Hannah’s Hope: Finding Peace in the Hard Times

My heart has been drawn to the story of Hannah lately.  Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet, can be found at the beginning of 1 Samuel.  What drew my attention was not the miracle that God gave her of providing her a son, or the fact that Hannah was willing to give her son up.  It was that Hannah went from completely desolate and broken to happy and content before she ever got the answer to her desperate prayer.  She is a perfect example of what true faith looks like.

I say I have faith but my emotions tell me that my faith is often weak.

I don’t know about you, but when I have a desperate need or want in my life, I am not really happy or content until I get it.  The pain or fear or hurt or anger that my need causes makes me not want to let go until I get what I need to be okay.  Oh sure, I pray about it.  I turn it over to God.  I am honest and open with Him.  I tell Him that I trust Him and I try to mean that as much as I can.  But when the prayer is over, the fear and pain and uncertainty are still there, gnawing at me.  I say I have faith but my emotions tell me that my faith is often weak.  I am not like Hannah so I wanted to learn from her.

The story of Hannah starts out miserably. 

The story of Hannah starts out miserably.  Hannah was married to a man that had another wife, Peninnah.  The other wife had children while Hannah had not been able to.  Peninnah was very hurtful to Hannah, trying to irritate and humiliate her.  Her treatment of Hannah was so bad that 1 Samuel 1:7 tells us:  “This went on year after year.  Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her until she wept and would not eat.”  That is a horrible situation.  It reminds me of Rachel and Leah in competition over their husband, Jacob.  The similarity is even greater when we read later that the husband favored and loved Hannah over Peninnah.  There is the same type of jealousy and broken family dynamic that Jacob’s wives experienced.  While her husband loved Hannah, he didn’t understand her pain.  His answer to the situation was, “Am I not enough for you?”  He told her in 1 Samuel 1:8, “Hannah, why are you weeping?  Why don’t you eat?  Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”  Very little sympathy or support there.

She is a picture of humility during her pain and sorrow.

There are a few things that I realized as I read this part of the story.  First, while Leah and Rachel were both busy hurling jabs at each other in their fights over Jacob and children, Hannah was not fighting back in anger and defensiveness with Peninnah at all.  There is nothing that says that she did anything to hurt the other wife.  She is a picture of humility during her pain and sorrow.

We can’t be the ultimate healer for each other and bring peace and lasting joy like the Lord can. 

Second, although her husband loved her, he was not the solution to her problem.  Her peace, joy, and healing never did come from him.  He demonstrates why it can’t, as he, in his broken human state, fails to see what is really going on in Hannah’s heart.  We can be there for each other and love each other during hard times, but we can’t be the ultimate healer for each other and bring peace and lasting joy like the Lord can.  To try to get everything we need emotionally from another person alone is a false idol and will only disappoint us.

Sometimes Satan’s most effective weapon is those people we are closest to.

Third, notice that the Bible very specifically says that the other wife, Peninnah, would only provoke Hannah when they went to the Lord’s house and that it happened every time Hannah went to the Lord’s house, year after year.  This is nothing short of spiritual warfare.  We think of spiritual warfare as Satan directly attacking us with health problems, or negative thoughts, or financial ruin.  But sometimes Satan’s most effective weapon is those people we are closest to.  When someone close to us listens to the voice of Satan telling them to be jealous of us or that they are being mistreated by us, they act out in a way that becomes a spiritual attack on us.  Hannah was following God’s command by going to the Lord’s house every year.  Hannah had a great plan and purpose ahead – giving birth to the prophet Samuel.  But Hannah was humble and faithful – she was hard to tempt.  So Satan used someone else to make her life miserable.  He tempted Peninnah instead, and Peninnah attacked Hannah.  There is an eye-opening lesson in that for me.  Those times when I start feeling hurt and mistreated and passed over – when I want to lash out at whoever is hurting me – could be Satan using me as a tool to bring someone else down.  And when other people hurt me, the attack isn’t really about me.  It is about them letting Satan take advantage of the weakness and brokenness in their lives. 

Hannah was so heartbroken that she was weeping bitterly. 

Hannah’s story then focuses on one particular day at the Lord’s house.  Hannah was so heartbroken that she was weeping bitterly.  She approached God’s house to pray, but the words would not come.  The Bible tells us she was praying with her heart and her lips were moving, but the words were not coming out.  Eli, the priest, mistook her deep sorrow and mumbling for Hannah being drunk and went over to her to straighten her out.  But Hannah soon straightened him out instead.  She was not drunk.  She was overcome and desperate because of all of the pain in her life. 

In that moment of deepest pain and hopelessness, she did exactly the best thing she could do. 

