“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” A.W. Tozer Join Dr. Marty Baker in 1 Samuel 1 as he looks at the ways that God uses unanswered prayer and even hurt to accomplish His greater purpose.
In the mid-1800s, Henry Beecher, an American Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer, made this astute observation about adversity: “We are always in the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.”[1] Talking with a saint in a trial this week, he asked, “I wonder what God is telling me in all of this?” His question was tremendous and logical. This saint understands that trials and suffering in a world overseen by the loving providence of the living God are always purposeful. Often, that purpose is designed to deepen and hone our faith while also whittling us down so we can see what we need to do to achieve God’s will for us.
If you are in a terrible trail right now, if you are wondering why God is permitting a storm to batter your vessel, if you are feeling the flames of the furnace of affliction growing in intensity and you are wondering what you should do now, then take some insightful guidance from studying the life of a young woman who has been in your shoes. Her name? Hannah. Where is her story found? We bump into it in the opening chapter of First Samuel. By studying her, you will, in a sense, be studying yourself, for she represents a real and raw believer stuck in the middle of a challenging, trying situation. How she handled it is a testimony of how you should handle yours.
Moving through the historical narrative written by the prophet and judge we know as Samuel, we first encounter this stark reality of life:
Trials Have Tough Tension (1 Sam. 1:1-7)
Is this not the truth? The longer you are in the trial, the more pronounced the emotional, psychological, and spiritual tension becomes. It is like you are in a vice, and someone keeps cranking it tighter and tighter, leaving you feeling hopeless and trapped. Just receive a diagnosis from a doctor you never wanted to hear, and then begin an arduous treatment program he prescribes, and you will know what I mean. Just have a cold, distant marriage partner for a few years, and you will sense pain as pressure builds in your once tranquil and enjoyable relationship. Just lose your job you thought could not be more secure, send out 100 resumes, and never hear back from anyone, and you will quickly become acquainted with the increasingly tough nature of the moment.
Hannah lived in unwanted, brutal tension. Where did it occur? In her marriage. Samuel introduces us to the source of Hannah’s personal pain with this historical story:
1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim-zophim from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
All of this information is critical to our understanding of the story. “Ramathaim-zophim” means “Twin Heights” in Hebrew. This little village was located in the low-lying hills about thirty miles north of Jerusalem as the crow flies. The tribe of Ephraim owned this land by divine lot, as we learn from the Period of the Conquest, and between this tribal land and Jerusalem to the south, which was part of the tribe of Judah, was the land of the tribe of Benjamin.
In this nowheresville village was a man named Elkanah, which in Hebrew means “God has created.” Ironically, his name will come full circle when God does create something extraordinary about the mess of his marriage. More on that in a moment.
While you might find the genealogical details of his life boring, they are quite the opposite. From a fuller description of his genealogy in 1 Chronicles 6:22-28, 33-38, we learn he was from the family line of Kohath, a son of Levi. Ah, now this is interesting. Elkanah was not just anyone. He was a priest whose line was explicitly responsible for the movement and care of the Ark of the Covenant of God, the Table of Showbread, the Menorah, and other holy items (Num. 3:31). Keep this detail in the back of your mind as we work our way through this story.
As clergy, you would think he had his life together. He did, and he did not. Read on, and you will see what I mean.
2 And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
The second verse introduces us to the tension in Elkanah’s family. Instead of having one wife, as prescribed by God in the opening pages of Genesis, he had two. In Old Testament times, a second wife was introduced into a relationship when the first wife could not bear children to carry on the family name and business holdings. Do you remember Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar? People in Israel had seen this marriage situation before, but that did not mean it was ideal, and it was not.
Hannah, whose name means “Gracious,” must have been his first wife, but when she could not produce children, Elkanah (unwisely) secured a second wife, Peninnah, whose name means “Pearl.” Believe me, she will be anything but a Pearl to Hannah. She should have been named “Problem.” Anyway, you can already sense trouble brewing, and you are right. This is how adversity starts at times in our lives. We compromise our principles and do something we should not have, and it causes a small squall to turn into a typhoon. Just ask Elkanah about this. His typhoon threatened to sink his messed up marriage.
Elkanah did have his strengths. He made sure his family kept worship of God at the center of their lives:
3 Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were priests to the LORD there.
