Hannah's Prayer
Notes
Transcript
I. Elkanah’s Wives
I. Elkanah’s Wives
Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
Location of Ramathaim Zophim [See map]. Same as Ramah.
Identity of Elkanah. 1 Chron 6:16-30 states that he was a Levite. This is important because Samuel ends up serving in the tabernacle. He can only rightly do that if he is a Levite. However, here we are told he is an “Ephraimite.” I think the best solution is that the word “Ephrathite” has an identical spelling in Hebrew - that is, someone who came from “ephrath” also known as Bethlehem. David, who is of course from the Tribe of Judah, was also the son of an “ephrathite.” 1 Samuel 17:12
Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul.
Two wives - taking two wives was permitted, however, it was clearly not God’s best (Gen 2:24-25). Every extended account of a man with two wives is the story of a messed up, divided home full of strife - Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon also had multiple wives. None of them worked out very well, because marriage was supposed to be one woman for one man for life. Even though Abraham and David were both tremendously godly men, their godliness did not exempt them from the horrible cost of bigamy.
Now while polygamy was present in ancient Israel, you mustn’t think that every guy had multiple wives. Most men couldn’t afford to provide for multiple wives anyway, so they stayed with just one. The rich might take a small harem, and kings usually had multiple wives, but the poor didn’t. There was one exception. In ancient Israel getting an heir was everything. The land was God’s eternal inheritance for every Israelite, and an heir was necessary to keep the land in the family. When a woman was barren, pressure was immense to do something, anything, to get an heir. That’s why Abraham took Hagar. In that case, since the first wife couldn’t have children anyway, it didn’t cost very much to take on a second wife, and this way the husband would still get his heir. This seems to be what Elkanah did. He clearly didn’t want a second wife - he loved Hannah. But he needed an heir, and Hannah couldn’t provide him one. So he married a younger, prettier, more fertile woman who could get him his heir.
Lest we think ourselves morally superior to the Israelites because we do not practice polygamy, may I remind you that the practices of our culture are, if anything, worse. People today have what they euphemistically call “affairs,” really adultery. It’s the benefits of polygamy without taking the responsibility. Or they divorce - really “serial polygamy.” And because those things are worse, they have worse effects, with even more strife, emotionally scarred men, women, and the innocent children of those unions.
Having said that, I am quite conscious that not everyone in the audience has a perfectly squeaky-clean history in the marriage department. So what should you do if, like Elkanah, you find yourself already in an arrangement that should not have been? God takes people where they are. He receives the sinner no matter what his or her record. You can’t change the past. You can be the person God wants you to be in the future. That will please him.
II. Hannah’s Sorrow
II. Hannah’s Sorrow
This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.
But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb.
And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb.
So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.
Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
Elkanah and Hannah, at least, were apparently godly people. They went up to worship at the tabernacle in Shiloh every year. That is despite the fact that the active priests, Hophni and Phinehas, were already serving, and were abominable men who made worshipping at the tabernacle a pain for everyone who wanted to worship properly.
Shiloh was the place were the tabernacle landed after Joshua conquered the land.
Elkanah seems to have treated his second wife and her children well enough - the idea is that he gave each of them an adequate portion of food from the feast, so he was a good provider for them. However, he showered Hannah with extra privileges. It’s inevitable in polygamous households for the man to prefer one wife over another. The human heart has room for only one spouse.
What those privileges were depends on how you translate the phrase “double portion.” It literally means “one portion of two noses,” but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Most translations understand that to mean a portion for two people (ESV, NKJV, NIV) , which is evidently how the Syriac uses that phrase. But other translations notice that the Targums [aramaic paraphrase of the OT] has “choice” or “worthy” portion [KJV], meaning that it was the best cut of the meat. Still others go with septuagint, which says “although he loved hannah, he gave her only one portion, because the Lord had shut her womb.” Anyway, it seems to fit the context best if he was somehow giving hannah a better or larger portion. It’s exactly what Joseph did in Genesis 43:34, he gave Benjamin five times as much as the others to show favor, even though Benjamin couldn’t possibly have eaten five times as much as the others.
