Hannah — The Woman Whose Prayer Was Answered

And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and wilt not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then will I give him unto the Lord all the days of his life (I Sam. 1:11).

   Hannah was a woman who became a mother by prayer and faith. She is singled out and mentioned in Scripture because of her importance to God as a mother in Israel. Hers is a most human story of life.

   Hannah had all the environmental causes for basic insecurity according to modern psychology. She had division in the home, she was misunderstood by her husband, she suffered a lack of discernment by her priest and she endured the loss of her child. Yet in spite of all this, she was a triumphant believer.

   Hannah was the first wife of Elkanah, a responsible and righteous man in Israel, and had no children. Or else she was a second wife taken when the mother of Elkanah's children was getting older. If she was a second wife, she had violated the fundamental institution of marriage which, in the creation ordinance, was monogamous, and hence she deserved the trouble into which she got. The probabilities are, however, that she was a first wife who was barren and who saw a rival come into her home because of this barrenness, a practice which was permitted by the Mosaic law. In any case, it was a

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violation of the divine institution of marriage and wherever polygamy has been introduced it has brought nothing but sorrow. A study of the contention between Jacob's wives, the ill feeling between Abraham's wives, and similar situations of Scripture illustrate this. Anything which is contrary to God's revealed standard of marriage is wrong and is productive of evil. People may think that they can temporize with God's law, whether living in the day of Elkanah or living today, but they must suffer the consequence.

   Envy entered this household and one wife provoked the other to fret and to bitterness. Wherever envying exists between women their is fretfulness and bitterness, whether in society, in the church, in business or in the home. The fruits of this sin of envy are often worse than many that are considered more heinous in the social register. For this reason, Alexander Whit had cards printed and circulated throughout his congregation which asked three questions: Is it true? Is it kind to repeat it? And, Is it necessary to repeat it? Observance of these rules would keep any of us from things which cause pain.

   The favoritism which necessarily existed in Elkanah's household brought forth fruit in strife. Hannah was loved more than Peninnah and this was displayed by her receiving a larger portion when the gifts were distributed for presenting in the temple. Peninnah displayed her fine family, which made her superior, and through such a display mocked Hannah. Here was the same spirit that existed between Hagar and Sarah, the women of Abraham. Elkanah foolishly thought that he could take the place of a baby for a woman who wished to be a mother. Hence, the whole picture is one of division, of misunderstanding, of lack of discernment, of strife and bitterness. Woe unto those who find themselves in such a family situation. Hannah found her way of exit through prayer.

THE ATMOSPHERE OF PRAYER

   Hannah was a woman who believed in God. God, for the family of Elkanah, was the source of all blessing. They worshiped

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Him in the home and they worshiped Him in the temple. They sought to obey His law and they set God first in their lives. Even Hannah recognized a purpose in God's denying her desire. In spite of all this faith, they experienced their trouble in the home.

   Back of this story is a most important truth which needs re-emphasis, namely, that the kind of men we have depends upon the mothers in a nation. A group of women were talking about when they should begin to train their children. One believed that it should be at the age of discretion, another one believed that it should be when the child began to talk, another believed it should be when the child was born. An old grandmother was listening and she observed, "Begin the training of your child twenty years before it is born." This emphasizes the importance of the mother. God was looking for a man to lead His people in the critical condition which existed at the end of the period of the judges. Israel was completely overlorded by the Philistines. Moral degeneracy had set in as is illustrated by the condition of Eli's sons (I Sam. 2:12, 17, 22). These children of the priest committed adultery, abhorred the sacrifice of the Lord and taught the people to abhor the sacrifice of the Lord. A change had to be inagurated and in order to inaugurate it, God needed a man whom He could trust. He was literally looking here and there through Israel for such a man and He could find none. Therefore, He set about to prepare a mother.