As a priest, he made sure his family traveled some fifteen miles uphill to worship God at the Tabernacle in the mountain town called Shiloh. Joshua placed the Tabernacle here after the Conquest (Josh. 18:10). This central location made it accessible to Jews who wanted to be faithful to the Torah law to attempt to worship here three times a year: Passover (Feast of Unleavened Bread), Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:23-24; Deut. 16:16). Not all could financially or physically make the trek, but many, like Elkanah, made it annually. This focus on the worship of God will have a profound impact, as we will see, on the issue that will almost tear his family apart. Wise people note this and commit to placing the living God at the center of their relationship, for this is where power comes to take on storms.
As a side note, Samuel quickly introduces us to the High Priest at the time, Eli, and his two priestly sons, Hophni and Phinehas. In a future study, we will learn how compromised and carnal they all were. As everyone did what was right in their eyes in the Cycles period of the Judges, these priests joined in the wickedness with their self-indulgences. Again, more on them later. At this juncture, Samuel merely wants to lay the groundwork for the fact that the priesthood was compromised entirely, and Israel needed a priest to lead them back to God. God, who loved His people, was not about to let them down, but he worked hard behind the scenes, as He did in the story of Boaz and Ruth, to put the right people in the right places so revival and restoration could have the potential of breaking out.
In any event, back to the story about Elkanah’s marriage.
4 And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters; 5 but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had closed her womb.
The Law of Moses allowed people to take some meat from sacrifices to enjoy for themselves. So, every year, he took his family to Shiloh; Elkanah made sure they had plenty to eat. I am sure he had to give a lot to Peninnah because she had sons and daughters. Hannah, who had no children, received a double portion of meat because Elkanah loved her more than Peninnah. Can you imagine how this decision was handled at family meals in Shiloh? Do you not know how this created instant animosity and resentment in Peninnah’s heart? It was a thoughtful gesture on his part, but it probably was not his most brilliant move as a husband. If you are a man and you are married, I am sure you have your share of dumb decisions you should have given more thought to, right? When my wife, Liz, was eight months pregnant, and it was the dead of summer in hot, humid Dallas, I said, “I cannot wait for you to have this child so we can get our marriage back to the way it was before.” That did not go over well, believe me.
Also, please note that Samuel recounts how the Lord had explicitly closed Hannah’s womb, which logically means he had opened that of Peninnah. This does not sound fair. Why would he give one woman many children and another none? One answer is that God does His best work when we experience suffering and adversity. As the old saying goes, no pressure, no diamonds. Yes, carbon atoms bond under intense heat and pressure deep inside the Earth to eventually form diamonds. How much pressure? 50,000 times the Earth’s surface pressure at a sizzling 2,912 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. All of this occurs in the darkness of a depth of 125 miles. Such is the nature of adversity. It seems dark and hot at the moment, but God’s loving, guiding hand is always at work with our best interests in mind (Rom. 8:28).
Elkanah’s favoritism toward Hannah motivated Penninah to ruthlessly attack Hannah in the area she could do nothing about . . . her barrenness.
6 Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7 And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she would provoke her, so she wept and would not eat.
I am sure Hannah dreaded the trip to Shiloh year after year because all Penninah did was harass, mock, and belittle her. You can hear the taunts, “Say, Hannah, your name means Gracious, but it sure does not seem God has acted graciously toward you where children are concerned, as He has toward me.” “Say, Hannah, can you believe how many sons and daughters I have given so easily to Elkanah? What is your problem?” It is an understatement to say Penninah’s words irritated and provoked Hannah. How could they not? Talk about the furnace of affliction. God had sovereignly closed Hannah’s womb for His loftier purposes, and Peninnah kept beating Hannah with her barrenness. How cruel and capricious.
Your furnace might not be barrenness, but for some, it might. My two sisters walked in Hannah’s shoes in this regard, so I am somewhat familiar with the pain this situation brings to a person and a marriage. For others, the furnace is a challenging, complex situation at work where your opponent’s name is not Peninnah, but it is something else. Like Peninnah, they purposefully provoke and irritate you to get a rise out of you and to put you down so they can feel powerful. Sick, but it happens. Whatever your furnace is, it is true that the flames typically grow more intense as time goes by. What should you do? Hannah shows us in the next section where we discover this concept:
Tension Prompts Prayer And Performance (1 Sam. 1:8-18)
Anyone with a mouth like Peninnah’s could easily be put in their place by some barbed retaliatory words. Yes, instead of turning the other cheek, Hannah could have turned Peninnah’s cheek with a quick slap on her nasty, vile mouth or with tough words about some of her unruly, undisciplined, and disrespectful children.
