God is not far removed from any of us. God is not disinterested to the point that we need to go begging and pleading for his concern. What is needed on our part is not a relentless beating on the door of heaven, but just for us to know that God is. God cares. God remembers. E. Stanley Jones tells about the prayer of a little girl who was the daughter of a missionary friend in India. She prayed, "God bless my parents, and my brother and sister, my friends and our world. And now, God, take care of yourself, for if anything ever happens to you, we'd be in a terrible mess." She knew that God was near and attentive. She shared with God her greatest concern. However, Hannah reveals to us that there is a trustful persistence that is required to claim God's grace.
Hannah's story presents us with a simple yet profound theme: prayer will quiet and comfort the most troubled heart. Hannah admitted to Eli that she was a "woman deeply troubled." She was troubled and tormented from without by the taunts of Peninnah. She was tormented from within by her own doubts of her own self-esteem that was being torn down by Peninnah's constant jeers regarding her barrenness. She had strong doubts about herself to the point that she was concerned that people would judge her worthless. She was the victim of jealousy and misunderstanding. But something remarkable happened. She came to the house of the Lord in Shiloh and poured out her heart to God in prayer. Following her prayer Eli said to her, "Go in peace." She was no longer downcast and "her countenance was sad no longer." After all of her troubles she found peace. Many times it is the offering of prayer, not the answer to prayer, that brings peace. Peace is not the result of God answering prayer, but peace comes in the very act of turning to God in the first place. Hannah did not know if she would get an answer to her prayer, she did not know the outcome, but one thing she did know: God remembered her, and God listened as she poured out her soul. She encountered God in prayer and she had found peace.
Where did Hannah make her discovery of God? Right in the midst of everyday life. She cried out right where she was amid her despair. Richard Foster in his book Prayer reminds us that "the discovery of God lies in the daily and ordinary, not in the spectacular and heroic. If we cannot find God in the rountine of home and shop, then we will not find him at all. Ours is to be a symphonic piety in which all the activities of work and play and family and worship and sex and sleep are the holy habitats of the eternal."2 We cannot clean ourselves up and come to God. That is the very thing we cannot do, but God comes to us where we are. God comes to us on the level of our need. That is the meaning of the incarnation: God comes to us on the level of our need, looks us squarely in the eye, and asks, "Where does it hurt and how can I help?" Hannah prayed to God in the midst of her troubled life, and it was there that she encountered God in prayer and she was no longer sad.
After Eli admonished Hannah to go in peace, he assured her that not only did God hear her prayer, but also that the God of Israel would grant the request she made. In due time she had a son, and he was named Samuel. She brought the infant to the house of worship and presented him to the Lord. Hannah told the Lord that Samuel was God's for as long as he lived. Hannah's response to the gift of God's grace was to give back what she had received. We too must give back the grace we have received. This would include worship, which is the giving back of grace as praise. We are the recipients of God's grace so that we may become the dispensers, the givers of grace. If we attempt to keep grace as a possession, we will lose it. God's grace was manifested to Hannah in the person of Samuel, and he brought much blessing to her, as well as ending the plight of her barrenness and the disgraceful and hurtful taunting of Peninnah. Because Hannah gave back this gift of grace to God, Samuel would bring a blessing to the entire country of Israel. Bruce Birch reminds us "that we, with the community of faith, must become less concerned over who and how many have received God's grace and more concerned with the ways to which God's grace is given back into God's service."3 Also, it is Jesus who reminds us, "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Luke 12:48b).
1. Bruce Birch in New Intrepeter's Bible, Volume 2, p. 973.
2. Richard Foster, Prayer, p. 171.
3. Birch, op. cit., p. 978."