“Then the woman went her way and ate,
and her face was no longer sad.”
Hannah, who would become Samuel’s mother, is
deeply grieved that she is unable to conceive. She has gone up with her husband
to the house of God in Shiloh, and she has prayed for a son, vowing that if her
prayer is answered, she will raise him as a Nazirite and give him wholly to the
service of God. Then she gets up, relieved of her distress, and goes her
way — not yet having received an answer to her prayer.
Seems a bit counterintuitive, doesn’t it?
Small Dark Roast … Black, Please
Not to me. I’m pretty sure the act of
taking our cares to the Lord and laying them out in his presence is more
important than whether or not we eventually get what we are asking for.
Evidently Hannah did too. She had nothing to indicate that she would receive a favorable answer to her request beyond the fond wish of a retired priest: “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant
your petition that you have made to him”.
Thanks, pal. Nice thought. That and $1.50
will get me a small Tim Horton’s coffee. This week anyway.
No Miracle, No Voice, No Promise
Hannah had no solid evidence she would
receive a “yes” from God. She saw no miracle. She heard no voice. She received
no promise. But she clearly felt better.
Looking at her story, the agnostic might
suggest Hannah was just superstitious, and that she stopped being sad because, like
any member of a primitive society, she was swayed by the aura of a holy man.
She figured the priest knew what he was talking about. Then by lucky
coincidence, perhaps, she managed to become pregnant right after making her vow,
and thereafter attributed it to God.
A plausible theory from an unbeliever’s
perspective.
The Prayer Panic Button
The Christian, however, knows why Hannah
went her way and ate, and why her sadness lifted. Most of us have, at one time
or another, come to the Lord in melancholy, deep grief, overwhelming concern,
fear or even blind panic. I sure have. It is in the act of laying before God
the reason for our condition that we are reminded to whom we are speaking:
“He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.”
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
“This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
Did Hannah have this sort of God? I think she did.
World’s Worst Mom?
After all, what woman in the world could
agonize for years over having a child and finally receive the answer to her
prayers — and then, right after he was weaned, take that beloved child and
hand him over to be raised by priests and to serve God for the rest of
his life, far from home, family and especially his mother? What sort
of mother would be content to see her firstborn son once a year?
Only a mom who had full confidence of the
character of the God into whose care she entrusted her son. If Hannah had
the slightest doubt that God regards, knows, hears and responds to the needs of
his children, she could never have brought Samuel back to Shiloh and handed him over.
Up from the Dust
But we know she did, because she prayed
this prayer of thanks. She also very likely taught it to her son; and Samuel, if the Talmud is
correct, wrote it down for our benefit:
“He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.
He will guard the feet of his faithful ones.”
If we really understand the character of
the One to whom we are praying, then whether or not we receive exactly what we
have asked for is irrelevant.
Good / Acceptable / Perfect
Sometimes we receive what we have asked for, sometimes we don’t. That’s
part of the process of learning to pray “according to his will”. Because that
will, we are assured, is “good and acceptable and perfect”. If God doesn’t want something for you, trust me, you don’t want it either.
Even when you really, really think you do.
I have a feeling that on some level Hannah
grasped that truth long before she received the answer to her prayer.
If she hadn’t, she’d have walked away from
Shiloh with the same sad face as when she walked in.
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