However, that is not what gracious, meek-minded Hannah did. Eventually, the tension became so great that it moved her to do what she had not done before, from what we learn from the limited text. The ensuing verses record her bold actions on one religious trip to Shiloh. Those actions were set in motion by a conversation she had with her clueless husband:
8 Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”
Do you mean to tell me that after multiple trips to Shiloh, Elkanah had never heard the taunts Peninnah had directed at Hannah? Was he that clueless? I doubt it. When husbands and wives argue at home or on a trip, everyone knows about it. Elhanah’s opening words of comfort were not comforting at all. When he saw those words were not doing the trick, he added the second supposedly encouraging statement: “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” I am confident that did not go over well either, for Hannah just wanted one son. Poor Elkanah. When the love of his life struggled with infertility, he did not say things to help her at all. His trite statements only fanned the flames of adversity in her heart.
So, what did she do? Did she argue with him? No. Did she curse and accuse God? No. She finally understood at that “A ha” moment that she needed to turn to God in passionate prayer. It does not appear she had done this before, but she did it now. Perhaps your terrible tension is moving you to stop feeling sorry for your situation, be what it may, to falling on your knees before the God of glory who has the power to help you. That is exactly what Hannah did.
9 Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
She walked to the Tabernacle, passed through the only door located on the East, stood near the High Priest, and began to silently and ardently pour her heart out to God:
10 And she, greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. 11 And she made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy maidservant and remember me, and not forget Thy maidservant, but wilt give Thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.”
Have you ever prayed like this? Have you ever poured your heart out to God in the tension of your trial? Ostensibly, this is part of the purpose of pain. It drives us from our self-sufficiency to seeing our utter need for God’s assistance. That assistance comes through the time we spend on our knees before Him in heartfelt prayer. Note to self: Instead of going to a counselor with your issue or to your best friend, perhaps the pain you are experiencing, be what it may, is calling for you to have a little talk with Jesus. He will hear (Psalm 50:15; 1 Pet. 5:7). He will listen. He will act in accordance with what is best for you. As He said:
9 Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matt. 7).
He will not answer your prayer if He believes it will harm you, so He might answer it in a way that would benefit you. If He believes your prayer will be just what you need, then He is more prone to answer it specifically. Either way, He will hear and act on your behalf when you approach Him in prayer. Hannah lived to realize this timeless truth.
Although she desperately wanted a son, she selflessly did not want to keep him should God grant her request. So, she made a vow to God that called for her to give the child back to God for a lifetime of service in the Tabernacle. As a priestly family, this was a viable vow, but it was over the top. According to the Law, priests belonged to God from age 25 through 50. Hannah went well beyond this to promise God to give this priest to her for a lifetime. In addition, she said a razor would not cut his hair, which tells us he would not be a temporary Nazarite but a lifelong one (Num. 6:1-21). This meant he would be spiritually devoted to God in a special, intimate, and sacrificial fashion.
Eli, the High Priest who watched her pray with great emotional intensity, became the second man in her life who was clueless:
12 Now it came about, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli was watching her mouth. 13 As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.
14 Then Eli said to her, “How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.” 15 But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD. 16 “Do not consider your maidservant as a worthless woman; for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation.” 17 Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” 18 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.
Eli should have been spiritually sensitive, but he was not. He could not discern the difference between spiritual earnestness and drunkenness, which is sad. He represents the apostate leadership of the day, and his presence in the story illustrates how God would replace him through this young woman who had just prayed in the Tabernacle. A man of great importance would eventually be sidelined through the miraculous work God would do in and through Hannah’s prayer. He did not know it at the time, nor did she.
Realizing he had misread her, Eli finally turned and did what a High Priest should do. He asked for God’s blessing on the content of her prayer. How ironic. The answer to that prayer would be His undoing, and rightly so. I find this all so interesting. Israel experienced national adversity as they slipped into deeper and darker sin. However, God, in His providence, worked through the adversity of one young woman and wife to position her to bless the nation through God’s answer to her prayer. How amazing is this? Quite amazing. Moreover, who knows what God is planning for you in your furnace of affliction that prompts you to pray like you have never prayed before?
