NS Ministries

In the beginning before Hannah’s story took shape and before it burst into history there was GOD!

While it is an impossible task to fully understand how God fits my life there are a few things I have come to understand that both convince me that he has unconditional love and compassion for me and that out of his love and compassion he blesses me. Hannah’s story reminds me that while God ultimately blesses us he, for reasons usually hide from us, gives us his blessings according to his own eternal schedule.

I am placing the order of the characters in the order of their appearance in the bible and not their importance to the story. While the story is Hannah’s each character has not only a special place in her life but mine as well.

First up is Elkanah son of Jeroham, who is not only Hannah’s husband but Peninnah’s husband as well.

What strikes me most about Elkanah is not only his love, compassion, and dedication to Hannah but his overwhelming feeling of helplessness for her as well. What is also unique about Hannah’s story is the lack of information on Elkanah’s relationship to Peninnah. While the story says that Elkanah takes care of Peninnah and her children I get the impression that he does so out of duty as her husband not out of a deep sense of love.

As I think about Elkanah as his life relates to my life like him I am attracted to those whose who have for whatever reason have gone without God’s blessings. I suspect the main reason for thinking that way stems from my own attraction to Jesus. I remember when it seemed as if I was “riding high” on life I had no need for the church yet when I went from “riding high” to hitting the cold hard ground of life I discovered I indeed did need the church. And like Elkanah was there and blessed Hannah as best he could the church was there for me.

However, as much as Elkanah blessed Hannah his blessings did not meet her need. And in despair and disappointment he said to her (verse 8), “Hannah, why are you crying and why won’t you eat? Why are you sad? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” In that vein the church blessed me as best it could but it could not supply me with what I really needed. What did I really need the church couldn’t give me? The church could not give me a personal relationship with God only one person can bless us with what we really need and that person is Jesus Christ.

Elkanah showered Hannah with extra attention he gave her an extra portion of the things he thought she needed but he could not give her the one thing she really needed. I have discovered over the years the church like Elkanah is under the impression that all anyone needs is the church that in the church is all that we humans need.  Jesus does not say, “Go unto your church.” He says, “Come unto me.”

Please do not get the impression that the church has no place in our lives or that what the church provides for us we can do without because that is not what I mean. My church to me is THE most important ORGANIZATION in my life but its ministries and blessings cannot compare with the ministries and blessings of Jesus. Everything the church can and does for me will die with me but what Jesus can and does for me provides me with an eternal relationship with God that begins NOW not with my death.

Elkanah – thank you for having a huge impact on my life!

Second up are Hophni and Phinehas, and their father Eli.

Since Hophni and Phinehas are not really a part of Hannah’s story I’ll concentrate on Eli, their father. Eli plays a dual role in Hannah’s story first he stands as an accuser then he moves from an accuser to a prophetic messenger.

As the story unfolds Eli observes Hannah praying silently while at the same time moving her lips. Sometimes when I am outside working in our yard I’ll be either praying to myself or singing to myself and because my lips are moving my wife, Patti will make the comment to me that people passing by will think I am either crazy and talking to myself. That is exactly what Eli thought and with out investigating accused Hannah of being drunk.

One of the things I like about Elkanah is he was able to admit his mistake. Some people when discovering they made a wrong call on a person will not admit they made a mistake but not Elkanah. And his ability to admit he’d made a bad judgment call put him into a position so God could use him to convey a message of promise to Hannah.

Of all the characters Eli and Hannah are the ones I relate to most. As the book of 1^st Samuel moves from Hannah receiving God’s blessing in the form of Samuel the same cannot be said for Eli. Re-enter Hophni and Phinehas who were about as dishonest as they could get when it came to their priestly duties and because Eli had knowledge of their indiscretions would like them come under God’s judgments of a death sentence.

Eli - thank you for having a huge impact on my life! If you don’t mind me saying this I sincerely hope and pray my life does not end up like yours!  

Next up is Peninnah, one of Elkanah’s two wives.

Peninnah had it all. She had Elkanah who not only provided her with children but also provided for hers and their needs. However, Peninnah in addition to all she had she also had a jealous heart because Hannah had something she didn’t, Elkanah showered Hannah with more affection and attention than he did Peninnah. And out of her jealously (verses 6 & 7), “Peninnah would tease Hannah and upset her, because the Lord had made her unable to have children. This happened every year when they went up to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. Peninnah would upset Hannah until Hannah would cry and not eat anything.”

