Booyah, our first WOG!!
Ok, so we start off with a polygamist... poor Hannah
She can't have babies... poor Hannah
(Did the Lord "shut up her womb?")
The other woman made fun of her... poor Hannah
So she cried and cried and wouldn't eat. This seems like a poor start to a woman of God, but wait. When Jonah was faced with a tough situation he ran away. When Jacob was faced with a tough situation he ran away. She actually did the right thing and went and poured out her heart to God and laid on Him her entire situation. She didn't point her finger at God and say that he did this to her, but rather she made a deal that if she did have a child then she would give it back, or return it to God.
2 questions:
1. Is making a deal with God okay?
2. Do you think that God might close up her womb to cause her to make the deal?
What is crazy to me is that she equates being drunk with being a daughter of Belial - or daughter of the one who opposes God (Satan in some translations of the word). That is a pretty clear argument against drinking right?
What does it mean that Elkanah knew Hannah his wife? (lol, jk don't answer)
In verses 21-23 does it seem like her hubby is saying that God is behind all this, and giving him credit and telling her not to fall short on her side of the deal?
Vs. 25 in my mind is where Hannah becomes one of the most faithful. All she has ever wanted was a child, she has put up with crap all throughout her marriage, she makes a deal with God and then she gives her child to God...She comes through. WOG baby!
I think it's interesting that the barren first wife is the favored one...but not favored enough to prevent getting another wife to have kids. Reminds me slightly of Rachel and Leah. And THEN the husband has the nerve to ask why she's crying, and that he should be worth more than 10 sons to her! Yeah, after he went off and married another wife so he could have his 10 sons! jerk. Anyway, that's a rant. Also, I like to think of her refusing to eat as perhaps a fast...that went very well with her prayer. I love her desperate faith. Maybe making deals with God isn't always the best, but I think God loves holy boldness, along with humility. She submitted her request, knowing God was the One making decisions--she wasn't going to manipulate it out of Him, but she wanted Him to know she was serious about this request, and she would use a positive answer for His glory--not her own.
ReplyDeleteAn amazing lesson I get out of this WOG is her willing sacrifice--before he was ever born--of the gift God gave her. Kind of like Abraham, only she didn't get a substitute--she gave a living sacrifice to the Temple. I do kind of think that God was able to use her desperateness for a child to bring out that request from her...and from that we get Samuel. Could we expect anything less from someone who had been so set apart for God before he was born? What if we all did that with our kids? What if I started praying now that if I ever have kids, that I will give them back to Him? Or with anything God gives me--give it back to Him, knowing that however He uses it for His glory will be better than anything I could do with it on my own.