Anticipating the Promised Son: The Story of Hannah (1 Samuel 1:4-20)

A season of loneliness

A story this week here in the valley reported that the Rio Grande Valley leads the nation in loneliness. A new study says the overall percentage of people living alone in Brownsville has been increasing faster than all but one other city in the nation, and Brownsville now ranks No. 2 on the list of cities that have gotten lonelier overall. And it’s not just true here in the valley. Even before the COVID pandemic hit, studies were suggesting that loneliness is at an all-time high. Then during the pandemic, the isolation increased that sense of loneliness. And grief and suicide ramped up. People were left to grieve alone. Suicide in the last two years is up across just about all the demographics, especially young people.

Grief. Loneliness. Isolation. We live in a very lonely area of the United States, and that loneliness is exacerbated by the holiday season. So our story today meets us where we live and speaks hope and peace and rest to us.

Hannah’s misery

In our story we find a woman named Hannah. Hannah lives in a world of misery. Like we saw last week in the story of Ruth, this takes place at a time in which Israel had no king, and nothing is going right. Israel’s enemies continue to inflict harm. And inside of Israel, a couple of really bad atrocities highlight the lawlessness and anarchy that comes when people have no regard for God or for each other.

And Hannah’s own story carries this same kind of misery.

In the first place, she has no children. She is barren. And it’s not her doing. The writer of Samuel gives us a glimpse of what is going on behind the scenes… something that Hannah cannot see:

1 Samuel 1:5 The Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving.

Who had closed the womb? If the womb opens, it is God who caused it. If Hannah has a child now, there will be no mistake as to who has done it. Like we saw in the story of Sarah, Hannah isn’t just barren. There is a divine reason why she is barren. This is God’s doing. This is God’s plan. This becomes THE storyline of chapter 1. Hannah has no children and there is nothing she can do about it. And as we've noted in the past, this was not an insignificant issue for these women. To be barren was to fail to provide the husband with offspring that would continue the family's participation in the material blessings of the covenant. With so much at stake it is easy to empathize with these women in the Old Testament who were barren.

Hannah’s suffering

But Hannah has to deal with more than barrenness. Remember, this is the time of the judges. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

1 Samuel 1:6 “Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving.”

This is where the plot becomes dark. As the story unfolds we find it is open season on Hannah. Hannah is barren. Hannah is persecuted. Hannah has a rival and that rival is not nice all because Og had kept Hannah from conceiving. It’s fascinating to me that the writer doesn’t use the name of the rival. We know her name… it’s in verse two: Peninnah. But twice, the writer calls her a rival. Because the writer doesn’t want us to focus on the name. Persecution could come from anywhere and here he simply wants us to see that Hannah is being persecuted because she is barren. It’s not enough that Hannah is feeling the weight and the shame of barrenness as a faithful Israelite woman. Hannah is being kicked while she is down.

Year after year, day after day during the temple visit, Hannah is beat on emotionally. If you read carefully here, it’s not an accident that the author of Samuel places the persecution and the distress within the context of the tabernacle visit. It’s as if the rival intentionally waits for the annual visit to the tabernacle, so that she, like Israel in the time of the judges, wants to hit Hannah where it hurts most. The attack on Hannah is an attack on the tabernacle… on the Great I Am himself. What kind of a God would allow the woman who can’t get enough of being in and around the tabernacle, the woman who is most passionate about his glory, to go barren?

This is devastating to Hannah. Look at all of these words… provoked grievously, irritated, closed, provoked, wept, would not eat, weep, heart sad. There is a physical toll on spiritual war. And yet Hannah returns to the tabernacle year after year. Elkanah obviously is not much help. He is walking by sight. Making all the right sacrifices but missing the point of it all.

If ever there was a proverbial gutter, Hannah is in it and it’s raining. Is there no relief for those who are truly God’s redeemed? Where is the hope? Where is God when you need him, especially when you are present for worship? Is he not also present at the tabernacle?

Hannah’s hope

And in the next few verses we begin to see why Hannah is remarkable. We see how it is she endures such misery. In her despondency, she does not curse God and die. She turns to her only, her ONLY source for relief. These are some of the most amazing grace-filled, faith-laden statements in all of Scripture.

1 Samuel 1:11 Making a vow, she pleaded, “Lord of Armies, if you will take notice of your servant’s affliction, remember and not forget me, and give your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.”

Embedded in misery, deeply distressed, weeping bitterly, her soul in vexation, Hannah casts her gaze to the Great I AM whose presence was supposed to be in the tabernacle and offers her womb to his glory, his honor, and as we will see in a few verses, his name. This is remarkable. Remedy for her barrenness is not her end goal. The Great I AM and His presence in the tabernacle is her aim and end. She wants a son not for her, but for God to bring an end to the darkness and loneliness that isn’t just hers, but all of Israel.

