1 Sa. 1: Hannah's Vow

1 Samuel 1:19 "Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her."

It's a new story. There's a guy named Elkanah, an Ephraimite. But the story isn't so much about him. It's about one of his wives. Like Jacob, Elkanah had two wives, but one he (apparently) truly loved. Like Jacob, he had one wife with children (Peninnah), and one wife who could not conceive (Hannah), at least at first. And Peninnah obviously did not take kindly to this favoritism from Elkanah. Polygamy seems to end up like this. Peninnah did not hesitate to rub it in that she was having children, and this constantly broke Hannah's heart.

It says that every time they went to the tabernacle, Penny would poke and prod until Hannah wept and refused to eat. And then you have Elkanah. I love Elkanah, because he reminds me of me. He has absolutely no idea why his beloved wife is so depressed. "Why do you weep," he asks. And then the mother lode of density, which even I know is the wrong thing to ask, "Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" Yeah. He asked that. No marriage counselor in the world...

One day, "in bitterness of soul," Hannah prays, desperately begging God to send her a son, and she vows to give up her son in service to the LORD. How very descriptive, "bitterness of soul." Have you prayed like that? At the point where you can't breathe, and you cry out out of your despair?

Eli, the priest there, suspects her of being drunk, since her mouth is moving and no sound is coming out. And Hannah, even though she is sort of backed into a corner as far as having to explain herself, she doesn't hide how she feels from Eli. She isn't afraid to be real with him. She admits to being deeply troubled. She puts up no facade, doesn't try to explain it away. How many of us can have this type of interaction with a church leader?

Eli softens and tells Hannah to go in peace, with the blessing that the LORD would grant whatever she was asking. She left with joy in her heart.

In time, Hannah has a son, Samuel. The Bible says that the LORD remembered her. He remembered her request, or He remembered her vow, that's the question. No vow is taken lightly by God, and he has proven this in the case of Jephthah.

She didn't go with Elkanah for the annual sacrifice, because Samuel wasn't weaned. Couldn't handle the travel to Shiloh. Eventually, Hannah does bring Samuel in with a sacrifice. And who is there, but Eli, and Hannah reminds him that it was her who wept so bitterly, and the LORD gave her what she asked for, and she was fulfilling her promise to God by bringing in her son. Wonder what the child care system was like at the temple...