Ordinary Time Excursion-Hannah

Hannah is another ordinary woman whose life was changed by her belief in God. She was barren and as we’ve seen with other Biblical women (Sarah, Rachel), this is not always the end of the story. Her story comes at the very beginning of I Samuel.

Hannah is one of the wives of Elkanah, “but Hannah had no children.” (I Samuel 1:2). She prayed for a child every time the family went to Shiloh to worship and “her rival [Peninnah] used to provoke her sorely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.” (I Samuel 1:6). Finally, Eli, the old priest of the Lord noticed her. At first he thought her drunk because “only her lips moved.” She told him “I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” When Eli tells her “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition…” she is relieved and “her countenance was no longer sad.” (I Samuel 1:13-18).

Sure enough Hannah does become pregnant and “called his name Samuel.” However, she does not go up to the shrine at Shiloh until “the child is weaned…that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and abide there forever.” (I Samuel 1:22) When the child is weaned, she fulfills her vow and takes him to Eli saying, “the Lord granted me my petition…Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives.” (I Samuel 1:27-28)

How often do we give up when our prayers don’t get answered right away? From Hannah we can learn persistence. “So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord.” (I Samuel 1:7) Hannah did not give up. Like Jesus’s parable of the importunate neighbor, she keeps asking until her request is granted. “Though [the friend] will not get up and give [his neighbor] anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”(Luke 11:5-8)

Imagine how much faith it must have taken to leave the child she had so longed for with Eli the priest at Shiloh. She sings a song of praise, though, in celebration. Her song in chapter 2 is similar to Mary’s Magnificat over 1000 years later. She leaves her most desired son with Eli to learn to serve the Lord, “and the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.” (I Samuel 2:21)

Despite her desire for a child, she does not quibble at fulfilling her vow and lending Samuel to the Lord. Indeed, she praises God saying, “My heart exults in the Lord…He will guard the feet of his faithful ones…” (I Samuel 2:1-10). With the psalmist she would say, “The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak justice. The law of their God is in their hearts; their steps do not slip.” (Psalm 37:30-31)

No request is trivial to God. We are advised to “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9) Jesus says, “…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” (Luke 11:13)

It is true that sometimes God says ‘No’ or ‘Not yet’, but be assured God does hear us. Hannah waited many years for the fulfillment of her prayer, but she did not give up. Neither should we.

Next week, we’ll go back into dim and distant history to meet Noah’s wife.