Hannah, Who Received a Double Portion
Israel rejected God, who was their king, and wanted to set up as king a man they could see. So God set Saul up as king, just as they wished. But just as God had warned, they suffered instead because of the king. In this way, a choice that springs from human greed, against the will of God, brings foolish results.
Just as Adam, the first man, sought in the garden of Eden to become like God by his own hand, Israel ended up rejecting God for its own gain. If we trace the spiritual line that runs from the sin of Adam, the ancestor of humankind, through Peninnah and Hannah, Eli and Samuel, Saul and David, we find that human history has run on as an unending conflict between good and evil. This conflict goes on even now, and only when we know what kind of person God chooses as good can we walk the way of truth. I would like to look at that way through the teaching of Samuel.
Samuel, born in 1105 BC, was the prophet who took on the great task of opening the age of the kings as the age of the judges declined. Samuel anointed Saul and set him up as Israel’s first king, but Saul betrayed God, who had chosen him. So God rejected Saul, anointed David and set him up as king. From this we can see that human history as a whole is not made by human judgment and decisions; it is the outcome of God’s leading. For now evil seems to win. But God is there within it, holding on to good and raising it up, and that is why believers can carry on in faith. By raising up Samuel before Eli, the corrupt priest, God established his word even in the midst of sin, and so made known that he is the one who moves history. God set up an ark in a world where the wickedness of man was great. And he set up the tabernacle among the people of Israel who had come out of Egypt. Among the venomous snakes he set up a serpent of brass, and among sinners he sent Jesus. These are precious passages that show us the heart of God, who earnestly longs to give life to sinners who have committed evil sins and are bound to die.
Yet the good that gives life always looks feeble next to evil. When the Lord came into the world in the flesh, he was like a tender plant, like a root out of dry ground; he had no good looks or majesty. The world that saw him found no beauty that it should desire him, and so it despised and rejected him. Because of that the Lord went through much suffering and disease. This suffering was persecution he received because he did not compromise with the world. In the world, it is those who bear much fruit of greed and lust who are exalted. The more worldly fruit people have, the more respect and power they gain. That is why the people of the world strive with all they have to get the fruit of the world. But God is the one who tells believers not to conceive any fruit except the fruit of the Spirit.
In today’s text we meet Hannah. By grace he gave on his own initiative, God held her back from bearing the fruit of evil. The name Hannah means “mercy and favor.” True to her name, Hannah was much loved by God and by her husband Elkanah. Sadly, though, she had no children, the fruit of the world that she truly wanted. As 1 Samuel 1:5 says, Yahweh had shut up her womb, and that is why she could not conceive. With this worldly weakness, Hannah suffered much from the persecution of Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife. The name Peninnah means “coral and jewels.” Just so, in the world Peninnah was a beautiful woman who shone. She was a mother of the world who held her head high, for she had borne children, the fruit of the world that the people of the world want so badly.
Peninnah always resented that her husband loved Hannah more than her. So she used Hannah’s weakness, her having no child, as a pretext to torment her and cause her pain. In the world, those who have power rule over those who do not, just like this. In the world, those who have not cannot help but be mocked by those who have. Whether it is wealth or health or children, in the world it is those who have who gain power.
Galatians 4:23-24
23However, the son by the servant was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. 24These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.
Abraham had two wives, Sarah and Hagar. Here too, Sarah received more of her husband’s love than Hagar but had no child, while Hagar bore Ishmael, the fruit of the world. Hagar mocked Sarah for having no child, but God granted Sarah, who kept her faith, the fruit of the Spirit named Isaac. Yet the Apostle Paul speaks of Sarah and Hagar, who bore Isaac and Ishmael, as “two covenants.” He likens Sarah to grace, which received God’s promise, and Hagar to the law, which has to be carried out according to the flesh. He called Isaac, whom Sarah bore, the freedom of Christians, received under God’s promise. Hagar, on the other hand, bore Ishmael, a son of the world, according to the flesh; but because Ishmael was not the son of the promise, Paul says, he did not receive God’s inheritance.
