Bible Study: Hannah & Eli
by Brett Burrowes

At the beginning of the first book of Samuel, God presents us with two very different people, Hannah and Eli. Hannah was one of two wives of Elkanah of the tribe of Ephraim, but unlike Penninah, the other wife, she had been unable to bear children for her husband. Elkanah loved her very much, indeed more than the rival wife, giving to Hannah a double portion of the sacrifice when they went up to the tabernacle on the festival days (1:4-5). Because of her inability to bear children, and probably also because she was jealous of Elkanah’s love for Hannah, Penninah taunted her mercilessly year after year, every time they went up to Shiloh to worship (1:6).

We may not have experienced personally how painful it is to be unable to have children, but we may know some-one close to us who has felt the pain of an unfilled longing for a child. For Hannah, however, the pain was multi-plied by the taunts of the other wife. In the culture of ancient Israel, a woman who could not bear children was viewed as cursed by God, as someone who had sinned horribly to deserve such a terrible fate. To be ridiculed and taunted as if her inability to have children was her own fault must have felt beyond her ability to endure. Because of Penninah’s taunting, she cried and would not eat: she felt depressed and deeply distressed, weeping bitterly (1:7,10). Even the comforting words of her husband did not console her: Am I not more to you than ten sons?" (1:8). But as much as we may be grateful for and appreciate the blessings God has given us in other areas of our lives, such blessings can not satisfy the aching of an unfilled desire.

But despite such feelings of depression and anguish, Hannah does not indulge in self-pity, but continues to present herself before the Lord, year after year (1:7 9). In fact, this is another reason that Penninah used to taunt her: Hannah’s prayers went unanswered year after year, so it must have seemed obvious that Hannah was guilty of some grievous sin and therefore cursed by God. But it was the Lord who had closed her womb (1:5). Hannah was enduring the discipline of the Lord, who chastens everyone he accepts as his child, that we might share in His holiness Web. 12:5-10). There was no sin on Hannah’s part that caused the Lord to close her womb, any more than it was the fault of the blind man that he had been born blind (John 9:1). The man had been born blind so that the work of God would be displayed in his life when he was healed (John 9:3). But Hannah’s womb was closed so that a greater spiritual work would be accomplished in her and in the son that God would give her.

The desire for a child was a natural one, but God had greater things in mind. God’s discipline in denying her desire for a child pressed her to the point of desperation and she makes the vow that if the Lord will grant her request for a son, she will dedicate him to God as a Nazirite as soon as he was weaned from his mother’s milk (1:11). In the very act of asking God for a son, she sacrifices that son to the Lord, essentially vowing that she would not raise her own son after the age of two or even see him more than once or twice a year. How difficult it would be for one of us to let strangers raise our children! It must have been doubly difficult for Hannah when she brought Samuel to the tabernacle and left him there, having no guarantee that she would have any more children But Hannah, by dedicating her son to the service of God, was really seeking the kingdom of God first in her life (Matt 633). Perhaps this is why the Lord closed her womb for so long: so that she would be brought to precisely this point. Hannah was pressed to sacrifice what she held most dear in the natural realm, a son of her own to raise, so that God could accomplish a supernatural purpose of his kingdom through her and her son.

After making the vow, Hannah returns to her husband, eats and drinks with him, and she is no longer depressed and sad (1:18). This change in her eating and attitude is an outward sign of the inward change from despair to faith that had taken place inside her. Having entrusted her situation to the Lord, and being confident of his super-natural power and his goodness in fulfilling his promises to his people, she knew that He would be faithful. And the Lord remembered her and she bore the child Samuel, whom she faithfully brought to the tabernacle to be raised as a priest in fulfillment of her vow (122). One wonders what the husband felt when she told him of her vow; after all, the vow of a wife was not considered binding until it received the husband’s approval (Num. 30:1-16). This was his first son by her, and at that time he did not know if he would have any more by her. It is difficult to imagine any father wi1lingly giving up his firstborn son because of a vow that his wife had made. But this is precisely what Elkanah does: when Hannah tells him of her vow, he tells her to do what seems best to her and says: "May the Lord establish his word!" (123). By these words, Elkanah recognizes the vow of Hannah as inspired word of the Lord through her. Thus Hannah’s act of faith in the sacrifice of her only son becomes Elkanah’s faithful sacrifice as well.

Of course, one would expect that Hannah would be deeply depressed and in anguish when it came time to give up her son. But not Hannah. Upon giving up her son, she bursts into a song of praise because of God’s answer to her prayer and vindicating her from the malicious taunts of Peninnah (2:1-10). The sacrifice of what she had always desired in the natural realm no longer brought the pain that it might have brought at one time. The manifestation of God’s faith-fulness to her was of greater worth to her than a son, and because of her sacrifice, that son would become a blessing to all Israel as a faithful priest and prophet (235). Her death to the fulfillment of her desire in the natural realm became God’s means of blessing the whole people of God in the supernatural realm. As Jesus said, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). So Hannah’s sacrifice made Samuel the priest and prophet that he was, and in turn, Samuel faithfully led Israel and made David the king that he was, the man after God’s own heart (1 Ki. 9:4; 11:4; 14:8). In turn, David’s faithfulness led to the promise of David’s greater Son, the Messiah (2 Sam. 7). This is the legacy of Hannah’s sacrifice.

