CHAPTER 5
Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.”
1 Samuel 2:1 nkjv
Hannah’s name means “grace.” It’s a fitting designation for a woman whose life was crowned with grace and who became a living emblem of the grace of motherhood. A study of her life reveals the classic profile of a godly mother.
Yet Hannah almost despaired of ever becoming a mother. Her experience strongly echoes Sarah’s. Like Sarah, she was childless and distraught over it. Both women’s marriages were plagued with stress because of their husbands’ bigamy. Both of them ultimately received the blessing they sought from God, and in both cases, the answers to their prayers turned out to be exceedingly and abundantly more significant than they had ever dared to ask or think. Hannah’s son, Samuel, was the last of the judges. He was also a priest—the one who formally inaugurated the true royal line of Israel by anointing David as king. Samuel became a towering figure in Israel’s history. Thus Hannah’s life often mirrored that of the original matriarch, Sarah. Most of all, she mirrored Sarah’s amazing faith and perseverance.
In a similar way, Hannah also foreshadowed Mary, the mother of Jesus. Hannah’s prayer of dedication in 1 Samuel 2:1–10 was the model for Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46–55. Both Hannah and Mary formally dedicated their firstborn sons to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:24–28; Luke 2:22–24). Surrender to God’s will cost each of them dearly in terms of emotional suffering. (In Hannah’s case, this meant the painful sorrow of separation from her own child. Samuel left home to begin his full-time training in the tabernacle when he was still a young toddler, at a time when most children still enjoy the comfort of their mothers’ arms.)
A CHERISHED HOPE
Hannah was unique among the women we have studied so far because she was not in the genealogical line of the Messiah. But Hannah’s famous dedicatory prayer, when she offered her son to God, is actually a prophetic paean to Israel’s Messiah. Clearly, she cherished the very same messianic hope that framed the worldview of every one of the extraordinary women we are studying.
As a matter of fact, since Hannah is the last of the Old Testament women we’ll be dealing with, it is worth mentioning how prominent the messianic expectation is in the Old Testament—not only in the lives of these few women, but throughout the law, the psalms, and the prophets (Luke 24:44). The theme runs like a brilliant scarlet thread woven into the tapestry of the Old Testament. Here and there, it comes boldly to the surface in explicit prophecies and promises, but it is usually concealed just underneath, where it remains a constant undertone—always discernible but seldom conspicuous, and never really very far from the center of the picture. It is the true foundation for every other theme in the Old Testament.
I especially love how the messianic hope comes right to the forefront whenever we consider the principal women of the Old Testament. The truth is, every truly righteous man and woman in the Old Testament shared the same fervent longing for the Messiah to come. He was the focus and the theme of all their future hopes.
In other words, Christ has always been the one true object of all saving faith—even in Old Testament times. Long before He was explicitly revealed in human flesh, the Redeemer was promised. Although the Old Testament saints’ understanding of Him was dim and shadowy, the promised Redeemer truly was the focus of all their hopes for salvation. Job, whose story is one of the most ancient expressions of faith recorded in Scripture, gave this testimony at the lowest point of his worst troubles: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25–27 nkjv). Job’s faith even included the expectation of his own bodily resurrection!
The faith of true believers has always had that Christ-centered perspective. No wonder the messianic expectation was so prominent in the hearts and minds of these extraordinary women. It was the very essence of the faith by which they laid hold of God’s promises. It was therefore the key to everything that made them truly extraordinary!
A GODLY HERITAGE
Hannah was an obscure woman living in a remote part of Israel with her husband, Elkanah. Hannah and Elkanah made their home in the territory occupied by the tribe of Ephraim. First Samuel 1:1 lists Elkanah’s great-great-grandfather, Zuph, as an “Ephraimite,” but this clearly designates only the territory the family lived in, and not their line of descent. We know this because 1 Chronicles 6:22–27 gives a detailed genealogy for Elkanah, showing that he actually descended from Levi by way of Kohath.
The Kohathites were one of the three major lines in the tribe of Levi. This was an important clan. Moses and Aaron were Kohathites, according to 1 Chronicles 6:2–3. The sons of Kohath were assigned responsibility for the most sacred furnishings of the tabernacle, including the ark of the covenant (Num. 3:30–31). When Israel moved camp from one place to another in the wilderness, it was the Kohathites’ duty to disassemble the Holy of Holies and transport the ark and all the sacred utensils according to a strict procedure (4:4–16).
Once Israel occupied the Promised Land permanently and the tabernacle was finally situated at Shiloh, the Kohathites seem to have devoted themselves to other priestly functions—especially leading music, prayer, and praise in the tabernacle (1 Chron. 6:31–33). Thus one of Elkanah’s close ancestors was known as “Heman the singer,” according to verse 33.
The Levites were the only tribe in Israel allotted no independent territory of their own because they were the priestly tribe, and the Lord Himself was their inheritance (Num. 18:20). So when the land of Israel was divided and distributed according to the twelve other tribes, the Levites were scattered throughout the whole nation. They were given modest plots of pastureland and fields to cultivate in selected cities throughout Israel. Elkanah’s ancestors, probably as far back as the earliest generation after the conquest of Canaan, had lived among the tribe of Ephraim. That’s why Zuph (Elkanah’s ancestor) is called an “Ephraimite,” even though this was clearly a family of Kohathites, from the tribe of Levi.
Men from the tribe of Levi took turns every year (for a few weeks at a time) serving in the tabernacle. In those days, the tabernacle was situated at Shiloh. Since the Levites had this duty to minister in the tabernacle, taking them away from their land and homes for an extended time each year, their income was supplemented with tithes collected from all Israel (Num. 18:24–32).
Hannah faithfully traveled with Elkanah to the tabernacle every year to worship and offer a sacrifice. Scripture portrays them as a devout family, yet living in a dismal period of Israel’s history. The Bible reminds us that at the time Elkanah made regular trips to Shiloh to worship and offer his sacrifice, “the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there” (1 Sam. 1:3 nkjv).
Hophni and Phinehas were two of the worst priests we ever meet on the pages of Scripture. They were greedy men who illegally—and sometimes forcibly—took the best portions of people’s offerings for themselves (1 Sam. 2:13–16). Worse yet, they used their position as priests to seduce young women (v. 22). They had, in effect, turned the tabernacle into a bawdy house, and they had formed a kind of priestly mafia, bullying worshipers and flagrantly showing contempt for God’s law. The obvious result was that the people of Israel grew to abhor bringing their offerings to the Lord (v. 17). All the people of Israel were aware of what Hophni and Phinehas were doing, but their father Eli made only a half-hearted attempt to rebuke them, even though he was the high priest (v. 24).
