For This Child I Prayed – 1 Samuel 1:1–2:11
I originally preached this sermon at Redemption Church on January 1, 2023. Included below is my manuscript for the sermon. You can access the full sermon archive or Redemption Church here or subscribe to the sermon audio podcast.
When you find yourself in times of trouble, who do you go to for help? If you are fixing a broken dishwasher, maybe you go to YouTube for a repair video. If you are stuck on a math problem, maybe you go to a calculator or consult a teacher. If you are troubled by your grades in school, perhaps you go to the library to study. If you are stuck on a work project, you go to your supervisor or a coworker for guidance.
But what do you do with the sorts of troubles where you have no easy solutions and no quick remedy? Where do you go for help when no one can fix the problem or resolve the dilemma? What do you do when you find that after all your efforts, you are hopeless and helpless?
As we start the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, which must be read as one book in two parts, we begin with the introduction of a nobody family with an ordinary woman plagued by infertility.
“There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.” (1 Samuel 1:1–2, ESV)
The book begins in the time of the judges. The Lord brought Israel to the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Even though the people dwelled in the land, God’s blessing was withheld. In the book of Judges, we see the cycle of Israel’s disobedience to God, the rise of a military threat, and God’s deliverance through a judge. Israel was in the land flowing with milk and honey, but Israel was spiritually barren—God’s blessing of fruitfulness was withheld because of their waywardness.
But yet, 1 Samuel begins with the introduction of an obscure family narrowing in on a barren woman. We are introduced to a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Elkanah. Ephraim was a small, rural town of little consequence. Elaknah’s father is Jeroham, his grandfather is Elihu, his great-grandfather is Tohu, and his great-great-grandfather is Zuph. And what’s the significance of this family line? Nothing—and that’s the point. Elkanah comes from a line of nobody significant.1 He’s an obscure Israelite who had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah. We are told one key difference between these women: Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not.
Hannah is a proxy for Israel in the narrative. Her name means “grace” or “blessing,” and her barren womb causes us to ask, “Where is God’s blessing for Israel? Where is his grace? Where is the spiritual fruit of his covenant people?” Hannah’s plight reflects Israel’s problem. And Hannah’s response will be the template of Israel’s remedy. As the narrative continues, Hannah’s infertility is a cause of great personal pain and anguish.
“Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the LORD. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”” (1 Samuel 1:3–8, ESV)
Each year, Elkanah took his family up to Shiloh, about 15 miles north of their town, for an annual festival of worship and sacrifice. Since Joshua 8, Shiloh was the location of the tabernacle and had virtually become a permeant structure by this point. During this time, Eli functioned as the judge of Israel, and his two sons were the priests, Hophnie and Pinehas. The two are wicked and shameful brothers that will reveal the extent of Israel’s leadership problems in the coming chapters.
At the annual celebration, Elkanah would take the whole family to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Elkanah would give portions to the whole family. Peninnah and her children received the largest quantity of the sacrifice, but he would give Hannah the double portion or the choicest portions of the meat.2 Hannah had a husband who loved her, even without the blessing of children.
Hannah had just about everything an Israelite woman could have asked for: financial security and a husband who genuinely loved her—yet, she lacked children. In that culture, the lack of children was a mark of shame and social alienation. And in this pain, her husband tried to support her, encourage her, and show her his affection.
Yet, Peninnah was a mouthy woman who took the annual trip to Shiloh as an opportunity to provoke Hannah’s pain.
We can imagine what such painful goading must have been like for Hannah.
“Ok, children, wow, there are so many of you to keep up with! Do you all have your food?”
Suppose one of Peninnah’s little girls asks, “Mommy, why doesn’t Miss Hannah have any children? Doesn’t she want children?”
“Oh, of course, she does! Don’t you Hannah? Who wouldn’t want children?”
“Doesn’t daddy want Miss Hannah to have children?”
“Well of course he does, but Miss Hannah just keeps disappointing him. She just can’t have kids.”
“Why not?”
“Well, because God doesn’t let Miss Hannah have kids.”
“Does God not like Miss Hannah?”
“Well, I don’t know, dear, what do you think? Oh, Hannah, by the way did I tell you that I’m pregnant again!”3
So it went on year by year. Peninnah kept aggravating Hannah with painful reminders of her infertility.
