Learning Perseverance From Hannah [Struggles with Infertility]
Perseverance is defined as: “Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success”. Most of the time life certainly consists of doing something, and that something is often fairly difficult. We work for a paycheck, with the key word being “work”. It is not given to us for free. We raise children the best we can and pray we are doing it right, and many nights end in thinking about how you could have done better. We study our Bibles even when we come across passages that are hard to work through or understand. It takes perseverance to accomplish anything meaningful in life.
Many people are taught from a young age to never get up. That is something we should carry over into our spiritual lives as well. Things are going to be hard sometimes. You may not feel like God is answering your prayers, or that you have friends, or that you are accomplishing what it is you feel called to accomplish, but these are the times we need to persevere and look to God for strength.
In 1 Samuel 1 we have a story of a woman who knew the pain of not getting what she longed for. Hannah was stuck for years in a place that Christans all over the planet today can find themselves in. Hannah found herself in a place of despair with no hope in sight. It is so easy to throw in the towel in these situations, but that is not what she did. Let us take a look.
The story begins in V1 where the Bible introduces Elkanah, husband of Hannah. He also was married to another woman named Peninnah. This sort of marriage situation would cause problems in our culture today, and with no surprise at all, it causes a problem here also with Elkanah and his wives.
The wives of Elkanah had one major difference: Penninah had children, and Hannah did not. In these days,and in this part of the world, a woman's greatest accomplishment in life was having children. That is not to say that today is much different, but women tend to find other identities than solely embracing the fact that they are a mother. They took being a mother much more seriously in these times. Motherhood is a very special thing, however, in the Old Testament times, it was even more desired than today.
In Genesis 16 Abraham is told by his wife to have a baby with another woman in order that his wife Sarah could be a mother. She desired being a mother so bad that she would allow her husband to be with another woman. This of course was wrong, for multiple reasons I won’t go into at the moment, but the point is you can see how desperate women were to become mothers in these times.
Now let me say, there are some women who God has not given the opportunity to have children for some reason beyond our understanding. These women are just as important to God and loved. Infertility is a very hard thing for some women to go through, but even if God has not called them to be a mother, I am certain He has other plans for them. Some women do not overcome infertility. Perhaps God’s will is for them to not be a mother. This could be only for a season, or indefinitely. But God undoubtedly has a purpose for them no matter what.
V3 Tells us that Elkanah would leave his town every year and go up to Shiloh and worship God and sacrifice to Him. He would give “portions” to both his wives on these days. The word here has some ambiguity, but whatever the portion was, it does not take away from the meaning of what is actually happening here, and how we can apply it.
The Bible tells us in V5 “ But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb” Although Hannah was barren, her husband loved her and gave her more than his other wife. This is quite a contrast between Jacob and Leah, where Leah is unloved by Jacob and Leah says after giving birth “Now my husband will love me”. Although a man having 2 wives is not exactly a role model to husbands, there is a great truth we can learn here that points to our God: Our love for people should not be based on what they can give us. Imagine if God only loved us for what we could accomplish for Him. In this case none of us would be loved. None of us are deserving of His love, nor can we truly offer Him anything. Yet, He loves us and pours out blessings on us. Hannah may have been barren, but she was not unloved.
V6-7 says: “And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.”
It is fairly obvious from the context that this “rival” mentioned is the other wife. Every time this sacrifice and worship took place, she was insulted and made fun of by the other wife because she had no children. First off, what a sad way to treat another human being. We should never make fun of someone for something they cannot help. I never understand why kids would pick on mentally handicapped children at school. I do not understand why people pick on each other for the color of their skin. And I do not understand why Hannah is picked on here for not being able to bear children.
So, feeling hopeless and ashamed, Hannah weeps. This should be a time of worship, but it’s only turned to mourning by having things thrown in her face that she is already well aware of, and already thinks about day and night. Hannah could give in the towel here. She could say “You know what? I don’t even care anymore” but instead, she gives her struggles to God.
We see in V9-11 while she is at the temple, she weeps bitterly before God and prays to Him. She says “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
Hannah is so determined to be a mother that she promises to God that if He answers her prayers, she will dedicate him to the service of the Lord. We must remember that our children are God’s in the first place. Just like God has given us life, and we are His, and He has a plan for us that we must follow, kids also have a purpose that God has put them here on earth for. Maybe a parent has a child that is called into ministry, or to be a missionary, or doctor, or a firefighter, whatever it is, we parents need to remember that although we love them so much and want to look out for them, we can't come between them and God’s plan for their lives.
All the heartache ends when the Lord listens to Hannah and gives her the son she has been longing for. She calls his name “Samuel” which in Hebrew, meant something like “God has heard”. She keeps her word, and dedicates him to the service of God where he goes on to play a major role in Biblical history.
Although Hannah certainly felt like quitting, she did not give up on her dream of being a mother. When we put our minds to something, even when time and time again we are slapped in the face by our rivals, even when we are insulted for not being the person who people think we should be, we can take our pain before God. He hears us. Even if He does not answer our prayers the way we want Him to, He cares about the challenges we are up against.
We all have challenges in our lives that we must overcome. We all need to learn the art of perseverance. When it comes to our challenges, oftentimes we just have to grin and bear it, do what we can, and give it to God. And even if we never fully overcome obstacles we are faced with, we know that when we continue getting up time and time again to keep fighting, God is right there in our corner.
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing
ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights
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