I Samuel 1:9-16
(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
We will get to our featured Scripture in a moment. First we need some back-story to understand what happened:
- Hannah was one of two wives of the Ephraimite Elkanah. The other wife was Peninnah.
✡ I Samuel 1:2 – “Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no
children.” To be childless in Bible times, the woman was
considered under God’s curse!
✡ I Samuel 1:6 and 7:
Peninnah “...also provoked her severely, to make her
miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb. So
it was, year by year, when [Hannah]...went up to the
house of the LORD [with her husband and the other wife,
to worship and offer sacrifices], that [Peninnah]...
provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.”
- One particular year, after the sacrifices were offered in Shiloh, and the family feast was eaten, Hannah went to the holy tabernacle in the same town.
And now our featured Scripture of I Samuel 1:9 through 18 (yes, it is rather long, but necessary):
Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of
the tabernacle of the LORD. And [Hannah]...was in bitterness
of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. Then she
made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look
on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not
forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male
child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his
life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” And it happened,
as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli watched her
mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but
her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.
So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine
away from you!” And Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I
am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor
intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the
LORD. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for
out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken
until now.”
Eli thought Hannah was drunk! But she was silently pouring out her heart to God! However when she explained to the priest why she was so heartbroken as she silently but intensely prayed…
- I Samuel 1:17 – “…Eli answered and said, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.’ ”
- I Samuel 1:18 – “And she said, ‘Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.’ So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.”
God eventually answered her prayer! “…it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son,, and called his name Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked for him from the LORD.’ ” (I Samuel 1:20).
- Samuel became a great man of God! He was the last of the judges of Israel, and the first (after Moses) of the long line of Old Testament prophets!
✡ He was a Nazarite for his entire life! A Nazarite, accord-
ing to Numbers chapter 6, was a man totally dedicated to
God. Signs of his dedication, according to Numbers 6:3
through 9, were...
➔ ...he was not to drink any alcoholic beverages.
➔ ...he could not eat any product that came from
grapevines.
➔ ...he could not cut his hair.
➔ ...he was not to go near a dead body.
✡ He anointed and guided the first two kings of Israel!
➔ Saul (see I Samuel chapters 9-28).
➔ David (see I Samuel chapters 16-19).
✡ According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Samuel’s
judgeship lasted 30 years!
How does this tie into Pray The ‘Hannah’ Way! I have been very impressed with what is written in two verses quoted above, I Samuel 1:17 and 18:
...Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel
grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” And she said,
“Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman
went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
- Before Hannah had actual proof that God had answered her prayer, up to a couple of months passed. How is it that Hannah, who, “…in bitterness of soul…prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish…out of the abundance of [her]…complaint and grief…”; in a matter of moments, was so changed that “…the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad…”?
It was faith! Faith in God’s assurance through Eli the priest that “…the God of Israel [was going to] grant your petition which you have asked of Him…”!
Do you believe that God really hears your prayers and is going to answer them?
- Hannah did! And it immediately changed her outlook!
- The Apostle John did! For he wrote in I John 5:14 and 15:
And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we
know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we asked of Him.
- Jesus taught us to believe that!
✞ Luke 11:9 and 10:
...I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.
✞ John 14:13 and 14 – “...whatever you ask in My name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
✞ John 15:7 – “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done
for you.”
✞ John 16:23 and 24 – “Most assuredly I say to you, what-
ever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and
you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
- The Capernaum nobleman did! It is recorded in John 4:47 and 50:
When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee,
he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his
son, for he was at the point of death....Jesus said to him,
“Go your way; your son lives.” ...So the man believed the
word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
…and the boy was healed! So…
Pray The ‘Hannah’ Way!
It will revolutionize your prayer life!