Of course, the visible manifestation of God’s glory that once resided over the ark of the covenant was long gone. The ark itself had come to mean little to the Israelites. Hophni and Phinehas treated it like a talisman. The low point came when they took it into battle against the Philistines, presuming it would guarantee Israel a victory. Instead, the Philistines soundly defeated Israel’s army and captured the ark. The ark was never again returned to the tabernacle at Shiloh. (After its recovery from the Philistines, the ark remained in virtual neglect for about a hundred years in a private house in Kiriath-Jearim, until David retrieved it and brought it to Jerusalem in preparation for the temple Solomon would build there.)
The loss of the ark (1 Sam. 4:10–11) occurred just a few short years after Hannah is introduced to us in Scripture (1:2). It was the climactic and defining moment of that backslidden era. Incidentally, in that same battle in which the ark was captured, Hophni and Phinehas were killed. Eli fell over from shock as soon as he heard the news. He died too—from injuries sustained in that fall. Phinehas’s wife delivered a child shortly after that, and she named him Ichabod, meaning “the glory has departed” (4:12–22 nkjv). It was an apt description of that whole era of Israel’s history. This was indeed a time of great spiritual darkness.
In those dry and gloomy days, Hannah stood out as a ray of light. Not only was she the quintessential godly mother and wife, but in a spiritually cold generation she exemplified patience, prayerfulness, faith, meekness, submission, spiritual devotion, and motherly love.
A HOLY AMBITION
In spite of her gracious character, Hannah’s home life was often troubled and sorrowful. Her husband was a bigamist. In the words of Scripture, “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” (1 Sam. 1:2 nkjv). Obviously, this situation caused severe tension in the family. Peninnah—called Hannah’s “rival” (v. 6 nkjv)—deliberately provoked her, goading her about the fact that the Lord had withheld children from her.
Elkanah preferred Hannah, whom he loved deeply, but that only magnified the bitter rivalry between the women. Such strife was an inevitable side effect of Elkanah’s bigamy. Of course, one of the obvious reasons God designed marriage as a monogamous relationship in the first place was to avoid this kind of strife within families.
Hannah was in constant anguish because of her own infertility. She was further tormented by Peninnah’s carping taunts. The burden and stress made life almost unbearable. Hannah wept bitterly, and she literally could not even eat at times (1:7). She longed to be a mother. This was her one ambition in life.
I am convinced it was no selfish aspiration. The way Hannah immediately dedicated her first son to the Lord and gave him over to serve in the tabernacle at such a young age demonstrates the purity of her motives. She understood that motherhood is the highest calling God can bestow on any woman.
That is not to suggest, of course, that motherhood is the only proper role for women. Scripture recognizes that it is God’s will for some women to remain single (1 Cor. 7:8–9). In the wisdom of His providence, He has also ordained that some married women will remain perpetually childless (see Psalm 127:3). A woman is by no means required to be a wife or a mother before she can be useful in the Lord’s service. Miriam (Moses’ sister) and Deborah (who served as a judge and deliverer in Israel) are biblical examples of women whom God used mightily apart from marriage or motherhood. (Deborah was married, but she gained renown in a role that had nothing to do with being a wife or mother.)
Still, Scripture frequently portrays marriage as “the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7 nkjv) and motherhood as the highest calling any woman could ever be summoned to. It is, after all, the one vocation that God uniquely designed women to fulfill, and no man can ever intrude into the mother’s role. Perhaps you have already noticed how the glory and dignity of motherhood stood out in one way or another as a major theme in the life of every woman we have dealt with so far.. That is true of most of the key women in Scripture. Scripture honors them for their faithfulness in their own homes. Or, as in the case of Rahab and Ruth, we remember them because by faith they were liberated from the bondage of the world and raised to the more exalted role of wife and mother. Only rarely in Scripture were women singled out and praised for exploits or careers outside the domestic realm. Honor and eminence for women in the Bible was nearly always closely associated with home and family. Hannah understood that, and she earnestly desired to enter into the noble role of a mother.
Of course, the Bible’s exaltation of motherhood is often scorned by our more “enlightened” age. In fact, in this generation, motherhood is frequently derided and belittled even in the name of “women’s rights.” But it has been God’s plan from the beginning that women should train and nurture godly children and thus leave a powerful imprint on society through the home (1 Tim. 5:10; Titus 2:3–5). Hannah is a classic illustration of how that works. She is a reminder that mothers are the makers of men and the architects of the next generation. Her earnest prayer for a child was the beginning of a series of events that helped turn back the spiritual darkness and backsliding in Israel. She set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately usher in a profound spiritual awakening at the dawn of the Davidic dynasty.
We first encounter Hannah when Israel was in desperate need of a great leader and a great man. Hannah became the woman whom God used to help shape that man. Samuel proved to be the one man who could fill the leadership void. His character bore the clear stamp of his mother’s influence, even though he left home at such an early age.
I believe Hannah’s influence as a godly wife and mother is traceable to the three great loves of her life.
LOVE FOR HER HUSBAND
From the beginning of Scripture’s account of her family, it is evident that Hannah had a deep love for Elkanah, as he did for her. When they made a peace offering to the Lord (a sacrifice in which the offerer roasted the sacrificial animal and partook of a feast unto the Lord), Elkanah gave portions to Peninnah and all her children, but he gave a double portion to Hannah because of his great love for her (1 Sam. 1:4–5). This was a public honor that he regularly and deliberately bestowed on her in the presence of others at a feast.
Obviously, Hannah’s marriage was not a perfect one, chiefly because of the jealousy and rivalry her husband’s polygamous marriage caused. Hannah seemed to be the first wife, since she is named first (v. 2). Apparently Elkanah later married Peninnah because of Hannah’s barrenness. Remember, it was deemed vitally important in that culture to have children who could maintain the family inheritance and the family name. This was the same reason Abraham entered into a polygamous relationship with Hagar. It is undoubtedly the main reason we see so much polygamy in the Old Testament.
But Hannah’s marriage, though marred by tensions, was solid. Elkanah obviously loved Hannah with a sincere affection, and he knew her love for him was reciprocal. In fact, he tried to comfort her by tenderly reminding her of his love for 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?” (v. 8 nkjv). This plea did help, at least for the moment, because Hannah immediately arose and ate, then went to the tabernacle
(v. 9).
Hannah’s love for her husband is the first key to understanding her profound influence as a mother. Contrary to popular opinion, the most important characteristic of a godly mother is not her relationship with her children. It is her love for her husband. The love between husband and wife is the real key to a thriving family. A healthy home environment cannot be built exclusively on the parents’ love for their children. The properly situated family has marriage at the center; families shouldn’t revolve around the children.
