Hannah was lost in the travails of life, until she discovered her true
mission.
As a single
African-American mother, Sonya Carson knew suffering and sorrow. Uneducated,
poor and living in a cracker-box house she couldn't afford, she had two active
boys to raise alone and no marketable skills to help her survive.
Her only resources were her
own two hands, a fierce determination to do whatever it took to make a better
life for her sons and her unbending faith in God.
Sonya took jobs as a
household domestic to pay the bills and implemented an ambitious agenda for her
sons. She turned off the television, enforced a rigorous reading program that
opened up new worlds for her boys, and never let them off the hook when it came
to doing their homework.
No one could have
guessed least of all Sonya that through all her sufferings, God was preparing
her to raise one of the world's finest neurosurgeons and a bright light for the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Her son Dr. Ben Carson, now
a nationally recognized figure and the director of pediatric neurosurgery at
Johns Hopkins Hospital, openly acknowledges his indebtedness to his mother. In
his book The Big Picture, he wrote: "I not only saw and felt
the difference my mother made in my life, I am still living out that difference
as a man."
Suffering in Silence
Suffering in Silence
Back when the nation of
Israel was heading for a seismic shift in government from the rule of the
judges to the rule of kings—God raised up another young woman for a mission
greater than she could have imagined.
Hannah's story, like
Sonya's, is marked by suffering and sorrow. Yet it is also a story of a
mother's unbending faith, sacrifice and ultimate triumph.
"[Elkanah] had two
wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but
Hannah had none" (1 Sam. 1:2, NIV).
Hannah was infertile—a
miserable circumstance made 100 times worse by the fact that Peninnah, the
"other woman" in the family, was making up for Hannah's shortcomings
in the sons-and-daughters department.
Women who suffer from
infertility know what an emotional roller coaster it is. Hannah experienced all
the normal sorrows of empty arms year after year. But her ordeal was also
intensified—deliberately because Peninnah openly mocked her; inadvertently
because her husband was insensitive to her anguish.
Hannah's torment finally
peaked on the family's annual pilgrimage to Shiloh, where they went to offer
sacrifices to celebrate God's goodness. Each year on the road to worship—a
public parade of Hannah's failure to conceive—Peninnah escalated her taunts.
The harassment went well
beyond mere insensitivity. Peninnah's jabs were aimed directly at Hannah's
faith in God.
Twice the Bible states the
fact that "the Lord had closed her womb" (1 Sam. 1:5-6, emphasis
added). This explains why Peninnah's ridicule was so potent. Hannah trusted
God, and the bitter payoff, it seemed, was barrenness.
We can understand how
Hannah felt. As God's children, we assume we have the "insider's
advantage" if we follow God's rules.We are taught that God cares
especially for us.
So why do things sometimes
only get worse? All our prayers and pleadings seem to fall on deaf ears, while
someone else—maybe someone who shows less interest in God—gets to send out the
birth announcements.
Hannah's biggest struggle
was with God—the God who had closed her womb, to whom she cried out countless
times, all seemingly in vain. She was as yet unaware of how much God was doing
in the silence.
God's Quiet Work
It's easy to forget that
God often does His best work when, so far as we can tell, He doesn't seem to be
doing anything at all. In Hannah's case, there was no physical evidence of
God's activity. Yet God was doing a mighty work in her heart. The first sign of
this came when, exhausted from Peninnah's ridicule and broken by her
childlessness, Hannah dropped to her knees and poured out her heart to God in
prayer.
Amazingly, her endless
suffering, which threatened to destroy her faith in God, actually served the
opposite purpose of driving her to Him in remarkably relentless faith (see 1
Sam. 1:10-14).
Hannah implored the Lord to
look upon her misery and remember her. Fervently she prayed for a son. Although
she felt that God may have abandoned her, her prayer indicates she had not
abandoned God.
"'O Lord Almighty, if
you will…not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to
the Lord for all the days of his life,'" she vowed (1 Sam. 1:11).
Finally God ended Hannah's
barrenness. After returning to Ramah, "Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife,
and the Lord remembered her" (1 Sam. 1:19).
At long last, the God who
had closed Hannah's womb blessed her with the conception of new life. Hannah
gave birth to the child for whom she had longed and prayed.
A Mother's Vow
Hannah didn't forget the
vow she made to God. While Samuel was still a toddler, she took him to Shiloh,
where she led him in sacrifice and worship. Her plan was to leave him there, so
he could grow up under the care and tutelage of Eli the priest.
Considering the
circumstances, her words are baffling. "'My heart rejoices in the Lord; in
the Lord my [strength] is lifted high,'" she prayed (1 Sam. 2:1). With her
little child nestled close against her side and their hearts about to be torn
in two, Hannah continued with lofty words that send the mind soaring with a
glorious vision of God!
