Hannah 1

“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 1:11, ESV

The story of Hannah begins in suffering and affliction and barrenness. The long years of waiting. Shame. Ridicule. Mocking. Unfruitful.

The story of Hannah is the story of Israel. The dark days of the judges still was; days when all did what was in their own unchecked, depraved heart. We learn later that there was severe corruption that had sunk into the tabernacle itself at Shiloh: the priests were laying with women who served at the tent of meeting (1 Sam. 2:22), they choose the choicest meats for themselves and had no regard for the Lord. This was his house! The word of the Lord was rare--for the people did not want to hear. It was a time of shame. Ridicule among the nations, caught as slaves to others and to their own passions. Unfruitful. The firstborn of God had strayed.

Here, Hannah steps in. A faithful Israelite who was willing to forego the pleasures, the Baals, the lures of her culture. Infertile, she did not appeal to Baal the god of fertility. She went to the Lord of Hosts. She appealed to the warrior God, the king of angel armies, because her prayer was about more than her own need (Wallace, 2002). Her heart ached for her own barrenness, as well as Israel’s (as will be made clear in her song, whose tune we cannot anachronistically time-jump into, but will make clear in chapter 2). So she prayed to the Warrior God, to restore Israel and fight against internal, external, and heart enemies.

And this is the thought that jumps out at me--she looked to her own lack for an answer to her prayer. Her shame was an opportunity for the Lord. Her ridicule could be a place of blessing for the nation. Her complete inability was presented for the Lord’s ability. Her son could be a faithful servant, a Nazarene set apart, for the Lord.

There are places that are barren in our own lives. That person or place or area that needs a revival, to be drawn into the light of the Lord, which needs a fresh word of the Lord. We often look to our strengths, or to other’s strengths to fill. We take our shame and we hide that part. Do we dare be bold enough, believing enough, attuned to the creative Spirit enough to present our areas of lack to the Lord to use?

O Father, let us present our inabilities to you. To see you alone as worthy of glory, and give you our shame, our lack, so that you can do what you alone can do. Let us cry out for the barren parts around us, and present all of us to you: Here I am, here is a need. Use me, use us. You are truly the God who turns things upside down; so use the upside down of our stories for your glory, your name, and for the repairing of all that is broken. Give us the eyes to see you as so creative, that we trust you can take our very lacks and bring life.