Hannah: 1 Samuel: 1 & 2

Character Studies

Personal Introduction

After the Lord saved me in the fall of 2000, the first piece of Scripture that ever really stuck with me was 2nd Timothy 2:3-4. Here Paul penned the following words, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” 1 I must confess that when I first read that, it made me a little fearful. I wondered…‘what was I going to have to suffer?’ I was kind of hoping for the ‘life more abundantly’ and ‘joy’ and ‘peace’ parts of salvation that I had heard so much of. But the Lord spoke to my spirit clearly…“You therefore must endure hardship…”

As my new life in this great salvation unfolded, the Lord seemed to be gifting and calling me to Evangelism…some have even said extreme evangelism. As I began serving and preaching in Ghana, Malawi, India and the US, the Lord gave me a great boldness that allowed me to preach to Muslims in front of mosques, and to preach to Hindus in front of shrines. It was in this portion of my calling that I thought surely my suffering would spring forth. In retrospect, after 20 years of serving the Lord, I can affirm that is not where the bulk of my suffering has originated. Rather than just give the answer directly, I will use the story of Hannah to explain.

Hannah’s Situation

This first section of Scripture details the basics of Hannah’s life. It reads:

“Now there was a certain man…his name was Elkanah…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. 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.”

1 Samuel 1:1-7, NKJV 2

So here are some of the details we should take notice of from the passage above:

  • Mark the Environment – This was a godless time for Israel; indeed devotion to the Lord was more of an exception than the rule. The Book of Judges ends with this verse: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Judges 21:25
  • Mark the Names – Often times in Scripture, there is great meaning, symbolism and lessons to be learned from the names of people and places. In this passage there are three to look at in the Hebrew: Elkanah means, “whom God created or possesses.” 3 Hannah means, “Grace.” 4 Peninnah means, “Jewel.” 5
  • Mark the Devotion – This man, Elkanah, was faithfully devoted to serving the Lord. He and his family went year after year.
  • Mark the Family – Elkanah had two wives. Though many of God’s men throughout Scripture had more than one wife, from the beginning it was not so. (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5,6; 1 Corinthians 6:16) We are not sure from Scripture which wife was married first and which second. It may be a parallel to Jacob and his two wives Leah and Rachel. Regardless, Elkanah apparently made a choice to have two wives, which directly led to the strife between the two wives. I have heard it said that we are often times beaten with the rod of our own making. He also opened the door to the division by showing Hannah favoritism.
  • Mark the Barrenness – While we are not sure why at this point in Scripture the Lord caused Hannah to be barren, it is clear the Lord was behind it. We see this in Genesis 29:31 with Leah and Rachel. Here we read, “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.” While it does not say the Lord closed Rachel’s womb, it did say He opened Leah’s because she was not favored.
  • Mark the Adversary – Notice that the ‘adversary’ the Scripture refers to is Peninnah…the other wife. The adversary was inside Hannah’s own house. Her attacks were coming from someone that should have been an encourager not a discourager, a help and not a hurt.
  • Mark the Occasion – The adversary apparently attacked when Hannah was trying to worship the Lord. The Scriptures tell us that year by year as Hannah went to the house of the Lord to worship, that was when the adversary attacked her and broke her. This time should have been off limits for the attacks, yet the adversary used them as prime time to inflict emotional, physical and spiritual torment.

Take a moment to ponder this situation. Place yourself in Hannah’s shoes. You have been barren for so long. You are trying to be a good follower of the Lord. You are worshipping God faithfully, and yet all the while a person in your own family is severely tormenting you. How would you handle it? Would you retaliate? Let us see how Hannah handled it.

Hannah’s Response

“8 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?” 9 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. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. 11 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.” 12 And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. 13 Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14 So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!” 15 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. 16 Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.” 17 Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” 18 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.”

