"The LORD is a God of knowledge. "
1 Samuel 2:3
ONE PROBLEM, ONE GOD
Read It: 1 Samuel 1:1-6
I don't think any devotional study of prayer would be complete without spending some time talking about Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel and one of the great prayer figures of the Old Testament. When we first meet this woman, she is in great emotional and relational tional pain. We learn the primary reason for her pain right up front in verse 2. Hannah was childless, a crushing problem for a woman in Old Testament days when the fruit of the womb was a sign of the blessing of God. But Hannah's problem was compounded by the fact that she was just one of two wives of Elkanah, her husband. And the other wife, Peninnah, was very fruitful in childbearing. Think of the stigma this would have caused Hannah in her hometown in the hill country of Ephraim. Not only was Hannah unable to have children, but if there was any question that the problem was Elkanah's, the other wife's children answered that. And the fact that Peninnah was able to have children meant that God's disfavor was not on this family in general. The finger pointed at Hannah as the problem. But there's much more involved here than just the inability to conceive, and we don't have to wait long to find out what else is going on. First, we learn that Elkanah was a godly man who went faithfully each year to sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh.
By the way, this was in the days before David conquered Jerusalem and a permanent temple was established lished in Jerusalem. The writer mentions the two sons of the head priest, Eli. We met these rascals back in Part 3, Week 3, so you can turn back there to remind yourself why this detail is important to the overall story. We also learn that God was intimately involved in the life of this family, ily, because He had closed Hannah's womb (v. 5). And finally, verse 6 tells us that Peninnah made life miserable for Hannah. The last part of verse 5 is crucial, for Hannah and for you. No matter what you are going through, you cannot simply look at it from the human side, because God is at work. Even in the negative things, God knows what He is doing. Hannah said so herself in the words of today's verse. Think About It Hannah had a problem, but she also had the one true God. So do you.
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