Hannah’s Mature Prayer
We must worship in spirit and truth. Spirit and truth, in other words, means the Holy Spirit and the truth, and to worship in the Holy Spirit and in truth we need a faith that treasures the unseen Kingdom of God above the visible world. God wants us to overcome sin by such a faith. When he commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the command came from a Father’s heart that longed for them to overcome Satan’s temptation boldly by his word. In a world so full of sin, we must overcome by faith. As salmon swim against the current and head upstream toward the place where they were born, only those who swim against the world, that sea of sin, and press on toward their eternal rest can be saved.
Israel’s people and priests had fallen, but Hannah laid down every desire, fixed her attention on God alone, and began to repent with all her heart. She looked back on the time she had spent not praying, blaming Peninnah’s persecution, and on her failure to be thankful to the husband who loved her, and she prayed with a contrite heart. Once she realized that she was loved by God beyond measure, Hannah was no longer ashamed that she had no son, nor did she hate Peninnah, who persecuted her. She had met the God who was at work in her own life, and so neither people nor circumstances could keep her in the least from worshiping him.
People in the church often say they cannot concentrate on worship because of other people or their circumstances. But saying so is already a confession that they have drifted far from God. Those who have truly met God do not even notice people and circumstances, however much these interfere. Those who blame their surroundings are not really kept from worship by their circumstances; they fail to offer whole worship because they are not focused on God.
Isaiah 1:11-12
11“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. 12When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
God said he took no delight at all in the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals the people brought, because these were offerings brought to win forgiveness for their own sins. The more offerings they brought, the more they showed how much they had sinned. That is why God told them to stop bringing empty offerings that held no true faith. Their very offerings to God were in fact meant to win pardon for themselves, and so, before any formal sacrifice, God wanted them to live holy lives as his people. In the same way, we must not bring our gifts to God for our own sake. When we bring an offering simply out of gratitude for the grace he has given, God receives it with joy and will give us a greater reward.
Hannah could be humble because she had none of the world’s fruit. Knowing she could do nothing herself, she could confess that God alone is Savior and worship in the Holy Spirit and in truth. Hardship and blessing alike come by God’s permission, so if we let the knife of hardship cut away the rough edges of our lives, we can live as mature believers. And God will bless those who mature in this way.
1 Samuel 1:20
20When the time had come, Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of Yahweh.”
The name Samuel means “I have asked him of Yahweh”: she asked God earnestly and was answered. Persecuted and mocked by Peninnah, Hannah prayed with all the strength she had. Her vow to give him as a Nazirite if God gave her a son tells us with what heart she must have cried out to God. Sincere prayer from a heart torn open like this will surely be accepted.
Nazirites must live by God’s commands, so they have no life of their own. They must not let a razor touch their heads, must not drink wine, and must not go near a dead body. To live this way, they must live wholly set apart from the world. Not letting a razor touch the head shows a resolve to live with God as king, as a servant who never violates the promise God has given. Nazirites do not drink wine because they must keep body and mind holy, bearing the likeness of God’s image. The world’s wine makes both mind and body worldly, and so a Nazirite must not drink it. When people drink, they become self-centered. Trapped in the drink, they decide and act within the bounds of their own thoughts, so that they defy God’s commands without even knowing it is sin. In the end they become people who cannot read the mind of God.
When a disciple whose father had died said he would go and bury him, Jesus told him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” Those who follow him are alive; they have received new life. So he left the burial of those who return to dust to the dead, to those who have not received eternal life. For this reason a Nazirite must never touch the dead, in whom there is no life. Hannah vowed to raise Samuel as a Nazirite, on a road set wholly apart from the world.
What kind of faith have you offered to God? Do you have the fruit of the Spirit that God would accept? Hannah prayed for Samuel, and in faith she gladly gave the fruit of that prayer for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Hannah’s prayer shows that her worldly desire, passing through the tunnel of suffering, was born again as spiritual faith. Only after she was born again did she understand that the fruit she must bear was not a jewel the world desires, like Peninnah, but the fruit of the Spirit, like Samuel.
1 Samuel 2:1
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.
Hannah praised God, who had given her a son. As she gave to God the son more precious to her than her own life, she made a prophetic confession, rooted in the history of redemption, that praised the victory of Christ. God’s grace is perhaps less a matter of miracles from heaven or of the dead being raised than of the gratitude his people feel through small answers in their own lives. Hannah’s receiving a son through prayer was a deeply personal matter. But when she received Samuel, recognized him as grace given by God, and gave thanks, God became the one who lives and works. If we cannot discern grace with spiritual eyes, then for us there is no grace of God. Hannah had grown mature enough to give Samuel to God. We know this because she confessed, “My horn is exalted in Yahweh.” Now that Peninnah had driven her to rely on God all the more, Hannah looked back with regret on the time she had spent resenting God, thinking that her childlessness meant he had not blessed her. She felt guilty for those years when, not grasping the depth of God’s love, she had complained against him and failed to live for him in faith. Once she understood with what heart Yahweh had trained her, she grieved over her own failure to exalt God fully.