Furthermore, all parents need to heed this lesson: what you communicate to your children through your marital relationship will stay with them for the rest of their lives. By watching how mother and father treat one another, they will learn the most fundamental lessons of life—love, self-sacrifice, integrity, virtue, sin, sympathy, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. Whatever you teach them about those things, right or wrong, is planted deep within their hearts.
That emphasis on the centrality of marriage was very evident between Elkanah and Hannah. With all their domestic issues, they nonetheless had a healthy marriage and an abiding love for one another. Their inability to have children together was like an open wound. But it was an experience that drew out of Elkanah tender expressions of love for his wife. And even in a home environment with a second wife and multiple children—a chaos created by the folly of Elkanah’s bigamy and made even more dysfunctional by Peninnah’s ill temperament—Hannah and Elkanah clearly loved one another deeply.
They worshiped God together, and they did so regularly. Verse 3 says, “This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh” (nkjv). But that doesn’t mean Hannah and Elkanah visited the tabernacle only once a year. All Israelite men were required to attend three annual feasts (Deut. 16:1–17). Most likely, Elkanah took his family with him on those journeys. They probably traveled to Shiloh together on other occasions too. (The journey from the family home in Ramathaim Zophim to Shiloh was a distance of about twenty-five miles along the edge of the Jordan Valley. The trip could easily be made in two days or less.) Worship seemed to have been a central aspect of Hannah and Elkanah’s lives together. This was what kept their love for one another strong in the face of so much adversity.
It also explains the second reason why Hannah was such an influential mother. As much as she loved Elkanah, there was an even greater love that motivated her.
LOVE FOR HEAVEN
Hannah obviously had a deep and abiding love for God. Her spiritual passion was seen in the fervency of her prayer life. She was a devout woman whose affections were set on heavenly things, not on earthly things. Her desire for a child was no mere craving for self-gratification. It wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about getting what she wanted. It was about self-sacrifice—giving herself to that little life in order to give him back to the Lord. Centuries earlier, Isaac’s wife Rebekah prayed, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Gen. 30:1 nkjv). Hannah’s prayer was more modest than that. She did not pray for “children,” but for one son. She begged God for one son who would be fit to serve in the tabernacle. If God would give her that son, she would give him back to God. Hannah’s actions proved that she wanted a child not for her own pleasure, but because she wanted to dedicate him to the Lord.
Naturally, then, the Lord was the One to whom she turned to plead her case. It was significant, I think, that despite the bitter agony Hannah suffered because of her childlessness, she never became a complainer or a nag. There’s no suggestion that she ever grumbled against God or badgered her husband about her childlessness. Why should she whine to Elkanah? Children are an inheritance from the Lord (Ps. 127:3; Gen. 33:5). Hannah seems to have understood that, so she took her case straight to the Lord. Despite her disappointment and heartache, she remained faithful to yhwh. In fact, frustration seems to have turned her more and more to the Lord, not away from him. And she persisted in prayer.
That’s a beautiful characteristic, and it was Hannah’s distinctive virtue: constant, steadfast faith. First Samuel 1:12 speaks of her prayer as continual: “She continued praying before the Lord” (nkjv, emphasis added). She stayed before the Lord, even with a broken heart, pouring out tearful prayers. Her trials thus had the benefit of making her a woman of prayer. She truly exemplified what it meant to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17; Luke 18:1–8).
The value of persistent and passionate prayer is one of the central lessons from Hannah’s life. Notice how the passion of her praying is described in 1 Samuel 1:10–11: “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’ ” (nkjv, emphasis added).
There were two parts to Hannah’s vow. One was the promise to give the child to the Lord. Subsequent events indicated that by this pledge she intended to devote him to full-time service in the tabernacle. The last part of Hannah’s promise entailed a vow never to cut his hair. This was one of three provisions of the ancient Nazirite vow (Num. 6:1–9). While it was not clear whether Hannah’s promise also entailed all the other provisions of the Nazirite vow, if it had, her son would have also been required to abstain from wine (or any product of grapes) and not come in contact with anything that would cause ceremonial defilement. These restrictions were signs of consecration to God.
Both parts of Hannah’s vow consecrated her son for life to duties that normally would have been only temporary. Levites, as we have seen, took turns serving in the tabernacle. No one had the responsibility for life. Nazirite vows were usually only temporary too. Of course, God had expressly commanded Samson’s mother to make him a Nazirite for life (Judg. 13:2–7). (Since Samson’s mother had been barren before Samson was conceived, Hannah’s knowledge of that history may be what prompted her to make this vow.) John the Baptist also seemed to have been under a similar lifelong vow (Luke 7:33). But normally such vows lasted a few weeks or years at the most.
Hannah obviously wanted her son to be a godly man, serving and glorifying the Lord all his life. These were not promises she made lightly, and when God finally answered her prayer, she did not recoil from the difficult duty her vow had placed on her as Samuel’s mother.
The intensity of Hannah’s prayer made her conspicuous in the tabernacle, especially in that backslidden era. She was so totally consumed by the passion of her prayer and so distraught with weeping (1 Sam. 1:10) that she caught the attention of the old priest, Eli. He had probably never witnessed more passionate, heartfelt praying, though he didn’t even know it was that:
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!”
And 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.” (1 Sam. 1:12–17 nkjv)
Eli’s insensitive response was typical of him. It showed how utterly he lacked any sense of discernment or even basic courtesy. This is a large part of the explanation for why he was so incompetent in his roles as high priest to the nation and father to his own sons. His accusation against Hannah was the same accusation the unbelieving mob made against the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:13). Eli evidently did not recognize that she was praying.
A couple of factors may have contributed to his confusion. In the first place, it was customary in Israel to pray aloud, not silently. Hannah seems to have understood that God sees right into the human heart. He knows our thoughts even before they become words; and He knows our words before they are formed on our lips (Ps. 139:1–4). Furthermore, we are taught in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that can’t even be uttered (Rom. 8:26). So there was no need for Hannah to pray aloud. She wasn’t doing it for ceremony. She knew that the Lord knew her heart. By contrast, private prayer seemed to have been so foreign to Eli that he could not even recognize prayer when he saw it, unless it conformed to ceremonial customs.
A second thing that may have obscured Eli’s discernment was the fact that his own sons were known to consort with loose women right there in the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:22). Eli certainly did not approve of his sons’ behavior, but he failed to take strong enough measures to keep it from happening. Apparently he was more accustomed to seeing immoral women at the tabernacle than godly ones, so he may have assumed that Hannah was one of those women.
His rebuke was nonetheless foolish and uncalled for. Drunkenness usually makes people noisy and boisterous. Hannah was silent and keeping completely to herself. There was no reason whatsoever for Eli to scold her like that.