I am sure there have been plenty of Peninnah’s in your life and I am sure you’ll agree with me that life is complicated enough without them so why are they in our lives? Why was Peninnah in Hannah’s life? The answer is simple enough – because! While you may think that is no answer it’s the best I can come up with. Speaking as one who has on occasion acted like Peninnah I can tell you what made Peninnah jealous – she loved Peninnah more than anyone else.

One of the hardest things we humans do is to look at our lives with convicting honesty in a mirror and observe those characteristics about us that are un-Jesus-like. I know that to be true because I write from experience. Yet as dark as that cloud may be it does have a silver lining! The silver lining comes with a name – Jesus!

“When I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind, I am happy with God’s law. But I see another law working in my body, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner. What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:21-25 NCV)

Peninnah - thank you for having a huge impact on my life! I hope you were able to find peace in your life like I have found peace and release from my jealous characteristics in Jesus my Christ.

Next up is Hannah one of Elkanah’s two wives.

After reading Hannah’s story I have discovered there’s a New Testament story hers reminds of. It can be found in the 9^th chapter of John perhaps you know the story. It’s the one where, “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. His followers asked him, ‘Teacher, whose sin caused this man to be born blind—his own sin or his parents’ sin?’” (verses 1 & 2)

Hannah’s story is one of the stories where God says, “Watch what I can do!” I know you know what I am talking about because your life like mine is filled with, “Watch what I can do God moments.”

Hannah’s life was transformed when she realized that God had not only heard her prayers but felt her pain as well and that moment followed a prophetic promise which came from Eli. Here’s how the scene plays itself out in the bible.

“While Hannah kept praying, Eli watched her mouth. She was praying in her heart so her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, ‘Stop getting drunk! Throw away your wine!’ Hannah answered, ‘No, sir, I have not drunk any wine or beer. I am a deeply troubled woman, and I was telling the Lord about all my problems. Don’t think I am an evil woman. I have been praying because I have many troubles and am very sad.’  Eli answered, ‘Go! I wish you well. May the God of Israel give you what you asked of him.’ Hannah said, ‘May I always please you.’ When she left and ate something, she was not sad anymore.” (1^st Samuel 1:12-18 NCV)

Even though a she wasn’t instantly pregnant she believed and suddenly her life was no longer spiritually barren. She knew in her heart that God loved her enough to comfort her by acknowledging he too was experiencing her “troubles and problems.” It is important to realize she did not specify what her troubles and problems were. Please allow me to speculate for a moment on what they may have been. Could she have felt…

…guilty because she had not given Elkanah any children?

…hatred toward Peninnah?

…anger toward God because she was childless?

…hopeless because the years were ticking away?

…out of place and useless because she was childless?

Could it be that one or all of those guilt, hatred, anger, hopelessness, uselessness, or one unmentioned remind you of your connection with Hannah? I ask you because I have experienced all of them at one time or another.

In response to God’s message to her Hannah did three things that we need to follow in our lives she dedicated her life to God, she then filled her hunger, then she embraced and experienced peace even before God fulfilled his promise.

Hannah did one more important thing. When her son Samuel was born and old enough she gave her son to God! Samuel didn’t just go to the church and return home at night. Hannah gave her firstborn, her God promised son back to him and Samuel never lived in the home of Elkanah again.

What God had given Hannah gave back not only to God but to all of history as well. As I sit here and write Hannah’s story deep in my heart I hope I too can give back to God and to history what he has given me. What would the world be like if we could all do the same as Hannah?

By the way after giving Samuel to the Lord Hannah went on to have three more sons and two daughters! God sure takes care of those who love and honor him!

Hannah – your story is God sent and someday I hope to stand with you and thank you personally you have truly been an inspiration to me.

There is one more important character in Hannah’s story I wish to write about and that person is Samuel her firstborn son. But I want to write about him later in a segment dedicated only to him.

The second chapter of 1^st Samuel begins with a prayer from Hannah giving thanks for such a wonderful gift of love God had given her it is that prayer I wish to write about next. One thing I have discovered about prayers of the years not only from my own prayer life but the prayer life of others is how much prayers reveal about God and our relationship to him.

Up next is Hannah’s Prayer.