Eli, however, is another story. We only learn the extent of Hannah’s trust and God’s goodness when we realize who, on the earthly level at least, was responsible for raising her son. In contrast to Hannah’s son, Eli’s sons had no regard for the duties that priests had toward the people (2:13), instead they took for themselves the best part of every sacrifice devoted to the Lord, threatening people if they would not give it to them, and thereby treating the offerings made to the Lord with con-tempt (2:13-17). In addition they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent where God’s presence was (2:22). His sons did not know or acknowledge the Lord (2:12) and were sons of worthlessness or Belial, a name used of the devil in 2 Cor. 6:15. Eli hears reports of his sons’ behavior and confronts them (2:22), but by now it is too late: they are too hardened in their sins and they do nothearwhatEli has to say (2:22-25), for the Lord was deter-mined to destroy them for their failure to respect and acknowledge God in their lives (225).

As a result of the sin of Eli’s sons, a prophet comes and speaks to him. The prophet reminds Eli of the awesome privilege God had given his ancestor in choosing his family to serve Him as priests even when they were still slaves in Egypt (2:27-28). But Eli’s sons had abused that privilege by taking for themselves the choicest parts of every offering, and Eli honored his sons more than God by failing to restrain them (2:29, 3:13). Where Hannah sacrificed her son to the Lord, Eli indulged his sons. He refused to correct them out of a misplaced and inordinate affection for them. One cannot call this real love, for Eli’s "love" for his sons 1ed to their destruction and to the destruction of all Eli’s house, as the man of God prophesied (2:30-34). As the chief priest of Israel, Eli should have led the people of Israel in trusting God and sacrificing the natural for the supernatural, as Hannah did, but Eli and his sons never saw past their own appetites for the best food, never sacrificing the fulfillment of their natural desires for a greater spiritual good. They did not know, or did not want to know to seek the kingdom of God first, and that all these things would be added to them as well (Matt. 6:33). After Hannah’s sacrifice of her firstborn, the Lord blessed her with three more sons and two daughters (2:21). But God promised that all of Eli’s house would perish by the sword as a consequence of his sin of failing to restrain his own children (2:33).

In the midst of all this there is Samuel. It would be surprising if a child raised in such an environment did not turn out to be as self-centered and immoral as Eli’s two sons, but then Hannah had given Samuel over irrevocably to the Lord, and the Lord does not fail in His trust. So even though Samuel does not yet know the Lord (not that he had any reason to, given the presence of Eli and his sons), God calls out to him: "Samuel, Samuel" (3:4), but Samuel, not knowing the Lord, thinks it is Eli and runs to him (3:5). Again the Lord calls, and again Samuel rushes in to Eli. Finally Eli realizes that it is the Lord who is calling and directs Samuel to respond the next time: "Here I am, your servant is listening" (3:6-10). And so the Lord reveals himself to Samuel despite the sins that surround him in the house of Eli. Eli’s faithlessness to God did not mean that God would be unfaithful to Hannah and Samuel. Rather God intended from the beginning to raise up Samuel to be a faithful priest to replace the house of Eli (2:35). The hard discipline which the Lord had placed Hannah under was God’s means of blessing his whole people with a new priesthood which would faithfully serve God and the people.

God was also faithful to fulfill his promises regarding the house of Eli. But the sins of Eli’s sons do not affect them only, but the whole nation of Israel. In consequence for their sins, God allows Israel to be defeated by the Philistines and four thousand of them are killed (4:2). As a result of this crushing defeat, the Israelites decide to bring the ark of the covenant with them into battle, as they did in the time of Joshua, so that the Lord’s presence would be with them and would defeat their enemies (4:3). Israel is not to be faulted here, for they were trusting in the Lord, but the sin of her leaders, Eli and his sons, caused the Lord to turn against Israel that day. This time, Israelis defeated again and thirty thousand are killed and worst of all, the ark is captured (4:10-11). Eli’s two sons are killed and when Eli hears the news about the ark being captured, he falls over backwards and dies. His daughter-in-law hears the news and dies in childbirth, and names the child Ichabod, which means "no glory," for when the ark was captured, the glory of God’s presence departed from Israel (4:19-22). The sin of one per-son can affect the whole people of God.

The examples of Hannah and Eli show us how critical it is for us to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). If we do not restrain them when they are young, but instead indulge their every desire, we are not loving them. In fact the Proverbs say that those who spare the rod hate their children (Prov. 13:24) and to discipline our children while there is still hope and not to set our hearts on their destruction by refusing to discipline them (Prov. 19:8). But even if we have no children, we can discipline ourselves by taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), refusing to indulge Satan in his attempts to take us captive through his lies, whether they take the form of pride, resentment, self-pity, or self-indulgence. If we are disobedient and self-indulgent, as Eli and his sons were, then Satan will cause destruction and chaos through us. If we are obedient; and submit to the Lord’s discipline, as Hannah did, then God will produce through us a harvest of peace and righteousness that will benefit everyone around us (Heb. 12:11).