The Apostle Paul adds, in Galatians 4:29, “But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.” Through these words he says that those who live under God’s grace cannot help but be persecuted by those who hold the world’s power. Hagar and Peninnah, who had borne sons, the power and pride of the world, sneered at Sarah and Hannah, who had not. In the same way the world demands fruit it can see. Unlike what the world demands, God’s promise is not something seen right away. So only when we receive it by faith can we be free in the truth. But many people want a son now, the fruit of the world they can see, and so they cannot wait for God’s eternal promise.
Peninnah persecuted Hannah, who did not have the fruit of the world, and flaunted her own power. In truth, though, God did not want Hannah to embrace the world, so he allowed her a brief time of hardship, and that is why she could not conceive. There are times when believers long for something earnestly and God does not answer. The reason is God’s love, which wants first to fill them with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Peninnah, who could not have known this, mocked Hannah, a woman of God.
1 Samuel 1:11
11She vowed a vow, and said, “Yahweh of Armies, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a boy, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head.”
Hannah fell down, weeping bitterly, and vowed that if God gave her a son, she would give that son to God as a Nazirite, a servant who would serve God forever. When she says now that she will give her son to God, she is not making a reckless vow out of a greedy wish to have a son at once. Her vow is faith that acknowledges God as the master of life. It is also a sincere heart: if God gives her a wise son full of his grace, she will give that son back to God to work for him.
Now and then, among church members who have misunderstood these words of Hannah, we see parents who vow to give a son to God if they have one, and then, once they have the son, force theology on him. Of course, if he is a servant whom God has called and appointed, he will go the way of ministry even without his parents forcing him. But it is simply sad to see parents who have not rightly understood the truth make a vow out of greed for a son, and then, afraid that God will punish them if the child does not go into ministry, send the child to seminary regardless of the child’s gifts or dreams. For such behavior comes from spiritual ignorance, and it is never a right form of faith. For parents to make a vow all by themselves, and then to say they will do as they please with their son’s life because he came through that vow, is a sin of deceiving God and a foolish act.
Hannah’s not being able to conceive came from God’s intention. God wanted Hannah to have a faith she took up willingly, so through a brief physical hardship he trained her so that she could have a mature faith. This was not merely a matter of giving her a son in the flesh. Samuel was the prophet who had to serve as a vital bridge, ending the age of the judges and passing into the age of the kings. Because he was a prophet to be used in God’s great plan, his mother first had to become good soil; only then could Samuel grow up whole.
Just as God planned, Hannah was slowly turned into good soil through Peninnah. Hannah, whose heart had been like rocky ground because she did not have the fruit of the world, was changed by Peninnah’s persecution into good soil that relied on God alone. Watching Peninnah’s children, she came to realize how frail and insignificant she was, and that she was a weak being who could have nothing at all unless God, the master of life, gave it. The longer her time of hardship lasted, the more she felt human finitude and her own limits, and the more she came to trust God and long for mercy and favor. When Hannah, like Mary who conceived Jesus, came to have a faith that relied on God alone with her whole life, only then did God grant her Samuel. God still wants whole fruit like Samuel. He does not want the fruit of greed that the whole world wants, like the sons Peninnah bore. He wants the fruit of the Spirit, conceived in mercy and favor, that can receive God’s inheritance as Samuel did.
People say they are blessed when they have more than others. When they have much, some even feel superior, thinking that they were blessed because they must, after all, have done something right before God. But we must examine our own faith, to see whether we could still boast that we are blessed by God even when our possessions are gone. If believers measure blessing and faith by possessions, they will not be thankful even when God gives them grace, and so they will be rebuked.
1 Samuel 1:4-5
4When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions; 5but to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.
Under the law Moses received, Hebrew men went up three times a year, at each feast, to Shiloh, where the ark was. After the wilderness, the ark was first kept at Gilgal in the land of Canaan, but after the conquest of Canaan, while the land was being divided, it was moved to Shiloh. Later, after the ark was taken in the war with the Philistines, Shiloh was destroyed and vanished from history forever.