   He chose this woman Hannah, who was a woman of faith and prayer, and withheld her desire from her in order that through this discipline He might prepare her to be the mother of the man He desired. Childlessness among the Jewish women was a sign of reproach, a symbol of condemnation from God. Hannah's rival, Peninnah, used this as a source of provocation to her and mockery. She probably taught her children to be disrespectful to Hannah and many occasions arose within the home of tension, of provocation and of strife. Hannah resorted to prayer and yet her hope was deferred through the years as was the hope of the wife of Manoah, the hope of Rachel, the

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hope of Sarah and the hope of Elizabeth, all of whom were prevented from having a child by the divine purpose. Surely this Biblical fact should cause us to recognize that God desires to discipline mothers so that He can have children whom He can use. If ever the world needed such children and hence such mothers, it is now. The greatest thing a woman can do is to give a godly, trained, upright man to the world.

   Hence, we note that Hannah's faith in God was part of her preparation for the birth of Samuel. We may contrast this with the materialistic conception of life which gives God no place, which has no recognition for grace, which has no interest in the church, and which never seeks to find wisdom and divine help. People who are materialistic instead of being softened and made tender by the disappointments of life, as was Hannah, are hardened and embittered by them. When children come into such materialistic homes, they often create more problems than they solve. There is an army of orphaned children in the United States who have been made such by the divisions and strifes and separations in unbelieving homes. If one-third of the marriages of this nation end up in divorce or separation, we may be sure that these broken homes are the source of our delinquency, our immorality, disrespect and crime. A generation of hardened and embittered men and women who are materialists will not raise children who are obedient to God and desirous of exalting His name. There is direct proportion between the breakup of the American homes and the abandonment of their faith in God. If Christ were the head of the households of America, our youth problems would not exist. We may trace the problem of delinquency back to liquor drinking, self-indulgent, selfish licentious parents who cannot give children of any value to society. In contrast with all this, Hannah was a woman who believed in God and prayed for God's highest gift, namely, a child.

   Hannah believed that her solution was in prayer and as we can see from this Scripture, she practiced it. I believe in prayer. I have read many books which ascribe prayer to a psychological exercise which has only subjective affects upon the individual

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who prays, but my faith is established in the prayer promises of the Bible. In order to believe in prayer, we have to believe in the God of the Bible who is self-existent, other worldly and independent, who created the world and who can interfere in the course of the world or use the laws of the world for His own purposes. We must believe that God in His omniscience foreknew our prayers and therefore set in motion those courses which would answer our prayers. We must believe that through prayer we are co-laborers with God and we set in motion spiritual forces. All this I believe. For 20 years I have kept a prayer list and on it I have literally hundreds of requests which have been marked off as answered. These have dealt with every phase of life from travel to the birth of children, to investment of money and time, to ministry and to every detail of human living. Happy is the individual who can ask God for the guidance and wisdom he needs in his ministry through prayer.

   Hannah believed that God could and would answer her problem and give her a child. In fact, she was more specific. She wanted a son. She believed that God is the source of the life which is given to individuals. If you are a mother, remember that God gave you that child and you must answer to God for his life. When Hannah prayed in the tabernacle and asked God for a son and dedicated him back to God in the same breath, Eli finally discerned that she was a spiritual, pious, godly woman and he said., "The God of Israel grant thee thy petition." Then Hannah believed God, worshiped God, participated in the fellowship and returned to her home with no more sadness because she believed that God would solve her problem.

THE POWER OF PRAYER

   We ought to study the nature of Hannah's prayers. First, these prayers were fervent. She prayed so fervently that her lips moved while the sound of her voice was silent, and while she swayed back and forth so that the aged Eli thought that she was under the influence of liquor. When the sacrifice of

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their family had been offered for their sins and they had eaten in fellowship with the priest, Hannah then rose and went into the tabernacle to pray. As Eli observed her in the bitterness of her soul, weeping and praying before the Lord, he though that she was one of the women who lounged about the tabernacle with his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and said, "How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee." This very description reveals how intense and fervent was the prayer of Hannah. Her lips moved, her body swayed and she resembled a drunken woman. Have your prayers ever affected you in such a manner? James says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). This emphasis upon fervency is reinforced by the teaching of Jesus with all of His promises to those who ask, seek and knock and even the illustration of His commendation given to the Syro-Phoenician woman who continued to persist even though rebuked by Christ until she received her answer.

