The practice of polygamy was accepted but never approved by God, for it stood in contradiction to His original intention for the union of one man and one woman, Gen. 3. The evil consequences of this practice were amply demonstrated in the home of Elkanah, where the barrenness of one wife, Hannah, and the fruitfulness of the other, Peninnah, generated bitter rivalry between them. That Hannah found extra favour in the eyes of her husband was but a secondary factor in her life for the greatest desire of her heart was to receive blessing from God in the form of a son. And yet this was denied her, and this was HER SORROW, a sorrow indirectly promoted by an act of God, v. 5, and for her so vexing as likely to affect life and health, v. 7. It was in ‘bitterness of soul’ that she ‘prayed unto the Lord’ at Shiloh during an annual visit, shedding copious tears in her grief. In her extremity of circumstance, she cried to the only possible source of help – to Jehovah of hosts, the Almighty One, Creator of all things, and Source of all life. HER SUPPLICATION was sustained, for she ‘continued praying’, v. 12. She uttered a silent prayer, indeed ‘she spake in her heart’, v. 13. Though inaudible to man, God heard her words, recognising the depth of her feelings; cf. v. 15, ‘I … have poured out my soul before the Lord’. What a glorious example Hannah presents of the godly sister in the local church, praying silently, yet fervently. God notes and responds to supplication of this sort.
But she would go further. Driven as she was by understandable human feelings and deep longings, she rejected an entirely selfish perspective in her prayers in order to encompass the purposes of God, and to bring glory to His Name. In her prayer, she vowed to devote the man child of her asking to ‘the Lord all the days of his life’, placing him under Nazarite vow conditions, v. 11; cf. Num. 6. 5. It gives some indication of HER SUBMISSION of heart and mind to the will of God, for at this time her request was entirely in sympathy with the sovereign purpose of God. Such was her faith in God that, having made her petition, she anticipated His response with joy.