Hannah had feelings just
like ours. Yes, she languished in her longing for a child. Yes, she felt every
sting of Peninnah's barbs. And she prayed relentlessly that God would give her
a son.
But somewhere along the
line Hannah realized that Peninnah was laughing at God. Suddenly, as much as
Hannah longed for a child, she wanted God to vindicate Himself as the God who
hears and answers the prayers of those who trust in Him.
In prayer, she raised her
sword in the battle for God's glory. She willingly offered up her most
priceless treasure to shut the mouth of the one who dared to mock her God.
Hannah would return home to
Ramah childless once again. She would always feel the enormity of her
sacrifice; any mother would. Her separation from Samuel would leave a permanent
hole in her heart.
Yet her prayer was joyful.
What could possibly explain such joy?
Standing on the Rock
The first time I heard Joni Eareckson Tada speak to an audience, her
message was unexpectedly powerful. Joni spoke about the faithfulness of God and
of the wisdom of trusting Him, no matter what.
But the impact of her message was more potent because her words—which
were both personal and profoundly theological—were framed in her long history
of paralysis. Pain, suffering and frailty remained in her body, yet she
radiated joy and strength.
When Hannah took a very young Samuel to Shiloh and knelt with him in
worship before leaving him behind to serve the Lord all the days of his life,
the frame around her words was her long history of infertility, suffering and
persecution for her faith in God. Her heart, though doubled up with pain at the
prospect of parting with Samuel, was nevertheless at peace and overflowed with
praise and thanksgiving.
Understand, Hannah lived in a world that was just as uncertain and
frightening as the one we know. Righteousness was in decline, and wickedness
was on the rise. The nation of Israel was entering a tumultuous phase as God's
people transitioned from the judges to the kings.
Moreover, Hannah was being severed from the child she had longed for and
loved with every fiber of her being. And, at the end of the day, she would have
to go home to Elkanah and Peninnah—the same two people who had broken her heart
100 times before by their words and actions.
Yet Hannah was secure and uncharacteristically confident. Why? She had
come to understand that God is on His throne; and the one who trusts in Him,
though she is hurting, is standing on a solid rock.
Hannah was under no illusion that because she was God's child, she would
be spared the painful side of life. Like the rest of us, she still had to
contend with the fact that suffering knocked her off her feet.
By her life and her words, Hannah shows us that the struggles that
humble us are important, regardless of the outcome. God uses the hard places of
life to make us strong.
"'Those who stumbled are armed with strength,'" Hannah prayed
in 1 Samuel 2:4. Hannah was strong because she had stumbled and fallen flat on
her face!
Like us, Hannah had moments when she wondered if her faith would last.
That's how she discovered that God will "'guard the feet of His
saints'" (1 Sam. 2:9).
Hannah realized she wasn't holding onto God so much as He was holding
onto her. He was gripping her by the ankles, keeping her from falling over the
edge of her spiritual cliff. She could stumble and still be victorious because
her strength was in the Lord.
A Mother's Theology
One of the wonderful things about prayer is that God isn't the only one
who listens. Prayer is also a way of talking to ourselves.
By giving thanks to God, Hannah reminded herself that God was in
control, that He was at work in her pain. She reminded herself that He was
holding her tightly, and He was not about to let her go.
Hannah's child was also listening to her prayer. The whole time she was
speaking, Samuel was listening to every word.
As a result, Hannah's theology lodged in Samuel's young heart, preparing
him for the road ahead. Later, as an adult, Samuel could easily have spoken the
words of Sonya Carson's illustrious son: "I not only saw and felt the
difference my mother made in my life, I am still living out that difference as
a man."
The impact of Hannah's theology didn't stop with Samuel. Hannah arrived
on the scene when Israel was spiritually and politically adrift. Her son grew
up serving the Lord during a perilous time—through the rise and fall of Eli,
King Saul, and King David.
Thankfully, the same theology that helped Hannah through her barrenness
guided and fortified Samuel to walk with God during this difficult period. In
this way Hannah became a major theological influence and a shaper of the
nation's character—all as a result of the theology she learned when the Lord
closed her womb. God's purposes were advanced through a mother who trusted God,
even as she struggled to understand Him!
Things haven't changed much since Hannah's day. Life remains
unpredictable. We still struggle to understand the God who holds our lives in
His hands and who, at times, withholds the blessings we crave.
Women—moms, grandmothers, mentors and friends—still pray and contend for
the souls of the next generation and still, no doubt, underestimate the
enormity of their influence on these young lives.
Hannah is proof that a mother is a force to be reckoned with when she
herself is a sword in God's hand. The spirit of Hannah lives on in us when we
courageously fight for the lives of those God entrusts to us—and when we point
a new generation of kingdom warriors to the God who is worthy of their trust.
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