A Mother's Prayer

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, he talked about the Christian’s armor. The Christian is told to “Put on the whole armor of God in order to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

The Apostle Paul ends this section of Scripture letting his readers know that they also fight their spiritual battle against the devil and his demons with prayer.

Today, we will study the subject of prayer by watching something that took place in the life of a woman who wanted desperately to become a mother. This woman’s name was Hannah.

1 Samuel 1:1-28

Background

The events portrayed in 1 and 2 Samuel primarily concern three important figures in Biblical history—Samuel, Saul and David. First Samuel opens with the birth of Samuel an event that occurred around 1120 B.C. 2nd Samuel closes with the death of King David.

At the opening of 1 Samuel, Israel was being ruled by Judges and was on a roller coaster ride of political, moral, spiritual anarchy and decline. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did; even the sons of Eli, the high priest at this time, had completely taken over the priestly office to fulfill their lust for material gain and sexual exploits (1 Sam 2:22).

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.” The Biblical record shows that God has reserved fire and brimstone for wicked nations of people.

2 Peter 2:4-10 says, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds); then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries…”

Just when you would think that God would pour down fire from heaven or at least allow the nation to collapse under the weight of its own perversion, He intervenes and in response to the prayer of a godly mother, sends Hannah and the children of Israel a baby named Samuel.

1 Sam 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

1 Sam 1:2 And 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.

Just so you’ll know…It was never part of God’s original plan for a man to have more than one wife (one is enough). Just because a situation is recorded in Scripture doesn’t mean that God condones it. God is merely letting us know the facts concerning history, persons and events.

Polygamy went against God's ideal for marriage found in Genesis 2:24; polygamy was never sanctioned by God. We shall soon see that these practices often caused a lot of pain and strife in the home.

1 Sam 1:3 This man (Elkanah) went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.

Verse three introduces additional characters in this drama to us. We are introduced to Eli, who was “high priest,” and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who also served in the office of priests of the LORD.

These are Israel’s spiritual leaders. Again God is letting us know more about the spiritual climate at the time. The sanctity of the temple had been spiritually ransacked and pillaged by the evil sons of the High Priest Eli. Hophni and Phinehas were sleeping with the women in exchange for favors from the priests. They were stealing some of the meat that was brought to the temple to be sacrificed by the command of God.

In another place of Scripture, God’s Word says, “…like people, like priest.” (Hosea 4:9) In Hosea, God was saying He would judge priest and people because they both were wicked. Again, I bring this to your attention because it lets you know something about the times in which Hannah lived.