Hannah answered with characteristic grace and humility. Of course, she was horrified by his accusation and denied it with a clear tone of chagrin. She explained that she was merely pouring out her heart in sorrow. She didn’t tell Eli the reason for her sorrow. There was no need for that. She understood that only God could answer her prayer; that was why her prayers had been silent in the first place.
For his part, Eli quickly changed his tone. He must have been somewhat embarrassed and chastened to learn how badly he had misjudged this poor woman. Because of that, he blessed her and called on the Lord to grant her petition.
Hannah’s final response to Eli revealed another of her positive spiritual traits. “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” (1:18 nkjv). Hannah cast her whole burden upon the Lord and left her sense of frustration there at the altar. She did what she had come to the tabernacle to do. She had brought her case before the Lord. Now she was content to leave the matter in His hands.
That demonstrates how genuine and patient her faith truly was. Scripture says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you” (Ps. 55:22 nkjv). Some people will pray, “O God, here’s my problem,” and then leave His presence in complete doubt and frustration, still shouldering the same burden they originally brought before the Lord, not really trusting Him to sustain them. Hannah truly laid her troubles in the lap of the Lord, totally confident that He would answer her in accord for what was best for her. There’s a real humility in that kind of faith, as the apostle Peter noted: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6–7 nkjv).
When God finally did answer Hannah’s prayer by giving her the son she had asked for, her thankful soul responded with a pure, unbroken stream of praise. Her words, recorded for us in 1 Samuel 2:1–10, are a masterpiece. In the chapter that follows, we’ll examine Mary’s Magnificat, which is a close parallel to this passage both in its style and its substance:
And Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
“No one is holy like the Lord,
For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
“Talk no more so very proudly;
Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
For the Lord is the God of knowledge;
And by Him actions are weighed.
“The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
And she who has many children has become feeble.
“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them inherit the throne of glory.
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
And He has set the world upon them.
He will guard the feet of His saints,
But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
“For by strength no man shall prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
“He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed.” (nkjv)
There’s enough solid content in that brief thanksgiving anthem that we could spend many pages analyzing it. If it were given to me as a text to preach on, I would undoubtedly have to preach a series of several sermons just to unpack its prophetic and doctrinal significance completely. Obviously, we don’t have enough space for that kind of thorough study of Hannah’s hymn of praise. But even the briefest overview reveals how thoroughly familiar Hannah was with the deep things of God.
She acknowledged, for example, God’s holiness, His goodness, His sovereignty, His power, and His wisdom. She worshiped Him as Savior, as Creator, and as sovereign judge. She acknowledged the fallenness and depravity of human nature, as well as the folly of unbelief and rebellion. In short, her few stanzas were a masterpiece of theological understanding.
But this was not mere academic theology. Hannah spoke about God from her own intimate knowledge of Him. Her words of praise were filled with love and wonder. That love for God, and a love for all things heavenly, was one of the keys to Hannah’s lasting influence as a mother.
LOVE FOR HER HOME
A third major characteristic of Hannah was her devotion to home and family. We see evidence of this from the beginning, in her love for Elkanah and his love for her. We see it in the way she rose above the petty strife and feuding Peninnah deliberately tried to sow within her own household with no other intention than to exasperate Hannah. We see it again in Hannah’s intense longing to be a mother. We see it best in how committed she was to her child in his infancy.
When Hannah and Elkanah returned home after her encounter with Eli in the tabernacle, Scripture says, “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” (1:19–20 nkjv). She named him Samuel, but the meaning of Samuel is not entirely clear. It could literally be translated “name of God.” Some commentators suggest it could mean “asked from God,” and others say “heard by God.” In Hebrew, the name is very similar to Ishmael, which means, “God shall hear.” Whatever the actual significance of the name, the essence of what it meant to Hannah is clear. Samuel was a living answer to prayer and a reminder that God had heard what she asked and granted her heart’s desire.
Hannah devoted herself solely to Samuel’s care for the next few years. When the time came to make the first trip to Shiloh after the baby’s birth, Hannah told her husband she planned to stay at home with Samuel until he was weaned. “Then,” she said, “I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever” (v. 22 nkjv).
She knew her time with Samuel would be short. Mothers in that culture nursed their children for about three years. She would care for him during his most formative years, while he learned to walk and talk. As soon as he was weaned, though, she was determined to fulfill her vow.
In the meantime, she would be a fixture in his life. She became the very model of a stay-at-home mom. No mother was ever more devoted to home and child. She had important work to do—nurturing him, caring for him, and helping him learn the most basic truths of life and wisdom. She taught him his first lessons about yhwh. She made her home an environment where he could learn and grow in safety. And she carefully directed the course of his learning and helped shape his interests.
Hannah seemed to understand how vital those early years are, when 90 percent of personality is formed. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6 nkjv). She prepared Samuel in those formative years for a lifetime of service to God—the high calling to which she had consecrated him before he was ever born. History tells us that she did her job well. Samuel, obviously a precocious child, grew in wisdom and understanding. Those early years set a course for his life from which he never deviated. The only blot on his record came in his old age, when he made his sons judges and they perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:1–3). Samuel’s own failure as a father was the one aspect of his life that obviously owed more to the influence of Eli, the old priest, than to the example of Hannah.
Hannah’s devotion to home and motherhood was exemplary in every way. Her devotion to her son in those early years makes her ultimate willingness to hand Samuel over to a life of service in the tabernacle seem all the more remarkable. It must have been intensely painful for her to send him off at such a tender age. In effect, the tabernacle became his boarding school and Eli his tutor. But it is apparent that Hannah’s influence on Samuel remained far more of a guiding force in his life than the spiritually feeble example of Eli.
No doubt Hannah kept as close to Samuel as the arrangement would allow. She and Elkanah naturally would have increased their visits to Shiloh in light of Hannah’s intense love for Samuel. It seems safe to surmise that they probably extended the duration of each visit too. Scripture says she “used to make him a little robe, and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice” (1 Sam. 2:19 nkjv). Again, “yearly” in this case doesn’t mean “just once a year.” It speaks of the regularity and faithfulness of their visits. Hannah thus continued to exercise a strong maternal influence on Samuel throughout all his formative years.
Scripture says God blessed Hannah with five more children—three sons and two daughters (v. 21). Her home and family life became rich and full. She was blessed by God to be allowed to achieve every ambition she had ever longed to fulfill. Her love for heaven, husband, and home are still the true priorities for every godly wife and mother. Her extraordinary life stands as a wonderful example to women today who want their homes to be places where God is honored, even in the midst of a dark and sinful culture. Hannah showed us what the Lord can do through one woman totally and unreservedly devoted to Him.
May her tribe increase.
Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.”
1 Samuel 2:1 nkjv
Hannah’s name means “grace.” It’s a fitting designation for a woman whose life was crowned with grace and who became a living emblem of the grace of motherhood. A study of her life reveals the classic profile of a godly mother.
Yet Hannah almost despaired of ever becoming a mother. Her experience strongly echoes Sarah’s. Like Sarah, she was childless and distraught over it. Both women’s marriages were plagued with stress because of their husbands’ bigamy. Both of them ultimately received the blessing they sought from God, and in both cases, the answers to their prayers turned out to be exceedingly and abundantly more significant than they had ever dared to ask or think. Hannah’s son, Samuel, was the last of the judges. He was also a priest—the one who formally inaugurated the true royal line of Israel by anointing David as king. Samuel became a towering figure in Israel’s history. Thus Hannah’s life often mirrored that of the original matriarch, Sarah. Most of all, she mirrored Sarah’s amazing faith and perseverance.
In a similar way, Hannah also foreshadowed Mary, the mother of Jesus. Hannah’s prayer of dedication in 1 Samuel 2:1–10 was the model for Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1:46–55. Both Hannah and Mary formally dedicated their firstborn sons to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:24–28; Luke 2:22–24). Surrender to God’s will cost each of them dearly in terms of emotional suffering. (In Hannah’s case, this meant the painful sorrow of separation from her own child. Samuel left home to begin his full-time training in the tabernacle when he was still a young toddler, at a time when most children still enjoy the comfort of their mothers’ arms.)
A CHERISHED HOPE
Hannah was unique among the women we have studied so far because she was not in the genealogical line of the Messiah. But Hannah’s famous dedicatory prayer, when she offered her son to God, is actually a prophetic paean to Israel’s Messiah. Clearly, she cherished the very same messianic hope that framed the worldview of every one of the extraordinary women we are studying.
As a matter of fact, since Hannah is the last of the Old Testament women we’ll be dealing with, it is worth mentioning how prominent the messianic expectation is in the Old Testament—not only in the lives of these few women, but throughout the law, the psalms, and the prophets (Luke 24:44). The theme runs like a brilliant scarlet thread woven into the tapestry of the Old Testament. Here and there, it comes boldly to the surface in explicit prophecies and promises, but it is usually concealed just underneath, where it remains a constant undertone—always discernible but seldom conspicuous, and never really very far from the center of the picture. It is the true foundation for every other theme in the Old Testament.
I especially love how the messianic hope comes right to the forefront whenever we consider the principal women of the Old Testament. The truth is, every truly righteous man and woman in the Old Testament shared the same fervent longing for the Messiah to come. He was the focus and the theme of all their future hopes.
In other words, Christ has always been the one true object of all saving faith—even in Old Testament times. Long before He was explicitly revealed in human flesh, the Redeemer was promised. Although the Old Testament saints’ understanding of Him was dim and shadowy, the promised Redeemer truly was the focus of all their hopes for salvation. Job, whose story is one of the most ancient expressions of faith recorded in Scripture, gave this testimony at the lowest point of his worst troubles: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25–27 nkjv). Job’s faith even included the expectation of his own bodily resurrection!
The faith of true believers has always had that Christ-centered perspective. No wonder the messianic expectation was so prominent in the hearts and minds of these extraordinary women. It was the very essence of the faith by which they laid hold of God’s promises. It was therefore the key to everything that made them truly extraordinary!
A GODLY HERITAGE
Hannah was an obscure woman living in a remote part of Israel with her husband, Elkanah. Hannah and Elkanah made their home in the territory occupied by the tribe of Ephraim. First Samuel 1:1 lists Elkanah’s great-great-grandfather, Zuph, as an “Ephraimite,” but this clearly designates only the territory the family lived in, and not their line of descent. We know this because 1 Chronicles 6:22–27 gives a detailed genealogy for Elkanah, showing that he actually descended from Levi by way of Kohath.
The Kohathites were one of the three major lines in the tribe of Levi. This was an important clan. Moses and Aaron were Kohathites, according to 1 Chronicles 6:2–3. The sons of Kohath were assigned responsibility for the most sacred furnishings of the tabernacle, including the ark of the covenant (Num. 3:30–31). When Israel moved camp from one place to another in the wilderness, it was the Kohathites’ duty to disassemble the Holy of Holies and transport the ark and all the sacred utensils according to a strict procedure (4:4–16).
Once Israel occupied the Promised Land permanently and the tabernacle was finally situated at Shiloh, the Kohathites seem to have devoted themselves to other priestly functions—especially leading music, prayer, and praise in the tabernacle (1 Chron. 6:31–33). Thus one of Elkanah’s close ancestors was known as “Heman the singer,” according to verse 33.
The Levites were the only tribe in Israel allotted no independent territory of their own because they were the priestly tribe, and the Lord Himself was their inheritance (Num. 18:20). So when the land of Israel was divided and distributed according to the twelve other tribes, the Levites were scattered throughout the whole nation. They were given modest plots of pastureland and fields to cultivate in selected cities throughout Israel. Elkanah’s ancestors, probably as far back as the earliest generation after the conquest of Canaan, had lived among the tribe of Ephraim. That’s why Zuph (Elkanah’s ancestor) is called an “Ephraimite,” even though this was clearly a family of Kohathites, from the tribe of Levi.
Men from the tribe of Levi took turns every year (for a few weeks at a time) serving in the tabernacle. In those days, the tabernacle was situated at Shiloh. Since the Levites had this duty to minister in the tabernacle, taking them away from their land and homes for an extended time each year, their income was supplemented with tithes collected from all Israel (Num. 18:24–32).
Hannah faithfully traveled with Elkanah to the tabernacle every year to worship and offer a sacrifice. Scripture portrays them as a devout family, yet living in a dismal period of Israel’s history. The Bible reminds us that at the time Elkanah made regular trips to Shiloh to worship and offer his sacrifice, “the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there” (1 Sam. 1:3 nkjv).
Hophni and Phinehas were two of the worst priests we ever meet on the pages of Scripture. They were greedy men who illegally—and sometimes forcibly—took the best portions of people’s offerings for themselves (1 Sam. 2:13–16). Worse yet, they used their position as priests to seduce young women (v. 22). They had, in effect, turned the tabernacle into a bawdy house, and they had formed a kind of priestly mafia, bullying worshipers and flagrantly showing contempt for God’s law. The obvious result was that the people of Israel grew to abhor bringing their offerings to the Lord (v. 17). All the people of Israel were aware of what Hophni and Phinehas were doing, but their father Eli made only a half-hearted attempt to rebuke them, even though he was the high priest (v. 24).