We too, when we have little, feel ashamed and cannot exalt God freely. But when our spiritual faith matures as Hannah’s did, we will see how shameful it is to measure our lives by how much or how little we own. So nothing matters more than truly meeting God, who is greater than the world.
1 Samuel 3:19-20
19Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.
Samuel faithfully proclaimed the word God gave him, and God helped him so that not one of his prophecies failed to come true. As Samuel’s words always came to pass, the people of Israel recognized him as the prophet God had chosen. The born-again faith of one person, Hannah, brought forth Samuel, a man of faith, and set all Israel from Dan to Beersheba in the line of salvation.
1 Samuel 2:2
2There is no one as holy as Yahweh, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.
Only someone who has lived out their faith can make such a confession, for it is an astonishing confession that the work of salvation stretches, through Christ, to the salvation of all humanity. With her own lips Hannah is confessing a prayer that only those who have met the eternal Christ, beyond all human knowledge, understanding, and common sense, can pray. The humiliation she suffered for not bearing a child in the flesh helped Hannah look to God alone, and the countless tears she shed under mockery made her give up leaning on people. Suffering made Hannah a stronger child of God. Hardship is like a passing typhoon, but its fierce winds have the power to change both people and their surroundings. Those who have come through hardship as fierce as a typhoon will, when Satan tempts them with wealth, cast off their desire for the world instead; when he persecutes them with power, they will pray in faith.
The God Hannah looked to was her eternal resting place and refuge. Now she had a son, Samuel; but even if she had remained childless, she had met God, the Rock, and could have sung praise and thanks for that alone. I hope you too have a faith that can offer great praise and thanks for salvation alone.
1 Samuel 2:3
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.
Proud and arrogant talk comes from refusing to admit that we are sinners. Those who know they live before the all-knowing, all-powerful God never take on the pride and arrogance of judging or condemning others. So Jesus told us not to judge, so that we would not be judged, and said that the measure we use for others will be measured to us.
Watching Hannah suffer because she had no child, people would probably have thought she was in trouble because she had sinned against God. Some would even have gone further and advised her to search her heart for any sin against God and repent. People can act like this because they refuse to let go of the idea that they are more righteous and upright than the other person. Seeing someone suffer, they think themselves better and look for their own strengths, and before they know it they are criticizing and rebuking the sufferer. When those who are quick to judge and condemn others suffer themselves, they do not repent before God with their whole heart; they make their sin smaller and try to settle it with him, because they think that once the sin is found and dealt with before God, the matter is closed.
But the suffering God sends is complex and subtle, because he put Hannah through the fire in order to give her Samuel, and he tested Job because he wanted to reveal Job’s blameless faith for all to see. So if we lack spiritual discernment, we end up in the place of those who sin by speaking proudly and arrogantly to God. May you have the wisdom, then, not to look only at what is visible when you face the problems and events of life, but to weigh them spiritually.
Matthew 12:37
37For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
God knew with what heart Peninnah criticized and judged Hannah. Hannah’s suffering was needed for the Kingdom of God, so when Peninnah, ignorant of his will, judged and criticized her so recklessly, she sinned against God. Peninnah trusted in nothing but her sons, the world’s boast, and poured out arrogant words and mockery on Hannah; but once God approved of Hannah, it was Peninnah who came under God’s rebuke. Now that Hannah had borne Samuel amid God’s wonderful blessing, Peninnah was no match for her. Peninnah heaped every kind of cruel word on her because she had decided that Hannah could never have a son, but now those very words will put her to shame. Our words reveal who we are, so the words that come out of someone’s mouth show whether they are righteous or cowardly and evil. That is why we must always watch our words and actions and think deeply before we act.
Verse 4 of our passage says, “The bows of the mighty men are broken. Those who stumbled are armed with strength.” The bow of the mighty, used to persecute the poor and to build up their own righteousness like the tower of Babel, will be snapped and broken like Peninnah’s bow. But those who trust God, as Hannah did, may seem to have fallen for a while; once the winds of suffering pass, they will rise again, girded with truth. The world, like a house built on sand, cannot keep its balance and sways this way and that, but those who build on the word of God will stand firm, like someone with a belt fastened around the waist.
