Presentation 01
Introduction
This book begins by focusing on one woman’s
suffering. The shadow of suffering is something that
falls across all of our lives in one degree or another
and with it the question, “Why had God allowed me
to pass through this dark valley?” There are no easy
answers, but this passage helps us to understand the
importance of stepping back and seeing God’s big
picture. By seeing ‘the big picture’ many have been
helped to cope with their own soreness of heart.
In the U.K. today something like one in six couples
are childless and what very real heartache is often
theirs. But Hannah’s story reaches beyond the pain
of childlessness.
Presentation 01
Introduction
In order to understand Hannah’s story it is
important to recognise that it does not
unfold in a historical, political, social or
religious vacuum. All of these elements
form part of the big picture. With this in
mind we want to paint the big picture!
Up until this point in her history, Israel had
been a loose tribal grouping with no real
national identity. The book of Judges
makes clear that there had certainly been
no political stability in Israel since they had
taken possession of the land under
Joshua's leadership some 300 years
previously.
Presentation 01
Introduction
The society, of which Hannah was a part, is described at the end of the
book of Judges as one of growing moral anarchy; “Everyone did that which
was right in their own eyes” Jud. 21v25. Israel was in spiralling spiritual
declension and the recurring pattern of her national life was marked by;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Moral and Spiritual Declension
Disaster/Chastening,
Repentance,
Revival
and Deliverance.
Presentation 01
Introduction
The ‘religious life’ of Israel had also reached an
all time low. There was a semblance of
outward religion, but this was contaminated
for it was united to a combination of both
idolatry and superstition.
Those who held religious office often abused
their position [Jud. 17.1, 1Sam.2.12, 1Sam 4.3].
The scandalous behaviour of High Priests sons
provides us with a microcosmic explanation of
the spiritual deadness that had begun to creep
over Israel. For ‘religious life’, read ‘religious
death’.
Presentation 01
Introduction
How then does God address himself to what was clearly a religious, moral
and political crisis in Israel? God’s solution is not one that would have had
TV cameras racing to the scene to record a sensational news item!
Instead, we find God at work in a heart-rending domestic situation
located in the country's rural backwater.
God's solutions often begin in the most
unlikely places and in the quietest of
manners. Did not the Lord of Glory
slip quietly into our world in a
stable in Bethlehem?
But here, God’s solution begins
in an unhappy family home.
Consider the principal characters.
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Elkanah.
While it seems that Elkanah loved his wife Hannah, he nevertheless
introduced a second wife to the family home, probably because of Hannah's
childlessness. If so, then this reveals the
shallowness of Elkanah's religious life.
In what way? Difficulties which should
have driven him to prayer, drove him
instead to expediency. He needed
to acquire a fertile wife for he
wanted children at any cost!
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Elkanah.
Externally, he was a religiously meticulous man. Others may have neglected
the annual pilgrimage to Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant was situated
and the priesthood located, but not Elkanah!
However his religion seems to have been divorced
from his domestic life - a perennial problem!
Notice too, that having brought a second wife
into his family, he was obliged to live with its
distressing results. There was tension and strife
at home but Elkanah seems oblivious to it all.
Did he understand Hannah’s pain? It seems
unlikely. He reveals his insensitivity,
“Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Peninnah.
Elkanah’s second wife is responsible for much of Hannah's
anguish. Here is a woman who is jealous of Elkanah's
love for Hannah - a love revealed in v5, Hannah receives
"a double portion". Peninnah thinks of herself as little
more than a surrogate wife - a baby factory! We need
to understand the dynamic of these human
relationships.
Peninnah is discriminated against, she feels hurt
and devalued, she grows jealous of her
competitor and seeks at every opportunity
to hurt her . She does this by aiming at Hannah’s
most vulnerable point – her barrenness!
The tongue can be a lethal weapon!
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Hannah.
Childlessness in the Middle East both then, and in some cases now is a
cause of considerable shame. Hannah's anguish was exacerbated by
Peninnah's provocation, Elkanah's insensitivity [v8] and by what she may
have wrongly interpreted as the disfavour of God.
The annual religious trip to Shiloh was
something she faced with dread for it
brought her shame into sharper focus.
It was a time for family reunion and
the inevitable question,
“Do you have any children yet?”
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Hannah.
Despite her soreness of heart she did not allow it
to embitter her against God. Rather it
emboldened her to pray. It caused her to fashion
an arrow of prayer that she shot heavenwards.
And it was the harsh treatment that she received
that drove her to pray as she did. Suffering can
produce a remarkable spiritual intensity! It can
also lead to a deepening consecration of our
lives. Ask yourself,
‘Would Hannah have been as ready to yield up a
future son to the service of God without such
consecration?’
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Hannah.
Some have criticised Hannah’s prayer as no more than a piece of bargaining,
“If you give me this then I will give you that” .
In actual fact the vow that forms the substance of
Hannah’s prayer is a rarity in scripture. When it is
examined carefully, we find that Hannah is really
saying to God,
‘Whatever you give me I will recognise as
belonging to you alone.’
And that is the essence of consecration, is it not?
Can we say to God,
‘All that I am and have is rightfully yours’.
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Eli.
Eli, the high priest confused Hannah’s intensity of prayer
with drunkenness v14, suggesting a man who is out of
touch with spiritual reality. He is more used to loud,
shallow prayer than with deep heart wrestling.
It’s amazing that Hannah can draw encouragement
from such a man but God's ability to bless is not
limited by the spirituality of his mouthpiece.
Hannah concludes, ‘God knows and he can
be trusted to do what is right’.
Recognising that we are truly understood by
God can dramatically change our life. Hannah
was no longer the same woman as a result of
this discovery. She was at peace!
Presentation 01
The Principal Characters
Samuel.
When Hannah’s child was born he was given the name,
‘Samuel’. It means “heard of God” for he was truly a
child born out of prayer. God had used Hannah’s
suffering to shape a prayer that would in turn put
his man "in place." Samuel was destined to do a
great work, something that Hannah would have
been totally unaware of at the time.
Now after Samuel was born how costly do you
think it must have been for Hannah to keep her
vow to God? cf v24ff.
Presentation 01
Conclusion
We often want to claw back what we have given to God
and can pile up all sorts of arguments for doing so.
Hannah could have argued, “He's too young to give to
God”, or, “He can serve God just as well at home”, or,
“How could I send him into that godless environment
at Shiloh?"
Many children have had valuable service in the work
of God hindered by possessive parents who cling to
them! Hannah knew the importance of remaining
detached from God's gifts. There is a sweet matterof-factness in her consecration. There was no
trumpet blowing and no martyr spirit. And God
would later honour that cf, 2.21.
Presentation 01
Conclusion
Hannah’s years of pain in her home life drove her, not just
to prayer, but to a depth of consecration that in turn
produced a child. A child, who would be used by God to
shape the moral and spiritual direction of Israel’s life. That
is quite a thought! Were you to interview Hannah years
after Samuel’s birth I suspect she would smile over her
past pain and say,
‘It was worth it all. For I can now see how God used all of
that suffering in creative ways that I certainly could not
understand at the time’.
God can use our pain and grief if we allow them
to drive us to prayer and to a deeper consecration
of our lives to him. Beyond the door of suffering
lies the purposes of God which are often greater
than our minds can grasp.
Presentation 01
Conclusion
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Presentation 01