It was not only Peninnah harassing her or her husband being clueless to her heartache.  She lived in a society where being barren and childless made you inferior.  The value of women in that time and place was their ability to produce children, especially sons, to carry on the family and its wealth.  If you did not have children, you would probably be viewed as having been cursed by God for your sinfulness.  You would be an outcast, a loser, an embarrassment and burden to your family.  After all of the years and all of the heartbreak, Hannah had reached her breaking point.  And in that moment of deepest pain and hopelessness, she did exactly the best thing she could do.  She knelt down in earnest, full-hearted prayer to God, laying it all out.  Not only that, but she submitted everything to God by giving him her only son, if He would just bless her with having one. She made a vow that if she could just have a son, she would give him over to become a servant of God for the rest of his life.  She would offer him as a Levite to serve in the sanctuary, robbing her of raising her son and being with him in any meaningful way.

It would fulfill a greater destiny that she wasn’t even aware of yet.

If she was going to lose her son anyhow, why would she make such a vow?  First of all, it would remove the embarrassment and accusations of her society.  She would no longer have to live in shame, being accused of sin because she didn’t have a child.  Second, it would get rid of the ways that Peninnah had been tormenting her over the years.  And third, it would fulfill a greater destiny that she wasn’t even aware of yet.

God used the pain and heartbreak of Hannah to foretell the coming of the final answer to pain and heartbreak in this world – Jesus.

If we look, we can see a parallel to another story here.  God sacrificed His only Son, too, to take away shame and sin.  Jesus also upholds us and strengthens us when others are persecuting us.  Jesus is our eternal and perfect High Priest.  He was sacrificed to take punishment for our sins, but then was raised again in His great destiny as our Savior, Redeemer, and King.  And He serves with God all of His days, from everlasting to everlasting.  God used the pain and heartbreak of Hannah to foretell the coming of the final answer to pain and heartbreak in this world – Jesus.

What did Hannah have that I don’t in those moments?

Of course, Hannah didn’t know that.  Hannah was just desperate.  She was also humble, submissive, and full of faith and trust in God.  We know this because after Eli tells her to go in peace and asks that God grants her prayers, she says, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” (1 Samuel 1:18) Then the verse tells us that she went out, and washed her face, ate some food, and quit being downcast.  What?  That is so not like me!  When I am desperately praying for something with a broken heart, I get up and continue to worry and cry and despair, even though I am trying so hard to just have faith and know that God has it all under control.  I want to quit being downcast, but it is so hard when I am hurting like that.  What did Hannah have that I don’t in those moments?

She found peace, not in having her prayer answered, but in a complete trust in the love of God.

As I read this and pondered it and prayed about it, something Hannah said stood out.  When she said to God, “May your servant find favor in your eyes,” the word that popped out was “favor”.  The Hebrew word used here, chanan, means not only favor, but grace and acceptance.  She was stating that she knew that God was full of grace.  That He had already accepted her.  That He already had found favor in her.  She was stating that God loved her and delighted in her and wanted good for her – all of the words in those life verses we like so much.  But she whole-heartedly believed it.  She found peace, not in having her prayer answered – that wouldn’t happen until later in the story – but in a complete trust in the love of God.  Her joy returned because she knew God delighted in her and would care for her.

God is not us.

That is where I struggle.  I think many of us do.  As humans, we want to hear and see that others love us.  We all have insecurities and trust issues.  We want to hear the words or see the gifts or receive the acts of love.  Too long without some display of love and we get a little bit anxious, unsure, and self-conscious.  We begin to wonder if we have lost someone’s love or done something that made them dislike us or that somehow we just aren’t that loveable in the first place.  It is easy to see why we do that in this world where children rebel, and parents leave, and spouses grow cold, and friends betray.  But God is not us.  God loved us completely and irrevocably before we ever came into existence.  He doesn’t rebel, leave, grow cold, or betray.  He just loves.  And loves and loves and loves.  That is what Hannah had that I often don’t – complete trust in the love, favor, grace, and delight of God.  She had it without receiving the affirmation of His love and faithfulness through having her prayer answered. 

I have to quit letting my experiences with humans affect my relationship with God. 

So what did I learn from the story of Hannah?  First, I have to quit letting my experiences with humans affect my relationship with God.  Just like Hannah’s husband, other people can love us and still not have the answers to our deepest need.  Like Peninnah, other people can sometimes unknowingly become a weapon of spiritual warfare.  And unlike all the times when I have been hurt, betrayed, or abandoned, God is perfect, infinite, unending love.  I need to find my joy outside of easy answers or quick resolutions to problems.  I am not promised that in this world.  Instead, my joy, delight, and contentment needs to come from a complete belief and trust in the delight and love that God already has in me, outside of any circumstances I find myself in.  I need to trust that when I pray, God actually does hear me.  He knows what I am going to pray for long before I ever come to Him.  He does care.  He gave the ultimate sign of His love when He gave His Son.  I just may not see it in the moment, but He has a plan and it is going to be good.  Even if I can’t see it.  I need to make a conscious effort to wash my face, eat some food, and quit being downcast, knowing that He delights in me as His highly favored child.  Hannah got her son, Samuel.  She got to raise him until he was weaned, and then like she promised, she gave him up for a lifetime of service to God.  And what a servant he was!  And she did it with one of the most beautiful songs of praise in the entire Bible.  Read it in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.  That is the definition of faith.  Lord, help me to be more like Hannah.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.