Hannah – Her Situation
Since it has been a while since we talked about Hannah we need to take a few minutes and refresh our memory with the context of her situation. After that we will sing and then we are going to look at what Hannah has to say after she takes Samuel to Jerusalem.
God had her prayer recorded for all eternity in His Word.
1 Samuel 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
We learn in Samuel chapter 17 that King David was an Ephrathite. What does that mean?
In the Bible when someone or a group is called by a name like Ephrathite or Hittite it can be one of two things. It can be used for heritage. Hittite is an example. That speaks of their linage as a group of people. That is one way it can be used.
Another way is not talking about linage but a region. A place.
An Ephrathite is an example of that. It is people from the area around Bethlehem a little south of Jerusalem.
Mount Ephraim is to the north of Jerusalem. In the area that would much later become known as Samaria.
Then how can Elkanah be both? An Ephrathite from south of Jerusalem and yet live in the north? The simple solution to that is he was born and raised around Bethlehem and at some point he moved north to around mount Ephraim.
King David was an Ephrathite and he was of the tribe of Judah. Elkanah was an Ephrathite and was of the tribe of Levi.
We learn this by looking at the list of names in 1st Chronicles.
1 Chronicles 6:31 And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the LORD, after that the ark had rest.
This is years later. Samuel chapter 1 is before David is born. But we learn in Chronicles that after David is king he sets certain men over certain tasks in the Tabernacle and guess who is going to be in that list. Elkanah.
1 Chronicles 6:32 And they ministered before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order.
These men were given jobs. An office according to their order. There were too many Levites for all of them to serve at once. So they had to wait until it was their turn.
1 Chronicles 6:33 And these are they that waited with their children. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman a singer, the son of Joel, the son of Shemuel,
1 Chronicles 6:34 The son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah,
1 Chronicles 6:35 The son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai,
If you allow for the fact of different spellings of names and that some men had nicknames based on their name. This still happens today. Some men are named David and go by Dave.
Then you see that the Elkanah in 1st Samuel is the same Elkanah as in Chronicles.
1 Samuel 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
That tells us a couple of things. One Elkanah was a Levite. You had to be a Levite to serve in the tabernacle.
And two at the time of 1st Samuel Elkanah was very young, and so was Hannah.
How does that fit into the story of Hannah?
It helps explain some things. Remember how awful the priests were at that time. Eli and his two horrible sons. And yet Elkanah went up to worship every year. He was of the tribe of priests. The tribe of Levi were supposed to be teachers of the word of God.
And you see in the Bible evidence that Elkanah knew a lot and as you will see it is clear that he taught Hannah a lot of scripture.
We will see that one of the great character traits that Hannah had was that she was teachable. She had an interest in the things of God and she listened and learned and then lived it.
Elkanah knew his Bible but he made a huge mistake. We don’t know why. The exact reason does not matter. The fact is there is no valid reason to do what he did.
Yes years later Elkanah finds mercy and still gets to serve in the Tabernacle, but he had to suffer for decades the consequences of his sin.
His sin. He took more than one wife. God clearly set the pattern in the Garden of Eden. One man and one woman. And every time someone went against that and took a second wife it was always trouble. Every single time.
It always causes hurt and pain. And Hannah’s case is no exception. It was horrible.
1 Sam 1:2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
1 Sam 1:3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.
1 Sam 1:4 And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
1 Sam 1:5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.
1 Sam 1:6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
1 Sam 1:7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.
1 Sam 1:8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
The not eating is important. Why not eat? First you have to ask the question what is she not eating?
There was a lot of sacrifices that happened at the Tabernacle. For different reasons and to show forth different truths. The burnt sacrifice for example was totally consumed. This sacrifice pictured Jesus taking the fire of God’s judgment on the cross. It was totally burnt. None left. And that judgment was not shared by anyone. It was all on Jesus.
