February 10, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Prayers of Anguish

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Gracious Lord, help me to see my years as a hallowed trust, and to see Your Kingdom and its righteousness as the end toward which I move.

Read 1 Samuel 1:1-28

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. [2] He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. [3] Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. [4] Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. [5] But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb. [6] Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. [7] This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. [8] Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” [9] Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. [10] In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. [11] And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” [12] As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. [13] Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk [14] and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” [15] “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. [16] Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” [17] Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” [18] She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. [19] Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. [20] So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.” [21] When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, [22] Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.” [23] “Do what seems best to you,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him. [24] After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. [25] When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, [26] and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. [27] I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. [28] So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright &copy 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.&reg Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you” (Psa. 55:22). That great verse in yesterday’s psalm has insight for today’s reading!

“There was a certain man … from the hill country … He had two wives” (1,2) is an inauspicious opening to a book that leads on to David’s reign in Jerusalem, just as “a virgin [in Nazareth] pledged to be married to a man named Joseph” (Luke 1:27) is an unexpected introduction to the story of Jesus. God’s ways are not bound by human ideas of status, worthiness and significance. This is highlighted as focus shifts to Hannah, the first wife, who after many years has not borne children, a matter of failure and shame in her culture. Worse, the second wife, Peninnah, with her many children aggravates Hannah’s pain, continuing “year after year” to “provoke her” (6,7). Even Elkanah, who loves her, can only question her attitude to him (8, Peninnah’s taunting presence is a reminder he wanted children). Eli the priest, without seeking clarification, assumes she is drunk. Like many through to today, Hannah is alone in her grief, but she turns to God. She finds assurance and relief in prayer and in Eli’s subsequent blessing. In due time “the Lord remembered her” (19) and Samuel is born.

“It is tremendously encouraging to all who feel their misery is not understood … to know that the account itself and, more especially, the Lord who stands behind the account, do not share Elkanah’s [and Eli’s] limitations” (Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel). Like Job and the writer of Psalm 88, Hannah turns to the God who is ultimately behind her situation (twice, vs. 5,6) knowing that he alone understands the depth of anguish and grief, and can bring the solution. Unlike Peninnah’s superior taunting or Eli’s ready categorization or Elkanah’s inability to understand, the Lord does not despise the plea of the destitute (Psa. 102:17). His answer may surprise us in its results.

Apply

Do you grieve? Bring your pain again to God. Do others near you suffer? Pray that you might see through their eyes and share appropriately in their anguish.

Closing prayer

Loving Lord, You are more eager to listen and respond than I am to pray. Renew my trust in You as I remember that my life is in Your hands.

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