1 Samuel 1:8-18, NKJV
  • Mark the Quiet Longsuffering – Notice how Hannah simply endured the unrighteous treatment of Peninnah. It would appear as though her husband was oblivious to the tormenting brought on by the other wife; he thought she grieved only about being barren. She does not appear to broadcast her grief to anyone, not the priest, not the husband, no one. She just suffers quietly.
  • Mark the Course – Hannah does not scheme for her revenge, and she does not seek to deliver the tormentor into the hand of God or men. She simply cries out to God from the depths of her broken heart for an open womb. She seeks a righteous solution not a vengeful one, because she knows that if the Lord opens her womb the tormentor will have naught to torment her about.
  • Mark the Vow – Hannah is not seeking this grace from God simply to satisfy her personal desire. This is evidenced by her vow. Note that the very blessing that she asks the Lord for, she vows to sacrificially give right back to Him.
  • Mark the Judgment – Here is Hannah, crying and weeping before the Lord and emptying her heart out to Him, all the while the man of God is judging her. Maybe that time was so wicked that Eli had never really seen a true worshipper before. Maybe the people he watched pray, spoke loud prayers so that they could be heard and have people applaud their eloquent words or hear their complaints as gossip. Not Hannah; she cried to the Lord so that only He could hear her prayers…He was the only One that mattered. She was praying to the Lord in secret so that He could reward her openly.
  • Mark the Fruit – Take notice of not only the fruit of Hannah’s womb, but also her faith in righteously bearing the persecution by the tormentor; they are one in the same…her child Samuel. God not only blessed her with a man child as she petitioned, but with an amazing man of God in Samuel…what an honor. Acts 3:24 lists him first in the line of the prophets, and he was also the last of the Judges.

Our Take-Aways

Hannah was persecuted by those that were supposed to love her and help her. The priest should have encouraged her, yet he falsely accused and judged her. To make matters worse, all of this happened while she was trying to serve God and worship Him.

I believe this is a parallel for the church today. So many times we in the household of faith are guilty of hurting those inside the body. On some occasions our hurts and pains come from people in authority, like our pastors and church leaders, while other times it flows from the people in the congregation. Additionally, many times it seems like the attacks get greater when we are seeking to do God’s will and walk in obedience.

In personal reflection, I have been cursed, spat at, threatened, etc. while preaching the Gospel to unbelievers, but that is to be expected as the people I am preaching to are spiritually blind. There is no real surprise in suffering from those encounters. It is truly an honor and a joy to “suffer” in that respect. However, there have been so many times in my 20 plus years as a Christian that my greatest discouragement, pain and suffering has come from within the church. And to be perfectly transparent, I confess that some of the people I have probably hurt most in the world have likely been inside the church.

When discussing this lesson with a dear brother in the Lord, he told me of a saying he had heard many years ago that proclaimed, “We in the Church tend to shoot our own wounded.” I believe that to be unfortunately true. A person near and dear to me recently said, after recounting all of her pains from the church, ‘I think I would rather hang around lost people every day rather than people in the church.’ Sadly, that is the experience many people point to for avoiding church fellowship.

So, in light of this, here are some things for us to consider as lessons from Hannah’s story:

  1. While not mentioned in the story explicitly, I believe there is a lesson to be gleaned from the names of the wives: Hannah meaning ‘Grace’ and Peninnah meaning ‘Jewel.’ while there are many men of God in the OT that had multiple wives, that was never God’s design or plan. And the fact that the wives names’ Grace and Jewel parallel God and wealth, reminds me of the words of Jesus. He proclaimed, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 6 The ‘Jewel’s’ and wealth and things of this world may give the illusion of fruitfulness for a season, but the blessing of ‘Grace’ will last for an eternity.
  2. We need to be prepared to suffer, and expect the wrongful treatment of others. Part of this preparation is mimicking Hannah’s character and behavior. We do not retaliate. We do not gossip or disguise gossip as a prayer request. Our hurts and pains should be spoken from our hearts to God’s hear. Yes, there are appropriate times to go to leaders to get involved, but our first step is to take things to the Lord.
  3. Everything we receive from the Lord is to be devoted to the Lord and bringing Him glory and building His kingdom. His blessing are not for us to waste upon our fleshly desires. James 4:3 reads, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” 7 If we are praying just because we ‘want…’ we are asking amiss.
  4. When we invest the talents, abilities and resources the Lord gives us back in His Kingdom, that is when He can reward our faithfulness.

What can you take away from Hannah’s story? Leave a comment and let us know.

Article Footnotes
  1. New King James Version[↩]
  2. Note some of the non-essential portions of the passage, as pertaining to this lesson, have been omitted for brevity sake. They are represented by the ‘…’ [↩]
  3. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H511&t=KJV[↩]
  4. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H2584&t=KJV[↩]
  5. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H6444&t=KJV[↩]
  6. Matthew 6:24, NASB[↩]
  7. KJV[↩]

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