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Thoughts on Hannah


Annette

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Good day guys, 

I can't believe it is February already! My youngest is happy as she gets to celebrate her birthday in two weeks :)

Thinking of children,  I have learned so much about sharing when I got married and even more so when I had my daughters.

As a mom, I know having kids has made life busier, fuller and so much richer.  My heart breaks as I read about Hannah and her longing for a kid. She must have been pretty desperate when she prayed and she was thought to be drunk. 

I love that she shares her pain with God, as it is a reminder to me that I don't have to face hard times alone either. 

I realize that we all read about Hannah and different things stand out. 

I was wondering what stands out to you as you read about Hannah?

Look forward to reading what you share. 

God bless.

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It would appear that Elkanah genuinely loved Hannah, but had married a second wife because Hannah was unable to have children. This must have been a particularly difficult situation for both women. Peninnah was evidently one of those women who gets pregnant at the drop of a hat; her repeated ‘successes’ meant that Hannah was constantly humiliated. And infertility, for a Hebrew woman, was not just a personal failure but a disgrace; people would have assumed that God was punishing her for some reason. Elkanah manfully did his best to make things up for her, but his obvious favouritism for Hannah (I Samuel 1:5) only served to stoke the fire of Peninnah’s jealousy.

In the modern age we no longer consider infertility to be a divine judgement, and childlessness no longer carries the social stigma that Hannah had to bear; for many women, it is a lifestyle choice. And yet those who cannot have children for one reason or another are tormented just as deeply as Hannah was. We suffer because of the unspoken assumption that our fertility is under our control; certainly we can prevent pregnancy very effectively with modern contraceptives, but conception can still be elusive (despite the wonders of IVF). Many years ago, our pastor’s wife and I miscarried within a few weeks of each other. She got pregnant again very quickly; I had to wait four long and excruciatingly painful years… 

Christmas and Mothers’ Day, with their special focus on children and motherhood, are particularly difficult times to cope with. The equivalent ordeal, for Hannah, was the annual family pilgrimage to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, where Peninnah would spare no effort to spoil the occasion with her waspish taunting. And when she had succeeded in reducing Hannah to tears, Elkanah seemed unable to understand why his beloved wife was so distressed (I Samuel 1:8)

Women have been known to commit suicide under such pressure; but Hannah had one last place to go to. A devout person, she had surely prayed for a child many times before. But on this particular occasion, she was driven to pray with unusual intensity. The nearest that a mere woman could get to the sanctuary where God ‘lived’ was the gateway; there she poured out her soul to God, silently but with such agitation and distress that the old priest sitting nearby thought that she was drunk! And she made a solemn vow: her son (if she ever had one) would not be just an ordinary Levite like his father, but would be dedicated to God’s service as a lifelong Nazarite (see Numbers 6:1-8).

Hannah’s vow was to have momentous consequences. At the time, the official priesthood was corrupt (I Samuel 2:12-36) and the nation was without effective spiritual leadership. But her eldest son, Samuel, grew up to be one of Israel’s greatest ever prophets. He served his God and his people faithfully for the whole of his long life, initiating a spiritual revival (I Samuel 7) and anointing Israel’s first two kings (I Samuel 10 & 16). And it all began with an ordinary woman calling upon God in desperation and in faith…

Sometimes a great work of God can grow only out of stony ground.
 

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1 hour ago, Deborah_ said:

It would appear that Elkanah genuinely loved Hannah, but had married a second wife because Hannah was unable to have children. This must have been a particularly difficult situation for both women. Peninnah was evidently one of those women who gets pregnant at the drop of a hat; her repeated ‘successes’ meant that Hannah was constantly humiliated. And infertility, for a Hebrew woman, was not just a personal failure but a disgrace; people would have assumed that God was punishing her for some reason. Elkanah manfully did his best to make things up for her, but his obvious favouritism for Hannah (I Samuel 1:5) only served to stoke the fire of Peninnah’s jealousy.

In the modern age we no longer consider infertility to be a divine judgement, and childlessness no longer carries the social stigma that Hannah had to bear; for many women, it is a lifestyle choice. And yet those who cannot have children for one reason or another are tormented just as deeply as Hannah was. We suffer because of the unspoken assumption that our fertility is under our control; certainly we can prevent pregnancy very effectively with modern contraceptives, but conception can still be elusive (despite the wonders of IVF). Many years ago, our pastor’s wife and I miscarried within a few weeks of each other. She got pregnant again very quickly; I had to wait four long and excruciatingly painful years… 

Christmas and Mothers’ Day, with their special focus on children and motherhood, are particularly difficult times to cope with. The equivalent ordeal, for Hannah, was the annual family pilgrimage to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, where Peninnah would spare no effort to spoil the occasion with her waspish taunting. And when she had succeeded in reducing Hannah to tears, Elkanah seemed unable to understand why his beloved wife was so distressed (I Samuel 1:8)

Women have been known to commit suicide under such pressure; but Hannah had one last place to go to. A devout person, she had surely prayed for a child many times before. But on this particular occasion, she was driven to pray with unusual intensity. The nearest that a mere woman could get to the sanctuary where God ‘lived’ was the gateway; there she poured out her soul to God, silently but with such agitation and distress that the old priest sitting nearby thought that she was drunk! And she made a solemn vow: her son (if she ever had one) would not be just an ordinary Levite like his father, but would be dedicated to God’s service as a lifelong Nazarite (see Numbers 6:1-8).

Hannah’s vow was to have momentous consequences. At the time, the official priesthood was corrupt (I Samuel 2:12-36) and the nation was without effective spiritual leadership. But her eldest son, Samuel, grew up to be one of Israel’s greatest ever prophets. He served his God and his people faithfully for the whole of his long life, initiating a spiritual revival (I Samuel 7) and anointing Israel’s first two kings (I Samuel 10 & 16). And it all began with an ordinary woman calling upon God in desperation and in faith…

Sometimes a great work of God can grow only out of stony ground.
 

Thank you so much for sharing Deborah. I really enjoyed what you shared from your thoughts to the time that we read about Hannah, to life today,  as well as sharing your own personal,  and painful experience. 

It means a lot to me 

God bless. 

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Don't forget she had to give Samuel up to service in the temple.

Even though she had other children, she still had the pain of not looking after her first child.

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Shalom Annette,

Hannah seems to have been a wonderful woman. What stands out to me about the story is her own plight before Yahweh. Elkanah doesn't seem to pray for children with her but rather asks "am I not better to you than ten children?". Maybe because Elkanah gave up at trying only physically and availing no results.

Hannah's faith was great when Eli spotted her praying and said Yahweh has heard her "so the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad". She doesn't seem to doubt herself, Elkanah, Eli or Yahweh but went here way and "her face was no longer sad". Amazing.

This story reminds me of another woman in Judges, the wife of Manoah. Remarkably, she is given no name and yet the "Angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman", and not her husband, to tell her that she would conceive Samson. Manoah prayed to Yahweh to see this Angel for himself but, strangely, the Angel appeared to the woman first again.

Amazing women of faith. Perhaps, in these relationships, more faith than their husbands? Whatever the reason, the Spirit has deliberately recorded scripture in this way. It's incidental information in terms of narrative, or needless detail (one could argue). And yet, it has been deliberately recorded in this way to teach us a mystery for meditation.

Love & Shalom

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