Twelve Extraordinary Women; Week 14
Notes
Transcript
Holy Ambition
Holy Ambition
Hannah’s home life was sometimes hard, as she had to contend with a second wife in the marriage.
2 He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
This second wife tended to make fun of Hannah which created tension.
1 Samuel 1:6 (ESV)
6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.
Part of that could have come from jealously over who Elkanah, the husband, loved and cared for more. Scripture tells us Elkanah preferred Hannah, and loved her deeply. This created a tension and bitter rivalry between Peninnah and Hannah.
Hannah was hard on herself because of her infertility. She was further tormented by the taunting of Peninnah, even to the point she could not eat. All she wanted to be was a mother.
I am convinced it was no selfish aspiration. The way Hannah immediately dedicated her first son to the Lord and gave him over to serve in the tabernacle at such a young age demonstrates the purity of her motives. She understood that motherhood is the highest calling God can bestow on any woman.
That is not to suggest, of course, that motherhood is the only proper role for women. Scripture recognizes that it is God’s will for some women to remain single (1 Cor. 7:8–9).
8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
In the wisdom of His providence, He has also ordained that some married women will remain perpetually childless (see Psalm 127:3).
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
A woman is by no means required to be a wife or a mother before she can be useful in the Lord’s service. Miriam (Moses’ sister) and Deborah (who served as a judge and deliverer in Israel) are biblical examples of women whom God used mightily apart from marriage or motherhood. (Deborah was married, but she gained renown in a role that had nothing to do with being a wife or mother.)
Still, Scripture frequently portrays marriage as “the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7 NKJV) and motherhood as the highest calling any woman could ever be summoned to.
7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
It is, after all, the thing God uniquely designed women to fulfill, and no man can ever intrude into the mother’s role. Perhaps you have already noticed how the glory and dignity of motherhood stood out in one way or another as a major theme in the life of every woman we have dealt with so far. That is true of most of the key women in Scripture. Scripture honors them for their faithfulness in their own homes. Or, as in the case of Rahab and Ruth, we remember them because by faith they were liberated from the bondage of the world and raised to the more exalted role of wife and mother. Only rarely in Scripture were women singled out and praised for exploits or careers outside the domestic realm. Honor and eminence for women in the Bible was nearly always closely associated with home and family. Hannah understood that, and she earnestly desired to enter into the noble role of a mother.
Of course, the Bible’s exaltation of motherhood is often scorned by our more “enlightened” age. In fact, in this generation, motherhood is frequently derided and belittled even in the name of “women’s rights.” But it has been God’s plan from the beginning that women should train and nurture godly children and thus leave a powerful imprint on society through the home. Hannah is a classic illustration of how that works. She is a reminder that mothers are the makers of men and the architects of the next generation. Her earnest prayer for a child was the beginning of a series of events that helped turn back the spiritual darkness and backsliding in Israel. She set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately usher in a profound spiritual awakening at the dawn of the Davidic dynasty.
We first encounter Hannah when Israel was in desperate need of a great leader and a great man. Hannah became the woman whom God used to help shape that man. Samuel proved to be the one man who could fill the leadership void. His character bore the clear stamp of his mother’s influence, even though he left home at such an early age.
I believe Hannah’s influence as a godly wife and mother is traceable to the three great loves of her life. The first was the love of her husband.
Love for Husband
Love for Husband
From the beginning of Scripture’s account of her family, it is evident that Hannah had a deep love for Elkanah, as he did for her. When they made a peace offering to the Lord (a sacrifice in which the offerer roasted the sacrificial animal and partook of a feast unto the Lord), Elkanah gave portions to Peninnah and all her children, but he gave a double portion to Hannah because of his great love for her (1 Sam. 1:4–5).
4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife 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.
This was a public honor that he regularly and deliberately bestowed on her in the presence of others at a feast.
Obviously, Hannah’s marriage was not a perfect one, chiefly because of the jealousy and rivalry her husband’s polygamous marriage caused. Hannah seemed to be the first wife, since she is named first (v. 2). Apparently Elkanah later married Peninnah because of Hannah’s barrenness. Remember, it was deemed vitally important in that culture to have children who could maintain the family inheritance and the family name. This was the same reason Abraham entered into a polygamous relationship with Hagar. It is undoubtedly the main reason we see so much polygamy in the Old Testament.
But Hannah’s marriage, though marred by tensions, was solid. Elkanah obviously loved Hannah with a sincere affection, and he knew her love for him was reciprocal. In fact, he tried to comfort her by tenderly reminding her of his love for her: “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (v. 8 NKJV). This plea did help, at least for the moment, because Hannah immediately arose and ate, then went to the tabernacle (v. 9).
Hannah’s love for her husband is the first key to understanding her profound influence as a mother. Contrary to popular opinion, the most important characteristic of a godly mother is not her relationship with her children. It is her love for her husband. The love between husband and wife is the real key to a thriving family. A healthy home environment cannot be built exclusively on the parents’ love for their children. The properly situated family has marriage at the center; families shouldn’t revolve around the children.
Furthermore, all parents need to heed this lesson: what you communicate to your children through your marital relationship will stay with them for the rest of their lives. By watching how mother and father treat one another, they will learn the most fundamental lessons of life—love, self-sacrifice, integrity, virtue, sin, sympathy, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. Whatever you teach them about those things, right or wrong, is planted deep within their hearts.
That emphasis on the centrality of marriage was very evident between Elkanah and Hannah. With all their domestic issues, they nonetheless had a healthy marriage and an abiding love for one another. Their inability to have children together was like an open wound. But it was an experience that drew out of Elkanah tender expressions of love for his wife. And even in a home environment with a second wife and multiple children—a chaos created by the folly of Elkanah’s bigamy and made even more dysfunctional by Peninnah’s ill temperament—Hannah and Elkanah clearly loved one another deeply.
They worshiped God together, and they did so regularly. Verse 3 says, “This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh” (NKJV). But that doesn’t mean Hannah and Elkanah visited the tabernacle only once a year. All Israelite men were required to attend three annual feasts (Deut. 16:1–17).
2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there.
10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you.
13 “You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.
Most likely, Elkanah took his family with him on those journeys. They probably traveled to Shiloh together on other occasions too. (The journey from the family home in Ramathaim Zophim to Shiloh was a distance of about twenty-five miles along the edge of the Jordan Valley. The trip could easily be made in two days or less.) Worship seemed to have been a central aspect of Hannah and Elkanah’s lives together. This was what kept their love for one another strong in the face of so much adversity.
It also explains the second reason why Hannah was such an influential mother. As much as she loved Elkanah, there was an even greater love that motivated her.
Next week: Love for Heaven, and Love for her Home
MacArthur, John F., Jr. 2005. Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible and What He Wants to Do with You. Nashville, TN: Nelson Books.