Daily Devotional • June 16
A Reading from 1 Samuel 1:1-20
1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.2 He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters,5 but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
9 After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”
12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk.14 So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went her way and ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”
Meditation
Three characters afflict Hannah in today’s reading. By viewing Hannah as a symbol of the Church, we can see how these characters stand in for challenges that the body of Christ faces today.
First, there is Penninah, the other wife, whose womb is fruitful, bearing both sons and daughters. Penninah mocks and provokes Hannah, to both irritate her and establish superiority. So too the spiritual powers of this world, who compete for the affections of humanity, work to humiliate the Church in all her shortcomings, mocking her apparent barrenness in the face of their own provisional fecundity.
Then there is Elkanah himself, a kindly, if misguided, husband. In trying to comfort Hannah in her distress, he elevates himself: should not his love and affection be enough? Why can she not be satisfied with the life he has provided? Just so, the material powers of this world seek to soothe the Church into indifference, and to elevate themselves above the higher calling she has before her.
Finally, there is Eli, standing in for the confused and bewildered to whom the Church is sent. He supposes Hannah is drunk, as the Church is accused of being at Pentecost. But she successfully turns his scornful skepticism to prayerful support with her earnest and pious longing. Note that this is the point in the passage when Hannah eats and is no longer sad. The Church longs for the fulfillment of God’s promises, but her soul is vexed until all the nations join her.
In spite of provocations, seductions, or skepticism, we, like Hannah, must keep our minds fixed upon the birth for which we long. Then we as the Church may pray that, like Hannah, the Lord will remember us.
James Cornwell lives and teaches in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their six children.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Church of the Good Shepherd, Augusta, Georgia
The Diocese of the Murray – The Anglican Church of Australia