There are quite a few barren women in the Scriptures - Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Manoah and his wife [Samson’s parents], and Elizabeth [John the Baptist’s mother]. In each case, the poor woman had to wait for many years to have a child; except for Rachel, God was directly involved in speaking to the couple about the birth of their children. In all of them, their children had special roles to play. In fact, we can say that this is how God usually works (Psalms 113:9). That’s a truism, not a guarantee.
He grants the barren woman a home, Like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!
Hannah, however, is the only godly woman of whom it is said that the Lord sovereignly closed her womb (Gen 20:18). God is still the Lord of the womb. Only God can create a life. Even with advanced biotechnology, doctors cannot create life. The most that our techniques can do is enhance the conditions that make life possible. And sometimes, he chooses to make a deserving woman wait.
As much as this was hard on Hannah, it was also hard on Penninah. The second wife seems petty and cruel, because she was. But it was an immature reaction to a bad situation. Here she was producing all of the children, but getting none of the respect. She took it out on Hannah by making her life absolutely miserable. Already depressed because of barrenness, Penninah’s cruelty made a bad situation a thousand times worse. It was so bad that Hannah couldn’t eat the marvelous meal Elkanah put in front of her every year, and every year she would cry and cry and ruin what should have been a joyous feast.
Elkanah tried to help, but his comfort didn’t amount to much. Really? how does a husband, no matter how loving, replace children? It’s like giving a starving man a huge glass of water. Sure, the water’s nice and necessary, but it’s not a substitute for food. On the other hand, what else was he supposed to say? At least he was more compassionate than Jacob was to Rachel (Gen 30:1-2). Jacob, instead of trying to offer comfort, got angry at Rachel.
III. Hannah’s Prayer
III. Hannah’s Prayer
So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord.
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.
Then she made a vow and said, “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.”
We now zoom in on one particular feast. This time it was just too much. But she did what godly people do when they are tried beyond their strength to bear. They pray.
The prayer is simple. She recognizes that God is the Lord of the Womb, and asks that God remember her. Now that doesn’t mean that God would be aware of her, but that he would do something about her situation - that she would have a male child. She specifically states that she wants “male seed”. That is, she is not interested in the Shenanigans that Rachel pulled to get children - Rachel gave Jacob a slave wife after Jacob already had two, a child she would then “adopt” as her own. Hannah is specifically asking for a biological son.
The vow is staggeringly huge. She gives him to the Lord. There was a provision in the law to give people to the service of the tabernacle (Lev 27), but it seems to have seldom been used. Here, she gives her future son to the Lord forever. Plus, she makes him a Nazarite from the womb to the grave. This means that the son she was to have, as far as she knew the only child she would ever have, would soon not be hers to enjoy anymore. Wow.
Now I don’t recommend vows like this. Eccl 5:4-5 You can’t bargain with God. You don’t deserve the very breath you take, so what could you possibly offer him to “sweeten the deal?” I get that Hannah was desperate. I thought about this vow many times myself. It seemed to work well for Hannah. What about me? But no. I already was going to try to raise my children to serve God anyway. I had nothing left to offer that I wasn’t going to do already. So don’t make vows. I only make vows over things I have to do anyway - and that clearly isn’t much good at convincing God to act. So, for example, when I got married, I took a sacred vow before God. But that’s an obligation that goes with being married anyway; a witness in court takes an oath to tell the truth - but God expects us to tell the truth at all times anyway.
Still, Hannah’s vow wasn’t rash - it was carefully thought out and planned. And she did carry it out faithfully.
IV. Eli’s mistake
IV. Eli’s mistake
And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth.
Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.
So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!”
But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.”
Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”
And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
We meet Eli for the first time here. He seems rather spiritually dull, mistaking Hannah’s overwhelming emotions for drunkenness. Yet this does give you some idea of the sorry state the tabernacle worship was in during that day. We know from chapter two how his two sons were administering temple worship. Eli himself was already too old to be an active part of the service, but he did sit and observe. Given the terrible leadership, drunkenness was almost certainly a perennial problem.
