A pastor I know often says that if you’re going to preach on this story of Hannah’s prayer for a child, or any of the other biblical stories where God grants a child to a previously infertile couple, you had better be prepared for the Monday morning emails from people who have been struggling with infertility and want to know why God doesn’t answer their prayers for a child.
With this in mind, it’s important to keep some things before us about the ancient Israelite context in which the story was written:
Motherhood was assumed to be a crucial part of a woman’s identity, and to have no children had profoundly negative effects on a woman’s social status and well-being.
It was assumed that the woman was the source of the infertility.
It was assumed that God grants and withholds fertility.
No matter which aspect of the story grabs the preacher’s imagination, being sensitive to the ways in which many people will hear the story and may map it rather literally onto their own lives is crucial. A pastoral approach to preaching this story is essential.
The story
The lectionary focuses on Hannah’s distress at not having a child and her coming to the sanctuary in Shiloh to make a vow to the Lord that if she is granted a child, she will dedicate the child to God as a Nazirite.
Nazirites were persons who entered a consecrated state either by their own vow or by the vow of a parent, as in the case of Samuel. There were three parts to identity as a Nazirite: 1) abstaining from wine and other intoxicants, 2) not shaving one’s hair for the term as a Nazirite, and 3) not having contact with a dead body, even of one’s closest family members. Hannah’s willingness to dedicate a child—should God answer her prayer for one—is a sign of how strong her desire for a child is, as fulfilling the vow will mean that she will not have a long-term role in raising the child.
I note that the lectionary skips over Eli’s dismissive response to Hannah, but it’s worth pausing on it for a moment because while the assumptions about women, God, and infertility in the bulleted list above are no longer operative for many of us, Eli’s negative assessment of what Hannah is doing in the sanctuary will be familiar to women in every era who are belittled and misunderstood by a male authority figure, and especially a male religious authority figure.
In something of a vindication given their prior interaction, it is worth noting that Hannah makes a point of identifying herself to Eli when she returns to the sanctuary to dedicate the now weaned Samuel (perhaps making him between three and five years old).
Hannah’s prayer
It is startling to turn the page of one’s Hebrew Bible from the close of Judges—which ends in kidnapping, rape, and murder of Israelite women—to the beginning of 1 Samuel, with its powerful evocation of a woman’s agency: Hannah’s prayer, which brings Samuel onto the scene, and changes the course of Israelite history!
Hannah’s action, in defiance of religious authority, to make her prayer in the sanctuary and subsequently to dedicate Samuel to Nazirite service, sets a powerful tone for the books of Samuel insofar as Samuel grows into a key figure. It is he who transitions Israel from the violent chaos of the period of the Judges to the relative stability (still with flaws) of the monarchy. As Ellen Davis observes, Hannah and Samuel present a stark contrast as a parent/child pair to the subsequent story of Eli and his faithless sons narrated in chapter 2.1
Hannah’s prayer has often been considered a theological key for interpreting the books of Samuel insofar as it introduces the themes of God bringing down the mighty (Saul) and raising up the lowly (David), though the ways in which these events unfold are presented as complex, fraught, and full of human decisions, deeply flawed as they often are; bringing down the mighty and raising up those who are downtrodden are not presented as simple divine action.
The theme, later echoed in the song of Mary (Luke 1:46–55), that God will bring down the powerful and raise up the powerless is not limited to the books of Samuel but can be traced throughout the whole Bible. As in Samuel, throughout the Bible God works to do this not by fiat but through the messy, flawed, halting lives of human beings.
Notes
Ellen F. Davis, Opening Israel’s Scriptures (Oxford University Press, 2019), 176.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God who answers prayer, We are blessed and humbled that you hear us when we call to you in our time of deepest longing. Receive our gratitude for your listening ear. Amen.
Pastoral issues:
A pastor I know often says that if you’re going to preach on this story of Hannah’s prayer for a child, or any of the other biblical stories where God grants a child to a previously infertile couple, you had better be prepared for the Monday morning emails from people who have been struggling with infertility and want to know why God doesn’t answer their prayers for a child.
With this in mind, it’s important to keep some things before us about the ancient Israelite context in which the story was written:
No matter which aspect of the story grabs the preacher’s imagination, being sensitive to the ways in which many people will hear the story and may map it rather literally onto their own lives is crucial. A pastoral approach to preaching this story is essential.
The story
The lectionary focuses on Hannah’s distress at not having a child and her coming to the sanctuary in Shiloh to make a vow to the Lord that if she is granted a child, she will dedicate the child to God as a Nazirite.
Nazirites were persons who entered a consecrated state either by their own vow or by the vow of a parent, as in the case of Samuel. There were three parts to identity as a Nazirite: 1) abstaining from wine and other intoxicants, 2) not shaving one’s hair for the term as a Nazirite, and 3) not having contact with a dead body, even of one’s closest family members. Hannah’s willingness to dedicate a child—should God answer her prayer for one—is a sign of how strong her desire for a child is, as fulfilling the vow will mean that she will not have a long-term role in raising the child.
I note that the lectionary skips over Eli’s dismissive response to Hannah, but it’s worth pausing on it for a moment because while the assumptions about women, God, and infertility in the bulleted list above are no longer operative for many of us, Eli’s negative assessment of what Hannah is doing in the sanctuary will be familiar to women in every era who are belittled and misunderstood by a male authority figure, and especially a male religious authority figure.
In something of a vindication given their prior interaction, it is worth noting that Hannah makes a point of identifying herself to Eli when she returns to the sanctuary to dedicate the now weaned Samuel (perhaps making him between three and five years old).
Hannah’s prayer
It is startling to turn the page of one’s Hebrew Bible from the close of Judges—which ends in kidnapping, rape, and murder of Israelite women—to the beginning of 1 Samuel, with its powerful evocation of a woman’s agency: Hannah’s prayer, which brings Samuel onto the scene, and changes the course of Israelite history!
Hannah’s action, in defiance of religious authority, to make her prayer in the sanctuary and subsequently to dedicate Samuel to Nazirite service, sets a powerful tone for the books of Samuel insofar as Samuel grows into a key figure. It is he who transitions Israel from the violent chaos of the period of the Judges to the relative stability (still with flaws) of the monarchy. As Ellen Davis observes, Hannah and Samuel present a stark contrast as a parent/child pair to the subsequent story of Eli and his faithless sons narrated in chapter 2.1
Hannah’s prayer has often been considered a theological key for interpreting the books of Samuel insofar as it introduces the themes of God bringing down the mighty (Saul) and raising up the lowly (David), though the ways in which these events unfold are presented as complex, fraught, and full of human decisions, deeply flawed as they often are; bringing down the mighty and raising up those who are downtrodden are not presented as simple divine action.
The theme, later echoed in the song of Mary (Luke 1:46–55), that God will bring down the powerful and raise up the powerless is not limited to the books of Samuel but can be traced throughout the whole Bible. As in Samuel, throughout the Bible God works to do this not by fiat but through the messy, flawed, halting lives of human beings.
Notes
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God who answers prayer,
We are blessed and humbled that you hear us when we call to you in our time of deepest longing. Receive our gratitude for your listening ear. Amen.
HYMNS
For all the faithful women ELW 419
King of glory, King of Peace H82 382
O God, whose steadfast love NCH 426
CHORAL
King of glory, king of peace, Bob Chilcott (Oxford University Press)