Praise The Holy One

SITUATION

- Fellow wife (Peninnah) mocks her (Hannah)

- Husband (Elkanah) talks about himself: "Am I not more to you than ten sons?"

PRAISE THE HOLY ONE

- Holy - up above - raise your head

- Look beyond your situation

PRAISE THE HOLY ONE THROUGH PRAYER

- She dares talking to God, just like that, bypassing the priest-in-charge Eli

- prayer of petition, the rawest and most elemental form of prayer….a real address to a real partner in anticipation of a real response, not a psychological act of catharsis so as to make us feel better

PRAISE THE HOLY ONE THROUGH DEDICATION

- "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." Just like samson.

- "In Israel one gave the firstfruits of animals and of the harvest to Yahweh, probably in hopes of receiving in return the blessing of continued fertility," so Hannah "'offers up' her firstborn to Yahweh in hopes of receiving more children in return." And it does work, as we read in chapter 2 that "Hannah bears three sons and two daughters."

- Trust takes a leap of faith

PRAISE THE HOLY ONE

- After finishing her prayer, Hannah "went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer."

- "They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord." Not a simple "Thank God" But whoever was with them praised the Holy One through Worship. When was the last time you did that?

- Then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. "To know" means "to have sex with". Hannah and Elkanah praised the Holy One through sex. Do you remember that real-life actions can praise the lord?

HAPPY ENDING

- "In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, "I have asked him of the Lord."

- No revolution, just fulfilled expectations

- YOU praise the Holy One in YOUR SITUATION