Of course, the visible manifestation of God’s glory that once resided over the ark of the covenant was long gone. The ark itself had come to mean little to the Israelites. Hophni and Phinehas treated it like a talisman. The low point came when they took it into battle against the Philistines, presuming it would guarantee Israel a victory. Instead, the Philistines soundly defeated Israel’s army and captured the ark. The ark was never again returned to the tabernacle at Shiloh. (After its recovery from the Philistines, the ark remained in virtual neglect for about a hundred years in a private house in Kiriath-Jearim, until David retrieved it and brought it to Jerusalem in preparation for the temple Solomon would build there.)
The loss of the ark (1 Sam. 4:10–11) occurred just a few short years after Hannah is introduced to us in Scripture (1:2). It was the climactic and defining moment of that backslidden era. Incidentally, in that same battle in which the ark was captured, Hophni and Phinehas were killed. Eli fell over from shock as soon as he heard the news. He died too—from injuries sustained in that fall. Phinehas’s wife delivered a child shortly after that, and she named him Ichabod, meaning “the glory has departed” (4:12–22 nkjv). It was an apt description of that whole era of Israel’s history. This was indeed a time of great spiritual darkness.
In those dry and gloomy days, Hannah stood out as a ray of light. Not only was she the quintessential godly mother and wife, but in a spiritually cold generation she exemplified patience, prayerfulness, faith, meekness, submission, spiritual devotion, and motherly love.
A HOLY AMBITION
In spite of her gracious character, Hannah’s home life was often troubled and sorrowful. Her husband was a bigamist. In the words of Scripture, “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” (1 Sam. 1:2 nkjv). Obviously, this situation caused severe tension in the family. Peninnah—called Hannah’s “rival” (v. 6 nkjv)—deliberately provoked her, goading her about the fact that the Lord had withheld children from her.
Elkanah preferred Hannah, whom he loved deeply, but that only magnified the bitter rivalry between the women. Such strife was an inevitable side effect of Elkanah’s bigamy. Of course, one of the obvious reasons God designed marriage as a monogamous relationship in the first place was to avoid this kind of strife within families.
Hannah was in constant anguish because of her own infertility. She was further tormented by Peninnah’s carping taunts. The burden and stress made life almost unbearable. Hannah wept bitterly, and she literally could not even eat at times (1:7). She longed to be a mother. This was her one ambition in life.
I am convinced it was no selfish aspiration. The way Hannah immediately dedicated her first son to the Lord and gave him over to serve in the tabernacle at such a young age demonstrates the purity of her motives. She understood that motherhood is the highest calling God can bestow on any woman.
That is not to suggest, of course, that motherhood is the only proper role for women. Scripture recognizes that it is God’s will for some women to remain single (1 Cor. 7:8–9). In the wisdom of His providence, He has also ordained that some married women will remain perpetually childless (see Psalm 127:3). A woman is by no means required to be a wife or a mother before she can be useful in the Lord’s service. Miriam (Moses’ sister) and Deborah (who served as a judge and deliverer in Israel) are biblical examples of women whom God used mightily apart from marriage or motherhood. (Deborah was married, but she gained renown in a role that had nothing to do with being a wife or mother.)
Still, Scripture frequently portrays marriage as “the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7 nkjv) and motherhood as the highest calling any woman could ever be summoned to. It is, after all, the one vocation that God uniquely designed women to fulfill, and no man can ever intrude into the mother’s role. Perhaps you have already noticed how the glory and dignity of motherhood stood out in one way or another as a major theme in the life of every woman we have dealt with so far.. That is true of most of the key women in Scripture. Scripture honors them for their faithfulness in their own homes. Or, as in the case of Rahab and Ruth, we remember them because by faith they were liberated from the bondage of the world and raised to the more exalted role of wife and mother. Only rarely in Scripture were women singled out and praised for exploits or careers outside the domestic realm. Honor and eminence for women in the Bible was nearly always closely associated with home and family. Hannah understood that, and she earnestly desired to enter into the noble role of a mother.
Of course, the Bible’s exaltation of motherhood is often scorned by our more “enlightened” age. In fact, in this generation, motherhood is frequently derided and belittled even in the name of “women’s rights.” But it has been God’s plan from the beginning that women should train and nurture godly children and thus leave a powerful imprint on society through the home (1 Tim. 5:10; Titus 2:3–5). Hannah is a classic illustration of how that works. She is a reminder that mothers are the makers of men and the architects of the next generation. Her earnest prayer for a child was the beginning of a series of events that helped turn back the spiritual darkness and backsliding in Israel. She set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately usher in a profound spiritual awakening at the dawn of the Davidic dynasty.
We first encounter Hannah when Israel was in desperate need of a great leader and a great man. Hannah became the woman whom God used to help shape that man. Samuel proved to be the one man who could fill the leadership void. His character bore the clear stamp of his mother’s influence, even though he left home at such an early age.
I believe Hannah’s influence as a godly wife and mother is traceable to the three great loves of her life.
LOVE FOR HER HUSBAND
From the beginning of Scripture’s account of her family, it is evident that Hannah had a deep love for Elkanah, as he did for her. When they made a peace offering to the Lord (a sacrifice in which the offerer roasted the sacrificial animal and partook of a feast unto the Lord), Elkanah gave portions to Peninnah and all her children, but he gave a double portion to Hannah because of his great love for her (1 Sam. 1:4–5). This was a public honor that he regularly and deliberately bestowed on her in the presence of others at a feast.
Obviously, Hannah’s marriage was not a perfect one, chiefly because of the jealousy and rivalry her husband’s polygamous marriage caused. Hannah seemed to be the first wife, since she is named first (v. 2). Apparently Elkanah later married Peninnah because of Hannah’s barrenness. Remember, it was deemed vitally important in that culture to have children who could maintain the family inheritance and the family name. This was the same reason Abraham entered into a polygamous relationship with Hagar. It is undoubtedly the main reason we see so much polygamy in the Old Testament.
But Hannah’s marriage, though marred by tensions, was solid. Elkanah obviously loved Hannah with a sincere affection, and he knew her love for him was reciprocal. In fact, he tried to comfort her by tenderly reminding her of his love for 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?” (v. 8 nkjv). This plea did help, at least for the moment, because Hannah immediately arose and ate, then went to the tabernacle
(v. 9).
Hannah’s love for her husband is the first key to understanding her profound influence as a mother. Contrary to popular opinion, the most important characteristic of a godly mother is not her relationship with her children. It is her love for her husband. The love between husband and wife is the real key to a thriving family. A healthy home environment cannot be built exclusively on the parents’ love for their children. The properly situated family has marriage at the center; families shouldn’t revolve around the children.