The feasts the people of Israel kept were the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks) and the Feast of Ingathering (the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths). Since the whole family is going up together here, we can guess that it was the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Elkanah gave portions of the offering for God to Peninnah and her children too, but to Hannah he gave double what they received. That is how much Elkanah loved his wife Hannah, more than anyone. This alone lets us imagine how fierce Peninnah’s jealousy toward Hannah must have been. Like Hannah, who had her husband’s whole love, believers who have no fruit of the world are loved by God, their husband.
Isaiah 54:5
5For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the whole earth.
You are loved by God, your husband. Satan and the world know this better than you who are loved, and so they persecute you. Those who torment you are Peninnah. Just as Peninnah schemed over how she could torment Hannah more, Satan is pondering how he can take away your faith. The world’s Peninnah will work hard to shame those of you who have no wealth, by giving you the pain that comes with lacking money. And if your health is poor, Peninnah will set hard circumstances in front of you to make you despair. Peninnah, hidden in every corner of the world, will stop at nothing to attack if only she can provoke you.
In this way the world’s Peninnah is doing her utmost to take away believers’ faith, yet believers themselves are not preparing for it. When the world attacks, believers lament their own helplessness, but it does not occur to them that they should rely on God. Only when, like Hannah, they are driven to the point where nothing can be solved do they finally think of God and reluctantly kneel to pray. Yet even if we pray reluctantly because there is no other way left, we must pray.
If there had been no Peninnah, and if Hannah had conceived easily, she would not have realized her own helplessness, nor would she have relied on God. But once Hannah understands God’s heart, grows, and receives Samuel as the fruit of the Spirit, Peninnah will be brought down, because she will have finished her mission as the rod that shaped Hannah. When David grew up, Saul was brought down; when Israel stood upright, the Philistines were brought down. So rather than weeping over why Peninnah torments her, the first thing for Hannah is to look at herself and ask why God allowed Peninnah.
Though she had gone up to Shiloh and received a double portion to offer to God, Hannah was not thankful; instead she grieved over the one thing she did not have. If Hannah, who had no child, had also been without the love of her husband Elkanah, she would have had no hope at all. But even without a son, if she thanks the husband who loves her and loves him all the more, there is room for her to bear a son through her husband’s love.
In the text, Hannah received two portions, more than Peninnah. This means that the people of the world live having received one portion, the world, while God’s people live having received the portion of the world and one more portion besides, the kingdom of God. The portion of the world disappears when the life of the body ends, but the portion of heaven is eternal, so believers are people who have received a great blessing. Peninnah was jealous of Hannah because she knew that the husband’s love was everything, yet Hannah, on the contrary, was cowed by the fruit of the world that Peninnah had. Not seeing rightly the grace she had received, she was living a life of shame even though she had God’s love, which is greater than the world.
We believers ought to live thankful lives for salvation alone. God has already blessed believers so that they live on this earth as his children. On top of that he has added the right to live as people of heaven, and that is an enormous grace, beyond comparison with the physical blessings the people of the world receive. But it is so sad to see believers who have already received a great blessing crumble helplessly as they look at the wealth and power the world has. Such faith looks just like the weak faith of Hannah, who wept and would not eat whenever Peninnah provoked her. Look closely, and Hannah lacked only one thing: she had no child. Believers who receive God’s great love, yet suffer and live without thanks for the single reason that they lack material things, are no different at all.
But the text says that it was God who kept Hannah from conceiving. Seen in that light, if she had thrown away the old wineskin made of human thoughts and greed and prepared a fresh wineskin with whole faith, she would have conceived naturally. The question is when Hannah would realize this. God is preparing to supply what his children need. But God’s people keep complaining that he does not give them power and great wealth, and they foolishly do not even eat the Word, their spiritual food.