The barren Hannah finds herself in good company. Throughout the Scriptures, it is the pattern of God to do wonders for his people through barren women. The promised child of Abraham came through the geriatric womb of his wife Sarah (Gen 17:16). Isaac’s wife Rebekah struggled for decades with infertility before she had her twins—Esau and Jacob (Gen 25:21–26). Jacob’s wife Rachel couldn’t conceive for a long time, and eventually had Joseph—the one who would deliver Abraham’s family through the famine. Samson’s mother also couldn’t conceive until an angel announced that she would have a son (Jdg 13:2). John the Baptist, who would prepare the way for Jesus, came from the barren womb of Elizabeth (Luke 1:7, 57–60). So it is the pattern of God to bring the fruit of his promise through barren wombs.
On one particular occasion at the annual feast at Shiloh, Hannah came to a breaking point. After years of discouragement and her rival’s jeering, Hannah broke down crying and refused to eat. Elkanah, tenderly attempts to comfort her. He says, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” At first glance, Elkanah sounds like a befuddled husband attempting to comfort a grief-stricken wife—“Why do you need children when you have me?” But I think Elkanah is genuinely attempting to love and show affection to his wife in her anguish.
However, Hannah is feeling alone and helpless in her pain. She has a rival who jabs and mocks her. A husband who means well but is insufficient in his sympathy.
Who do you go to for help? What do you do with your anguish? Perhaps your struggle is the same as Hannah’s. You’ve done the natural family planning. You’ve sought fertility treatment. And yet month after month, your womb contracts with your anguished soul—barren, fruitless, childless. Each month, you share Hannah’s bitter tears as they trickle down your cheek. You’ve tasted them, not just for a few months but for years—longing for a child the Lord has yet to give. Who do you go to for help?
Medicine can diagnose infertility and perhaps help with infertility, but it cannot resolve infertility. With medical technology, it may be tempting to play God and take matters into your own hands. Let me encourage you not to play God and mess with IVF technologies that treat human beings like disposable petri-dish lab experiments. As a Christian, you will eventually get to the point where you’ve done all you can ethically do to conceive. So what then do you do? Who do you go to for help? You do what Hannah did; you go to the Lord.
“After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”” (1 Samuel 1:9–11, ESV)
The text says, “Hannah rose.” She will not wallow in her grief, but she stands to deal with it. In contrast to Hannah, we have Eli, who sat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. The two are foiled—Hannah is the active one, while Eli, the priest, is the passive one. Hannah rises to go and pray. And before the presence of the Lord, she wept and prayed, asking the Lord to “look on the affliction of your servant and remember.” Hannah’s prayer is one of faith and confidence in God. She uses language calling back to the events of Exodus as the Lord speaks to Moses from the burning bush “I have seen the affliction of my people” (Ex 3:7).
Here is an afflicted woman in need of deliverance, and as she prays with hot tears streaming down her face, she vows that if God should give her a son, he will be a lifelong Nazarite. The Nazarite vow required that a person abstain from the fruit of the vine, refrain from cutting one’s hair, and avoid corpses. Typically the vow was a temporary one, but only three men in the Bible were permeant Nazarites: Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist—each man born to a barren woman. Hannah’s outpouring of her soul in prayer gets the attention of the priest, Eli.
“As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the LORD.”” (1 Samuel 1:12–20, ESV)
Eli’s rebuke of Hannah foreshadows his lack of competency. Here is a priest who cannot recognize earnest prayer when he sees it! He confuses Hannah’s intense prayer for another drunken woman at the feast. At the feast for the Lord, Eli thought it more likely to find a drunken woman than a prayerful one—a dour indication of the spiritual state of the nation at the time. Strangely, Eli gets riled up over a supposedly intoxicated woman at the temple but will use a soft hand in dealing with his sons’ fornication at the temple. There at the temple, Hannah is pouring out her soul to the Lord, and the priest of God rebukes her! But once Hannah explains what she’s doing, Eli acknowledges his mistakes and grants a blessing to her. In the providence of God, Hannah would carry the baby, who would become Eli’s replacement. After that particular feast, Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, which means either “name of God” or possibly “offspring of God.”
Hannah went to the Lord in her trouble. Do you do the same? When you have nowhere else to turn, do you turn to the Lord in prayer? The Lord is sovereign over all our life circumstances. A Christian must recognize that God is sovereign, but this cannot lead us to a calloused fatalism. We must be content whatever our circumstances, but God’s children are invited to raise their voices in faith, asking God to act. When we call out to God in prayer, the Lord hears us, and he will often act in response to our prayers. It’s a mystery of God’s providence, but his sovereign will is achieved through his people praying. It was God who closed Hannah’s womb, and her affliction grew so intense that she poured out her soul with tears in prayer. Often the Lord brings such affliction to entice us to prayer, to humble our pride, and to help us feel our dependence on him.
