Hannah

Hey Steph,
          Today I'm going step away from our normal format of definitions to focus on an awesome woman instead. On the advent of my 26th birthday I made a list of 26 goals I would do in the next year. One of them was to study three different women and share my new-found knowledge on this blog. The first woman I studied was Hannah of Bible fame. What a strong example of womanhood in a culture that we don't particularly see as the most empowering to females!
          To start, let me give you a short bio of Hannah's life:

          Hannah--in what seems to be an epidemic among Biblical matriarchs--is barren. She wants nothing more than to be a mother. She has a supportive husband, Elkanah, but he doesn't seem to understand the extent of Hannah's sorrow. Hannah goes to the temple to pray and vows to God the life of her child in service if she is able to bear a child. Whereupon, she is immediately called drunken by the high priest. (Bet that she felt lower than low after that.) Once Eli, the high priest, discerns that Hannah is sincere in her plea to God, he tells her that her desire will be granted and sends her on his way. And it was. Hannah bears Samuel, the future prophet of Israel and fulfills her vow, giving him to Eli to be a priest of God.
          So here's what I've learned about Hannah. She is an example of confidence. Her desire of motherhood is in line with the great legacy of her foremothers. She is of the heritage of Eve, the mother of all living. She wants to fulfill that calling. And her society recognizes the significance of this calling. If a woman was not a mother, she was seen as worthless, not providing anything to the society. When Eli calls Hannah out for being drunken on the temple grounds, she responds, "Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial" (1 Sam. 1:16). Now, belial in Hebrew has three meanings: base wickedness, good-for-nothing, and worthlessness. Her response doesn't just bespeak her innocence in being drunk, but it confidently declares who she is. "I am not worthless. I am good-for-something." Her society is not teaching her that she has worth, but somehow Hannah knows she is worthwhile. I believe Hannah knows who she is because she has been diligent in her relationship with her Father in Heaven, who shares with her that she is a daughter of God.
          Hannah is also an example of persistent faith. From information given about Elkanah's other wife, Peninah, and her multiple children, it is clear that Hannah has been waiting years to be a mother. This inference is reinforced by the vow she makes. You don't just wake up one morning and make a vow to give up your only offspring in order to be a mother. That vow is not made lightly. You would vow so many other vows before that vow. You'd vow your own life to one of service before making that vow. You would vow to give up all your possessions before giving up your son. Heck, you'd vow to give up watching Dr. Who and reading Harry Potter before you'd give up the child you are so desperate to have. It's possible Hannah had made other vows before, and I would be shocked if this was Hannah's first hysterical plea at the temple. No. I believe Hannah had cried hundreds, thousands, of prayers. In all of this, it would be so easy to curse God, who seemingly withholds the fulfillment of His own commandment to multiply and replenish the earth. It would be so easy to turn your back on the Creator who mandated the law which now makes you worthless in your society for having not fulfilled it. But Hannah didn't do that. She continually turned to God. And finally, at the end of her rope, her faith was proven right. She bore a son, Samuel, and she gave him up to the priesthood.

          Now Samuel is an important character in the Old Testament. We know him for hearing the voice of God as a boy, but he will be known for much more than this. At the time Samuel enters the temple, the priesthood is in a sorry state. Eli is a mediocre high priest, and his two sons are outright blasphemous. The state of Israel mimics this. Israel is fragmented, seeing themselves as several different tribes rather than one. They have turned to idols and false Gods. It is Samuel that would clean up the pedigree of the priests and provide a spiritual leader who point Israel back to Jehovah. In Old Testament culture, it seems that the women are the ones who name their children. It is not a coincidence that Hannah named her son Samuel or "name of God," for Samuel would be the one to point the Israelites to the right name of God, Jehovah. He anoints King Saul and then David as the first kings of Israel, which unifies the land and makes Israel one of the political powers in what would be called the Old World. God needed Samuel to be where he was. He needed Hannah to do what she did.
          Steph, so many times I'm stuck in a place of waiting, wondering why I am too weak to overcome this trial and escape it. But what if I'm like Hannah? God needed a man like Samuel in the priesthood, but Eli's descendants weren't cutting it. He needed someone else. Hence, Hannah's situation. Hannah wasn't just asked to be barren for a season. She was barren for years--for so long that she vows to give up her son if she is able to have him! It was the very trial of waiting that allowed Hannah to be what God needed her to be. She wouldn't make that vow after one year of patience and sorrow but after many, many years of pain. She was not given that trial because she was weak, but because she was strong! Not any woman would make the vow she did. God chose one of his powerhouse daughters to endure and fulfill His needs. In the midst of her longtime turmoil, she was exactly where she was supposed to be for she was becoming a woman that would end up giving her son to God.
          What if I'm "waiting" right where I should be? What if our trials of singlehood, unemployment, disease, prolonged doubt, and childlessness are given us so that we can be exactly where God needs us to be?

Love ya, Steph!

Amanda Kae

P.S. Hannah had more children after Samuel, so she was able to mother in the end.