1 Samuel 2:5
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.
God’s intervention has turned the tide completely. Those who were content with the world’s fruit will in the end perish, but those who fasted from the world and held fast to their faith will live in abundance in the Kingdom of God and never hunger again. “Seven” is the number of completeness. It signifies the full blessing given to children of faith who, like Hannah, did not conceive greed and lust. As for those who have lived for human righteousness, pride, and lust, God will make them languish forever.
To understand this word more easily, let us look at the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man received what was God’s, yet day after day he held royal feasts for himself and lived in luxury; after death he suffered in hell, where he could not have even a drop of water. He ended up begging a drop of water from Lazarus, the beggar who had once begged at his gate. However much we enjoy in this life, if it is not the fruit of the Spirit, it is in the end nothing but grounds for falling into hell and suffering there. If we live with the life after death in view rather than what is before our eyes, we can weigh our present lives more carefully.
With a faith that rises above the world, as Hannah’s did, giving God even Samuel, the son gained with such struggle amid pain and mockery, is no loss. This is because, having come like Job to a lofty faith that sees God with her own eyes, she realized that Samuel was a son who belonged to God. She knew that in a world of darkness, God’s arms are the safest place. Having received the eternal covenant, Hannah came to believe that Yahweh kills and makes alive, brings down to Sheol and brings up. She came to a complete faith that she could not keep her son by her own effort, that everything depended on God. Realizing that her life and her son’s rested in God’s hands, she now had nothing to fear and no desire left for the world. After she gave Samuel to God and was given more children, she even came to feel pity for Peninnah, who did not rely on God.
1 Samuel 2:8
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.
God, who raises up the poor in spirit out of the dust, has made those who were needy sit with blessed princes and inherit the throne of glory. To be poor in spirit does not mean being poor for lack of worldly goods; it means that the vessel of the soul is empty because one has laid down the world’s desires. Only when we are poor in spirit can that emptiness be filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and God blesses his children who are filled with the Spirit. Children whose hearts are filled entirely with God’s grace are now released from the body made of dust, our very human nature, and live in freedom as God’s people.
Those who have been saved are those who have not defiled themselves with the world, who are poor in spirit, and who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Those who belong to God and the Lamb have no lie in their mouths and are blameless, so God will keep the feet of these holy ones.
Until now the world has oppressed these children of God in the darkness with its power, but on the day God works by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the darkness will retreat, and the mouths of those who spoke arrogantly against his people will be silenced. Right up to the cross that the Lord bore to fulfill God’s covenant, darkness seemed to prevail; but when he conquered death and rose again, no one could open their mouth, and no one dared stand against him. In the same way, on the day the Lord returns, the power of the world will be shattered.
1 Samuel 2:10
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.”
Those who opposed the power of Christ will be broken to pieces. On the day of his return the Lord will lift his horn high and stand exalted as Judge, so that the world under judgment can see him. On that last day, the world that refused the gospel Jesus preached will face judgment. The world will be judged then, but the children who exalted Christ’s authority and glory will be saved and will sing songs of glory. Hannah understood all this, praised the Lord with all her heart, and gave thanks to the God of salvation. Only those born again through faith can give God a son like Samuel. Great is the prayer of a mother who prays and praises! The prayer his mother offered for Samuel will be a great strength to him as he takes up the task God gave him, and God, who received Hannah’s prayer, will help Samuel through people and by the Spirit all his life.
God is the one who gives special protection to those who worship him in spirit and truth and who answers whatever they pray. I hope you will believe this and keep your eyes on God alone, even when the world despises and mocks your faith. Even if you have nothing and no worldly power, may you rejoice in God alone. Then he will raise you up out of the dust, make you sit with princes who have received his grace, and make you inherit the throne of glory.
The world firmly believes that the whole earth belongs to it, but the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s, and he has set the world on them. The world is God’s, and God is the Lord of the whole universe and all that is in it. Let us never doubt this, but live by faith. May you always enjoy peace within the blessing of God, the Lord of eternal life and of all things. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 2:27-36
27A man of God came to Eli, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house? 28Didn’t I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? Didn’t I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? 29Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?’ 30“Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever.’ But now Yahweh says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be cursed. 31Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there will not be an old man in your house. 32You will see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I will give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. 33The man of yours, whom I don’t cut off from my altar, will consume your eyes and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house will die in the flower of their age. 34“‘This will be the sign to you, that will come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die. 35I will raise me up a faithful priest, that will do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he will walk before my anointed forever. 36It will happen, that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”