Trials indeed have brutal tension. It is equally valid that challenging tension calls for prayer and performance, or prayer followed by sacrificial action to do what you can to advance God’s kingdom work.
Prayer Moves God And Should Move Us (1 Sam. 1:19-28)
Knowing she had done the right thing in praying to God and giving Him a solemn, serious vow, Hannah’s heart felt lighter and brighter. When you pray, this is what happens. You know the LORD of Hosts, or the Lord of all angelic armies, is on your side in this wrestling match called life. Furthermore, since this is the case, you know it is true that He will, out of love for you, work all things to bring blessing and goodness to your life in due time. Prayer drives these truths home, which, by definition, causes the flame of affliction to be diminished as peace and joy sweep your life.
Watch how Hannah’s prayer moved the hand of God when God deemed the time was right:
19 Then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD, and returned again to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. 20 And it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of the LORD.”
For years, she had struggled with barrenness, but now God removed her reproach because He had specific plans for the son he would give her. She named him Samuel because a derivative of his name means to ask of God. She asked God for a son, and God heard and responded accordingly. Hence, to call the baby boy Samuel could not have been more appropriate. Does this mean God will answer your prayer for a son or a daughter? He might, but that is not the teaching of the passage. In Hannah’s case, God knew He would give her a son who would bring repentance and restoration to His people in Israel at the right time. Her prayer, therefore, dovetailed eventually with His will. Sometimes, prayers of this nature, as in the case of my sisters, are not answered because God’s lofty plans head in directions that do not call for a child. What is a saint to do, then? Follow God anyway, for this is what discipleship is all about, and do not forget to pour your life into others.
However, if God does answer your passionate prayer, be what it may, then what should you do? Read on and see.
21 Then the man Elkanah went up with all his household to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “I will not go up until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD and stay there forever.” 23 And Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you. Remain until you have weaned him; only may the LORD confirm His word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.
Hannah enjoyed Samuel for probably the first three years of his life, and then she followed through on her vow to God, regardless of how emotionally difficult it must have been. She gave up the son she longed for and now loved because she knew God had greater purposes for him.
24 Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh, although the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and brought the boy to Eli.
In dedicating Samuel to God’s service, his parents, Elkanah and Hannah, offered God a costly sacrifice. Is this not fitting? Indeed. When God answers your prayer and brings you out of the flames of affliction, what else should you do but offer a costly sacrifice to tell Him “Thank you”?
Eli, who, like myself, encountered thousands of people coming to his version of “church,” probably did not recognize Hannah at first glance. He must have stood there wondering: Who this woman was offering her child to me for lifelong service to the Lord.” So, she piped up:
26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD. 27 “For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. 28 “So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there. (1 Sam. 1)
Rightly did this little family worship the Lord, for the Lord had worked in and through their adversity to bless them profoundly, and in due time, He would bless the nation for the little toddler who now held hands with the High Priest. One day, he would be Israel’s faithful priest and prophet, and through him, national darkness would replaced by national light. Will you worship the Lord when His blessing falls on you in light of your prayers? Will you live sacrificially by entrusting the children He has given you back to Him and His work?
In 1932, a new mother listened to a church service on her battery-operated radio in her kitchen on her modest farm in Indiana. The pastor who spoke was Harry Ironside, the pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. At one point, he invited parents to bring their children to the front of the church and give them to God. She was so moved by the request that she reached into the crib, grabbed her newborn son, walked him into the kitchen, knelt, and joined the other parents in giving her child to God and His service. Years later, that baby became a man.
His name? Dr. Gene Getz is one of the greatest preachers and pastors that Dallas Seminary has ever produced, a man who has impacted millions of people for Christ. I am one of those touched by his life. Moreover, Dr. Getz will be the first to tell you that his life of service for God’s kingdom started with the sacrificial prayer of his mother on a kitchen floor on a farm in Indiana.
Will you give your miracle child to God?
Moreover, if you do not have a child to give to God, at least, realize and embrace the message of this passage: Tough trials tenderize your heart to move you to sacrificial action to advance God’s providential plans. Now that God has your heart and you are moved to prayer, what will you give Him to impact this needy, chaotic world for Him?
[1] Mark Water, ed. The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000), 18.
