Praying Through The Pain: Hannah’s Example

I owe a debt of gratitude to the author (and of course, the Author) of 1 Samuel 1. Thanks for keeping it real, Hannah. This chapter takes us through what must have been an excruciating personal journey in infertility and relational chaos. Hannah is barren and surrounded by fertility (can anyone else identify with this?).

Though most of us cannot relate to an irritating co-wife as Hannah did with Penninah, we may coexist with other women who sharpen their blessings and hurl them to cut us and extract envy. Constantly. For example, I have had the pleasure of hearing many baby announcements lately. And I am SUPER-excited for those dear friends. But there have been one or two acquaintances who’ve shared the good news, followed by a peaked brow and the question (that’s really a statement), “when are you going to have a baby? You’ve been married for, what, almost three years now?”

(I have found that if one waits long enough, a woman’s body will give a huge clue as to whether she in fact is pregnant.)

You almost have to pity the Penninahs of the world; their identity rests on acquisitions (children, husbands, money, position, stuff). Getting more stuff helps them to avoid the vacuous hole that they would otherwise face. For Penninah, this hole might have been a marriage to a man whom she could not satisfy.

Hannah had a husband, Elkanah, who adored her. However, he set the tense tone between Hannah and Penninah by playing favorites. Never a good idea under one roof. Added to this dysfunction was Elkanah’s minimizing of Hannah’s pain when he says, “aren’t I better to you than 10 sons?” Well, no. Not in a day when children were the only nursing-home care that a woman could hope to receive in her old age. Don’t you hate it when in the middle of your legitimate pain, someone tries to quell it and stroke their own ego at the same time?

What was Hannah’s response to the chaos? This is what I so appreciate about God’s word; it’s honest. She weeps bitterly. She doesn’t eat. These seem to be symptoms of depression.

But one day, in the midst of the ritual of worship, Hannah gets up, gets something to eat, and heads to the temple, bleary-eyed, to pour out her prayer and tears to YHWH. Eli observes her there, lips trembling and flushed from sobbing. Even he doesn’t get Hannah. His spiritual eyes dimly make out a drunk (in 1 Samuel 2, we see that the real criminals are his own sons, and physical blindness overtakes Eli in 1 Samuel 3).

This part saddens me because we are prone to misjudging the people we are called to minister to because they passionately and emotionally respond to their situations as they seek God’s face. It’s okay to ask for healing of the body against disease or against cancer. It’s okay to plead with God to mend a crushed heart or an abused soul. There is no set time limit on grieving the death of a loved one. Praise God that these people take their petitions and griefs to God – He can handle them. I have been rebuked and have heard others rebuked for not “getting over” a hurt in an acceptable amount of time. More often than not, it would better serve folks to pray for them first, listen second, and then be quiet.

Hannah prays with reference to the Law (see Numbers 6 for details on the Nazirite vow) as well as her emotions. She’s such a great example of honesty, informed faith, and vulnerable hope in prayer.

Her words are powerful. They move Eli from rebuking her to blessing her! See her triumph song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10? Mary takes cues from Hannah’s lyrics when she sings in Luke 1:46-55. When Messiah’s mom quotes you, you are definitely a theological prayer warrior! When she promises that her son would be set apart from birth to YHWH, she keeps her word.

God remembered Hannah. Hannah’s first son, Samuel is born, and serves as a light of prophecy and truth to the nation of Israel, and he anoints Israel’s first God-chosen king, David. God heard Hannah and answered exceeding abundantly.

Thanks so much, Hannah, for keeping it real with your life. Thank you Lord, for including her story in the canon to bring hope to Your children as they pray-and cry-even now.