Hannah's Prayer

In the house of God, a woman is praying so hard that her lips move but no sound comes out. The old priest watching her frowns. He thinks she's drunk. He could not be more wrong.

In the hill country of Ephraim lives a man named Elkanah, with two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah has children. Hannah has none. Every year the family travels to Shiloh, where the house of the Lord stands, to worship and offer sacrifices. And every year, at the feast, the same painful scene plays out. Elkanah gives portions of the sacrifice to Peninnah and all her sons and daughters. To Hannah he gives a special portion, because he loves her. But Peninnah provokes her, year after year, rubbing it in that the Lord has not given her children. Hannah weeps and will not eat.

Elkanah tries to comfort her. “Hannah, why are you crying? Why won't you eat? Why are you so sad? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?” He means well. But it doesn't reach the ache. So after the meal, Hannah gets up and goes to the house of the Lord. Eli the priest is sitting on a seat by the doorpost. In deep anguish, Hannah prays and weeps bitterly. And she makes a vow. “Lord of hosts, if you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget me, and give me a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever touch his head.”

She keeps on praying, silently, only her lips moving. Eli watches her and decides she must be drunk. “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine!” “No, my lord,” Hannah says. “I'm a woman who is deeply troubled. I haven't been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Don't take me for a worthless woman. I've been praying out of my great grief and distress.” Eli's tone changes completely. “Go in peace. And may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him.” Hannah goes back, eats something, and her face is no longer sad. Nothing has changed yet. But she has handed her burden to God.

Early the next morning the family worships and goes home to Ramah. And the Lord remembers Hannah. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. She names him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.” When the next yearly trip comes around, Hannah stays home. “Once the boy is weaned,” she tells Elkanah, “I'll take him and present him before the Lord, and he'll stay there for good.” And when that day comes, she does exactly what she promised. She brings little Samuel to Shiloh, with offerings of a sacrifice, flour and wine, and she finds Eli. “Do you remember me, my lord? I'm the woman who stood here beside you, praying. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has given me what I asked. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he is given to the Lord.”

Then Hannah prays again, and this time her prayer is a song. “My heart rejoices in the Lord. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God.” She sings of a God who turns things upside down. The proud are brought low. The hungry are fed. The woman who had no children becomes a mother. “He raises the poor from the dust,” she sings, “and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to seat them with princes.” Then the family goes home to Ramah, and the boy Samuel stays behind to serve the Lord under Eli the priest.

Hannah doesn't forget him. Every year she makes him a little robe and brings it to him when she comes up with her husband for the yearly sacrifice. You can picture it: each year, a little bigger. And Eli blesses Elkanah and Hannah. “May the Lord give you children by this woman, in place of the one she gave to the Lord.” And he does. Hannah has three more sons and two daughters. Meanwhile the boy Samuel grows up in the presence of the Lord.

Shiloh, where this story happens, was Israel's main place of worship long before Jerusalem. The book of Joshua says the whole community of Israel gathered there and set up the tent of meeting. The book of Judges gives directions to it: north of Bethel, just east of the main road up to Shechem. Archaeologists have dug there several times. Later, Shiloh was destroyed, and the prophet Jeremiah used it as a warning. Go to Shiloh, he told the people of Jerusalem, and see what God did to it. But in Hannah's day, it was the heart of Israel's faith.

Hannah's prayer. You'll find it in First Samuel, chapters 1 and 2. Hannah brought her deepest sorrow to God, honestly and in tears. And then she kept her promise, even though it cost her dearly. So here's something to think about. What would it look like for you to pour out your heart to God, the way Hannah did?