Peninnah, with many children around her, still thirsted for her husband’s love. Seeing that, Hannah ought to have been able to be content with her husband’s love alone. Look at the people of the world: no matter how much they own, they are always thirsty and crave more. Then you see that a soul not filled with God’s love has no contentment. In the end, even a child can be conceived only where there is the husband’s love. If Hannah, though her husband loves her, is not content with him and wants only what she can see, even her husband will leave her side. Even while Hannah did not understand, God was at work so that she would bear the fruit of the Spirit. All that was needed was the right time; if Hannah would only obey fully, the Father would help her live a life that need not be ashamed before the world.
1 Samuel 1:3
3This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of Armies in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests to Yahweh, were there.
When Hannah went up to Shiloh to offer sacrifice, the priests there were Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Eli, the high priest at the end of the age of the judges, succeeded in taking Samuel in and raising him, but he failed to train his own two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in faith. After the ark of the covenant was taken in the war with the Philistines, Eli heard that his two sons had died in battle; he fell from his seat, broke his neck and died. That shows how corrupt he had become. For though the nation was at war, he was spiritually dull and was not sitting in the place of prayer. Also, Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas committed sins that priests must never commit. Priests were to look into the people’s sins and offer blood sacrifices so that the people would receive forgiveness of sins from God, but these men committed the sin of using the priesthood for fleshly gain.
According to Leviticus 3:3-5, the priests lay hands on the head of the animal being offered and transfer to it the sin of the person who brought the offering. Then they must sprinkle its blood around on the altar, remove the fat that covers the innards and all the fat that is on the innards, and burn it on the altar of burnt offering. Yahweh receives the pleasant aroma of this burnt offering. So the law is that when a sacrifice is offered to God, the priests must first burn the fat on the altar of burnt offering before they take their own share.
Hophni and Phinehas were so corrupt that even when sinners offered the precious sacrifice in which they transferred their sin to the offering in place of their own lives and received new life, the two took the meat raw for their own gain before it was offered to God. When priests, who must be holy, covet the offerings the people bring, they are treating God with contempt; it is like an abomination standing in the holy place. What Hophni and Phinehas did went beyond human greed; it was an enormous sin that destroyed the covenant and redemption God had made with Israel. Yet Eli, the high priest, did not rebuke his two sons; he left them as they were. He should have charged them with the sin of blaspheming God’s name, driven them from the priesthood and put them to death. But because he loved his sons more than God, he could not hold them to account for their sin.
The tabernacle was in Shiloh, where these wicked and corrupt priests were, so Hannah is going up to Shiloh to worship God. In those days there was a limitation of place, since sacrifices had to be offered at the tabernacle. But now the temple is within believers, so they can worship anywhere. This too is an amazing blessing that believers have received today. From now on the world will be even more full of sin, and so believers will walk a road through an even darker spiritual night. Because of that, the lamps believers carry will shine all the more, and it may even be easier to lead out souls who have lost their way in the dark. Believers now have no time to show weakness like Hannah, who wept and would not eat because she had no fruit of the world. Now is the time for believers to think deeply on God’s will, find what they should do, and act.
You have received from God the blessing and love of two portions. If you do not forget that you have received the portion of heaven, even though the fruit of the world is scarce, and you live a thankful life, God will entrust precious fruit like Samuel to you.
May you have the wisdom to put your lamp on the stand yourselves.
I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 2:1-11
1Hannah prayed, and said: “My heart exults in Yahweh! My horn is exalted in Yahweh. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. 2There is no one as holy as Yahweh, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. 3“Don’t keep talking so exceedingly proudly. Don’t let arrogance come out of your mouth, For Yahweh is a God of knowledge. By him actions are weighed. 4“The bows of the mighty men are broken. Those who stumbled are armed with strength. 5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. Those who were hungry are satisfied. Yes, the barren has borne seven. She who has many children languishes. 6“Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. 7Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. 8He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s. He has set the world on them. 9He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; for no man shall prevail by strength. 10Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. “Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.” 11Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child served Yahweh before Eli the priest.