If they got to take any of that home, then that would be picturing that you have some part in it. Nope. What happened on the cross was all on Jesus and Jesus alone. He took it all. He paid it all.
Jesus gave it all on the cross. He took all the fire of God’s judgment completely. So that sacrifice was completely burnt. That sacrifice took all the fire and it was consumed.
Then there was the peace offering. It showed forth the peace of fellowship with God. And it was supposed to show forth the peace that exists between God and the priests and the person who offered it. So for this offering they would only cook the meat and then they would share it. Some was given to God on the altar some was given to the priests and then some of it was taken home and shared with the family.
1 Sam 1:5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.
Elkanah gets home with their share of the peace offering and sees that Hannah is grieved. And so he gives her extra amount of the peace offering. I guess he is trying to address her grief. He is trying to say maybe many different things. He loves her. That she has peace with him and with God.
It could be a lot of different things he was trying to convey with his action.
But the fact was Hannah had no peace. Zero.
1 Sam 1:6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.
1 Sam 1:7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.
The other wife was just nasty. Kept on it and kept on it. We assume that she was the older wife. It could be. That is an assumption, but it seems to fit. And she provoked her sore. Just kept pushing and pushing.
1 Sam 1:8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
Hannah knew exactly what that peace offering was all about. She was not on a hunger strike. She was not throwing a hissy fit. She would not eat and thus mess up what the peace offering pictured. It represented having peace with God and with your fellow man. And she did not have peace.
She was in turmoil. Her grief was extremely great. This happened year after year.
Hannah then takes it to the Lord.
1 Sam 1:9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.
1 Sam 1:10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
She was in bitterness of soul. It seems she is about at the very end of what she can take. She has taken it and taken it and taken it. The husband can’t fix it. No man can. He put himself and his family in a no win situation. No man should have two wives.
It is a mess. So Hannah goes to the only one who can help and that is God. She prays her heart out and promises God that if He will give her a son that she will give him back to God for God’s service.
1 Sam 1:12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.
1 Sam 1:13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
1 Sam 1:14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
1 Sam 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
1 Sam 1:16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
She knew how a daughter of Belial acts and she knew how a woman of God acts. More evidence that she really knew the word of God. She knew all about vows and knew how to pray, and had faith that she did not have to pray out loud. She knew that God knows and hears what is said in the heart.
1 Sam 1:17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
1 Sam 1:18 And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
1 Sam 1:19 And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.
I really love this about Hannah. After she prayed she had faith that it was as good as done. She gave the situation to God and grief gone, weeping gone, and bitterness of soul gone.
And notice that she now goes back and eats the peace offering. Showing forth that she has peace with God.
It is a great example for us on prayer and faith and trust and giving even a really bad situation to God.
They go home, her prayer is answered and she has Samuel. Now she knew the rule in those days. If the husband hears her vow he can cancel it or let it stand. She did not try to scheme nothing. This was all out in the open. She told her husband her vow and he agreed.
The approval of a vow was protection for a woman who got too emotional without thinking and it protected those who had little or no knowledge of the Bible. Remember in those days very few had access to all the scriptures.
Many would have a few favorite verses written on things. Sometimes on broken pieces of pottery. They would have some more favorite verses memorized. But people did not have whole copies of the scriptures at home. The man was responsible to lead his family in scriptural matters and in worship.
He was to know the word of God more than anyone else in his family. So because of that knowledge he was to be protection if the woman vowed something that was unscriptural.
This is a practice that has zero N.T. authority. It is a practice that needs to be left in the Old Testament times.
And one of the reasons why should be plain. Every woman today has complete access to the entire Word of God. She can read it herself and understand it herself.
Anyway she tells her husband of the vow, he agrees to it by not disallowing it and she has Samuel, keeps him until he is old enough and then takes him to Jerusalem.
Now that we have fresh in our minds the situation we are ready to take a look at what she says about God in her prayer after she leaves her precious son at the temple.
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