Church, we cannot force God’s hand with our prayers. If you pray like Hannah, the Lord may deal with your problem as you request, or he may act in accordance with his knowledge in wisdom. He may open your womb or keep it closed. He may reconcile the family dilemma, or he may allow it to linger. He may save your lost friend or harden his heart. He might solve that financial problem or teach you contentment in your poverty. The Lord is not obliged to solve our problems as we see fit. But he is a good Father who gives good gifts to his children. And when we are troubled, anguished, and grief-stricken, we must go to God! God forbid that our belief in his sovereignty prevents us from raising our voices in earnest prayer!
Whatever your problem, go to the Lord. And keep going to him. Do not cease to pray to God. Ask him over and over again. Sometimes we can think nagging prayers like that are an indication of discontentment, but they are just the opposite—persistent prayer is the prayer of faith!
But Hannah’s life also shows us the way God’s kingdom works. How will he bring spiritual fruit to barren Israel? How does God do that in our lives? God’s starting point is our recognition of our total inability. Utter dependency on God, shown in hopelessness and helplessness through prayer, is the launch pad of his redemptive work. When we are without strength, without resources, without ideas, that is when the Lord stretches out his hand to act.4 If you feel hopeless and helpless, the stage is set for God to work powerfully in your life—if you would but go to him in faith and raise your voice in prayer to call out to him! Hannah’s action to go to prayer is not only the turning point in her life but the turning point in Israel’s history. Do not underestimate what God can do with the prayer of broken-hearted faith!
Hannah no doubt rejoiced at the birth of her son Samuel, but she was committed to keeping her vow.
“The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the LORD and dwell there forever.” Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the LORD establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. And the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the LORD. For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.” (1 Samuel 1:21–28, ESV)
At the time, a weaned baby would have been two or three years old. Once weaned, Hannah kept her vow to the Lord and brought Samuel before Eli. Her husband, Elkanah, goes along with his wife and trusts that the Lord will establish his word. The Lord establishing his word introduces a key theme throughout 1 and 2 Samuel and foreshadows the importance of Hannah’s baby for the nation of Israel. Elkanah and Hannah bring Samuel along with expensive offerings of three bulls, an ephah of flour, and as much as six gallons of wine. And with the offerings, Hannah presents Samuel to Eli. She reminded Eli that she was the woman praying to the Lord. Hannah now gives the baby over to the Lord.
And so should every Christian parent follow Hannah’s general principle of handing over our children to the Lord. Children are gifts from God that we should give back to him. The task of parenting is multifaceted—we want to ensure we keep the children alive, educated, and loved. However, the ultimate task of the Christian parent is to give them back to the Lord. Thus, we raise them in the Word. We share the gospel with them and train them. We bring them to church with us and discuss what they’ve learned afterward. We conduct family worship to help catechize and instruct them. And, of course, we pray with them for their salvation.
There is a bit of wordplay happening in Hannah’s comments here. “Petition” and “lent,” which occur twice, come from the verbal root sha’al which means “asked for.” Sha’al sounds similar to Samuel’s name. Samuel is the one Hannah asked for, and now he is the boy the Lord asks for his service. While Samuel is the one the Lord asked for, Israel will ask for someone later in the book. Who will Israel ask for? The next time we see this word show up in 1 Samuel, it’s the name of a man, sha’ul, or as we say in English, Saul.5 From the beginning, Samuel and Saul are linked by their names.6
Hannah’s story closes out with her prayer. It is a prayer that frames the book of Samuel and introduces the key themes of 1 and 2 Samuel that we will see dramatized in the events to come. You might be thinking, so what’s the big deal about these events? So God helped a barren woman conceive? But Hannah’s life and God’s dealing with her is a model of how God will deal with his people Israel. If Israel humbles themselves and turns to the Lord, the Lord will exalt them.
Hannah’s story is presented as a new sort of Exodus, though in a smaller and domestic setting. Hannah was afflicted just like Israel was afflicted in Egypt. And Hannah sings a song of praise paralleling the song of Moses after the Egyptian chariots were crushed in the Red Sea.