   Too much of our praying is careless, cold, unmoved and unmoving and then we wonder why we do not receive answers. How do you pray? Do you merely kneel down before retiring and mumble a few things in your pillow before going to bed? Do you merely send forth ejaculatory prayers from time to time to the Lord? Or do you really have a time when you pray through on a prayer list and intelligently present your requests unto God? Unless you are moved by desire and your prayers are fervent, you will never move God.

   Moreover, Hannah expressed prayer. She did not speak audibly but she expressed it with her lips. Bishop Moule declared that it was very difficult for him to pray with concentration unless he gave some kind of expression to his prayer. I believe that is true. I think much of our praying is mere day-dreaming instead of fervent intercession. It is necessary for us to express our petition. Hannah was literally intriguing the Lord.

   All this should be contrasted with Elkanah's praying. He undoubtedly prayed in the home and he went once a year to the tabernacle to offer his sacrifice and to pray there and he

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was probably a righteous, pious, God-fearing man, but he never wrestled in prayer for the answer to his wife's desire in spite of his being the patriarch and priest of the family. He was a good, sympathetic, loving man but a man of no great faith. This in itself may have held Hannah back in her high and divine purposes and yet she overcame the difficulty. The difference between Elkanah and Hannah is the difference between a passive believer and one who lays hold upon the promise of God in faith and in fervent prayer. Samuel stands as a monument to the fervency, sincerity and profundity of Hannah's prayers.

   Hannah prayed the prayer of faith. She had, no doubt, read or heard read the five books of Moses and she knew of Moses' intercession with God on behalf of Israel and of the remarkable answers to prayer which he obtained. She acted upon such as precedent. We today have a Bible full of promises which are most remarkable and which cover the full extent of human living. If we would take these promises as a blank check from God and cash them in faith, claiming them, they would be ours. As long as they are merely objective and remain in the Bible unused and unappropriated, they will not be ours. Let us freely use these promises of God, remembering that whatsoever things we desire we are to believe that we have received them and we will have them (Mark 11:24).

   The foundation of Hannah's prayer was her self-dedication. We note the nature of the prayer which she prayed (I Sam. 10:11). In this prayer she vowed unto the Lord that if He would answer her prayers and give her a man-child, that he would be dedicated unto the Lord all the days of his life. This meant that Hannah would have to return the child which God would give in dedication to God and lose him as soon as he was a young boy in order to have him serve the Lord. Her dedication is illustrated by her consecrating the answer to her prayers to God before she received that answer. This better than all things illustrates the dedication of Hannah. Hannah was now in the place where God could answer her prayer. For 20 or more years she had been disciplined through the failure

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to receive her desire, through unanswered prayer or deferred answers, until she came to the place of full consecration. If you have unanswered prayers perhaps there is a reason. Perhaps God is withholding or deferring the answer to your prayer in order that He might deal with you to bring you to the place where He can trust you with the answer.

THE EFFECT OF PRAYER

   Hannah believed the Lord and immediately ceased her grieving and fretting and departed from the tabernacle with joy and confidence for she believed the promise of Eli, the high priest, "her countenance was no more sad." In due season Samuel was conceived and then after the fulfillment of Hannah's time, was born. Those days must have been days of meditation upon the Word of God, of prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving, and of worship by Hannah. For when Hannah ultimately brought Samuel to the tabernacle to deliver him over to Eli as a minister and for him to begin the service of the Lord, she prayed a prayer which was weighted with Scripture and with profound implications of faith (I Sam. 2:1 -10). All this was the fruit of her meditation during the days before Samuel was born. Then came the day when Samuel was born. What rejoicing to Elkanah, what satisfaction to Hannah and what a rebuke to Peninnah. Little did anyone know of the stature of this child who was born, of the ministry which he would perform in Israel and of the greatness of his prophetic office.