The wine of Bible times was indeed fermented - that’s how they preserved grape juice without refrigeration. But the alcoholic content was quite low. It took deliberate intent to get drunk. And drunkenness is condemned here and several other places in Scripture as a sin. Drunkenness in the tabernacle is especially bad, as it is supposed to be a holy place were God’s name is respected.
A drunkard would be, as Hannah said, a “worthless person.” That’s why I advocate staying away from alcohol entirely. We do not need fermentation to preserve our juice, we have other, better ways. And alcohol clouds the judgment.
When Eli learns the truth, he tries to encourage her as best he can. He may not be the spiritually sharpest guy, but he does seem to love the Lord.
But Hannah exercises tremendous faith. She is somehow confident that God will answer her prayer this time. That’s why she goes home happy, even though her circumstances haven’t changed at all.
V. Hannah’s Son
V. Hannah’s Son
Then they rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
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.”
It happened! What had seemed impossible was now here. Hannah had a son! Now this was God’s providence rather than the miraculous. She had five children after Samuel, so she was still of childbearing age. Still, my own experience is that when this happens, it certainly feels like the impossible is becoming reality.
Samuel’s name is interesting. Hannah says that she named him because she asked for him. But the name that means “asked” is “Saul” not Samuel. Samuel means “his name is God” meaning “Yahweh’s Name is God”. But it sounds a lot like the name for “asked.” I think the answer is that Hannah had both ideas in mind. She named him Samuel because she was a woman of faith and wanted her son to have a name that stood for the worship of God. But she also wanted to remember that he existed because God answered her prayer, so she picked a name that sounded similar to that idea, too.
VI. Hannah’s gift
VI. Hannah’s gift
Now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow.
But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever.”
So Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him. Only let the Lord establish His word.” Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young.
Then they slaughtered a bull, and brought the child to Eli.
And she said, “O my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the Lord.
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him.
Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord.” So they worshiped the Lord there.
Both Elkanah and Hannah are careful to perform all their vows. He could have canceled her vow (Num 30:1-14) under the Law, but he didn’t. After all, he was giving up his son, too; for a vow his wife made, not himself. But he let her do so, and kept his own vows. Now, she couldn’t realistically give Samuel up until he was weaned; and she wanted to make sure she didn’t appear before God without keeping her promise; so she waited until Samuel was weaned. This was the earliest possible time she could have given him up. But keep her promise she did.
The only provision for giving up children to the temple in the law has to do with valuating persons; no sacrifice was required, and the child or person could be redeemed later for a specified amount of money (Lev 27:1-8 ). Every firstborn male was to be redeemed for the price of five shekels (Num 3:47; 18:15-16 ). But when a vow was to be fulfilled (Num 15:8-10) Only one bull, 3/10 of a ephah of flower, and half a hin of wine was required. This was about three times that. The point is that they were extremely generous with their sacrifice - as if giving their son wasn’t sacrificial enough.
Conclusion
Hannah is an example to us about trusting God in difficult situations. She could have taken the easy way out, but she didn’t, and was blessed for it. It’s not because her situation was perfect - she was in a polygamous household, after all. But she was a woman of faith and that faith carried her through, even when she didn’t feel like she could go on.
She also didn’t have a perfect worship setting - Hophni and Phinehas were the active priests, and the only godly priest was the aged Eli, too old and too soft to be much help. Eli’s sons were a special brand of awful, but she didn’t stop going to the temple like many other Jews did.
Her prayer wasn’t perfect either - there was no need for such a radical vow. Yet she did pray - no matter how many times she had prayed for a son, she didn’t give up. And her generosity to the Lord was impressive. How many parents have not wanted their kids to be missionaries because they would not see the grandkids? Yet Hannah gave up Samuel for nothing in return - no souls saved in foreign countries, nothing. Arguable, Samuel’s childhood in the temple wasn’t the greatest place to grow up godly. Eli didn’t exactly have the best record raising children, and that was when he was young. now he was old as well as an incompetent father.
Already, I think it’s obvious that Hannah was abundantly compensated for her trial. And the story isn’t over yet. Trusting God works. I don’t know how its going to end for you. I do know that trusting God brings blessing.