Furthermore, all parents need to heed this lesson: what you communicate to your children through your marital relationship will stay with them for the rest of their lives. By watching how mother and father treat one another, they will learn the most fundamental lessons of life—love, self-sacrifice, integrity, virtue, sin, sympathy, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. Whatever you teach them about those things, right or wrong, is planted deep within their hearts.
That emphasis on the centrality of marriage was very evident between Elkanah and Hannah. With all their domestic issues, they nonetheless had a healthy marriage and an abiding love for one another. Their inability to have children together was like an open wound. But it was an experience that drew out of Elkanah tender expressions of love for his wife. And even in a home environment with a second wife and multiple children—a chaos created by the folly of Elkanah’s bigamy and made even more dysfunctional by Peninnah’s ill temperament—Hannah and Elkanah clearly loved one another deeply.
They worshiped God together, and they did so regularly. Verse 3 says, “This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh” (nkjv). But that doesn’t mean Hannah and Elkanah visited the tabernacle only once a year. All Israelite men were required to attend three annual feasts (Deut. 16:1–17). Most likely, Elkanah took his family with him on those journeys. They probably traveled to Shiloh together on other occasions too. (The journey from the family home in Ramathaim Zophim to Shiloh was a distance of about twenty-five miles along the edge of the Jordan Valley. The trip could easily be made in two days or less.) Worship seemed to have been a central aspect of Hannah and Elkanah’s lives together. This was what kept their love for one another strong in the face of so much adversity.
It also explains the second reason why Hannah was such an influential mother. As much as she loved Elkanah, there was an even greater love that motivated her.
LOVE FOR HEAVEN
Hannah obviously had a deep and abiding love for God. Her spiritual passion was seen in the fervency of her prayer life. She was a devout woman whose affections were set on heavenly things, not on earthly things. Her desire for a child was no mere craving for self-gratification. It wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about getting what she wanted. It was about self-sacrifice—giving herself to that little life in order to give him back to the Lord. Centuries earlier, Isaac’s wife Rebekah prayed, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Gen. 30:1 nkjv). Hannah’s prayer was more modest than that. She did not pray for “children,” but for one son. She begged God for one son who would be fit to serve in the tabernacle. If God would give her that son, she would give him back to God. Hannah’s actions proved that she wanted a child not for her own pleasure, but because she wanted to dedicate him to the Lord.
Naturally, then, the Lord was the One to whom she turned to plead her case. It was significant, I think, that despite the bitter agony Hannah suffered because of her childlessness, she never became a complainer or a nag. There’s no suggestion that she ever grumbled against God or badgered her husband about her childlessness. Why should she whine to Elkanah? Children are an inheritance from the Lord (Ps. 127:3; Gen. 33:5). Hannah seems to have understood that, so she took her case straight to the Lord. Despite her disappointment and heartache, she remained faithful to yhwh. In fact, frustration seems to have turned her more and more to the Lord, not away from him. And she persisted in prayer.
That’s a beautiful characteristic, and it was Hannah’s distinctive virtue: constant, steadfast faith. First Samuel 1:12 speaks of her prayer as continual: “She continued praying before the Lord” (nkjv, emphasis added). She stayed before the Lord, even with a broken heart, pouring out tearful prayers. Her trials thus had the benefit of making her a woman of prayer. She truly exemplified what it meant to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17; Luke 18:1–8).
The value of persistent and passionate prayer is one of the central lessons from Hannah’s life. Notice how the passion of her praying is described in 1 Samuel 1:10–11: “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’ ” (nkjv, emphasis added).
There were two parts to Hannah’s vow. One was the promise to give the child to the Lord. Subsequent events indicated that by this pledge she intended to devote him to full-time service in the tabernacle. The last part of Hannah’s promise entailed a vow never to cut his hair. This was one of three provisions of the ancient Nazirite vow (Num. 6:1–9). While it was not clear whether Hannah’s promise also entailed all the other provisions of the Nazirite vow, if it had, her son would have also been required to abstain from wine (or any product of grapes) and not come in contact with anything that would cause ceremonial defilement. These restrictions were signs of consecration to God.
Both parts of Hannah’s vow consecrated her son for life to duties that normally would have been only temporary. Levites, as we have seen, took turns serving in the tabernacle. No one had the responsibility for life. Nazirite vows were usually only temporary too. Of course, God had expressly commanded Samson’s mother to make him a Nazirite for life (Judg. 13:2–7). (Since Samson’s mother had been barren before Samson was conceived, Hannah’s knowledge of that history may be what prompted her to make this vow.) John the Baptist also seemed to have been under a similar lifelong vow (Luke 7:33). But normally such vows lasted a few weeks or years at the most.
Hannah obviously wanted her son to be a godly man, serving and glorifying the Lord all his life. These were not promises she made lightly, and when God finally answered her prayer, she did not recoil from the difficult duty her vow had placed on her as Samuel’s mother.
The intensity of Hannah’s prayer made her conspicuous in the tabernacle, especially in that backslidden era. She was so totally consumed by the passion of her prayer and so distraught with weeping (1 Sam. 1:10) that she caught the attention of the old priest, Eli. He had probably never witnessed more passionate, heartfelt praying, though he didn’t even know it was that:
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!”
And 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.” (1 Sam. 1:12–17 nkjv)
Eli’s insensitive response was typical of him. It showed how utterly he lacked any sense of discernment or even basic courtesy. This is a large part of the explanation for why he was so incompetent in his roles as high priest to the nation and father to his own sons. His accusation against Hannah was the same accusation the unbelieving mob made against the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:13). Eli evidently did not recognize that she was praying.
A couple of factors may have contributed to his confusion. In the first place, it was customary in Israel to pray aloud, not silently. Hannah seems to have understood that God sees right into the human heart. He knows our thoughts even before they become words; and He knows our words before they are formed on our lips (Ps. 139:1–4). Furthermore, we are taught in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that can’t even be uttered (Rom. 8:26). So there was no need for Hannah to pray aloud. She wasn’t doing it for ceremony. She knew that the Lord knew her heart. By contrast, private prayer seemed to have been so foreign to Eli that he could not even recognize prayer when he saw it, unless it conformed to ceremonial customs.
A second thing that may have obscured Eli’s discernment was the fact that his own sons were known to consort with loose women right there in the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:22). Eli certainly did not approve of his sons’ behavior, but he failed to take strong enough measures to keep it from happening. Apparently he was more accustomed to seeing immoral women at the tabernacle than godly ones, so he may have assumed that Hannah was one of those women.
His rebuke was nonetheless foolish and uncalled for. Drunkenness usually makes people noisy and boisterous. Hannah was silent and keeping completely to herself. There was no reason whatsoever for Eli to scold her like that.