   Hannah named the child Samuel, or "answer of God." Thus he was to carry the token throughout all his life that he had a peculiar relationship to God. A study of the names people bear will often reveal the interest and point of emphasis of the parents at the time of their birth. Once, in my evangelistic ministry, I tarried in a home where there were seven children and every child bore a Biblical name. This household was one of prayer, of Bible reading, of piety and of beautiful character, all of which revealed the faith of the parents expressed in the lives of those children.

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   In these early years Hannah coddled and nestled the child, prayed with him and for him, taught him what truths she knew, instructed him in the care of himself so that he could be independent, all in the light of the fact that she was to present him to the Lord in the temple. For some this might have been a shadow over one's early life but for her it was a source of joy for she knew he had been given by God and to God she would give him back. Those were days of intense pleasure in their home as Hannah enjoyed Samuel, trained him and looked forward to the day when she would dedicate him in that tabernacle.

   She made up her mind that she would not return for the yearly sacrifice until Samuel was old enough to become a minister of Eli in the tabernacle.

   When Samuel was a child with some degree of independence and self-sufficiency so that he could be of use to Eli, Hannah took a very liberal offering with her and brought the child to offer her thanksgiving in the house of the Lord and to leave the child with the aged Eli. She testified to him after her sacrifice. "Oh, my lord, as thy soul liveth my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth." Thus Hannah and Samuel worshiped the Lord. Are we to believe that Hannah did not know of the conditions in Israel at that time? These conditions are marked by immorality in the temple (I Sam. 2:22) and of transgression of the law of the Lord by the people, the fountain head of which was Eli's own sons. She could have argued with the Lord that to have brought this tender child into their association would corrupt him and turn him from the high purposes which she had in mind for him. Instead of that, she put her faith in God and His promise, left Samuel in the center of corruption believing that God would reveal Himself unto Samuel. Returning to her home, she must have been very lonely at first. But God accepted her sacrifice and made it up

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to Hannah so that she became the mother of several other children (I Sam. 2:12).

   Hannah followed Samuel with her prayers. We read that year by year she brought a garment for him to wear. This was homespun but it was a garment made by hands of love and into it went the most precious wool from Elkanah's flock. Each time that Samuel put it on, every time he fingered that garment, he thought of his mother and her prayers and this became an anchor for him to protect him from the temptations and the examples of sin which he saw on every hand. Because Hannah had entrusted him to the Lord, in due season the Lord appeared unto Samuel and the word of the Lord was made known unto him. When Samuel came to serve Eli he did not yet know the Lord. He had been brought up in a godly environment, but he as yet did not have a personal religious experience. But here in the tabernacle God appeared to him, made His will known to him, and revealed His Word to him so that he was established to become a prophet of the Lord. In due season, Hannah must have died but we may well understand that the prophet Samuel, throughout his whole life, wore a garment like unto that which his mother had made and which ever reminded him of that pious, praying, believing woman of God.

   Thus, Hannah participated in the deliverance of Israel and in the rule over Israel by God through His prophet for 40 years. She had a part in the establishment of the kingdom under David because Samuel had anointed David to become king before he died. Thus, Samuel was established before the Lord and before the people. Great was Hannah's contribution to Israel.

   What place will your children take in the leadership of the church and nation? Will it be a result of your prayers and of your faith? What are you making of that child that God gave you? Are you a worthy parent at the pinnacle of success? Will he look back with gratitude to his home and to his family environment? This Samuel did because he made Ramah his home during his entire ministry (I Sam. 7:17; 25:1).

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