Hannah is an interesting figure in the Bible. All told, she shows up for a little less than the first two chapters of 1 Samuel. If this book were a movie, her screen time would be over while the opening credits were still rolling.
But despite her limited time, she is an absolute powerhouse of faith and steadfastness. On a flyby read we can fall into the trap of boiling her down to “she was sad she didn’t have a baby but then God gave her one and she was fine.” That’s hardly the whole story.
For context, Hannah was the wife of Elkanah who had taken a second wife, Peninnah. Peninnah had children but Hannah didn’t and Peninnah was an absolute monster about it. If it wasn’t hard enough for Hannah to be without children, Peninnah would mock Hannah for her circumstances. She’d flaunt her favored status in Hannah’s face and torment her for having no children until Hannah was so upset she couldn’t even bring herself to eat. To make matters worse, Elkanah didn’t see any reason for Hannah to be so upset and did nothing to stop it.
We can brush this off as a different time with different standards, but is it actually all that different? True, we mercifully don’t live in polygamous settings anymore and we don’t have status in yearly sacrifices based on the number of children we have, but the heart of the issue is still present today. Ask any single woman or married woman who longs to have a baby how much she feels like she belongs with other women her age and the answer might surprise you.
Which brings us to Hannah’s prayer life. We pay a lot of attention to Hannah’s prayer of praise when she finally has a son, mainly because we’re given more of it, but her prayer of longing when she’s still childless is the one that hits me so much harder.
“Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: ‘O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord his hair will never be cut.’” (1 Samuel 1:10-11)
If there was any remaining doubt to the intensity of Hannah’s feelings it vanishes with that name choice there: Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Hannah is at war. She is at war with her circumstances. She’s at war with a woman who delights in making her feel like a nobody. She’s at war with her husband’s complete lack of understanding. She’s at war with her own desires.
Hannah is at war with herself and everything in her life, so she does the incredibly smart thing and calls on God in that capacity and with absolutely no restraint. In fact, the next verses actually tell us that Hannah was praying so intensely that Eli the priest thought she was drunk. She was not praying politely and with poised perfection. She was pouring her broken, little heart out.
This is everything. We need more of Hannah’s approach in our lives. We need to come to God in our despair and longing. We need to bring our battles to him and ask him to fight for us when we have no fight left in ourselves. Why? Because when our knee jerk reaction is to call on God, we find ourselves drenched in reminders of who he is, what he’s done, and what he’s capable of. We might not get a “tada!” moment right then where all our problems are solved. But we get refined, and deepened, until we find ourselves able to meet the battle for just a little bit longer.
Hannah had no way of knowing what the outcome of her future would be based on that single prayer. She wasn’t winking at God knowing if she put on a big enough show she would get what she wanted. She was in anguish and exhausted from her fight and she called on Him to fight for her and see her through.
Your outcome might be different than Hannah’s. Maybe you will get the thing you’re longing for, maybe you won’t. God is at work in things far beyond our sight and I don’t have answers for why we sometimes don’t get the things we hope and pray for. But this I do know: The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is always ready to fight for those who call on him. He is not flippant about the despair and exhaustion of your war. He is ready to fight for you. His sword is already drawn. His shield is already coming down in front of you.
The only job we have is calling on the Lord of Heaven’s armies. That’s our part. That’s all we need to do. He will certainly take care of the rest. Christian, you have a God who wants the intensity of what’s weighing you down. And better yet, He’s able to take it. Whatever the outcome, you are not going in unarmed.
Let’s find some joy,
A
Avalon Robinson Author 