Hannah answered with characteristic grace and humility. Of course, she was horrified by his accusation and denied it with a clear tone of chagrin. She explained that she was merely pouring out her heart in sorrow. She didn’t tell Eli the reason for her sorrow. There was no need for that. She understood that only God could answer her prayer; that was why her prayers had been silent in the first place.
For his part, Eli quickly changed his tone. He must have been somewhat embarrassed and chastened to learn how badly he had misjudged this poor woman. Because of that, he blessed her and called on the Lord to grant her petition.
Hannah’s final response to Eli revealed another of her positive spiritual traits. “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” (1:18 nkjv). Hannah cast her whole burden upon the Lord and left her sense of frustration there at the altar. She did what she had come to the tabernacle to do. She had brought her case before the Lord. Now she was content to leave the matter in His hands.
That demonstrates how genuine and patient her faith truly was. Scripture says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you” (Ps. 55:22 nkjv). Some people will pray, “O God, here’s my problem,” and then leave His presence in complete doubt and frustration, still shouldering the same burden they originally brought before the Lord, not really trusting Him to sustain them. Hannah truly laid her troubles in the lap of the Lord, totally confident that He would answer her in accord for what was best for her. There’s a real humility in that kind of faith, as the apostle Peter noted: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6–7 nkjv).
When God finally did answer Hannah’s prayer by giving her the son she had asked for, her thankful soul responded with a pure, unbroken stream of praise. Her words, recorded for us in 1 Samuel 2:1–10, are a masterpiece. In the chapter that follows, we’ll examine Mary’s Magnificat, which is a close parallel to this passage both in its style and its substance:
And Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
“No one is holy like the Lord,
For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
“Talk no more so very proudly;
Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
For the Lord is the God of knowledge;
And by Him actions are weighed.
“The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
And she who has many children has become feeble.
“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
To set them among princes
And make them inherit the throne of glory.
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
And He has set the world upon them.
He will guard the feet of His saints,
But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
“For by strength no man shall prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
“He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed.” (nkjv)
There’s enough solid content in that brief thanksgiving anthem that we could spend many pages analyzing it. If it were given to me as a text to preach on, I would undoubtedly have to preach a series of several sermons just to unpack its prophetic and doctrinal significance completely. Obviously, we don’t have enough space for that kind of thorough study of Hannah’s hymn of praise. But even the briefest overview reveals how thoroughly familiar Hannah was with the deep things of God.
She acknowledged, for example, God’s holiness, His goodness, His sovereignty, His power, and His wisdom. She worshiped Him as Savior, as Creator, and as sovereign judge. She acknowledged the fallenness and depravity of human nature, as well as the folly of unbelief and rebellion. In short, her few stanzas were a masterpiece of theological understanding.
But this was not mere academic theology. Hannah spoke about God from her own intimate knowledge of Him. Her words of praise were filled with love and wonder. That love for God, and a love for all things heavenly, was one of the keys to Hannah’s lasting influence as a mother.
LOVE FOR HER HOME
A third major characteristic of Hannah was her devotion to home and family. We see evidence of this from the beginning, in her love for Elkanah and his love for her. We see it in the way she rose above the petty strife and feuding Peninnah deliberately tried to sow within her own household with no other intention than to exasperate Hannah. We see it again in Hannah’s intense longing to be a mother. We see it best in how committed she was to her child in his infancy.
When Hannah and Elkanah returned home after her encounter with Eli in the tabernacle, Scripture says, “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” (1:19–20 nkjv). She named him Samuel, but the meaning of Samuel is not entirely clear. It could literally be translated “name of God.” Some commentators suggest it could mean “asked from God,” and others say “heard by God.” In Hebrew, the name is very similar to Ishmael, which means, “God shall hear.” Whatever the actual significance of the name, the essence of what it meant to Hannah is clear. Samuel was a living answer to prayer and a reminder that God had heard what she asked and granted her heart’s desire.
Hannah devoted herself solely to Samuel’s care for the next few years. When the time came to make the first trip to Shiloh after the baby’s birth, Hannah told her husband she planned to stay at home with Samuel until he was weaned. “Then,” she said, “I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever” (v. 22 nkjv).
She knew her time with Samuel would be short. Mothers in that culture nursed their children for about three years. She would care for him during his most formative years, while he learned to walk and talk. As soon as he was weaned, though, she was determined to fulfill her vow.
In the meantime, she would be a fixture in his life. She became the very model of a stay-at-home mom. No mother was ever more devoted to home and child. She had important work to do—nurturing him, caring for him, and helping him learn the most basic truths of life and wisdom. She taught him his first lessons about yhwh. She made her home an environment where he could learn and grow in safety. And she carefully directed the course of his learning and helped shape his interests.
Hannah seemed to understand how vital those early years are, when 90 percent of personality is formed. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6 nkjv). She prepared Samuel in those formative years for a lifetime of service to God—the high calling to which she had consecrated him before he was ever born. History tells us that she did her job well. Samuel, obviously a precocious child, grew in wisdom and understanding. Those early years set a course for his life from which he never deviated. The only blot on his record came in his old age, when he made his sons judges and they perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:1–3). Samuel’s own failure as a father was the one aspect of his life that obviously owed more to the influence of Eli, the old priest, than to the example of Hannah.
Hannah’s devotion to home and motherhood was exemplary in every way. Her devotion to her son in those early years makes her ultimate willingness to hand Samuel over to a life of service in the tabernacle seem all the more remarkable. It must have been intensely painful for her to send him off at such a tender age. In effect, the tabernacle became his boarding school and Eli his tutor. But it is apparent that Hannah’s influence on Samuel remained far more of a guiding force in his life than the spiritually feeble example of Eli.
No doubt Hannah kept as close to Samuel as the arrangement would allow. She and Elkanah naturally would have increased their visits to Shiloh in light of Hannah’s intense love for Samuel. It seems safe to surmise that they probably extended the duration of each visit too. Scripture says she “used to make him a little robe, and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice” (1 Sam. 2:19 nkjv). Again, “yearly” in this case doesn’t mean “just once a year.” It speaks of the regularity and faithfulness of their visits. Hannah thus continued to exercise a strong maternal influence on Samuel throughout all his formative years.
Scripture says God blessed Hannah with five more children—three sons and two daughters (v. 21). Her home and family life became rich and full. She was blessed by God to be allowed to achieve every ambition she had ever longed to fulfill. Her love for heaven, husband, and home are still the true priorities for every godly wife and mother. Her extraordinary life stands as a wonderful example to women today who want their homes to be places where God is honored, even in the midst of a dark and sinful culture. Hannah showed us what the Lord can do through one woman totally and unreservedly devoted to Him.
May her tribe increase.
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