“And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. “There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” Then Elkanah went home to Ramah. And the boy was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli the priest.” (1 Samuel 2:1–11, ESV)
Here is a prayer from Hannah that’s more than a prayer, but lays out the template, the model if you will, of how God works in his kingdom. Hannah rejoices in the Lord’s relief of her affliction, she exults in the Lord because of his intervention, and in verse 2, celebrates the uniqueness of the Lord—“There is none holy like the Lord!” After two verses of introduction, the body of the prayer begins in verse 3 and begins to lay out how God works redemption. Before the presence of the Lord, pride and arrogance must cease compared to the “God of knowledge.” John Woodhouse said, “Human pride and arrogance are a form of pretending.”7 We may think we know what’s best, but the Lord’s perfect knowledge weighs his actions. But it was Hannah’s presupposition of God’s perfect knowledge that led her to pray in the first place, asking the Lord to give her a son.
But yet, it is the pattern of God’s kingdom is one of reversal. Hannah comments on this in verses 4–5. The strong become weak, and the weak become strong. The full become hungry, and the hungry become full. The barren one has children, and the one with many becomes forlorn. In verse six, Hannah has a theology of resurrection—the Lord kills and brings to life!
But Hannah’s point becomes clearer in verse 8. God subverts our expectations. He reverses things by taking the poor, the needy, the helpless, and the desperate, and he “raises” and he “lifts,” and he makes “them sit with princes” and “inherit a set of honor.” The “God of knowledge” has the freedom to act in this way because he is the God of power—“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.”
In verse 9, Hannah summarizes her meditation by presenting the distinction between the Lord’s faithful ones and the wicked. The faithful ones of the Lord will be guarded, but the wicked will be cut off. Those who humble themselves and go to the Lord and depend on him will be exalted and protected. But those who oppose the Lord will “be broken to pieces” and will experience the thunderous judgment of divine wrath. And then in verse 10, Hannah prays, “The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of the anointed.” Strangely, Hannah prays for a king when Israel does not currently have a king. She prays for the Lord’s “anointed” or the Christ.
And so Hannah introduces a question that will dominate not only 1 and 2 Samuel, but all the Scriptures. Who is Yahweh’s king? Who is the Christ, the anointed one? Thus, far, we can guess that Hannah’s son, Samuel, will play an important role in establishing the monarchy. We even get a clue in the first verse of the book, as we learn from Elkanah’s background that he was an Ephrathite. Ephrathah was another name for Bethlehem. And so we get breadcrumbs of clues leading to a little town called Bethlehem. It is there that Hannah’s son Samuel would anoint a meager shepherd boy named David to be God’s king. The Lord reverses David’s state and takes him out of the pasture, and makes him into the king. The Lord would guard and protect his faithful one and exalt the horn of his anointed.
But it would be the better David to come, Jesus the Christ, who brings the kingdom of God to fruition. And Jesus operates his kingdom exactly as Hannah describes it. It is Jesus who says, “The last will be first, and the first last” (Mt 20:16). And it is Jesus who comes to help the hopeless and the helpless. Jesus’ mother, Mary, prays a song of praise similar to Hannah and traces similar themes. Here is another wise woman who recognizes the way the Lord works! Mary sings in Luke 1, “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.”
You may not be a barren woman, but you, like Hannah, need God’s help. Like Israel, your spiritual life is a barren wasteland. You are a poor sinner, weak and wounded. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. As you are, you are hopeless and helpless. Where will you go for help? Will you deal with your sin by your own efforts? How can you remedy your state with your own ingenuity? The first step to experiencing God’s redemption is to recognize your inability. Desperation is the prelude to God’s redemptive grace in our life. Friend, let me invite you to go to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God’s king who blesses the poor in spirit with everlasting life. If you would call out to Jesus in faith, he will deliver you from the judgment of your sin. Indeed, not only can the Lord raise up the poor from the dust, but by the resurrection of Christ, he can raise up our souls from death.
John Woodhouse, 1 Samuel, 20. ↩︎
David Toshio Tsumura, NICOOT 1 Samuel, 114. The translation of 1 Samuel 1:5 is debated. The word ‘appāyim means “two noses.” Most scholars agree that whatever this phrase means, it is a gesture of Elkanah’s love and favor for Hannah. ↩︎
The hypothetical conversation is inspired and modeled from Dale Ralph David, 1 Samuel, 17. ↩︎
Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel, 16. ↩︎
Peter Leithart, A Son to Me, 43. ↩︎
John Woodhouse, 1 Samuel, 35. ↩︎
John Woodhouse, 1 Samuel, 44. ↩︎