Hannah, a wife
But Hannah had no children (1 Samuel 1:2).
Hannah is one of the great women of faith in the Bible. She was the mother of Samuel, one of God’s greatest prophets. His ministry began at the darkest hour of Israel’s history and led to the dawn of its greatest era under King David and his son Solomon. To understand his spiritual roots we have to look at the life of his remarkable mother. She teaches us lessons from events which took place thousands of years ago and yet are powerfully relevant today. We find her story in 1 Samuel 1. It is the story of one woman’s spiritual experience with God. It is a story which affected her life, her marriage, her family and her nation. It is the story of a wife.
Hannah had a lot going for her. She lived in a godly home and she had a good husband, called Elkanah, who loved her. Hannah’s story reminds us of some of the important ingredients of successful marriage and family life. First of all, the worship of God was central to the home (v. 3). Elkanah took responsibility for the spiritual and material welfare of his wives and children (vv. 3-5). This balance is critical to Christian marriage.
The Bible clearly teaches us about family life and its responsibilities in passages such as Ephesians 5:22-6:4. And in 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul explains the importance of providing for our families. The roles of the husband and wife are balanced but, as we shall see, the wife has pivotal responsibilities in relation to the spiritual welfare of her husband and her children. The Christian home is a testimony to God’s pattern of life in a world where marriage and the family are under constant threat.
The strength of love which Elkanah had for Hannah is underlined in verse 5. It was an unconditional love. Hannah had no children – in a culture where motherhood was central and children regarded as a sign of blessing. Elkanah’s love for his wife did not diminish in spite of this disappointment. Today, there is always the danger of marriage breakdown because husbands and wives do not meet up to each other’s expectations. The pattern for the Christian is to conquer the difficulties, which marriages often face, with the kind of love which characterised the marriage of Elkanah and Hannah. Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis, and Joseph and Mary in the Gospels, are other outstanding examples of how love and faithfulness conquered the most testing circumstances.
However, the pain of Hannah’s childlessness was real. But more than this, we are told twice in verses 5 and 6 that it was the Lord who had prevented her from having children. This is fundamental to the story of Hannah. Why did God deliberately prevent this godly woman from having the children she so much desired?
God sometimes allows us to enter into difficult and painful circumstances so that we can prove our faith in Him, and also for blessing that extends beyond the circumstances in which it is experienced. Faith is tested to prove its reality. A German friend of mine, who was an engineer, once explained to me that bridges are tested well beyond the loads they are expected to bear before being put into service. The testing is not to prove the weakness of the structure but to prove its strength. God allows us to face problems in our lives, not to destroy our faith but to strengthen it and to demonstrate its genuineness. Hannah teaches us about real faith in real circumstances. In doing so, her life is an inspiration to us to have an unfailing trust in God in the conditions He has placed us.