This thing about the hair not being cut. Hannah lives at the same time that another one who is supposed to lead Israel has spectacularly failed. His name was Samson. A man who was known for his hair. But Samson has not been faithful. Samson has not lead Israel out of their darkness. And so her prayer for a son is praying for a son who will be all that Samson wasn’t. This prayer is: “LORD, please vindicate your presence, please stop the misery and rebellion through the gift of a son!” She is praying for Israel’s savior.

Hannah remembered

Israel is dark. Hannah is barren. Hannah is lonely. And then God breaks in by doing what up to this point had been impossible:

1 Samuel 1:19-20 “Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from the Lord.”

Oh… again… in utter darkness there is grace unspeakable. In the midst of her misery, there is direct divine intervention. Elkanah is the good husband, but this is an act of God. This entire passage orbits around these two verses. It’s as if these two verses bring the 450 year era and Israel’s descent into a sinful abyss to a screeching halt. This divine intervention when God has seemed absent is the stuff of Israel-in-Egypt-I’ve-heard-the-cry-of-my-people. In fact, Samuel’s name means “heard by God”.

The birth of a son is the crack of light in the darkness. In the midst of despair, God remembered Hannah. God heard Hannah and her cries and gave her a son. In a time of rebellion and darkness, God remembered Israel and sent them a son. Samson has been replaced. God’s presence is about to return to Israel.

God, in his grace, opens the womb, and a son is born. A son who will bring God’s presence again to His people, serving in His presence, night and day until the end of his life. And this is precisely what happens. Samuel is born, and when he is old enough, Hannah offers him to a lifetime of service in God’s presence.

Hannah’s song

How do we know that Hannah understands more is at stake than simply her barrenness and her oppression at the hands of a rival? Chapter 2. Hannah’s song is an interpretive grid to lay over chapter 1. It is the key to understanding Hannah’s worldview and her faith. Chapter two is a prayer, but it occurs in the form of a song.

1 Samuel 2:1 “Hannah prayed: My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is lifted up by the Lord. My mouth boasts over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.”

For Hannah, salvation is on the line in the birth of her son. She believes her son will be a savior, ushering in an age of faith in Israel. we know precisely how Hannah understands herself. This song bears all the marks of the song of Moses, the song Israel sang after escaping the Red Sea on dry ground with the Egyptian army at the bottom of the sea. Hannah is adopting the song from Israel’s greatest moment and God’s greatest triumph to her own situation in the birth of her son. This hasn’t been simply about Hannah. She understands her place in the grand drama of redemption and places her plight and her son in that context. There really are gospel interests at stake in the birth of her Son.

Mary’s song

Fast forward 1000 years…. Luke 1. Another birth announcement, another mother, against the backdrop of faithless, spiritually bankrupt, and morally corrupt Israel, takes up the salvation song of Hannah. There is a young woman singing and here is what she sings:

Luke 1:46-47 “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”

This young woman is singing Hannah’s song. Her name is Mary. She has been visit by an angel. She is going to have a child. Mary quotes Hannah because she understands that what is in her womb is everything Hannah every wanted. Truly. Under duress, Hannah speaks and prays and weeps in the imperfect shadows, anticipating a day that is beyond Samuel and David. David wasn’t quite the king he needed to be. Hannah’s hopes and dreams and expectations of God’s vindication of his name and His presence are being realized in a virgin of Bethlehem.

When Mary sings Hannah’s song, there is darkness in Israel. And Mary herself is suffering loneliness… the stigma of having a baby with no earthly Father. But she has a Promise, the Promise of the birth of not just any son, THE son. And on her lips is Hannah’s song. All Hannah ever wanted and all Mary ever wanted in a short time will lie in a manger, celebrated by angels, worshiped by shepherds.

The Son, Emmanuel is born

When we were in utter darkness and rebellion, completely incapable of helping ourselves, in need of transformation, God sent his Son. Christ, the Promised Son, is the only hope for that kind of darkness. Christ brings darkness to an end, and brings his people to life.

We live in a lonely world. It can be very easy to begin to believe and then act as if the misery and loneliness we experience is permanent. We can begin to wonder, was the Son really born, and if he was born, why am I still feeling personal devastation? Some of us are in situations that are oppressive. Some of us are in situations that seemingly have no answers. Like Hannah, and like Mary, we must put our confidence in God’s Promise of Salvation in a Son, the who is named Emmanuel, God with us.

Somewhere in Your Silent Night

Whether it is grief, whether it is anxiety, whether it is anxiety, whether it is the weight of sin and brokenness, Hannah’s hope is your hope this morning. Into your night, into my night, a son has been born, bringing the light of salvation to us. So when we feel the night, when we feel the darkness, when we feel utterly alone, we have to remind ourselves that we are loved. That baby is God’s love for us. Emmanuel has come in love and in forgiveness for us. We are not alone. Ever. Emmanuel, our light is with us.

Let’s Pray.

The Son is present among us. There may be darkness and loneliness all around, but this right here is light. This right here is love. This right here is hope. For me and for you.